Commonplace Book

Since it is ever more obvious that the current academy functions primarily to replicate an increasingly inequitable status quo, it is hard to imagine how it could be restructured to serve a more democratic purpose without external pressure for something […]

Instead of making a case for a more democratic system that would offer all comers access to a high-quality system of universal higher education, the academy’s leaders adopted the individualistic mantra of neo-liberalism. They mouthed platitudes about the common good, […]

Even if justice should be achieved by social conflicts which lack the spiritual elements of non-violence, something will be lacking in the character of the society so constructed. There are both spiritual and brutal elements in human life. The perennial […]

A realistic analysis of the problems of human society reveals a constant and seemingly irreconcilable conflict between the needs of society and the imperatives of a sensitive conscience. This conflict, which could be most briefly defined as the conflict between […]

[The moralist] believes…that nothing but an extension of social intelligence and an increase in moral goodwill can offer society a permanent solution for it social problems. Yet the moralist may be as dangerous a guide as the political realist. He […]

I argue that the rhetoric of prophetic indictment is best understood as a sort of moral chemotherapy, a reaction to a potentially life-threatening distortion in ordinary, day-to-day moral discussion. Deliberative discourse is, in fact, that ordinary form of moral discussion. […]

The rhetoric of prophetic indictment is not “polite” or “civil.” In fact, it is frequently perceived by its audience as corrosive of communal bonds. Nonetheless, its presuppositions and purpose are not ultimately negative. Those who engage in prophetic discourse (or […]

The jeremiad became a rhetorical vehicle to demand innovative social change rather than a call for the community to repent of well-worn and familiar sins. The tight connection between jeremiad and national covenant was loosened, but it was not entirely […]

Being true to myself means being true to my own originality, and that is something only I can articulate and discover. In articulating it, I am also defining myself. I am realizing a potentiality that is properly my own. This […]

It may well seem to you –as it does to some of my acquaintances–that I have a sort of obsession about this business of the right attitude to work. But I do insist upon it, because it seems to me […]