miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun 1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items 2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book

Instead of articles this week, I'm going to leave a few quotes that I came across this week, reading articles or books. They are all ones I wrote down to think about later...hopefully, you will find thought provoking as well. I shall provide them for you without any commentary of my own. >Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you.

— Flannery O'Connor

Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.

— Gustav Mahler

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

— Benjamin Franklin

I just finished re-reading Fahrenheit 451 again. Here are a few quotes I marked there. They are mostly from Montag, the main character, as he reflects on the events going on around him or those societal changes that led to the place where they are in the book. If you haven't read it since high school or maybe never at all, you should try it out. It's fascinating and frightening at the same time...

There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.

We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?

School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work. Why learn anything save pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts?

More sports for everyone, group spirit, fun, and you don’t have to think, eh? Organize and organize and super organize super-super sports. More cartoons in books. More pictures. The mind drinks less and less. Impatience. Highways full of crowds going somewhere, somewhere, somewhere, nowhere. The gasoline refugee. Towns turn into motels, people in nomadic surges from place to place, following the moon tides, living tonight in the room where you slept this noon and I the night before.

Surely you remember the boy in your own school class who was exceptionally ‘bright,’ did most of the reciting and answering while the others sat like so many leaden idols, hating him. And wasn’t it this bright boy you selected for beatings and tortures after hours? Of course it was. We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.

You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred. Ask yourself, What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn’t that right? Haven’t you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren’t they? Don’t we keep them moving, don’t we give them fun? That’s all we live for, isn’t it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these.

Those who don’t build must burn. It’s as old as history and juvenile delinquents.

‘I hate a Roman named Status Quo!’ he said to me. ‘Stuff your eyes with wonder,’ he said, ‘live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that,’ he said, ‘shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.'

#miscellanies #culture #OConnor #quotes

miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun 1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items 2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book

In the midst of this busy week, the things that stuck with me have to do with worship, culture, and reflections on the world around me as I grow older. These articles give us a little bit of history/education that guides our worship, a caution against labels, and a list of things that make life a little bit better (at least in the opinion of one man). Happy reading!

The Gloria Patri. We sing the Gloria Patri every Sunday in worship as the close of our Introit, but do you know where it came from and why it is important? This article provides a great explanation of this small-but-mighty confession of faith that ties together our worship with at least 1,600 years of Christian worship through the ages. It is a fascinating bit of history!

Germany's Evangelical Church Pushes Woke Agenda as Congregations Vanish. I've cautioned us before about labels. This article about the insanity present in the Evangelical Church in Germany demonstrates that there is very little “Evangelical” belief or teaching left there. “With some 1,500 scheduled events, the gathering reads more like an activist festival than a spiritual retreat—featuring workshops on 'queer animals on the Ark,' 'feminist parenting,' and critical whiteness.'” It sounds like folks in the UMC would fit right in or those from the equally-misnamed Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (that is no longer “Evangelical” nor “Lutheran” in belief or practice).

Preferences of a Curmudgeon. And now for something different...here is one man's list of preferences. In the quite literal sense of esteeming or judging some things above others, I think this is a marvelous list of things we should enjoy and encourage.

#miscellanies

miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun 1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items 2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book

This week features the theological and the technological, food for thought in both areas! Before we get to those posts, here's encouragement for all those struggling to persevere in your Lenten disciplines. Not only do spiritual disciplines draw us closer to Christ and make us more like him, they serve to benefit other areas of our lives:

Regularly doing hard things increases your willpower and mental resilience.

— Nicole Vignola, neuroscientist “Thus Saith the Lord?” In this old article from 2002, Dr. Rod Rosenbladt tackles the very important issue of continuing revelation and whether or not God continues to speak to us in new revelation today—something paradoxically affirmed in Pentecostal-Charismatic and Liberal circles today. As he points out, “It is sometimes difficult for us as Christians to be content with a once-given, completed revelation via the incarnate Word and inscripturated words. We all too easily begin to imagine that we have a right to new special revelation to answer our immediate problems.” Ultimately, he concludes that Reformation Christians who hold to the doctrine of sola scriptura should not expect God to speak beyond what he has spoken in Scripture. This is a powerful and thought-provoking article. (Hat tip to Jay for sending it my way!)

“How I Realized AI Was Making Me Stupid—And What I Do Now.” Tools and technology are great, but none of them can be accepted uncritically. How well can you navigate on your own after years of relying on GPS? How many phone numbers do you recall after years of having an endless contact list on your phone? How much information do you seek to store in your real brain vs. the 'brain' in your pocket? “A study published in January in the journal Societies found that frequent use of AI tools such as ChatGPT correlated with reduced critical thinking, particularly among younger users. In a new survey of knowledge workers, Microsoft researchers found that those with more confidence in generative AI engaged in less critical thinking when using it.” AI can be helpful, but like so many other recent technological innovations, it's making us lazy and dumb. Beware.

#miscellanies

miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun 1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items 2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book

The things that resonated most with me this week were seemingly unrelated: the state of the faith in America and two pieces about keeping the 'main thing' the main thing. On the surface, they may seem unrelated, but I think the exact opposite is true.

“Is Christianity No Longer in Decline?” I'm sure many of you have seen the news about a recent Pew Research Center survey. “The most prominent finding was that the share of Americans who identify as Christian has stopped declining the last several years, and the percentage of adults who have no religious affiliation has plateaued right around 30 percent...Now we can say with some certainty that this period of rapid secularization is largely over.” While this is certainly good news, we shouldn't be so Pollyanna-ish as to think the next Great Awakening is a sure thing. This First Things article gives some important insights about data like this and how to interpret it. More importantly—and this is not in the article—I think these results only emphasize the need for the Church to remain steadfast and not let her guard down. Christ will build his Church, he's promised that, but he's promised to do that through the means of you and me.

“Starbucks Lost Its Soul to Efficiency and Plans to Get It Back with Empathy.” Starbucks became an incredible success not because it serves great coffee (it's coffee is awful, can we please be honest about that?) but because is served a great experience. Things are different now. “72% of Starbucks store sales today come from its mobile order and pay app, delivery apps, and drive-thru purchases (source). Stores have removed seating and tables to encourage a grab-n-go mindset. This watering down of the Starbucks experience has turned the customer experience into a systematic and soulless mess.” In other words, in a corporate world where business is dominated by efficiency, throughput, and the proverbial bottom line, it traded the experience for the almighty dollar...and now is striving to change that. What does any of this have to do with the Church? There's a huge push to see the Church as just another business with mission statements, emphases on secular leadership models, and efficiency. While that is novel and interesting to many, it is not the Church as established by Jesus Christ. The Church is not a business. She is deliberately inefficient in many ways. She is incredibly backwards, culturally, in many ways. Preserving the Church that has been handed down to us as our inheritance requires us to acknowledge and sometimes even embrace new means, but only insofar as that can be done without selling out her soul to the secular world.

“Mission-Critical?” What is the capital-M “Mission” of the Church, and how does that get translated into her lower-M “missions” and activities? This piece by LCMS pastor Larry Beane writes about the chaos that results when we get the two confused. Yes, he's writing specifically within the context of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, but there is much here for us to learn from also...“If we believe the Small-M mission is identical with the Capital-M Mission, then anything and everything that we do is for the sake of evangelism – including worship. And while I agree that how we conduct worship is related to evangelism, and is a component of it, it is not the purpose of it. In other words, the Small-M mission is not the Capital-M Mission. For we exist – individually as people bearing the image of God, and collectively as the body of Christ – for the very purpose of worshiping God for eternity. Our eternal purpose, our Capital-M Mission, is to be whom God created us to be, and we do that by virtue of the sacrificial and atoning blood of Christ. And yes, we engage in missionary outreach because of both our love for the lost, and the command of Christ. But there is so much more to the Christian life than selling Jesus as if He were a product at Walmart, and measuring results, as if human beings were consumers racking up measurable revenues on a balance sheet.”

#miscellanies

miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun 1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items 2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book

Only one quote and one article this week...I've let both simmer for a while but would like to share them.

This quote is from literary critic and professor Harold Bloom. He's not someone we're going to agree with on religious views, for sure, but he was an expert on the subject of reading. This quote is on the importance of reading—not mindless scrolling on news or social media, not the type of consumption that passes as 'reading' in our attention span starved society but real reading. This is the kind of reading that requires you to slow down, re-read things that maybe didn't sink in fully, and make notes in the margins or a notebook to come back to later. Sadly, I think this type of reading is largely a relic of the past for many.

There is nothing that is more profoundly healing than the act of solitary reading provided that what is being read is indeed permanent, deep, lasting work. Work that calls for all of your faculties in response. Work that calls you out of your own deep as it were. Work that transforms you.

Screens Work Against Community. Pr. Peters nails another one out of the park, in my opinion, this time taking up the charged topic of screens in our churches. Thankfully, we do not have any screens in our sanctuary...and I hope we never will. Why? “I am more and more convinced that churches should be technology free zones. It is neither helpful nor faithful to make churches into the religious versions of the digital platforms that already dominate our lives. The screens that we put up in the chancel and the apps we think so helpful to the faith only do two things. One is that they blur the lines between the church and the world. The other is that they assist in the individualization of things that works against the community (koinonia) inherent to the Gospel. Both of these ills are increasingly troublesome for the churches.”

#miscellanies #quotes

miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun 1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items 2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book

It's been a long while since I posted any miscellanies...until recently, it had been a long time since I posted anything. Miscellanies are back as a list of the most interesting things I came across in the previous week that I think are worth reading and considering, as informed, historic Christians. With pithy re-introductions aside, here is this week's list.

What Protestants Get Wrong About the Epistle to the Hebrews Peter Leithart (conservative Presbyterian/Reformed) makes the case that, while the New Covenant is 'not a conservative gospel, but a revolutionary one,' having significant differences from the Old Covenant, it is not something completely new but brings with it the reality that was hidden in the shadows before Christ. Specifically considering worship, he says that “Christian liturgical practice is still sacrificial and priestly, but through Jesus we have access to the real, original, heavenly things. What Israel did in twilight, the church does in the full light of day. The new doesn’t inaugurate an a-liturgical form of life and worship, but radically rearranges liturgy itself.” This is a short, thought, provoking piece about how Christian worship ought to look as a continuation and fulfillment of everything before us.

The Re-Churching of Men. This is an article I referenced last Sunday when talking about growth among traditional churches as opposed to 'plain vanilla' Evangelical churches with contemporary worship. He refers to a New York Times piece documenting the increased numbers of Gen-Z men attending to churches with conservative doctrine and traditional liturgy. He laments the decreased attendance among women in this generation and cautions against the pendulum swinging too far. “The answer to toxic masculinity is not vapid egalitarianism in the style pioneered by liberal Protestants and mimicked by progressive evangelicals. Nor is it the gnostic androgyny of our sexually confused culture. The answer is bold, sacrificial, and Christ-like masculinity. Christ faces evil and lays down his life for his bride. The priest, acting in the person of Christ the head, must be a masculine icon for his parish, an assertive yet tender spiritual father. A re-churching of men has the potential to correct men’s worst impulses while ­redeeming men through the power of Christ crucified. This redemption may yet occasion the return of men and women to a renewed church, one in which the sexes will flourish together.”

It's Time We Stop Singing About Ourselves At Mass. Though written by a Catholic in the context of the Mass (so don't get lost in some unfamiliar liturgical terms), this article asks the important question, “What makes for a 'suitable hymn'? How should we gauge 'good' and 'bad' hymns?” It's a subject I've brought up many times, important because the hymns we sing will stick with us long after even the best sermon is forgotten. This author answers his own question this way, “I would suggest using a very simple litmus test by asking this question: 'Whom are we singing to?'” The article contains some interesting statistics about the focus of recent hymnody in the Catholic Church (which I'd suggest is following trail blazed by Evangelicals) showing that recent hymns are “written with an orientation of me, myself, and I. The worship is not a vertical gaze toward Heaven. Rather, the orientation is a horizontal glance around the room.” It's a thought-provoking read!

#miscellanies #hymnody

miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun 1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items 2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book

It's been awhile since I noted anything truly worth sharing, but this week is truly an exception. I'm going to share a single article in hopes that you will read and re-read it. It is pointed, thought-provoking, and spot on (in my opinion). Pr. Peters has done the church another great service with this piece.

We're All Liberal Protestants... Southern Presbyterian R.L. Dabney—pastor, theologian, and Confederate chaplain—famously pointed out, “American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader.” Though written over a hundred years ago, Dabney's observation still holds. American conservatism doesn't really conserve anything, it just slows down the pace of our cultural, theological, and ideological move to the left. This is not news. Pr. Peters similarly writes, “Conservative has become a term to describe the pace of change rather than its direction. I get it...We welcome a slow and more deliberate pace to all that is changing and with it a moment to catch our breath. But that is not what it means to be a conservative in any aspect of things. Conservatives conserve.” And yet, plainly, cultural, theological, and social conservatives have repeatedly demonstrated that we are NOT good at conserving.

Peters again writes, “Underneath liberal Protestantism are the essential values of radical personal autonomy and an absolute individualism as the core and foundation of all moral values. These things are not the essential values of orthodox and catholic Christianity. That is the problem. In addition to this is the whole idea that the church is nothing more than a voluntary association, created and defined by the will of those who choose to belong. The same penchant for government by poll has given way to doctrine and practice by poll. The Scriptures are merely advisory in this understanding. Doctrine is subordinate and accountable to our autonomous individual consciences. The reality is that most of us subscribe to and practice in our daily lives the very moral and political language of liberalism and our agreement in doctrine and truth is more a felicitous inconsistency we celebrate than an essential foundation of or identity to our religious beliefs and identity.”

Please go thoughtfully read the rest of his post. Consider how it affects your views of Scripture and doctrine, church practice, social issues, and politics. The creeping cancer of liberalism affects every aspect of our lives in ways we conservatives either wish to ignore or are woefully ignorant of. We must be more thoughtful and more deliberate.

#miscellanies

miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun 1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items 2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book

Real Worship. This is a reposting of an article originally written in 2011. In my opinion, as a retired Air Force chaplain, it is one of the best short pieces I've ever read that focuses us on the realities and importance of worship in an ultimate sense—think about gathering to worship this Sunday after our building had been bombed into oblivion. Would you bother getting out of bed to do it? If you truly believe that we meet our Lord in a real, unique way that is unlike any other time of the week you definitely would. Unfortunately, many American Christians don't have this understanding of worship, and we are impoverished as a result.

The Myth of Technological Neutrality. Most people think that technology is neither inherently good nor bad. It just is. While it is true that almost all technology can be used for good or for evil, I agree with the author (who is not unique in his views) that technology is not neutral and much of the technology that we laud and praise (smartphones, computers in front of every student, screens everywhere) has a negative influence on our lives, individually and corporately. Not only is it not neutral, in our increasingly fragmented political culture, technology is almost always political. The author speaks from personal experience. “I spent two decades, from 1999 to 2019, in New York City, where I watched social media and smartphones change the early adopters. My reading of Neil Postman and Marshall McLuhan convinced me that 'the myth of technological neutrality' was just that. In conversations with friends, often somewhere downtown, I disputed the view that these technologies merely added technical capacities to our lives. They exerted a negative spiritual, cultural, and political effect. They were superseding better ways of being and acting, while empowering certain groups over others. I argued that the first question about any technology was what kind of people it made us into. I convinced basically no one.”

Lutherans are not Protestants. Here's an interesting piece that contrasts the Creedal and Confessional view of church with the modern day Evangelical (Pr. Peters calls it Protestant, though I'm not sure I completely agree) view of authority. “Lutherans have always found themselves the odd man out at the table of religious traditions.  We seem to be Protestants but we are not.  We claim to be Catholics but we aren't Roman.  Nowhere it this more true than when it comes to our approach to authority.  It sounds like Lutherans are right there with every other Protestant in putting authority in reason.  Unless we can be shown by Scripture, we will not believe it. It almost sounds like Luther but it is not Luther.  Luther was bound by the Word that had authority over his conscience and not because of it.  Luther did not place Scripture into the realm of personal interpretation (though, to be sure, sometimes he sounded that way).  Luther believed in authority — an authority bigger than him and bigger than the moment.  I sometimes wonder if we as Lutherans have forgotten that.  Luther was not a Protestant — at least not in the way that term has been used since the first days of the Great Reformation.  Luther was a creedal theologian and one whose whole purpose was not to vitiate the authority of the Church but to correct that authority by placing it upon the firm foundation of Scripture.  The Reformation was and remains about authority and where it resides.”

#miscellanies

miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun 1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items 2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book

The Screwtape Election. If you've not read C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, you should. It's a funny piece of fiction describing an experienced demon, Screwtape, offering advice to his bumbling idiot relation, Wormwood, on how to be a better demon. It's hilarious. It's light, but it also reveals a lot about humanity and the ways of the world. This article uses one of the premises in the book—interestingly one inherited from Martin Luther—and applies it to our upcoming election. That premise is this, one of the things the Devil hates aside from Scripture is ridicule. The author suggests the non-stop ridicule of the Left from Donald Trump is exactly what needs to happen. As he says in his conclusion, “Trump’s vaudeville patter and his penchant for coining memorable monikers for his adversaries reveal the realities of misgovernance by progressive elites better than a thousand debates. His scorn does what is needed. It slights the Screwtapes in our midst and pushes them into a state of self-consuming outrage and wounded pride. Let’s carry on and keep the cheerful scorn coming. It’s the Screwtape Election.”

Lessons from Beer Halls. Two from First Things this week, though not intentionally. While this article is an appeal to educators and communities to build beautiful schools out of a love of learning, beauty, and goodness, the case is equally made for churches. Building practical (i.e. ugly) schools and churches is a failure on the part of the community that built it. The beer halls the author visits and describes in this article are welcoming and beautiful, even though they don't 'have' to be. Why? “This (aesthetic) works precisely because the founders, funders, and architects of beer halls attend to human beings as embodied creatures who need more than ugly 'utilitarian' structures. They build, in other words, from a fundamentally true anthropology, even if the brewers are complete atheists. Why are not more churches and schools built with this true anthropology in mind? An ugly school building might be cheap, but it does not serve the ultimate purposes of education. As T. S. Eliot says of society as a whole, a good school is one 'in which the natural end of man—virtue and well-being in community—is acknowledged for all, and the supernatural end—beatitude—for those who have the eyes to see it.' The end of education is arete, excellence and human flourishing leading to worship for those with eyes to see.” As we continue to plan for our own eventual building project, let us not lose sight of the fact that we are not building a building simply for the sake of assembling people, we are building a building to glorify God and lead people to worship!

#miscellanies

miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun 1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items 2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book

As election season gets into high gear, there is more and more ink spilled (and electrons rearranged) on political topics. Instead of just linking article after article after article on politics, which is wearying—at best—I'm linking broader articles that are older than just this week to keep it interesting!

Changing the World, One Outfit at a Time. When I was growing up in small town Indiana, worship attendance was a suit or dress affair, almost without exception. Everyone broke out their “Sunday best” every Sunday. The idea of dressing up for church isn't even an idea for most American Christians today. This has always rubbed me the wrong way and makes me think that people don't truly understand what is going on during Sunday's divine service. We always pointed out to our children the folly of dressing to meet the Lord of all creation in a unique and special way looking less respectful than we would dress to meet our bosses' boss for a meeting at work. For better or worse, we're not entirely alone in our rejection of dressing casual for worship. Catholic Anna Davis writes, “There are countless times in the Gospel where Jesus reminds His disciples that we’re different, sanctified, set apart. So how can that be the case when one of the most trivial aspects of our lives—clothing—has us parading around in the slovenly uniform of the world? The uniform that screams—or belches—it’s cool man, come as you are.”

Great & Wonderful Days: The Death of Conservatism & the Negative World. Here's the obligatory political post for this week, from one of the directors of the group responsible for our Daily Devotional Guide. As though we were gnashing our teeth in the same room together, J. Douglas Johnson says, “ In the run-up to the 2024 RNC convention, the conservative party, the Republican Party, finally did what the New York Times spent the last half-century lobbying it to do: it removed the sanctity of life from the party’s platform. And to make clear where the party now stands, it invited Amber Rose to speak, a woman who recently said that satanists were good people because they helped women obtain abortions.We wish the Republican Party hadn’t altered its platform, and we wish it hadn’t invited Amber Rose to speak as a representative of what the party now endorses (and let’s not kid ourselves; she represents what the party now believes). But in the Negative World, American Christians should no longer expect to find safe sanctuary in the GOP.” After this scathing reality check, he goes on to leave us with encouragement from Fulton Sheen, who lamented times we would look back upon fondly (but mistakenly) as the 'good old days,' saying, “these are great and wonderful days in which to be alive. . . . It is not a gloomy pictue—it is a picture of the Church in the midst of increasing opposition from the world. And therefore live your lives in the full consciousness of this hour of testing, and rally close to the heart of Christ.” This is a great read.

How a Generation Lost its Culture. This is an old post, dating back to 2016 by a professor at Notre Dame. It's about education, specifically the decline of education in the West insofar as its products (the students) know little about our Western Civilization...and why that's a problem. “My students are know-nothings. They are exceedingly nice, pleasant, trustworthy, mostly honest, well-intentioned, and utterly decent. But their brains are largely empty, devoid of any substantial knowledge that might be the fruits of an education in an inheritance and a gift of a previous generation. They are the culmination of western civilization, a civilization that has forgotten nearly everything about itself, and as a result, has achieved near-perfect indifference to its own culture...Our students’ ignorance is not a failing of the educational system – it is its crowning achievement. Efforts by several generations of philosophers and reformers and public policy experts — whom our students (and most of us) know nothing about — have combined to produce a generation of know-nothings. The pervasive ignorance of our students is not a mere accident or unfortunate but correctible outcome, if only we hire better teachers or tweak the reading lists in high school. It is the consequence of a civilizational commitment to civilizational suicide. The end of history for our students signals the End of History for the West.” It you're not a fan of history, this may not be the most exciting article you've ever read, but you owe it to yourself to read it because today's students are tomorrow's leadership.

#miscellanies