Something beautiful

There is a big market for knowledge (as opposed to ideology).

No more drama

A new movie from Graham Greene's Brighton Rock. The reviewer grasps very well how the movie reflects today's secularism: not just a theoretical rejection of God, but a fundamental reduction of the wonder and drama of being a human being.

Sunday school atheists

Michael Flynn on the biblical literalism of atheists.

Triumph of the will

Leon Wieseltier on the anniversary of 9/11. The crucial question is: is the "larger purpose" he talks about something that IS or something that we WILL?

Blind faith

Once you break all bridges with the past, and do not have any tradition you want to pass on, all you have are bandwagons.

Experts

Jonah Goldberg is exactly right: technocracy is the defining political ideology of our time. It is the long term consequence of an idea that emerged at the end of World War II: that strong philosophical convictions lead to violence, and that human affairs should be organized based on purely scientific and technical concepts. Which, of course, is itself a crazy ideology because it neglects completely what it means to be a human being.

Realism

It takes an old Communist to grasp a simple point.

Compassion and respect?

Many people have a stronger preference for T-bone steak.

Philosophy is on vacation

It is interesting that today some of the really important questions are addressed by sociologists.

Intellectual freedom

Another story on McLuhan.

Narcissism

David Goldman on Wagner.

Verification

A radio program on Marshall McLuhan.

But I finally decided that if the church is what it says it is, you are also told how to test that hypothesis and you are told to knock and knock and knock and demand to be shown.

We are all cheaters

The Atlanta scandal is a reminder of the fact that an educational system is only as good as the people who educate, and reflects what they really desire. To think otherwise (that the problems in education are not primarily cultural and moral but rather "technical" in the sense of involving pedagogical methods, standardized testing, management etc.) is an example of what Donoso Cortes regarded as the fundamental "liberal fallacy."

Reality vs. ideology

On AIDS in Zimbabwe.

A difficult job

John Allen's piece on Card. Scola's new appointment.