Everybody knows the Decalogue and, in particular, the commandment “You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain” (Exod. 20:7). In spite of this warning, we too easily call God “Lord”—nay, we invoke him as “the Lord”—as if such a word were devoid of ambiguity and not badly . . . . Continue Reading »
Might we do well to admit, not that democracy is a bad thing, but that too much democracy can harm a country's constitution? Continue Reading »
An abrupt resignation from the Clinton Foundation prompts both encouraging and discouraging thoughts about America's emerging hereditary aristocracy. 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 and the next will be the last songbook posts on pop-music movies for a while. Despite my doing five(!) posts on ALMOST FAMOUS , two on the SCHOOL OF ROCK, and an epic one on THE DOORS, I do think that among my list of pop-music films , THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO is the standout in terms of sheer . . . . Continue Reading »
The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracyby David CannadineYale University Press, 813 pages, $39.95 As might be expected of a book whose title echoes Gibbon’s magnum opus, David Cannadine’s history of the British aristocracy since 1875 is long, exhaustive, wide-ranging, and anecdotally . . . . Continue Reading »
Starting from a common premise and a shared commitment to republicanism, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams arrived at widely divergent conclusions about the problem of aristocracy. As good republicans, both men despised hereditary nobility. But both also affirmed that there exist always and . . . . Continue Reading »
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