We Need History, Not To Tell Us

The Spirit Is At Home, If Not Entirely Satisfied, In America.

Historicism And Cultural Relativism Actually Are A Means To Avoid Testing Our Own Prejudices And Asking, For Example, Whether Men Are Really Equal Or Whether That Opinion Is Merely A Democratic Prejudice.

Various Kinds Of Self-forgetting, Usually Accompanied By Illusions And Myths, Make It Possible To Live Without The Intransigent Facing Of Death-in The Sense Of Always Thinking About It And What It Means For Life And The Things Dear In Life-which Is Characteristic Of A Serious Life.

The Real Community Of Man, In The Midst Of All The Self-contradictory Simulacra Of Community, Is The Community Of Those Who Seek The Truth, Of The Potential Knowers, That Is, In Principle, Of All Men To The Extent They Desire To Know. But In Fact This Includes Only A Few, The True Friends, As Plato Was To Aristotle At The Very Moment They Were Disagreeing About The Nature Of The Good.

Classical Music Is A Special Taste Like Greek Language Or Pre-columbian Archeology, Not A Common Culture Of Reciprocal Communication And Psychological Shorthand.