I had thought I would write a brief post about this interview with Yale computer scientist and cultural critic David Gelernter, but have been too busy, and that's likely to continue through tomorrow, so I think I'll just throw it out for discussion. This is another of those things, like the Heather King piece I linked to last week, that I don't entirely agree with, but which has some striking points with which I do agree. For instance, this bit, which relates to what I was saying yesterday about the two religions in America--they are not Christianity and atheism, but two much vaguer things, one with roots in Christianity, the other with roots in the Enlightenment.
Post-religious thinkers don’t even live on the same spiritual planet as Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish Americans. Old-time atheists struggled with biblical religion and rejected it; modern post-religious thinkers struggled with nothing. Since the Bible and biblical religion underlie the invention of America, it’s hard (unsurprisingly) for post-religious people to understand America sympathetically.... Expecting post-religious, Bible-ignorant thinkers to grasp America is like expecting a gerbil to sing Pagliacci.
People keep struggling to find a single term for what generally gets crudely pigeonholed as "liberalism." Gelernter's contribution is not likely to catch on, but it's accurate: the "Post-Religious Globalist Intellectual" establishment. Well, here's the interview.
"Post-Religious Intellectual Globalist" would work better, at least as an acronym.
Thanks for the pointer to the interview. Where have I heard of this fellow before?
Posted by: Craig | 08/01/2012 at 09:54 AM
Terrific acronym!
He's written several books, I think mostly in the info-tech area. And I think he's one of those people who gets called on sometimes by the media when they want a technology expert. He was also one of the victims of the Unibomber.
Posted by: Mac | 08/01/2012 at 11:05 AM
Hmm. Given that profile, I don't know where I would have seen his name before. In any case, an interesting interview.
Posted by: Craig | 08/01/2012 at 11:16 AM