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Character-and-Ethics

Items on personal character and public action

Where Were Obama’s Friends?: Friendship under fire: “As for the supersized candidates, what strikes one most about them is their ‘aloneness.’ They look so solitary. Indeed, it is possible that the old and honorable notion of ‘standing with’ a candidate like Obama simply didn’t occur to his famous supporters this week. Everyone has become used to watching celebrity stars and athletes take it in the neck on their own. Even someone running for the nation’s presidency looks like just another personal crack-up.” Makes one pause.  (Daniel Henninger, The Wall Street Journal )

Thu 01 May 2008 • Responses: 0 • from Peter Edman • Link & Comments

What is forgiveness?: “But he does not ask the question: what kind of a being is it that can forgive? Dogs don’t forgive, because dogs don’t resent. Forgiveness is unique to rational beings, and is a gift of metaphysical freedom. Only the accountable being, able to take responsibility for his own actions and mental states, can forgive or be forgiven, and this way of overcoming conflict has next to nothing in common with the peace of the “pecking order”, or the territorial settlements among badgers and bears.” (Roger Scruton, reviewing a book in the Times Literary Supplement, via Alan Jacobs )

Wed 02 Jan 2008 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Becoming Cary Grant: Acting as character formation? ‘“I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be and I finally became that person. Or he became me. Or we met at some point.” That meeting—when Archie Leach, the Bristol-born son of a part-Jewish suit presser, came to be fully assimilated by his creation, Cary Grant—amounts to one of the great events in the annals of twentieth-century culture.’ (The Atlantic )

Wed 02 Jan 2008 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

The ‘New Victorians’: ‘Wendy Shalit, who earlier wrote about “A Return to Modesty,” has a new book called “Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect and Find It’s Not Bad to Be Good.” She illustrates the point with an interview with the daughter of Erica Jong, whose book “Fear of Flying” practically launched the sexual revolution. Jong glamorized promiscuity as random guilt-free sex with strangers. “When you’re 12,” says Molly Jong Fast, “there’s nothing funny about your mother’s fourth wedding.” Molly describes her own promiscuity as a mistake. “I was sold a bad bill of goods.” Molly is married and signs her e-mails “mother of Max,” making sure you understand that she’s first a mother. So do a lot of other young moms.’ (Suzanne Fields, syndicated column )

Mon 23 Jul 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Evangelicals and The Vitter Effect: Senior Fellow Michael Cromartie is interviewed for Newsweek on Senator Vitter’s sex scandal. “Classical Christianity has always had a negative view of human nature. Generally, the belief has been that people are broken and fallen and frail. People plod along and make mistakes. But there is a message to all guilt-ridden humanity: there is saving grace and there can be release from that guilt, shame and sin.” (Newsweek )

Fri 20 Jul 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

British business leaders are now as spineless as American ones: “Businesses have a moral responsibility to use the power of their investments not only to make money but also to improve matters globally. That is the whole point of their signing up to statements and organisations such as the UN’s Global Compact or participating in exalted events such as the World Economic Forum. If businessmen and businesswomen don’t want to entirely discredit such organisations and institutions, the least they can do is to keep quiet rather than openly show that they are prepared to sacrifice liberty, law, and principle for the sake of profit.” (Prabhu Guptara, Renaissance blog )

Tue 12 Jun 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Browne and I were brought down by fear and hubris: “I am the last person in the world to lecture Lord Browne. But it does not take a genius to identify the similarities between our two disasters - fear and hubris.” (Jonathan Aitken, The Guardian )

Mon 07 May 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

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

Casual sex is a con: women just aren’t like men: “Whatever Greer and her ilk might say, I’ve tried their philosophy—that a woman can shag like a man—and it doesn’t work. We’re not built like that.” (Dawn Eden, The Sunday Times)

Wed 17 Jan 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

We’re all big babies: “Once one has embraced the 'isms' that characterise the Baby Boomer's creed of modernity—individualism, relativism, voluntarism—and lapsed into the hooting, crooning self-validating babyhood that inevitably follows, then one is beyond criticism.” Plus: How to be an Adult. (Michael Bywater, Telegraph.co.uk)

Wed 25 Oct 2006 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments