In his latest column, Nicholas Kristof once again applies his single master truth of human experience: equivalence. I don’t mean to sound mean: Kristof rightly and bravely emphasizes how little we are willing to do to help the victims of atrocities in Africa and other parts of the developing world, whereas the victims of equivalent [...]
Archive for the ‘ideas’ Category
Nicholas Kristof and the Gospel of Mark
Posted in culture, faith, ideas, tagged Christianity, New York Times, Nicholas Kristof, the Gospel of Mark on April 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Day in Reductive Materialism
Posted in culture, ideas, tagged love, materialism, prairie voles, The New York Times on January 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The New York Times, long a purveyor of very favorable or at best bemused, shoulder-shrugging reports about the putative materialization of all human experience, provides two new reports. The makers of botox have developed a new technique to stimulate the growth of long eyelashes. Yesterday, the Times reported that oxytocin and vasopressin are responsible for [...]
Liberalism and Christianity in America: The Curse of Clarity
Posted in culture, faith, ideas, tagged American politics, Charles Péguy, Christianity, Damon Linker, liberalism, Richard Neuhaus, Ross Douthat on January 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Amidst all the comment surrounding the death of Father Neuhaus, Damon Linker, responding to Ross Douthat, raises the most important politico-theological question of the moment, one that will last far longer than the more obvious immediate questions about whether Neuhaus went way too far in the direction of arguing that a serious Christian is morally [...]
Father Neuhaus
Posted in culture, faith, ideas on January 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
There have been several reports indicating that Richard John Neuhaus is not long for this world. His illness brings into focus the remarkable trajectory of his life, from his friendship with Martin Luther King and furious opposition to the Vietnam War to his at times pugnacious neo-conservative work at First Things. At his best, Father [...]
Traditionalism vs. Technology
Posted in culture, faith, ideas, tagged Patrick Deneen, postmodernism, Rod Dreher, technology, tradition on January 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve read quite a bit of Patrick Deneen’s work, and I admire it for its bracing clarity. He rightly takes aim at the roots of the modern technological project and its call to “conquer nature” (Bacon) or for humans to become “masters and proprietors of nature” (Descartes, though similar sentiments can be found in Hobbes [...]
Spelt from Homais’ leaves: Bobo edition
Posted in culture, faith, ideas, politics on January 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Many wonderful days in New York with friends and family concluded the old and began the new year with happiness. A happy new year to you!
If any cloud darkened the horizon in my days here, it has been the realization that at least among educated professionals, the culture wars have not died with the election [...]
Truth, Torture, and America’s Responsibility
Posted in culture, ideas, politics, tagged America, Christianity, France, George Bush, History, politics, Sexuality, Spain, Torture on December 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Given the release of the torture report by the Senate Armed Services Committee this week,as well as the recent comments by Ross Douthat, and today’s New York Times’ editorial, the following is worth some thought:
In his unflinching Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, Bartolomé de las Casas described how the Spanish punished [...]
Branding Life
Posted in culture, ideas, politics, tagged art, brand and branding, politics on June 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Much has been made recently of the “GOP brand” in the 2008 election– and the American “brand” in international public opinion, and the Red Sox “brand” in Boston, and the Chicago Symphony “brand” and its attendant difficulties, and the Sundance Film Festival “brand,” and no doubt the Eastern Pequot High School croquet club “brand” in [...]
Robert Kagan and the Myth of a Neo-Con Nation
Posted in ideas, politics, tagged foreign policy, Iraq, Kagan, neoconservatism, war on April 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Robert Kagan’s article in World Affairs is instructive here and there, but ultimately it is an extremely misleading, even irresponsible account of American history and the history of American foreign policy in particular.
Kagan argues that a bold, interventionist, [...]
Fish on French Theory
Posted in Europe, culture, ideas, politics, tagged Derrida, Fish, Foucault, political correctness, postmodernism, theory on April 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Stanley’s Fish’s New York Times post on the history of French theory is well worth reading, and in very nearly equal parts right and wrong. He’s perfectly right that by forsaking all foundations or teleological destinations for language in relation to truth or to “the world as it really is,” French postmodernism neither offered nor [...]
