Month: March 2011
-
Brooks’ modesty manifesto
In “The Modesty Manifesto,” David Brooks argues that over the past 50 odd years our culture has overemphasized self-esteem with the result that we do not know ourselves and we have failed to become virtuous citizens wedded to common causes. Further Reading Thomas Nagel, “David Brooks’s Theory of Human Nature” Andrew Taggart, “Who is David…
-
On the saying, ‘There’s more than one way to skin a cat’
So far in New York, I haven’t found that any direct route takes me to my desired goal. Many are the paths that terminate in dead ends; many are those that, after a time, start resembling circles; many seem to lead nowhere and then, after I’ve begun trying something else, present themselves differently; a few–the…
-
On It girls
My friend Peter Foges wrote a wonderful, short blog, “It Girls,” on Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks for Lapham’s Quarterly. My comment reads as follows: — Dear Peter, “Let no man be called happy before his death.” Thus Solon. But then what of Garbo and Louise Brooks? What of these after the end of celebrity? The…
-
Our 21st. C. political puzzle
Here is the puzzle for 21st C. political theory. 1. The Communitarian Argument runs: Government must provide for what we cannot provide for ourselves. 2. The Libertarian Argument runs: Government, by its very nature, infringes upon individual freedom: privacy, property, and choice. The name ascribed to government encroachment is “big.” As Rick Perlstein points out in “Enemies…
-
Then Bon Jovi again
Excerpts from my diary dated March 9, 2011 3 a.m. Hungering for the day, for coffee, for dawn. 10:30 a.m. Queueing at the DMV. Listening to Bon Jovi, “Livin’ on a Prayer” in the background. Thinking of childhood, then of disappointment. Hearing that license is too long expired to be renewed. Today is colder than…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 