I started to add this to the comments on the previous post, in which Dave refers to “glum” conservatives, then amends that to “pessimistic,” but I thought it deserved the visibility of its own post. It’s true that we conservatives have a somewhat pessimistic view of things in general and of human beings in particular;…

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Either I am right and a catastrophe will occur, or it won’t and I’m crazy. Either way the outlook is not so good. —Walker Percy, from Love in the Ruins I’m exaggerating; I don’t really expect a catastrophe in the sense of a sudden and enormous destructive event. But I think we’re heading in a…

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Sehnsucht This is a follow-up to last week’s discussion of C. S. Lewis’s concept of “joy:”  “an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction.” Someone mentioned that there is a German word, sehnsucht, for this longing, and I have been looking around a bit on the web for more information about…

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Many years ago, roughly 1970, I had an LP that included this and several more of Delius’s more familiar orchestral works. Although I thought the music somewhat bland and shapeless, I came to like it, but more as a sort of tranquilizer than as music properly speaking; it was very peaceful and for twenty minutes…

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Janet has stumbled across this old post, I Miss the Future, which led to this one, Blade Runner vs. 2001. A conversation has begun, and since those posts are not visible on the main page here I thought I'd just provide this anchor for the discussion. Janet says: When I was in my late teens…

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