What the Justice of Heaven May Inflict

Who knows what the justice of Heaven may inflict on us in order to convince us that we are not out of the reach of misfortune?

Richardson, Samuel. Clarissa. New York: Penguin Classics, 2004, 333.

Bro, It's All Good

Some of the products cater to niche interests. You can consume “with a good conscious [sic]”, promises one vendor for his “ethically sourced” THC chocolate, which costs 13% more than the ordinary, immoral stuff. 

"Buying drugs online: Shedding light on the dark web," The Economist, July 16th-22nd 2016, Volume 420 Number 8998, Accessed on July 19, 2016, http://www.economist.com/news/international/21702176-drug-trade-moving-street-online-cryptomarkets-forced-compete

Important Life Goals

A 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 51 percent of eighteen- to twenty-five-year-olds said their most or second most important life goal was to become famous. Sixty-four percent said their number one goal was to become rich.

Sales, Nancy Jo. American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Life of Teenagers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016, 26.

A 2016 thought by Brian E. Denton believes that 100% of them are by now bitterly disappointed.

Economics is Not a Science

The mountain of algebra in economic research is supposedly meant for clarification and rigour, but is too often deployed for obfuscation.

"If economists reformed themselves: A less dismal Science," The Economist, July 16th-22nd 2016, Volume 420 Number 8998, 12 ("The world if," annual special report), Accessed on July 16, 2016, http://worldif.economist.com/article/12134/less-dismal-science

The American Teenager on Sexism and Feminism

"What's sexism?" asked a girl in Williamsburg, Virginia. "Is that when somebody likes sex?" When I asked her and her friends if they'd ever heard of feminism, another girl said, "Is that when a boy acts like a girl?"

Sales, Nancy Jo. American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Life of Teenagers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016, 19.

Uncertainty of Personal Hearsay

I fancy, my dear, however, that there would hardly be a guilty person in the world, were each suspected or accused person to tell his or her story, and be allowed any degree of credit.

Richardson, Samuel. Clarissa. New York: Penguin Classics, 2004, 136.

Clarissa the Cosmopolitan

And yet, in my opinion, the world is but one great family; originally it was so; what then is this narrow selfishness that reigns in us, but relationship remembered against relationship forgot?

Richardson, Samuel. Clarissa. New York: Penguin Classics, 2004, 62.

O, the Humanity!

[F]lawed, intermittently lucid animals whose minds are stuffed with nonsense and delusion.

Gray, John. The Soul of the Marionette. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015, 155.

The Problem of Evil, Ancient and Modern

The idea of evil as it appears in modern secular thought is an inheritance from Christianity. To be sure, rationalists have repudiated the idea; but it is not long before they cannot do without it. What has been understood as evil in the past, they insist, is error - a product of ignorance that human beings can overcome. Here they are repeating a Zoroastrian theme, which was absorbed into later versions of monotheism: the belief that 'as the "lord of creation" man is at the forefront of the contest between the powers of Truth and Untruth.' But how to account for the fact that humankind is deaf to the voice of reason? At this point the rationalists invoke sinister interests - wicked priests, profiteers from superstition, malignant enemies of enlightenment, secular incarnations of the forces of evil.

As so often is the case, secular thinking follows a pattern dictated by religion while suppressing religions' most valuable insights. Modern rationalists reject the idea of evil while being obsessed by it. Seeing themselves as embattled warriors in a struggle against darkness, it has not occurred to them to ask why humankind if so fond of the dark. They are left with the same problem of evil that faces religion. The difference is that religious believers know they face an insoluble difficulty, while secular believers do not.

Aware of the evil themselves, traditional believers know it cannot be expelled from the world by human action. Lacking this saving insight, secular believers dream of creating a higher species. They have not noticed the fatal flaw in their schemes: any such species will be created by actually existing human beings.

Gray, John. The Soul of the Marionette. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015, 18-19.

The Piety of the Pensioner

In the mostly Muslim north of the country, men may take up to four wives (so long as they obey the Koranic injunction to treat all equally). Often the younger wives are not yet 18. When a husband wants to trade one of his spouses for a younger model, he need only repeat the words “I divorce you” three times to be freed. In 2008 one pensioner split from 82 of his 86 partners to put himself back on the right side of Islamic law.

"Divorce in Nigeria: Rings fall apart," The Economist, July 9th, 2016, Accessed on July 11, 2016, http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21701780-official-statistics-vastly-understate-nigerias-divorce-rate-rings-fall-apart 

The Chaos Highly Organized

The human animal is not an imperfect embodiment of some higher order in things, existing apart from the world or slowly evolving within it. 'Man is the chaos highly organized, but liable to revert to chaos at any moment.' The world is not a harmony we dimly perceive. 'The eyes, the beauty of the world, have been organized out of the faeces. Man returns to dust. So does the face of the world to primeval cinders.' Moralists and logicians tell us their laws are not just human conventions - they describe something independent of human beings, something more absolute. For Hulme, however, 'The absolute is not to be described as perfect, but if existent as essentially imperfect, chaotic and cinder-like. (Even this view is not ultimate, but merely designed to satisfy temporary human analogies and wants.)' People talk of humans evolving, as if the views of the world humans take up and leave behind are developing towards one that will be all inclusive. But world-views are like gardens, easily destroyed by bad weather. 'The unity of Nature is an extremely artificial and fragile bridge, a garden net.' Human ideas are temporary clearances in the waste.

Gray, John. The Silence of Animals. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013, 133-34.

Planning in the Pokey

There was once a zealous official who used party-speak to name each of his five children: Planning, Policy, Guideline, Direction and Completion.

"Bad planning: A bigwig purged," The Economist, July 9th, 2016, Accessed on July 9, 2016, http://www.economist.com/news/china/21701807-bigwig-purged

Great names. And I love the unforeseen Hayekian parable: Planning went on to become one of the highest ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party to be convicted of corruption. 

The Justifications of Le Bien Publique

[H]is intellect supplied him with grounds for moral comfort. The thought that reassured Rastoptchin was not a new one. Ever since the world has existed and men have killed one another, a man has never committed such a crime against his fellow without consoling himself with the same idea. That idea is le bien publique, the supposed public good of others. To a man not swayed by passion this good never seems certain; but a man who has committed such a crime always knows positively where that public good lies. And Rastoptchin now knew this.

Tolstoy, Leo (2015-08-24). War and Peace (Kindle Locations 24321-24326).  . Kindle Edition. 

All the Horrors of Terrorism

One has but to admit menace to public tranquility and every sort of action is justified. 

All the horrors of terrorism were based only on anxiety for public tranquility.

Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace. Translated by Constance Garnett, Kindle edition.

How little things change. 

In Cases of Defense

In cases of defense, 'tis best to weigh/ The enemy more mighty than he seems. 

Shakespeare, William. Henry V. New York: Simon & Schuster Folger Shakespeare Library, 1995, 71.