Even in the muckiest mud, seeds left to us from past moments of verdant growth lie hidden, and we should not be too surprised at some point some of them germinate. A cultural springtime is part gift, but also, because culture is always a human artifact, part effort and human imagination. We have to work with what we are given, and a part of that comes from the past, but the energy to make things grow comes from some where else. That's the fire I've alluded to, and I would argue that the fire comes from the Future and is the ground of our hope. Will we have enough collective sense to work with it? (h/t Forestwalker):
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- A Genealogy of Our Current Insanity -- Series
The rise and fall of the Christian Neoplatonic metaphysical imaginary followed by the rise and fall of the Rationalist Materialist metaphysical imaginary. - Ukraine and the Politics of Inevitability
Is national identity something that can be defined by an imagined future rather than by an imagined past? - Civilization and Its Discontents
Is it possible to overcome the alienation that comes inevitably with civilization? - Fear of the Future
There is so much to which we must say NO. To what can we say that will be worthy or our YES? - Originality vs. Novelty
What it means to be truly original. - The Coming Discontinuity
The machines win unless... - The Meaning of History in 25 Theses
The big picture succinctly summarized. - Reading Charles Taylor's A Secular Age
Long, four part piece that seeks to summarize main themes of Taylor's important 2007 book. - Walker Percy's Postmodern Catholicism
In the present age the survivor of theory and consumption becomes a wayfarer in the desert, like St. Anthony: which is to say, open to signs - Subjects and Objects
Descartes articulated the fundamental problem of modern alienation. How do we get past it? - Shrewd as Serpents, Guileless as Doves
Meditation on Steinbeck's 'East of Eden' - Dying Traditions
Living traditions survive in the U.S. only so long as they can resist acculturation into the larger modern American milieu. The economic pressures working to break down such subcultures are terrific.