One of the sharpest social critics of 19th century European industrial capitalism was…Charles Dickens. Those who have read Karl Marx’s writings see the world that he is attacking; those who have read Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Bleak House, or A Christmas Carol will see that same world. However, we find the world described by Dickens, because it is novelized, less abrupt and perhaps more understandable. Continue reading “For on his brow I see that written which is Doom”
What Might Have Been
September 14, 2001 – Three days after terrorists hijacked two commercial airplanes and flew them into the World Trade Center Towers, felling them and killing nearly 3,000 people, the President of the United States made a visit to “Ground Zero.” He took a bullhorn in his hands and, as workers chanted, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” said, “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the rest of the world will soon know what we’re really made of. In the face of this tragedy, there is an almost unimaginable desire for revenge. However, our founding principles cannot allow it.” Continue reading “What Might Have Been”
What Are We Sowing?
Originally published as The Sentinel newsletter by The Cause of Liberty
Our modern world is infatuated with the ends we have in our sight, the goals we want to accomplish, and the changes we want to see. Most people have the same needs and desires: liberty, happiness, security, prosperity, and peace. Why do we consistently find ourselves so far from where we want to be? The problem is two-fold: 1) we mistakenly believe that if we focus on the end we will attain it; and 2) we are using means that are inconsistent with those ends.
Book Review: The Essential Gandhi by Louis Fischer
I read The Essential Gandhi by Louis Fischer a few months ago. But until a 10-day work trip to Africa and the Middle East, I didn’t have time to write down all the passages I had underlined. They are many. I had a hard time delineating his ideas into categories because they are so (not to be cliché) transcendent.
This book and the ideas of this man have greatly changed my personal point of view. He was a significant force in the thinking of the 20th Century. But, like Christ and many other great teachers, many of his ideas are ignored or ridiculed simply because they are too darn hard for us “modern” people to implement. We justify this to ourselves by calling them quaint and outdated, but really we’re just too lazy to act on them.
Below are some of my favorite quotes (believe me; I could have made it longer). Continue reading “Book Review: The Essential Gandhi by Louis Fischer”
Torture and the Danger of Legalification
I know this is an incredibly easy target, but I’m going to take a shot. With the recent publicizing of the CIA and White House memos regarding torture, part of the conversation has been whether torture works or doesn’t. Another aspect of the question has been whether it was legal or not. These shouldn’t even be the questions we ask about torture.