KIMBERLY WRITES:

I’ve been wanting to tell you about something that happened to me recently. It might not surprise you. It didn’t surprise me!

My 18-month-old boy is a sweet, smart little guy. But every now and then, he throws huge temper tantrums. It’s always when he’s told, No, he can’t have something, or No, he can’t go in there. If it happens when I am certain that he’s not tired and not hungry, then I can’t find any reason to allow it. He’s just trying to assert his will, and I’m not going to be a parent complaining about my “strong-willed child.” I think “strong-willed” means “proud fool.” Read More »

Leisure: The Basis of Culture
Josef Pieper

When people become so distracted they accidentally leave their children alone in cars, the question arises. Is it possible we’ve reached some catastrophic overload? Are we distracting ourselves to death?

Technology, many people would say, is the sole cause of the hyperactivity that seems endemic to our world. We can never go back to slower paced times. But this is a strange argument because technology does not use us, we use it. Is it possible people are frantically busy not because of their cellphones, computers and cars, but because energy and activity are our idols? If so, why? Why do we seem to worship effort?

This short and elegant book by the German philosopher Josef Pieper examines this important question. He writes:

Is it possible, from now on, to maintain and defend, or even to reconquer, the right and claims of leisure, in face of the claims of “total labor” that are invading every sphere of life? Leisure, it must be remembered, is not a Sunday afternoon idyll, but the preserve of freedom, education, culture, and of that undiminished humanity which views the world as a whole.

Pieper wrote the two very readable essays in this book, “Leisure: the Basis of Culture” and “The Philosophical Act,” at the end of World War II. The book was first published in 1952. It seemed a bad time to talk about relaxation, and the same could be said of today. This is no time to consider the need for leisure. The problem now is not rest, but work, and there is not enough of it. But one might as well say this is no time to consider the need for food or love. Pieper uses the word “totalitarian” to describe the claims of the modern sphere of work. He thus gives to the subject the seriousness it deserves and will always deserve.

Read More »

JESSE POWELL WRITES:

I’ve been digging around in the statistics on the National Center for Health Statistics site, more specifically in their National Vital Statistics Reports area, and I found a goldmine of information on teenage births that I never knew before. Read More »

IN THE WASHINGTON POST, Peggy Noonan suggests sex scandal in the Catholic Church could have been avoided if women had been at the helm:

The old Vatican needs new blood.

They need to let younger generations of priests and nuns rise to positions of authority within a new church. Most especially and most immediately, they need to elevate women. As a nun said to me this week, if a woman had been sitting beside a bishop transferring a priest with a history of abuse, she would have said: “Hey, wait a minute!”

Natassia writes:

This struck me as rather sexist…as if there hasn’t been a well-documented history of mothers covering-up the abuse (sexual, physical, etc.) of their children by husbands, boyfriends, or male relatives. Read More »

JOHN ERB writes:

 After reading this excerpt, I am not so much impressed by Mrs. [Susan Fenimore] Cooper’s conclusions about women’s suffrage, though I am not in disagreement with her conclusion; it is more her comments about Christianity in relation to women that cause me to wonder and question, as the theme she presents about Christianity and women is and has been often repeated, and something about it doesn’t seem quite right to me. Read More »

IN THIS entry, I quoted a college student who is studying Western philosophy. He said:

I find I have a lot to say about the mediocre texts, but not so much to say about the great texts.

Thomas F. Bertonneau writes:

Plato and Aristotle tend to leave thoughtful people in a quiet mood, especially Plato, because, to borrow a phrase, they bestride the intellectual world like colossi; they are the wisdom-teachers of the West (alongside scripture) about whom sensible people are most likely to become voluble when the opportunity comes or the necessity arises to explain their merits to the uninitiated.

Read More »

LAURA GRACE ROBINS has a good article here on Susan Fenimore Cooper’s Female Suffrage: A Letter to the Christian Woman, published in 1870. Cooper outlines practical objections, as well as theological ones. She wrote:

This grand and holy religion, whose whole action is healthful, whose restraints are all blessings–this gracious religion, whose chief precepts are the love of God and the love of man–this same Christianity confirms the subordinate position of woman, by allotting to man the headship in plain language and by positive precept. No system of philosophy has ever yet worked out in behalf of woman the practical results for good which Christianity has conferred on her. Christianity has raised woman from slavery and made her the thoughtful companion of man; finds her the mere toy, or the victim of his passions, and it places her by his side, his truest friend, his most faithful counselor, his helpmeet in every worthy and honorable task. It protects her far more effectually than any other system. Read More »

OPINIONATED AND RELENTLESSLY INQUISITIVE readers have pulled me into an examination of the universal franchise without allowing time to offer useful background and perspective. Fortunately, another reader has come to the rescue with this very short primer on the subject and comments have been added to his remarks.

Robert B. writes:

Perhaps a little history will help your readership here.

The Ancient Greeks invented the idea and philosophy of Democracy, this is a given. But the reasoning behind it is not. The Greeks came to understand that if a man was to support the “State” through his labor (taxes) and with his life (military service) then he should, by all moral rights, have say in the matters at hand–thus the idea of voting and of suffrage were born. The term “suffrage” means, literally, to suffer the pain of the right to vote–that is, one must pay taxes and one must bear military service when called upon. Thus was the idea of a Republican Democracy born. Those who did not suffer the pain, could not vote, even if they were citizens. Read More »

SOMEWHERE right now in this country a woman is probably being hired for a job a man can do. Women will always need jobs, the questions are: How many and what kind of jobs? While that woman being hired may very well perform admirably, the likelihood that she will not be the primary financial supporter of her family is stronger than if she were a man. The likelihood that she will leave at some point to care for family is higher. And, regardless of whether she is in the postion of primary breadwinner, families and our entire culture do better when men occupy the breadwinner role.

There are many thousands of men over the age of 50 who in this latest downturn have had to start their careers over. Many have not found work. Some will never return to their former level of employment even though they are still capable and healthy. There are young men in their twenties taking unpaid internships, teaching English in Korea or playing video games in a back bedroom of their parents’ homes, lapsing into a state of deepening withdrawal. Their prospects are daunting. They are voluntarily withdrawing or biding their time until they can find real work, their chances of starting families reasonably early and on an economically-sound footing depressingly low.

The poor economy, in this unfortunate sense, is an opportunity. It is a chance to develop the will for the long-term fight against laws and regulations that make it illegal for businesses and government to discriminate on the basis of sex. While women should not be barred from any fields, no business should be forced to hire women and men in equal or similar proportions. Businesses should be free to respond to public pressure. They should be free to discriminate on the basis of sex. Read More »

A COLLEGE STUDENT whom I know is studying the philosophical works of Western history, as well as works about the philosophical works of Western history. He made this interesting comment about his studies:

I find I have a lot to say about the mediocre texts, but not so much to say about the great texts.

This made me laugh, and reminded me of words by Gaius Musonius Rufus, a Roman Stoic philosopher. Rufus said that when we hear great truths, we are silenced. When we hear lesser ones, we applaud.

A NEW JERSEY elementary school recently directed all children, including boys, to dress up as women for an event celebrating Women’s History Month. Fortunately, the plan caused enough of an uproar by parents it was canceled. The principal then tried to deny that the school ever wanted boys to dress as women, even though the original letter home clearly stated that it did. You can read about the details at Publius’ Forum. One parent stated:

How is dressing like a woman from any era going to teach [my son] about history? Why not let him do a report, poster, or other project on this subject? If he was attending a vocational school in the field of textiles, women’s fashion, etc, then it would make sense. My son is adamantly opposed, and I don’t see how forcing my 9-year-old to cross-dress in front of the entire school body is going to teach him anything about Women’s History.

Read More »

MORE INTERESTING COMMENTS have been added to recent posts on the franchise, the soaring illegitimacy rate, the faux manliness of Hillary Clinton and fatally distracted parents. Comments have also been added to “The Purloined Lunch,” which offers reflections by readers on the meaning of serving a spouse.

That discussion reminded me of another lunch story.

A woman I know was divorced and rasing her nine-year-old daughter alone. The daughter was protective of her mother and every morning would make her a bag lunch before she went to work as a professional in a corporate office.

One day the mother forgot her lunch. The daughter was distraught.

She did something that perhaps would only occur to a child. She called the radio station her mother listened to on her commute to work and told the staff what had happened. They then announced on air, “Mrs. N, go home. You forgot your lunch!”

ROBERT RECTOR has a good article at National Review on the statistics discussed here last week showing  an illegitimacy rate of more than 40 percent for the first time in U.S. history. He writes:

The steady growth of childbearing by single women and the general collapse of marriage, especially among the poor, lie at the heart of the mushrooming welfare state. This year, taxpayers will spend over $300 billion providing means-tested welfare aid to single parents. The average single mother receives nearly three dollars in government benefits for each dollar she pays in taxes.

… If poor single mothers were married to the fathers of their children, two-thirds of them would not be poor.

Read More »

DAVID BROOKS’ recent words are strangely inspiring. If you recall, Brooks said the quintessential American product is something “coated in moral and psychological meaning.” Our famous conservative columnist believes America will enrich itself, and the rest of the world as well, with these special manufactures.

When you get right down to it, many things could be coated in moral and psychological meaning, don’t you agree? As Brooks said, affluent consumers “crave ” the stuff, and non-affluent consumers probably do too. Well, this got me craving for some myself. Here, inspired by Mr. Brooks, is my own personal culinary variation on his important and timely theme: Read More »

DIANE WRITES:

One of the big shortcomings I’ve found in the conservative strategy is that we lose sight of the fact that everyone sees through their own filter. If we want to reach liberals and leftists with truth, we have to tell them in a language they understand. Somehow, we keep trying to tell them in the way that WE understand, but they don’t have the kind of sensors that can hear the message in that language.  Read More »

Karen I. writes:

The article about children left in cars turned my stomach. Imagine the torment of the poor forgotten children. Children are being sacrificed for money, plain and simple. 

We have one vehicle, which is one of the many “sacrifices” I make to be home with my children. Even though it is a fairly new car in excellent condition, that I can take for the day whenever I want, people tell me they cannot imagine being a one-car family and they act as though I should be working so I can have a car of my own. As I drove my husband to work today, I passed at least six daycare centers on the busy street. They are all on the way to a major city where many professionals work. Countless mothers who need their own cars, fancy homes and designer clothes pull into the parking lot of those centers daily, drop their kids off without a backwards glance and speed off to important jobs. They truly believe they have no choice because how else can they pay for all those things they need? Sadly, I can see where a parent with this mindset would “forget” the child because the child is not seen as a person, but as a chore in the busy morning routine. Drop off the dry cleaning, drop off the child…it’s all the same, right? Until a tragedy reminds us otherwise. Read More »

THIS ARTICLE is almost too upsetting to read. The Washington Post examines the relatively rare, but increasingly common, incidence of children who die when they are left unattended in the back seats of cars during warm weather. It’s horrific. One child reportedly pulled out all her hair before succumbing. Some of the parents have faced criminal charges.

All of the cases appear to involve parents or relatives shuttling children to day care or babysitters. An investigator blames poor cognitive processing:

Some people think, ‘Okay, I can see forgetting a child for two minutes, but not eight hours.’ What they don’t understand is that the parent in his or her mind has dropped off the baby at day care and thinks the baby is happy and well taken care of. Once that’s in your brain, there is no reason to worry or check on the baby for the rest of the day.

That’s right. Drop off and forget. This whole way of life is criminal. Our entire culture, not the parents themselves, should be indicted for child neglect. If parents can’t remember when their babies are in the back seat of the car, how can they care for them day after day? For every baby neglected this way, there are thousands who are neglected in smaller, less noticeable ways, leading chaotic lives, shunted around like packages and suitcases. This is a wrong way to live and anyone living this life must sense it. But again, these parents have suffered and I don’t think it’s fair to charge them with murder. The deaths of these children should weigh heavy, like millstones, on all those who trumpet women’s liberation and the casual destruction of home.

Notice the mention in the story of a mother who is an Army veteran. Her frenetically over-scheduled life, with children conceived through artificial insemination while her husband is in Iraq, is desolating. It’s a chilling story. Our culture may shower children with material things, spoiling them with spurts of focused attention, but it remains profoundly hostile to the young.

Read More »