Author: Anthony Esolen
Full Title: Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture
Date: Jan 2017
If tradition is the handing on of cultural and artisanal knowledge, and if we have taught ourselves in our smugness that we can dispense with it, then we will become cultural and artisanal incompetents. Your grandfather might be a repository of many generations of know-how—and I am not speaking principally of technological know-how. If you will not learn from him, from whom will you learn what he knows—from the pimply teenager next door? Inane actors on television? Teachers whose credentials are mainly in the new and improved Methods for Teaching but who do not know the subject they are supposed to teach? Newspapers? Advertisements on the walls of a bus? Politicians? Bubble gum cards?
This was a challenging read, but well worth it. Look around. We’ve made mistakes, and it’s time to clean up and rebuild. We can’t rebuild without returning to the Lord, who is above all and greater than any culture.