Ramblings
Whew, whatta week. Nonstop obligations . . . all of the non-billable sort, which for a lawyer, is like giving money away. I get a reprieve today and tomorrow.
Great podcast at Econtalk: Jonah Goldberg on the Suicide of the West. Lots of interesting analysis of current events. One segment I really liked: Someone once observed that every
culture is constantly invaded by barbarians: children. Families are the first line of defense from these barbarians. In light of the breakdown of the family that has occurred, where does that leave us? The prognosis isn't very good. The interlocutors don't see a way out of our culture's downward spiral and, truth be told, neither do I, but I believe in the supernatural foundation of the Catholic Church. I hold a mystical (irrational) belief that It will lead us
out of this mess, though I have no idea how.
As long as I listened to two Jews talk about modern culture, and since I invoked Russell Kirk's ghost earlier this week, I pulled his Enemies of the Permanent Things off the shelf and re-read the pages on Max Picard (a Jew). I've read those dozen pages a dozen times. They might be my favorite Kirk writings, though the unusual prose of The Conservative Mind still captivates me today, thirty years after I first read it.
"A sense of humor can exist only in a world of faith. For in humor is a trace of the smile with which God observes the mistakes of man. That trace of God's smile, in man, is our sense of humor." Max Picard. In light of Richard Pryor, Sam Kinison, and 2.5 million other irreverent comedians, I don't know if I agree with him, but like everything Picard writes, it's worth pondering.
