In his thoughtful essay, “Why I Am Hopeful,” author Andy Crouch offers his reasons for hope in the midst of the troubled and uncertain environment in which we find ourselves.

(The essay was posted October 20, 2008, on the Books and Culture website.)

Crouch first clarifies that his hope does not lie in any of the following:
• the belief there is an easy way out of the economic mess we’re in;
• his confidence that our next president will be able to solve our problems;
• the assurance that we are well-prepared for the challenges that lie ahead;
• the hope that life will get easier, or even be as easy as it has been, in America.

He is careful to distinguish his view of our current situation from that of others, who tend to see our troubles, in some cases celebratively, as the demise of capitalism and the market-oriented economic system. Click to continue »

In a recent column in WORLD, Gene Edward Veith offers comments on the views of Richard Rorty, one of the most influential American philosophers of the last forty years. Veith summarizes Rorty’s argument in the essay “Universality and Truth” as “…all education is indoctrination.” (“Rorty’s rebels,” WORLD, September 6, 2008)

Rorty candidly confirms that there is a conspiracy among the “American liberal establishment” in higher education, a conspiracy to discredit “fundamentalist parents,” “to strip your fundamentalist community of dignity,” and “to make your views seem silly rather than discussable.” Favorably comparing his particular brand of indoctrination to that practiced by the Hitler Youth movement, Rorty contends simply that his indoctrination serves a better cause, and that “students are lucky to find themselves under…people like me, and to have escaped the grip of frightening, vicious, dangerous parents.” Click to continue »