Posted by
Sue on Tuesday, January 09, 2007 11:28:08 PM
Great post from American Thinker.com...a daily must read of mine. I would only add that our societal characteristics are very ancient...possibly began with the ascent of Cro-Magnon, us.
January 06, 2007
Ideas have consequences
Thomas Lifson
From an Australian blog, The Mind of Flapjack, comes a reminder that some of our most troubling societal characteristics are not that recent in origin. I've almost finished reading Ideas Have Consequences,
and although it was written in 1948, it is quite applicable to our
society today. Some things have to be forgiven simply due to the time
that has passed since its publication and now, but the overall tone of
the book is spot-on. This paragraph in particular is relevant when
considering what is wrong in American society today:
In
the final analysis this society is like the spoiled child in its
incapacity to think. Anyone can observe in the pampered children of the
rich a kind of irresponsibility of the mental process. It occurs simply
because they do not have to think to survive. They never have to feel
that definition must be clear and deduction correct if they are to
escape the sharp penalties of deprivation. Therefore the typical
thinking of such people is fragmentary, discursive, and expressive of a
sort of contempt for realities. Their conclusions are not "earned" in
the sense of being logically valid but are seized in the face of facts.
The young scion knows that, if he falls, there is a net below to catch
him. Hardness of condition is wanting. Without work to do, especially
without work that is related to our dearest aims, the mental sinews
atrophy, as do the physical. There is evidence that the masses, spoiled
by like conditions, incur a similar flabbiness and in crises will prove
unable to think straight enough to save themselves.
- Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences