Yesterday’s Avant-Garde

“It was a sign of the times that nobody bothered to correct him, simply because it didn’t seem to matter anymore: an era was dying with bewildering speed, and not all the righteous incantations in the English-speaking world could restore the patient to health. By 1980, even the most persistent apologists for the old regime-the …

Entertainment Inside the Bubble

“The deeper problem with our culture is this: the most hip, the most clever, and the most humorous films and television series are laced with references to pop culture itself, as if there were no world beyond that culture.” [Thomas Hibbs, Shows About Nothing, (Dallas, Tx: Spence Publishing Company, 1999), p. 183.]

Macbeth’s Nihilism

“‘It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.’ This is one of the most eloquent nihilistic speeches of all time. Macbeth no longer has anything to live for; time itself is empty, void of hope or regret, merely an objective succession of moments. Macbeth experiences the narrative of …

Providence and Evil

“No merciful and provident God speaks through the signs and symbols. In the modern world of Seven, God is effectively dead. The loss of that authoritative voice is not a liberation but an enslavement to new forms of tyranny. Without a providence to bring good out of evil, evil endless begets evil” [Thomas Hibbs, Shows …

Ideas Have Destinations

“Given the modern scientific understanding of human behavior in terms of natural laws, everything is determined by chemical reactions and evil arise solely from a miscalculation of the appropriate way of satisfying genetically determined inclinations. This the philosophy of progress; anyone who demurs is labeled irrational and sent for medical treatment. If one actually tries …