It was the Age of Obamias, and too much of that dominated my posts in 2008. Everything that is not eternal is immediately out-of-date, to paraphrase CS Lewis. Still, some of these links are still valuable for their similarity to other eras and thus capturing larger truths, but mostly they are interesting in terms of what we thought then. Or at least, what I thought.
I encourage not only the links, but very often, the comments, which include some of you who are still here. David Foster has followed AVI for a long while, which surprised me. I don't know where he found me.
The Truth Seeps Out. Just after Election Day 2008, the major news sources start publishing some negative things about Obama that they had somehow overlooked until then. So that they could say they were honest hard-hitting journalists.
Holyoke: The Belle Skinner Legacy a review of a fevered book about how wonderful this liberal woman had been, launching with how bad George Bush was a century later. Sure. That works.
Wellness Goes Green. Two goddesses of the age get together
Earth Day Predictions Gone Awry was already a staple then.
Narcissism in Foreign Policy Chelsea Clinton explains things for us.
Dirty Politics - Journalists were outraged that Republicans were planning on using Obama's record against him. The nerve.
Les Misbarack
At this point, comment here on any of these links, because only I will ever see them otherwise.
Everything that is not eternal is immediately out-of-date...
ReplyDeleteA regular debate in philosophical circles, where it references the Greek idea of the vita activa versus the vita contemplativa. (Ironically we use the Latin terms even though these are Greek ideas because of the Medieval heritage.) The latter is almost always held to be better, following arguments from Aristotle and Plato but as recent as Hannah Arendt; on the other hand, the former is also important.
Engaging in politics is engaging in dross, empheral, often profane things; but it keeps the way clear for engaging in the higher things too. It's much harder to contemplate while starving, or while the world burns around you, or while being herded off to camps by your enemies. We are able to contemplate the stars and the eternal moral laws because we have leisure, and you only get leisure by doing the necessary work to provide yourself and those around you with sufficient worldly goods to exercise leisure.