The Joy of Curmudgeonry

It is said that this country could sustain twice the population. Very well, but why would anyone want it to do so? There are, I suppose, man...

Terry Eagleton notes approvingly that “[William] Blake . . . viewed the political as inseparable from art, ethics, sexuality and the imagina...

“It is now time to address, once and for all, the archaic and socially exclusive policy of academic selection.” [1] Why don’t these blighte...

The gall and utter shamelessness of some of our politicians surpasses my cynicism. I find it barely credible that they should use evidence o...

“I always strove throughout the war to view my opponent without hatred, and to reckon him a man in accordance with his courage. In battle I ...

“Emotionally literate” — an ugly phrase used approvingly to denote the ability to out-wet a lettuce.

Mediocrity tends to a tolerance of everything but excellence.

“A better world is possible” — but highly unlikely if we acquiesce to the sort of people who typically proclaim it.

It is quite something to take the smugness of one’s own ignorance, bolstered by one’s sure presumption of the ignorance of others, as settli...

“[S]ocial and environmental justice.” [1] — Now, I understand that “social justice” means some kind of socialism, but what on earth does “e...

Although the end of the world of man does not happen very often, unless I am very much mistaken, we can nonetheless have a good idea of how ...

“For longer than anyone can remember in our pseudoliberal times it has been the accepted rule of our newspaper press to ‘defend our young pe...

“Tolerably early in life I discovered that one of the unpardonable sins, in the eyes of most people, is for a man to presume to go about unl...

“I cannot here draw the portrait of the progress-minded modern who, in my reckoning, accounts for so much that is wrong in our world, but I ...

“To-day I notice that every political passion is furnished with a whole network of strongly woven doctrines, the sole object of which is to ...

Any failure to take into consideration that the highly intelligent are also capable of great stupidity is not a sign that one is not highly ...