Culture matters III

There is nothing between the individual or family unit on one hand and the central state on the other. Britain has fallen into De Tocqueville's trap of an atomised society, where "every man is a stranger to the destiny of others. He is beside his fellow citizens but does not see them ... while above them rises an immense and tutelary power, that of the state". We have lost the habit of association.

Indeed. May we suggest that the problem reflects deep cultural trends, and will not be fixed by having more local mayors and city councils?

Hypocrisy

Michael Kinsley explains.

Immersed

You cannot but feel some admiration for these guys. Also, Marvin Olasky is an interesting man.

Opposition

The challenges facing the Church in India.

One more time

Lebanon may be about to pay the price of other people's follies, again.

Male infantilism

This lady has made an important discovery:

Adults don’t emerge. They’re made.

Reality does not matter

A notable difference between US and European politics is that while in Europe doctrinaire ideological thinking is found mostly on the "progressive" side (i.e. on the political left, after the demise of fascism and nazism), in the US one can find full-fledged conservative ideologues.

Bifurcating

David Brooks captures what's at the core of the Clinton-Obama race, which has interesting implications about what "education" means nowadays. (Certainly, not being "introduced to reality." Rather, becoming able to avoid it systematically, like the alphas in Huxley's Brave New World).

He is just too nice

Nothing can be more destructive that good intentions combined with intellectual confusion.

Responsibility

This article does a good job of diagnosing a major problem affecting public education in the US: incompetent boards of education that let corrupt teachers' unions run the schools. It is not clear though that the answer lies in "nationalising" public education. First of all, there are many things between local school boards and the federal government (what about the states?). Second, there is no reason to think that politicians are less irresponsible and teachers' unions less powerful at the federal level than they are locally.

Beliefs

Commonweal reviews a book by Antonio Monda

Great politics

A nice essay by Fr. Edward Oakes.

Messianic politics

Obama has given a soaring speech in South Carolina. Great rethoric, but what is his proposal precisely? Essentially the content he is proposing is the purity of his own person as a honest and truthful agent of "change" (whatever that means). His appeal can be summed up in the claim that his purity and truthfulness are the embodiment of the purity and truthfulness of the American dream, which has been betrayed by the "old" politicians. If you think about it, it is somewhat scary, because we all know that we are neither pure nor truthful.

Culture matters II

Stanley Kurtz has it exactly right:

Societies built around nuclear families, and around religious and cultural traditions that stress the freedom, equality, and sacredness of individual human beings, have the basic ingredients out of which rule of law, civic associations, political freedoms, and the modern state develop. Societies in which individual freedom is subordinated to the honor and advantage of the kin-group (and where non-Western religious and cultural traditions reinforce these values) are far less likely to develop genuine liberal democracy, or even a vibrant modern economy and state.

Go Murdoch

We will not cry for the New York Times.