Category Archives: Philosophy
Dec. 31, 2011, edit: How amazing the effect the passing of a decade can have on one’s perspective. While I still stand by the thesis we are not in a “clash of civilizations” with the Muslim world, I of course must vacate the propositions that American interventions have been warmly greeted in targeted countries. And I believe American foreign interventionism clearly does inspire loathing of the United States that sometimes ignites terrorist ambitions; I would strongly dismiss the Bush explanation were … Continue reading
Object of discussion: Barthelme, Donald. “A City of Churches.” The Best American Short Stories. Ed. John Updike. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000. 503-506. Prester is a town where everyone follows the same philosophy and lives the same way. The town’s residents are not individuals with their own distinct identities, but units comprising a ubiquitous and soulless collective. Surprisingly, Prester is not a city in the old Soviet Union; instead, it is the setting of Donald Barthelme’s “A City of … Continue reading
The most common definition of morality is knowledge of right and wrong. People use morality to justify their actions and decisions. Some individuals also try to impress their own morality upon other people in the belief that standards of right and wrong are the same for everyone. In her essay “On Morality,” Joan Didion objects to such thinking, saying that each person can have a different conception of morality. To illustrate her point, Didion first uses the examples of Klaus … Continue reading
Whenever an idiot teen with anger control problems decides that shooting people in the proper way to express rage, politicians of all political stripes say violence in the media is the cause. After the March 22 school shooting in El Cajon, California, Attorney General John Ashcroft proclaimed that movies and video games foster an “ethic of violence” that results in juvenile killing. People always need convenient scapegoats to blame for society’s problems. The practice of deflecting responsibility is certainly nothing … Continue reading
