In this week’s Takimag, our favorite doctor recounts a recent talk he gave to his local English historical society on the fascinating persona of Frances Pitt, a highly popular and prolific writer of natural history.
The miserable attitude of the local Savonarolas is surely an indication of how far has gone the habit of requiring all past figures to have complied throughout their lives with our current moral outlook before we honor them in any way. This means, of course, that we cannot honor anyone from the past, and if we cannot honor anyone from the past, eventually our civilization will collapse—as the Savonarolas and Robespierres of our town probably wish, seeing in it nothing but its defects, the better to feel morally superior.
Going to look now for some books which Frances Pitt wrote so I can buy them! Interesting article, thanks for posting it! The skeptical doctor never disappoints.
Thank you for the kind words, Arman. Please let us know how the Frances Pitt books turn out. Cheers.
Jeffrey Tucker had just written an interesting piece on tertiary education:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/schumpeter-on-how-higher-education-wrecks-freedom-5595290
Thank you for sharing the link, Faithful reader. That article could have been written by Theodore Dalrymple himself.
“The push to force everyone into higher education has proven to be a massive diversion of financial and human energy, and, just like Schumpeter predicted, it did the cause of freedom no favors. It has only ended up breeding debt, resentment, and an imbalance of human resources such that the people with real power are the people least likely to possess the necessary skills to make life better. Indeed, they are making it worse.”