Word: moralizing
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...Christ on the campaign trail, did he mean it to be a positive commentary on the Republican front-runner, or was it just a coincidence? If it was the latter, let's hope it's the last. Religious imagery and rhetoric in politics are alarming both because of the moral superiority implied by candidates who eagerly proclaim their faith and because of the time devoted to exclusionary religious discussion which should be spent on policy issues that matter to voters regardless of their religion...
...relationship with China by confronting the Chinese government. They argue that a confrontational stance would create antagonism that will prevent cooperation between the two countries. But religious freedom is not a core issue for the Chinese government. There is little to be gained by taking a firm and proud moral stance on democracy in China or Tibetan independence because the regime has so much tied up with those issues. But the mistreatment of Christians is not fundamental to the government's identity, nor does it present a clear and worrying danger as democratic reform would...
Wright is the author of The Moral Animal and the new book Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, from which this is adapted
When I was little I often heard adults say that physical beauty was an empty thing and that books should not be judged by their covers. I wholeheartedly agreed. Goodness that involved moral merit, intelligence and perseverance were productive, but beauty seemed like a perfectly worthless quality. I remember being very puzzled when I browsed through the encyclopedia and came across an article on Phryne, a Greek courtesan from the 4th century B.C. who earned such wealth through her beauty that she offered to rebuild the walls of Thebes on the condition that they should be inscribed, "Destroyed by Alexander...
...could that be? What did the abstract, immutable beauty of, say, geometry, have to do with the concrete, transitory comeliness of a face, or even of a sunset? Clearly for a whole lot of people the appreciation of concrete beauty is not the beginning of a route to moral or intellectual perfection but the exact opposite...