Anthony Trollope has wise things to say about the differences between conservatives and liberals in “Prime Minister.”
Monthly Archives: August 2015
ISIS and the Grand Inquisitor
Dostoevsky may provide a compelling explanation for the recruiting success of ISIS: young people want to escape from freedom.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Brothers Karamazov, Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Grand Inquisitor, ISIS, Michel Houellebecq, Submission Comments closed
Herbert & Bronte on Spiritual Restlessness
St. Augustine, George Herbert, and Charlotte Bronte all write about spiritual restlessness.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Pulley", Charlotte Bronte, George Herbert, Jane Eyre, restlessness, spiritual search, St. Augustine Comments closed
Trump, Lucille Clifton, & Menstruation
Donald Trump assumed that Fox’s Megyn Kelly was menstruating when she aggressively asked him questions. Aside from his sexism, we should listen to Lucille Clifton, who points out how impressively women function even when they are having their periods.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "wishes for sons", Donald Trump, Lucille Clifton, Megyn Kelly, menstruation, misogyny, politics, Sexism, women's biology Comments closed
A Tolstoy Fable about Radical Empathy
Tolstoy’s story “Esarhaddon” captures a common wish fulfillment of the powerless–that the oppressor see the world through the eyes of the oppressed.
Attn: English Majors–Business Needs You
Increasingly businesses are discovering that they need employees who have majored in English and the humanities.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged business hiring practices, David Foster Wallace, English majors, Humanities Comments closed
Fox, Like Odysseus, Tries to Gouge Trump
A Salon columnist compares Trump to the Cyclops in “The Odyssey.” He has a point.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Fox News, GOP, Homer, Odyssey, politics Comments closed
Queasy about Bodies Used for Medicine
The sting videos by anti-abortion activists are designed to shock. But being shocked by the use of dead bodies for medical research is nothing new, as seen in the grave robbing scene in “Tom Sawyer.”
Political Commentary’s Most Cited Poem
The Washington Post’s E. J. Dionne has called Yeats’s “The Second Coming” the most cited poem in political commentary. Yeats may set up a false dichotomy between “passionate intensity” and “lack of conviction,” however.