Precis: In every society, even those that profess freedom of speech, there are ideas and images that are perceived as too corrupting to be expressed or uttered. We used to think this way about pornography. Now we think this about […]
Politics
The Gerontocratic Democracy of Old Africa, and Gerontocracy in Our Own Time
Young people have always probably chafed against their elders. But in Africa, a gerontocratic system was instituted, which at least frustrated the development of a hereditary elite. And we are not without elements of gerontocracy in our own society. I […]
Some Thoughts About ‘Identities’
In the classical Christian church we hear much about our identity in Christ. We also have a host of other identities or roles: parent or child in a family; worker in or owner of an organization; a particular church, denomination, […]
On Political Trust and Media Attention
For a long time, we have spoken of elections, in which a President is not on the ballot, as ‘off-year elections’. I think the Founders would have been horrified by such a notion. The Congress, they would have thought, should […]
Why We Need Regionalism
In our time, politics and culture are increasingly oriented to the national scale on the one hand, and the immediate neighborhood on the other. A book, The Increasingly United States, by Daniel J. Hopkins, highlights this. However, in my view, besides […]
The Sin of Entitlement
Early in my Christian life I was struck by a fascinating quote in C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letter #21. On the sin of peevishness, he wrote, Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And […]