Our admirable friendly critic Solzhenitsyn, remember, called modern technology — with its dislocating effects on, for example, the relations between the generations — another trial of free will. There is no reason not to believe that technological progress can be guided by the one true progress that can occur in each personal life. As Walker Percy noted, technology can make us more alive than ever to the truth that this life is a pilgrimage — rooted in existential dislocation — for each of us.
In this blog’s opinion, no matter how uncool and unhip religious faith and tradition may come to be portrayed in popular culture, and despite the clear dangers such belief can pose to individual liberties, strong faith contributes greatly to a strong civil society. Our founders got there first, and many of these disputes are the wrong disputes to have.
Sure, Bernie Sanders quite possibly may be a man of character, moral decency and principle, but his principles lead to the gulag!
Sure, some smaller percentage of Republican representatives hypocritically solicit prostitutes, lie, cheat and steal, but well, that’s politics. Maybe there are more such people in politics, but I’m not so sure.
I gaze skeptically at the modernizers, activists, ideologues, true believers etc who keep framing modern life as a struggle towards continual liberation, and usually themselves as ‘liberators’ or ‘on the right side of history.’ Unsurprisingly, they claim possession of knowledge and truth that will make the world into what they think it ought to be.
Generally, I try and go by what people do, not what they say, and I’m not seeing much new under the sun.
Skepticism seems an often reasonable, but not ultimate response.
Let me when you get an ultimate response