Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
1. Question – In the United States, what’s the
only common cultural tradition?
2. Thought – The cause of this decay of the
family’s traditional role as the transmitter of
tradition is the same as that of the decay of the
humanities: nobody believes that the old books do, or even
could, contain the truth. So books have become at best,
“culture,” i.e., boring. As Tocqueville put
it, in a democracy tradition is nothing more than
information. With the “information explosion,”
tradition has become superfluous. As soon as tradition has
come to be recognized as tradition, it is dead, something
to which lip service is paid in the vain hope of edifying
the kids.
In the United States, practically speaking, the Bible was
the only common culture, one that united simple and
sophisticated, rich and poor, young and old, and –
as the very model for a vision of the order of the whole
of things, as well as the key to the rest of Western art,
the greatest works of which were in one way or another
responsive to the Bible – provided access to the
seriousness of books. With its gradual and inevitable
disappearance, the very idea of such a total book and the
possibility and necessity of world-explanation is
disappearing. And fathers and mothers have lost the idea
that the highest aspiration they might have for their
children is for them to be wise – as priests,
prophets or philosophers are wise. Specialized competence
and success are all that they can imagine. Contrary to
what is commonly thought, without the book even the idea
of the whole is lost. (The CLOSING of the AMERICAN MIND by
Allan Bloom)
“A penetrating look at the state of modern
American society…filled to overflowing with
trenchant insights into American life…Required
reading for every thoughtful citizen concerned with
the decline of American society…It will
challenge you to think.”
(The New American)
Can we bring back this tradition? Do you have a Bible on
your office, home, or school desk and refer to it?
AND: I reflect on the practice dueling in polotics.
I think we might consider bringing it back.
A slapped face, 20 paces turn and fire.
Ends this drivel and drives out those without a stomach for accountability.
Would also make great theater for our lost culture.