The phrase began in 1935. Politicians and pundits from both sides of the political spectrum, but mostly the left, claim that they are on the “right side of history.” Washington Governor Jay Inslee, conservative writer Ben Shapiro, and former President Barack Obama are just three of many who have belabored the phrase. After studying history for almost sixty years and teaching it for forty-four, this phrase makes me want to scream, “History has no side!” History is simply the factual story of what happened and its cause and effect.
That last line about “Liberalism” in particular deserves some pondering. Indeed, pillorying liberalism—in its more classical sense as per Screwtape—and its socio-cultural conventions have become fashionable for elites on all sides. Entire books have appeared on the subject. In most places, the loudest voices have been pontificating that a more fulsome, energetic politics is needed to revolutionize the thin gruel of the status quo.
At first, the opening of Interstellar seems to set the tone for the rest of the film, one of high-minded idealism about NASA, outer space …
Aficionados of P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves novels will be aware that black tie (tuxedo for our American cousins) was considered for most of the twentieth century … Read More ›
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Questions of meaning, for the individual and for the broader reality enmeshing him, have arisen in all generations. From this agon of great souls wrestling … Read More ›
I’m losing my oldest friend. Six years ago my wife — my love and half of me — died. Two years later, my cousin, with whom I shared …
The world began with a garden. “This is not new information,” you say. True. Nevertheless, it is an amazing thing to contemplate. Eden must …
Jesus performed one of his most interesting miracles on the blind man outside Bethsaida. Mark 8: 22–25 tells how friends of a blind man took …