Michael Jensen has some great, if typically highbrow ;-) thoughts about Augustine here.
It's an insight into the human psyche from a man who'd tried the lot (not Michael, Augustine). If you don't love the person who gave you everything, then when you have what you have, you live in terrible fear of its loss.
This is surely one of the reasons why we are going to keep seeing civil liberties rolled back in Western society with only the barest whimper of complaint. Fear of losing the good things we have somehow acquired will override concern for the weak and imprisoned neighbour.
It also helps us understand certain aspects of so many other things—hedonism, nursing homes, cemeteries, hospitals, fitness, drug taking...
1 comment:
History would warn us to think carefully before giving up our liberty. Think how quickly the glorious libertarian french revolution gave way to the terror of the guillotine! I'm sure Augustine deals with political liberty somewhee in City of God - just before that section on Paris Hilton.
Post a Comment