09.25.07
Laser-focus thinking of the day
At Hot Air, Michelle Malkin interviews Diana West about her new book The Death of the Grown Up: How America’s Arrested Development Is Bring Down Western Civilization. I really liked the part about what Lionel Trilling had to say about the shaping of a life.
Part Two is tomorow.
My birthday is coming up. I think I’ll plant the idea of this timely tome in Mrs. BN’s mind as a gift idea.
Mr. Dings said,
September 26, 2007 at 12:49 am
Put your review on amazon.com when you have read it, if you would, bloggie. I am not so sure excactly what she is saying here. Equating being grown-up with dress styles, bemoaning a loss of a certain formality and civility or tolerance of Islam to the detriment of the West? My opinion is that it is all simply too diffuse these days. And wise men and women aka adults understand this. There are thousands of religions. History is history here. Are we to mount another Crusade to prove we are grown-ups?
From: Big History; From the Big Bang to the Present by Cynthia Stokes Brown
http://www.amazon.com/Big-History-Bang-Present/dp/1595581960/ref=pd_rhf_p_3/105-3547978-6238064
“Religions did not wither away as science grew in its power and prestige. Although secular outlooks increased in Europe and the United States, both Christianity and Islam expanded during the colonial period to lead the world in adherents by the end of the twentieth century. Religions emerged that emphasized the underlying unity of all religion, the similarity of all their messages–the Ramakrishna movement in India with its apostle Vivekananda (1863-1902) and the Bahai faith, an offshoot of Persian Shia Islam, that adopted English as its preferred language. By the end of the twentieth century, in an atmosphere of fear and anxiety, fundamentalist versions of the world’s religions ex[erienced a revival.”
“In 2002 there were estimated to be 10,000 distinct religions, with about 150 having at least 1 Million adherents. If a group of ten people represented approximately the world’s religions, three would be Christians, two Muslim, two unaffilliated or atheist, one Hindu, one Buddhist, and one representing all others.”
Why couldn’t today’s American grown-up simply be tolerant? And live and let live without being criticized for being immature or weak or worse? Maybe she simply misses daddy…
Mr. Dings said,
September 26, 2007 at 12:56 am
H.G. Wells (1866 to 1946) said, “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
September 26, 2007 at 2:31 am
“Live and let live” sounds very nice until you realize it really means “ever-lowered standards for everything.”
Mr. Dings said,
September 26, 2007 at 2:40 pm
That’s not what I really mean. Must be your understanding. Fine. Live and let live anyway. Go your way and I will go mine.