Sublime

But the whole thrust of the information age has been to reward education and widen the income gap between the educated and the uneducated.

his description of humanity in his seminal work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) appears to be as somber as it was prophetic: “Narrow specialists without minds, pleasure seekers without heart; in their conceit, these nullities imagine they have climbed to a level of humanity never before attained.”

The hyper-individualist finds himself enmeshed in a network of conditional love. I am worthy of being loved only when I have achieved the status or success the world expects of me. I am worthy of love only when I can offer the other person something in return. I am what the world says about me. In the end, hyper-individualism doesn’t make people se

A writer could blast out her opinions, but writers are at their best not when they tell people what to think but when they provide a context within which others can think.

Tocqueville described self-government as an “art” that needs to be learned. It’s what Americans no longer know how to do, or even want to do together. It’s hard work, for it needs not just ballots and newspapers and official documents, which we still have, but also trust, which we’ve lost. It depends on the ability to argue, persuade, and compromis