Pop Culture and Instant Gratification

by Feb 16, 2015Books, Culture

myers suedeI can’t recommend Ken Myers’ All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes highly enough. The IPP quotient (Insights Per Page) is probably higher than anything I’ve ever read outside a C.S. Lewis essay. Here’s just one:

Popular culture says, in effect, that nothing worthwhile is beyond your reach right now. Any experience, sensation, idea, or fantasy can be yours if you have enough money (which easy credit can guarantee), confidence (which an underarm spray can make you Sure of), and sex appeal (the product of the right toothpaste). You need not wait for greater maturity, insight, wisdom, or perceptiveness. There is no distance between you and any good thing. (114)

Read More 

Review: Comanche Empire

The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hämäläinen This excellent book does what modern history is supposed to do nowadays: it gives a voice to the voiceless and the marginalized; it gives agency to the victims. And yet you can’t always predict what will happen when you go...

Answering a Question about Political Philosophy

A friend asked me for my thinking—and my reading recommendations—on Christian political philosophy. I was pretty frank and open. I don't hold myself up as a master of the topic. I welcome input from others here. What should I read? What should my friend read? My...

Review: Means of Ascent

Means of Ascent by Robert A. CaroMy rating: 5 of 5 stars This book is positively monumental. How does Caro do it? Well, I know how he does it. I read his book on the topic. He does it with a lot of hard and humble work (and some excellent help from his wife). I was...

Review: Think Again by Stanley Fish

Think Again: Contrarian Reflections on Life, Culture, Politics, Religion, Law, and Education by Stanley FishMy rating: 5 of 5 stars I have read multiple Stanley Fish books; I read quite a number of these columns when they were originally published in the New York...

Leave a comment.

0 Comments