A clergyman — an old friend, actually — remarked to me recently that he is inclined to view sin and hurt as synonymous. Such remarks arise, surely, from the wish to be compassionate. The idea would be that we mortals stagger along under such burdens and pains laid on us by heredity and environment that … Read more
The tagline for the critically acclaimed AMC series Mad Men, which recently received 16 Emmy nominations and whose third season premieres on Sunday, is “Where the Truth Lies.” Set in the early 1960s, the series entwines the world of advertising, with its manipulation of images to evoke a sense of accomplishment and happiness, with ordinary … Read more
A Consumer’s Guide to the Apocalypse: Why There Is No Cultural War in America and Why We Will Perish Nonetheless Eduardo Velasquez, ISI Books, 200 pages, $22 Our contemporary culture reveals the “darkness the Enlightenment can no longer conceal.” That’s the thesis of Eduardo Velasquez’s fascinating new book, A Consumer’s Guide to the Apocalypse: Why … Read more
A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Garry Wills is a remarkably learned man. Graced with a powerful and confident mind and an elegant style, Wills is a forceful writer, with a clarity of conviction that is all too rare nowadays. Devoted to the rosary, the Mass, and the creed, he is deeply pious. But, above all, he … Read more