What makes proverbs proverbial? So much wisdom in so few words. Pithy. That’s what they are. They get right to the core of what’s important or true or real or at least common to our experience.
Maybe that’s it. There is cause; there is effect. Over and over again. Repeatable. Observable. Millennia of repeated human experience [...]
Archive for the ‘culture’ Category
Proverbs: Our Ancestors’ “I Told You So.”
Posted in culture, writing, tagged culture, language, proverbs, understanding, wisdom, writing on June 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Mortgage Crisis: More than Greed
Posted in culture, life, society, writing, tagged greed, housing, ignorance, life, mortgage crisis, society, writing on June 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The mortgage crisis in the US has deeper roots than a bank’s lending policy or a borrower’s lack of knowledge of the difference between an ARM and fixed rate mortgage. Certainly ignorance on the part of the buyer plays a role, but I’d lay the blame at the feet of old–fashioned greed, the loan [...]
The Outlawed Playground and Childhood’s Demise
Posted in culture, life, society, writing, tagged childhood, children, climbing trees, culture, growing up, play, playground, reality, society, taking chances, writing on June 9, 2008 | 1 Comment »
My brother who lives in California, USA, told me recently they’ve taken the swings out of their local park. Too dangerous, you see, so they’re banned. How do you outlaw swings? Really. Explain to me how you outlaw swings. If swings are so evil as to need to be outlawed (like genocide or rape) why [...]
Rooting Out the Crabgrass (Fortitude IV)
Posted in culture, life, self-improvement, society, virtue, writing, tagged "living to work", "purpose in life", "working to live", courage, despondency, Don Quixote, fortitude, good deeds, good works, hopelessness, ideals, prime mover, purpose, sacrifice, society, virtue on June 7, 2008 | 1 Comment »
So, here we are, mammoths up to our elbows in self-doubt and societal tar. Where do we find the strength to actually free ourselves from despondency? Whence fortitude? We may have some inkling of what we’re fighting against, but to what end? Just wanting to be free obviously isn’t enough. What are we persevering [...]
How Society Feeds the Crabgrass (Fortitude III)
Posted in culture, life, self-improvement, society, virtue, writing, tagged "living to work", "working to live", despondency, hopelessness, rat race, society on May 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Despondency is the crabgrass of the soul. It chokes out joy, generative activity, hope. If you want to get rid of crabgrass you need to dig down deep enough to tear it up by the roots. The conviction of our own ineptitude is one of despondency’s observable roots. Its basis is internal to the individual [...]
Fortitude (I)
Posted in culture, life, self-improvement, society, virtue, writing, tagged fortitude, heroes, hopelessness, life, purpose, society, virtue, writing on May 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A friend of mine graduated from college this May. In April I went to his Senior Oral defense on Dante’s Divine Comedy and that afternoon, over a celebratory lunch, talked with another friend who had graduated from the same school (my alma mater) the year before. That conversation, which turned into a three-hour foray, [...]
Mediocrity and Standardization
Posted in culture, society, virtue, writing, tagged bureaucracy, certification, LEED, mediocrity, organic, standards, tyranny on May 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“What menaces democratic society in this age is not a simple collapse of order, nor yet usurpation by a single powerful individual, but a tyranny of mediocrity, a standardization of mind, spirit, and condition …” Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind: from Burke to Eliot (2001)*
A standard is something established by authority, custom, or general [...]
Hubris and Gullibility in Books and Readers
Posted in culture, life, thought, writing, tagged books, culture, principles, reading, thought, truth, writing on May 17, 2008 | 2 Comments »
The other evening at a friend’s house, I happened across a copy of Spengler’s The Decline of the West. Living in the West and thinking myself that it’s on the decline, (I am an optimist about a great many things; modern Western culture is not very often one of them.) I began reading.
Knowing nothing of [...]
“Too Little Butter over Too Much Bread” and Sharpening the Saw
Posted in culture, life, self-improvement, society, thought, tagged appreciation, attention, Bilbo, distraction, meditation, priest, refresh, relax, society, video games on May 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I know an old priest; he’s 94, almost 95. His back is bent and he shuffles a bit as he walks. He elevates the Host with difficulty, but insists on complete reverence and does not falter, every day, day after day. Once, over tea, upon hearing what I had planned for the day, he [...]
Loneliness and the Skills of Argument
Posted in culture, life, self-improvement, tagged conversation, lonliness, reason, thinking, thought on May 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Most people seem very lonely.
I think it’s because, in part, they’ve forgotten how to argue, not only with one another, but also with themselves. Here’s an example of where the meaning of words becomes exceedingly important. “Argument” is not the kind of irrational melee in which 6 year olds, jilted lovers, and politicians engage. [...]
