It’s one thing for the American political regime to value Christian churches because they help supply the moral requisites for sustaining the regime; for churches themselves to conceive of their purpose in this way is quite another thing. Continue Reading »
Donald Trump ascribing responsibility for his first two failed marriages to working “like, twenty-two hours a day” brought to mind Adam Smith’s invocation of the “invisible hand” in his 1759 work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. There, the invisible hand is not quite the same general . . . . Continue Reading »
Continuing arguments over gun rights and violence brought to mind Tocqueville’s observation that he knew “no country where there prevails, in general, less independence of mind and less true freedom of discussion than in America.” This, for Tocqueville, occurred because “In America, the . . . . Continue Reading »
Here’s the third and final part of what I began with this 12-book-list . I knew my description of Mishra’s book would be the longest, which is why I changed order to treat it last. Second part here . 8) Alexis de Tocqueville, Letters from America , edited by Frederick Brown. You know . . . . Continue Reading »
. . . one can change human institutions, but not man; whatever the general effort of a society to render citizens equal and alike, the particular pride of individuals will always seek to escape the [common] level . . . In aristocracies, men are separated from one another by high, immovable . . . . Continue Reading »
This is the conclusion of the long series of Songbook posts kicked off by my simple observation that many bands championed as representative of new music , such as Crystal Castles, really aren’t . While many themes have been touched upon, overall, Songbook posts #36-51 have been about 1) . . . . Continue Reading »
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