Losing the blood-dimmed tide

For a generation predisposed to accept the merits of the idea of Progress (with a Roman P), world events have a proved a dispiriting, and truth be told, denigrating illustration of that theory's delusional ambitions. Against the backdrop of international terrorism, increasing domestic discord, and the collapse of objective standards of societal behavior, the apologists of Progress can point to no fixed law of social advancement by which our conditions perpetually improve. Rather, they stare upo

For a generation predisposed to accept the merits of the idea of Progress (with a Roman P), world events have a proved a dispiriting, and truth be told, denigrating illustration of that theory's delusional ambitions. Against the backdrop of international terrorism, increasing domestic discord, and the collapse of objective standards of societal behavior, the apologists of Progress can point to no fixed law of social advancement by which our conditions perpetually improve. Rather, they stare upo…