All of us have the delicate balance of heroes and villains in our lives. Decades ago, Brian Wilson penned a song about them. It was a lyric open to many interpretations, as indeed are the heroes and villains themselves:
Glenn Reynolds, the mind behind Instapundit, has a profound ability to introduce some of the most interesting, challenging and thought-provoking content by any of the electric pundits. When his readers respond with equally significant content, he's willing to highlight it for those of us who may overlook such gems. Tonight, he's posted one of these gems from reader, Richard Frankel. It is about those heroes and villains and how we had best apply their thinking in our contemporary world.
Frankel lengthens the information chain for OTR by introducing him to the British historian, Paul Johnson. Even the best minds across the pond often have limited impact here in the United States. But they often provide us with the most objective and meaningful conclusions about who we are and where we're going. For starters, students of western civilization in general and the American experience specifically may want to start with Roger Kimball's appraisal of Johnson's talents.
In our time, these little discoveries convince OTR that there simply isn't enough time in one life to become an effective generalist in the humanities. Just too much information! It's a sad conclusion because we need lumpers as well as spliters in order to know ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment