The ubiquitous TGGP flexes his cerebra in consideration of Robert Putnam’s baleful report on diversity and trust and ends up touting the benefits of "social anomie and isolation," albeit tentatively. Being an unrepentant "performance cynic," I tend to agree.
Moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Happiness Hypothesis (summarized here), has been the touchstone of much lively discussion and commentary of late. Haidt’s central idea that a broadly scripted suite of moral sentiments is rooted in evolution seems promising enough, if not obvious, and his points of emphasis should be taken to heart by lifestyle atheists and moral philosophers alike. Personally, I can’t shake the sense that Haidt’s ideas on the evolutionary utility of religion might bear exploration in relation to Roger Scruton’s disquieting critique of the recent spate of anti-religious polemics.
On the merit of Scruton’s above mentioned essay, I recently picked up Rene Girard’s fascinating treatise, Violence and the Sacred, which reads like something George Bataille might have composed if he were a Catholic apologist. For more on Girard, check out this interview.
Me? I continue to catch up on some non-required reading in preparation for the fifth and final post in my antinatalism series. I’m a slow reader, so while I plug and plod and ponder, I have elected to fill the void by posting some link-enhanced articles and reviews that originally ran in the long defunct print incarnation of The Hoover Hog. The first one is a triptych of book reviews centered on pornography and feminism, which should be up in the next few days. Thanks for tuning in.