"As they say, a mind (and 100k in tuition ) is a terrible thing to waste."
This quote is from the back cover of a book I am reading called Disorientation: How to Go to College Without Losing Your Mind.
The book focuses on the Catholic student leaving for college but the guide is for anyone who is concerned about the growing "isms" on campus such as progressivism, multiculturalism, Feminism, Marxism, and much more.
The first section is entitled "Sentimentalism" and is written Elizabeth Scalia, aka The Anchoress. She has a quote at the beginning of the chapter that states, "Sentimentalism is an upbeat overemphasis on the inherent goodness of mankind that judges what is good or evil according to how well it accords with our feelings, or the feelings of people we want to impress."
Overall, it looks like a good book for someone just going to, or returning to college, who wants a guide on how to identify and cope with the liberal dogma that permeates most colleges these days.
The book focuses on the Catholic student leaving for college but the guide is for anyone who is concerned about the growing "isms" on campus such as progressivism, multiculturalism, Feminism, Marxism, and much more. The first section is entitled "Sentimentalism" and is written Elizabeth Scalia, aka The Anchoress. She has a quote at the beginning of the chapter that states, "Sentimentalism is an upbeat overemphasis on the inherent goodness of mankind that judges what is good or evil according to how well it accords with our feelings, or the feelings of people we want to impress."
Overall, it looks like a good book for someone just going to, or returning to college, who wants a guide on how to identify and cope with the liberal dogma that permeates most colleges these days.
Labels: interesting books
posted by Helen at 11:11 AM
11 Comments:
"don`t be so sentimental mother, people explode all the time".
john cleese, monty python.
I don't believe in the inherent goodness of man at all (often just the opposite), yet I often have feelings I would describe as sentimental.
I think it is very possible to hate humanity and still be a sentimentalist. It can be an emotional survival skill, and I don't think it requires any belief in the goodness of humanity.
The Wiki entry is interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentimentalism_%28literature%29
***QUOTE***
(1) An overindulgence in emotion, especially the conscious effort to induce emotion in order to enjoy it. (2) An optimistic overemphasis of the goodness of humanity (sensibility), representing in part a reaction against Calvinism[citation needed], which regarded human nature as depraved.
***END QUOTE***
The two are very different. But it also shows Wiki bias. You don't have to be a Calvinist to regard human nature as depraved.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dr. Alistair: To be pedantically accurate, this is the quote:
"Oh, Mother, don't be so sentimental! Things explode every day!"
{The Penguin on the Telly sketch]
I'd be more likely to pursue the book if it helped identify ALL dogma. Dogma provides no value, regardless of source. I think I'll stick with showing my kids how to identify pontificating tools. It's not that hard. There're already pretty good at it and college is still a few years off.
Looks like HMT is raising trees, or perhaps turnips! Here's Chesterton:
"Man can be defined as an animal that makes dogmas. As he piles doctrine on doctrine and conclusion on conclusion in the formation of some tremendous scheme of philosophy and religion, he is, in the only legitimate sense of which the expression is capable, becoming more and more human. When he drops one doctrine after another in a refined scepticism, when he declines to tie himself to a system, when he says that he has outgrown definitions, when he says that he disbelieves in finality, when, in his own imagination, he sits as God, holding no form of creed but contemplating all, then he is by that very process sinking slowly backwards into the vagueness of the vagrant animals and the unconsciousness of the grass. Trees have no dogmas. Turnips are singularly broad-minded."
@jmac
Exactly! G.K. Chesterton is exactly the kind of tool I'm helping my children identify.
The best way to avoid getting sucked into the pervasive secular liberalism at college is to get fair warning beforehand and do a little self study to see what topics and arguments will be used to twist your mind. If you have ready arguments for the same 4 liberal tactics and "arguments" you can win almost every confrontation and win converts.
Liberals argue with a variation of "I mean, you know, come on" said with conviction and exasperation suggesting everyone on the Earth but you already knows the liberal truth, why don't you.
There is nothing more fun than asking a liberal some calm questions which cause the liberal to expose his ignorance and vast inconsistencies in front of an audience. You will not change their mind, it's the audience's mind you are working o.
"It's a terrible thing to lose one's mind...or not to have a mind. What a terrible thing that is."
Vice President Dan Quayle
"My money is a terrible thing to waste."
Bill Cosby as Heathclift Huxtable, "The Cosby Show"
Even HMT is dogmatic: "Dogma provides no value" and "Chesterton is a tool." Hope those turnips learn about hypocrisy, too!
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