Don’t bellow. Do discuss, argue, be passionate. Unleash bellowing and you have let slip the dogs of war. If that happens, and it often does, then discussion ends, wisdom is lost, and only the strong will win. Yet the strong without the rest of us are lost. . . Ending up alone, rambling about in decaying palaces, a civilization that is an incarnation of Miss Havisham’s cake. I worked with a person who would get power by suddenly seeming to... Read more
Work for a tyrant and if you survive, you learn a great deal, but at a cost. The tyrant has a plan, but it changes all the time. What does not change, whether it is Napoleon or the local boss man, is that the tyrant has a plan. The job of everyone else, citizen, worker, teacher, is to follow the plan or die, be terminated, go away. What can be done with the tyrant? A Christian cannot hate the tyrant:... Read more
Politicians in a republic are not usual natural aristocrats. To get enough people to vote for you often requires a personality that is bland or that soothes local prejudices. Stand out too much and you make the voters uncomfortable. We are not governed by our finest, but our most anodyne: Babbitt not Burke. This is a weakness of a republic and a strength. A dictator is better than his peers, but few pols in a republic are actually the brightest and... Read more
Saint James said of the rich and powerful: Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? If you do good, you will often do well. That’s the way the cosmos would work, if it worked as designed. We have broken God’s perfect society, so often those who have riches and power... Read more
A just man cannot harm anyone. That command seems impossible or at least Utopian: the kind of goo-goo idea that comes up in college discussions that cannot work in the world. Yet a Christian cannot just ignore the possibility this idea is true, since the Lord Jesus Himself said we are to love our enemies! How can we love someone and cause them harm. In the West of the world, one of the first times an argument is made that... Read more
With God’s blessing, we can go from seeming to be good to being good. The aspiration was right, but the reality must follow. One way God uses to help us is sending good people into our lives. They help us change. Better Than He Thought: Rochester and Jane Eyre In Jane Eyre, Rochester thinks he loves Jane, and he will eventually, but not until he sees his need for Jane. He knows she is his equal, but still believes that with... Read more
Socrates made many people mad and ended up dying for his love of wisdom. His martyrdom can cover up the fact that sometimes (as Plato presents him) Socrates can be very annoying. Socrates admits he is not wise, but we sometimes assume he does not mean it. He means it. He looks for the truth, tries to understand ideas, but looking can be messy especially when he meets an expert who is not really an expert! Imagine a teacher who does... Read more
The thoughtless often go looking for a thought by quoting someone thoughtful. We receive a culture that was constructed with a combination of care and cupidity. The faults are obvious and so, carelessly, almost without concern, we start anew. We can have all the good without any of the bad, surely. Yes? We inherit much and we assume we can improve easily. Plato, if he is to be believed, thinks this might be a mistake. Perhaps some of the props... Read more
“Never surrender.” The underrated classic Galaxy Quest gets a laugh from the motto, though the film ends up kind of meaning it. The men at the Alamo truly meant it and Texas was the result. A judicious retreat can be good, ask Sam Houston, who knew how to skedaddle if he must and when it fight when he could. Retreating to fight another day can be brave, but surrender to evil is generally cowardice dressed up as prudence. The men of... Read more
I have a great dad, many people (I have discovered) do not. A great father loves wisdom so much that he will not leave the argument no matter where it leads. My dad still shows me this in his eighties. Some fathers cannot be bothered with new ideas, but Dad gave up his career to do what he thought was right. I want to be like my dad. Another kind of father develops a “big head.” Let’s call that kind of... Read more
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