Sometimes it seems like discussions in this country are taking place in two isolated camps. Every now and then, that suspicion seems like a certainty. As an example, I offer you Benjamin Friedman’s new book, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. Friedman, a Harvard economics professor, was faced with a seemingly incomprehensible phenomenon: “the puzzling behavior of many of our fellow citizens whose attitudes toward questions of economic policy seem sharply at odds with what would seem to be … [Read more...] about Is the Religious Right Really so Incomprehensible?
Modern Society
Hell’s Angels are Coming to Town
“On Labor Day 1966, I pushed my luck a little too far and got badly stomped by four or five Angels who seemed to feel I was taking advantage of them. A minor disagreement suddenly became very serious….I got in my car and sped off, spitting blood on the dashboard and weaving erratically across both lanes of the midnight highway until my one good eye finally came into focus….I was tired, swollen, and whipped. My face looked like it had been jammed into the spokes of a speeding Harley, and the only … [Read more...] about Hell’s Angels are Coming to Town
Does Education Have an Aim?
“Education is a subject on which we all feel that we have something to say. We have all been educated, more or less; and we have, most of us, complaints to make about the defects of our own education; and we all like to blame our educators, or the system within which they were compelled to work, for our failure to educate ourselves.”That comes near the outset of T. S. Eliot’s essay “The Aims of Education,” included in the posthumously published collection To Criticize the Critic and Other … [Read more...] about Does Education Have an Aim?
A Tale of Reading About Handmaids
Sometimes, you just have to ignore the hype. A book comes out and all the Beautiful People talk about how much they love it, but when you read why they love it, you think the book must just be awful, so you never read it. Then 35 years later you pick it up and discover not only is it a decent book, but all the hype about it was just wrong.Example: The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. When the book was published in 1986, it was widely and very loudly praised as a giant hit piece on the … [Read more...] about A Tale of Reading About Handmaids
When Honor is at Stake
Examples gross as earth exhort me:Witness this army of such mass and chargeLed by a delicate and tender prince,Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'dMakes mouths at the invisible event,Exposing what is mortal and unsureTo all that fortune, death and danger dare,Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be greatIs not to stir without great argument,But greatly to find quarrel in a strawWhen honour's at the stake. Think about Hamlet’s observation there for a moment. To be great is to quarrel over … [Read more...] about When Honor is at Stake
Preserving a Culture
As I have rather frequently noted, when asked about the learning goals for my classes, I always reply, “To help students learn to read Shakespeare for Pleasure.” Since most of my classes are in the Economics department, this answer always strikes people as a bit, well, odd. But, I am not joking when I say that. To say that we learn economics in order to learn to read Shakespeare for pleasure is making a cultural argument. The study of economics is part of a larger intellectual culture, one … [Read more...] about Preserving a Culture