Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Ellipses

A list of the best imaginary books never written. Just read it, you’ll understand. . . . And some smart thoughts on imaginary cities. . . . Two good recent posts from Ross Douthat -- one on why certain Republican supporters might want to tone down the cries of socialism; and one on the “conservative cocoon.” . . . A post about John McCain and education that I find more thought-provoking than inflammatory; don’t know if you’ll agree. . . . And lastly, I’ve been having private back-and-forths with a few people about the current state of the culture wars, and I really do like to stay above that stuff (on both sides), but these two clips are just too juicy not to share. First, an exclusive interview with the current mayor of Wasilla. Second, when this woman’s right to vote is taken away (and secured under a mountain in Nevada somewhere), give me a call, and maybe I’ll be willing to defend the theory of democracy again. I, too, will pray for her husband.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Re: 'defending democracy': maybe it's not worthy of a particularly strong defense. I just re-read Plato's Republic. Socrates ranks democracy second-to-last on the list of possible political systems: one level below an 'oligarchy' and only one step above 'tyranny.' In fact, he says that democracies (which he describes as "ruled by people whose souls are ruled by unnecessary appetites") eventually devolve into tyrannies. Perhaps a philosopher-king will emerge as an additional independent candidate before November? One can dream.... Seriously, though, Socrates' descriptions of democracies are chillingly accurate (especially given that Plato's dialogues were written in 400BC).

5:05 PM  

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