Fire and Knowledge

The schools have assumed the burden of solving extremely important problems, but they are simply not equipped to achieve the solutions. If you heap upon the school all of the problems that the family, the church, the political system, and the economy cannot solve, the school becomes a kind of well-financed garbage dump, from which very little can be expected except the unsweet odor of failure.

–Neil Postman, Teaching as a Conserving Activity (1979), p. 110

The gift of food alone, whether or not limited to an established minimum, can lead only to an endless dependence on governmental charity—in which case charity becomes no more than a subtle form of oppression. If a man continues long in direct and absolute dependence on the government for the necessities of life, he ceases to be a citizen and becomes a slave.

–Wendell Berry, “The Tyranny of Charity” in The Long-Legged House (1969), p. 9

Curiosity and interest and boredom have replaced the so-called emotions we used to read about in novels or see registered on actors’ faces. Even the horrors of the age translate into interest. Did you ever watch anybody pick up a newspaper and read the headline PLANE CRASH KILLS THREE HUNDRED? How horrible! says the reader. But look at him when he hands you the paper. Is he horrified? No, he is interested. When was the last time you saw anybody horrified?

–Walker Percy, Lancelot, pp. 21-22

We are blamed for our real faults but usually not on the right occasions.

–C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (1955), p. 49

Jonathan Weber writes about why books resist the rise of novel technologies.

Yokel is a new service that allows people to easily search local stores for the lowest price.

950 free classical guitar tabs.

Desiring God gets a small homepage facelift. Watch for a completely re-designed and re-organized site launching in August.

This htaccess generator might come in handy someday. The mod_rewrite looks especially helpful.

Information must be moved and consumed continuously. That is the price to be paid for speed-of-light transmission. What the information may be is of no consequence, as long as it is attention-getting, and does not inhibit the flow of new information coming fast behind it.

–Neil Postman, Teaching as a Conserving Activity (1979), p. 82

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

—Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854), p. 182

[We have had a] rapid emergency of an all-instant society: instant therapy, instant religion, instant food, instant friends, even instant reading. Instancy is one of the main teachings of our present information environment. Constancy is one of the main teachings of civilization.

–Neil Postman, Teaching as a Conserving Activity (1979), p. 76