A devilish temptation
Wendell Berry explains how the modern Western ideal of the sovereign self enshrines a story of the abandonment of restrictions and restraints in the name of human freedom.
Liberalism and limits
On his blog, What I Saw in America, political theorist Patrick Deneen often questions some of the fundamental assumptions of classic liberalism, assumptions which contradict the wisdom of premodern political thinkers.
That’s why they call them browsers
Collectedness vs. restlessness: thoughts from Romano Guardini and Nicholas Carr.
Possibility junkies
Voracious omnitasking, argues English professor Mark Edmundson, makes the lives of his students both highly promising and radically vulnerable to living lives that leave no room for reflection and self-knowledge.
A culture of one
Andrew Keen argues that the survival of the very best forms of cultural expression, in journalism, music, fiction, and other disciplines, requires a network of mediation and accreditation.
People, people who poke people . . .
Christine Rosen on how social media encourages the unsociable traits of narcissism and exhibitionism.
Slower, longer, smarter
A veteran journalist laments “the sea change in the culture of literacy” and the decline of good book criticism
Stronger than death
Alan Jacobs and Mark Shea defend the portrayal of magic in the Harry Potter books.
Camille Paglia: Only religion can save the arts
Camille Paglia: “For the fine arts to revive, they must recover their spiritual center.”
A deeply religious civil religion
David Gelernter presents a helpful reminder of the religious, indeed, biblical (if heretical) sources of America’s beliefs about itself