[lbo-talk] God's humor

[Carl Remick]

>From: Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com>
>
>... So on the face of it this thought seems to be be anti-grandiose, 
>anti-narcissistic, as well as very egalitarian -- it is a truth everyone is 
>capable of reaching simply by looking within, where they'll find exactly 
>what you found. I mention that last because narcissism, as I understand it, 
>requires some feeling of specialness or privileged access. ..
>
>So when it comes to the big religious divide in America, between the 
>modernists and the fundamentalists, this seems definately one of the 
>landmarks of the former, the tradition that tried to remove the conflict 
>between science and religion by naturalizing and reasonable-lizing 
>religion. In other words, as an influence on American cultural history, 
>this seems clearly to be one of the founding documents in the 
>transcendentalist tradition that gave birth to worldview of blue state 
>liberalism -- which is the very opposite of the worldview of red state 
>conservatism you seem to be mapping it onto.

Very true and well put, Michael.  If LBO had a Best of the Fray, I'd 
nominate that reply in toto as one of the all-time greats.

Carl