Education and the Information Revolution

By |2019-09-24T11:15:44-05:00October 18th, 2015|Categories: Education, Featured, Intelligence, Liberal Learning, RAK, Russell Kirk, Technology|

The people of the United States spend annually upon higher learning more money, probably, than did all the nations of the world combined, from the foundation of the ancient universities down to the beginning of the Second World War. In the United States, ever since the Second World War and especially during the past two [...]

Liberal Education and the Free Mind

By |2020-04-20T11:38:05-05:00October 14th, 2015|Categories: Featured, Intelligence, Liberal Learning, Quotation, St. John's College|

Liberal education has as its end the free mind, and the free mind must be its own teacher. Stringfellow Barr & Scott Buchanan I have some questions I want to ask you, questions for St. John’s graduates and questions for American citizens. As I understand the questions, one leads to another, and they [...]

Can Atheists Claim the Intellectual High Ground?

By |2015-10-30T09:53:52-05:00October 2nd, 2015|Categories: Atheism, Christianity, Featured, Intelligence, Religion, Theology|

Many atheists are assured of the truth of their position, arguing that religious beliefs are merely blind faith at best and stupidity at worst. As Richard Dawkins writes, “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is the belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, [...]

The Reality of the Politically Correct Ideology

By |2015-04-04T17:10:13-05:00April 4th, 2015|Categories: Culture, Intelligence, John Stuart Mill|

Jonathan Chait burned up the Internet with his critique of so-called political correctness.[1] Among many responses, Amanda Taub’s stands out for its denial of Mr. Chait’s basic premise.[2] According to Ms. Taub: …there’s no such thing as “political correctness.” The term’s in wide use, certainly, but has no actual fixed or specific meaning. What defines [...]

Are Lawyers Illiterate?

By |2018-06-03T14:59:40-05:00August 22nd, 2014|Categories: Books, Intelligence, Liberal Learning, Literature|

Webster’s defines “intelligent” as “endowed with intelligence or intellect; possessed of, or exhibiting, a high or fitting degree of intelligence or understanding.” This modern understanding of “intelligence” as an innate disposition or propensity differs from earlier understandings of the word as meaning “versed” or “skilled.” Milton, for instance, in Paradise Lost, calls the eagle and [...]

Informing Ourselves to Death

By |2018-08-13T10:15:44-05:00May 16th, 2014|Categories: Culture, Information Age, Intelligence, Neil Postman, Technology|

The great English playwright and social philosopher George Bernard Shaw once remarked that all professions are conspiracies against the common folk. He meant that those who belong to elite trades—physicians, lawyers, teachers, and scientists—protect their special status by creating vocabularies that are incomprehensible to the general public. This process prevents outsiders from understanding what the [...]

War, Classified Information, and the Public: WikiLeak

By |2017-06-19T16:50:22-05:00September 2nd, 2010|Categories: Foreign Affairs, George W. Carey, Intelligence|

The recent flap over the WikiLeak disclosures reminded me of lessons I drew from my experiences as a communications officer in the Marines with top secret crypto clearance. When I was with the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean during the period of Hungarian revolt and the Suez crisis I would often have the responsibility of [...]

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