Hi everyone,
I’ve been crafting together this week’s Cow Pie: working through the recognition that capitalism can never be virtuous.
Yeah, soooo academicky. I know.
Interesting stuff … maybe… but occasionally I’m thrown back on two realities:
Most of my life has been spent getting positively reinforced for working through little puzzles (like “can capitalism be ‘virtuous’?” or “what’s the underlying systematic structure in Hegel’s use of Begriffsbestimmungen?” or “why doesn’t environmental ethics, constructed along the lines of deontological or utilitarian models work?”) but … but,
Most of the really interesting stuff I’ve run into during this life happened completely out of the blue and — and this might be the important part — may or may not mean anything, but sure set me to wondering.
That’s why reality is always more interesting than anything your imagination can cook up. Let’s face it, you can only imagine what you’re capable of imagining, but reality? That can surprise you.
Here’s an example that hammered back into consciousness this morning while I was walking the dog.
Years ago I was lucky enough to have a colleague (Maria) in the Spanish department who tossed out this observational hand grenade. We were griping about our students’ inability to write (common even 20 years ago) and I asked her a fairly wonky grammar question. I’m still chewing over her response.
Me: “Yeah, their writing is getting worse all the time. I wonder why they have so much trouble using the subjunctive?”
She didn’t hesitate.
Maria: “It’s because they do not dream.”
I’ll just leave that here.
If you’ve enjoyed the hijinx here at the Motley Cow please comment and then share it out with your friends and relations.
The Motley Cow project is reader-supported, and that means you!
If you’ve enjoyed the content, please consider upgrading to a supporting member.