by Jonah Goldberg

National Review

02/09/05

About a decade ago, Columbia University professor Andrew Delbanco wrote an elegant book, The Death of Satan, in which he argued that America had lost the ability to speak in terms of evil. He called it a 'tragedy of the imagination,' and he was right. For decades, a therapeutic culture of 'understanding' was on the rise. Except for acts of racism and so-called homophobia, there was a mad rush to 'understand' evil people. Were they victims of a racist culture? Were they abused themselves? Were they expressing their natural frustration with the patriarchal capitalist system? Blah, blah, blah. The tragedy of the imagination was that we couldn't appreciate that evil is real and it exists...

http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200502090800.asp



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp