Gleanings Quick Links

Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment: a Lesson in the Power of Situation: “The situation won; humanity lost. Out the window went the moral upbringings of these young men, as well as their middle-class civility. Power ruled, and unrestrained power became an aphrodisiac. Power without surveillance by higher authorities was a poisoned chalice that transformed character in unpredictable directions. I believe that most of us tend to be fascinated with evil not because of its consequences but because evil is a demonstration of power and domination over others.” The author looks back at his infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, emphasizing the power of situations and institutions over our behavior. (Philip G. Zimbardo, The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Mon 02 Apr 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Backward Thinking: Abolition, then and now: Don't apologize for yesterday's slavery, stop today's. “Politicized “apologies” may serve partisan purposes, but they make no moral sense. Each generation is responsible for its own transgressions; as the Scripture says, children are not liable for the sins of their fathers.” (Senior Fellow Joseph Loconte with Benedict Rogers, National Review Online )

Mon 26 Mar 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Rome’s Good Because It’s Bad: “Rome, the hit series now in its second season on HBO, is a surprising affirmation of the Western tradition. While it is packed with sex and violence, its (probably unintended) message is that Rome was desperate for Christianity.” (Gerald J. Russello, National Review)

Mon 26 Mar 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Gore’s Faith Is Bad Science: “To which the prophet replies, with religious intensity, that all debate should be over. Those scientists with inconvenient views should be defunded and silenced. We should replace scientific inquiry with faith. We should have faith that climate change—‘global warming’—is caused primarily by human activity. And we should have faith that the effects will be catastrophic, with rising oceans flooding great cities and pleasant plains and forests broiled by a searing sun.” Worth a read. While Barone is not alone in suggesting that there is a religious component to climate change advocacy, his reading of the relationship of real faith and science is a bad caricature. (Michael Barone, Town Hall)

Mon 26 Mar 2007 from Peter Edman • Link & Comments

Thought for the Day: “There is something spiritual about humour. I think it's the fact that if we can laugh at something, we can't be intimidated by it. It's our refusal to be defined by others. That's why the best humour always comes from persecuted peoples, and why the ability to laugh so often keeps the spirit of freedom alive in totalitarian societies. Humour is the opening of freedom in the prison wall of fate. It's a close relative of hope.” (Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks, BBC Online, March 16, 2007)

Wed 21 Mar 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Any shade of politics you like, so long as it’s green: This is an excellent piece demonstrating the power of a coherent worldview to properly appreciate and critique the wider cultural setting; Hume is apparently a Marxist, but I would hope soon to see a similar depth of thinking from a Christian thinker. Bracket, if you must, the argument, and consider the level of critique. “The adoption of these attitudes across the political class represents something far more important than the cynical tax grab which some critics have claimed it all is. The crusade against manmade global warming is underpinned by a much broader loss of faith in our manmade society and its once-proud accomplishments, from industrialised farming to flying the world. You only had to listen to Cameron, supposedly the great white hope of UK politics, sounding off this week about how many species are threatened with extinction ‘because of mankind’s relentless grab for the finite resources of our shared home’ to realise how mainstream mankind-bashing has now become.” (Mick Hume, Spiked Online)

Fri 16 Mar 2007 from Peter Edman • Link & Comments

From a Rapt Audience, a Call to Cool the Hype: A very helpful summary of support and critique of global warming alarmism. “Criticisms of Mr. Gore have come not only from conservative groups and prominent skeptics of catastrophic warming, but also from rank-and-file scientists like Dr. Easterbook, who told his peers that he had no political ax to grind. A few see natural variation as more central to global warming than heat-trapping gases. Many appear to occupy a middle ground in the climate debate, seeing human activity as a serious threat but challenging what they call the extremism of both skeptics and zealots.” (William J. Broad, The New York Times)

Tue 13 Mar 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The man who ‘murdered’ slavery: Includes a review of the Metaxas book on Wilberforce and an excellent assessment of Wilberforce's accomplishments and their lessons for today. “It is amazing to read a letter from Wilberforce and realize that he is, in fact, articulating precisely 220 years ago what New Yorkers came to know in the nineties as the 'broken windows' theory: 'The most effectual way to prevent greater crimes is by punishing the smaller.'” (Mark Steyn, Macleans)

Mon 12 Mar 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Al Gore’s remission of sin: “While I have my own religious thoughts, I will not disdain any man's search for the transcendent. But a religion should be understood by both its adherents and others for what it is—a religion. The trouble with global-warming believers is that probably most of them delude themselves into thinking they are practicing science—not religion. And yet, the signs of religiousness are readily to be seen. Al Gore and his Hollywood coterie have almost comically manifested one aspect of their new religion in the last few weeks—the sense of sin and the search for remission of such sin.” (Tony Blankley, The Washington Times, March 7, 2007)

Fri 09 Mar 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Just War?: To help introduce new Senior Fellow Jean Bethke Elshtain, here is a link to a symposium in which she participated in June 2006. “The appeal [of just war theory] is that these are the rules we can arrive at through the use of reason—not revelation, through the use of reason. So the appeal is to reason, not to God, not to revelation. I think that's always the best way to make arguments in a political and civil context.” (Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs)

Thu 08 Feb 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Yes, Rudy Giuliani Is a Conservative: David Aikman mentions Romney's and Giuliani's potential problems with religious conservatives. Other people are arguing that prudence requires more consideration. Some of Romney's strongest early support is coming from conservative Catholics, and here's a fascinating and detailed recent piece arguing why social conservatives ought to give the Giuliani candidacy another look. “But he added that changing society’s attitude toward marriage was more important than anything government could do: ‘[I]f you wanted a social program that would really save these kids, . . . I guess the social program would be called fatherhood.’” (H/T S. T. Karnick) (Steven Malanga, City Journal)

Tue 06 Feb 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Problem with Mere Christianity: We jettison 'nonessential' theology at our own peril: “However, mere Christianity will disappoint when it becomes a substitute for the Christian faith. At its worst, mere Christianity shifts with the trends of praise music or the latest evangelical celebrity.” Just so. (J. Todd Billings, Christianity Today)

Tue 06 Feb 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Twilight of Sociology: Senior Fellow Bill McClay on sociology past and present: “. . . by treating the structures of society as infinitely malleable, sociology betrayed its calling: It ceased to study society in a profound way, acknowledging difficult truths, and substituted activism, usually aimed at an ungrounded notion of ‘social justice.’” (Opinion Journal)

Tue 06 Feb 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

We’ve never had it so good: Speaking of progress and gratitude, there's this excellent review of Indur Goklany's book The Improving State of the World: “Yet rather than celebrate the immense achievements of economic development, there is a widespread feeling of resentment. Many people in the developed world believe that life is getting worse. Economic growth and technological development are viewed with anxiety and sometimes outright hostility. If our great-grandparents could be brought back to life they would be astonished by humanity’s achievements but also bewildered by our ungrateful attitudes towards these gains.” (Daniel Ben-Ami, spiked)

Fri 02 Feb 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The Evidence of Progress: “Some of these new solutions are often worse than the problems they were supposed to solve, but it is my observation that on average and over time, the new solutions slightly outweigh the new problems.” Helpful perspective on technological progress in an age of doom-and-gloom. (Kevin Kelly, The Technium)

Fri 02 Feb 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments