The past was supposed to be better than today. I’m a conservative, aren’t I?
Did you know that people in America used to memorize poems and read stuff longer than a blog post? Did you know there was a day when kids’ brains weren’t full of Hannah Montana—or Eminem, for that matter? I always assumed these factors would create a higher level of discourse in the nation. But, if anything, political ads in 1952 were worse than today. Click that link for a fascinating site.
I wrote the following introduction to the Old Testament for Bibles International; it is being translated and placed into Bibles all around the world. Come back tomorrow for the intro to the New Testament. The Bible tells one story, because God has one plan for all of...
I recently ran across the the master's thesis of an ardent evangelical egalitarian, written at Regent University Divinity School (Virginia Beach) in 2010. You can Google it if you want to, but I don't want to pick on the (female) author in particular, so I'll leave...
Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen My rating: 4 of 5 stars I apologize to the internet for not giving this classic five stars, but it simply didn't quite reach the level of incisiveness and helpfulness for me in my situation that Packer's analysis in...
Insightful words from Philip Roth: The power in any society is with those who get to impose the fantasy. It is no longer, as it was for centuries throughout Europe, the church that imposes its fantasy on the populace, nor is it the totalitarian superstate that imposes...
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Interesting post. However, I must disagree on your proposition here (I confess I didn’t watch *all* of the commercials).
What has improved is the level of technological/marketing expertise, neither of which comes from the general intelligence level of society.
What is missing now is what was present in those Eisenhower commercials – a personal appeal to vote for me and bandwagon to me, instead of a bashing campaign against the other side. On this point, I argue that you really were correct before – society has gotten worse in that we don’t make attempts to promote ourselves, but rather to insult the other guy (easier, and more mindless).
Anyway, that’s just my thoughts on the issue – and campaigning in general. To all politicians: tell me why you’re better, not why the other guy stinks.
-Eric
Good points, Eric.