“To say that something is ‘natural’ means not that it is inevitable, but that the potential for it exists in the genotype. This in turn implies that it is merely prudent to bear in mind the potential of that ‘natural’ behavior and act accordingly. [Robert] Wright approvingly cites Francis Bacon, who announced, ‘Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.’”

Lionel Tiger reviewing Wright's Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny in National Review March 6, 2000

In my latest National Post column I say the possibly entry of John Baird into the Tory leadership race as a self-proclaimed “true blue” candidate who’s also modern raises the question of what exactly he thinks he believes… if anything. OK. Never mind exactly. Can we at least get a vague notion?

“The common belief of the age [the 18th century] that human nature was forever the same referred essentially to the raw biological nature upon which the environment operated.”
Gordon S. Wood The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787.

In my latest Epoch Times column I say the spat in France over whether to stick a monstrous modern spire on a restored Notre Dame cathedral reflects a civilization that, cut off from tradition, has lost the ability to believe in anything.

“We must realize that human nature is about the most constant thing in the universe and that the essentials of human relationship do not change.”

Calvin Coolidge, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1925

“Soon we shall know everything the 18th century didn’t know, and nothing it did, and it will be hard to live with us.”

Randall Jarrell, quoted on flyleaf of Neil Postman Building a Bridge to the 18th Century

“when people do not have a satisfactory narrative to generate a sense of purpose and continuity, a kind of psychic disorientation takes hood, followed by a frantic search for something to believe in or, probably worse, a resigned conclusion that there is nothing to find…. There is even one group… who, looking ahead, see a field of wonders encapsulated in the phrase ‘the information superhighway.’ They are information junkies, have no interest in narratives of the past, give little thought to the question of purpose…. Such people have no hesitation in speaking of building a bridge to the new century. But to the question ‘What will we carry across the bridge?’ they answer, ‘What else but high-definition TV, virtual reality, e-mail, the Internet, cellular phones, and all the rest that digital technology has produced?’ These, then, are the hollow men Eliot spoke of.”

Neil Postman Building a Bridge to the 18th Century