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PAUL CHRISTENSEN
THE MELTING POT
The so-called American “melting pot” has long been a cherished dream of utopianists and visionaries, as if a melting pot, a foundry...
Wal-Mart and I
I admit it. I sometimes go down to Rutland, Vermont to the Wal-Mart Superstore. My friends are all good liberals and the conscience of...
Of Prophecy and Poetry
In 1800, it was possible to imagine what might be turning Europe into a new direction, away from the lingering powers of medieval...
The Violin and Western Identity
Subjectivity is the measure by which we accord dignity and gravitas to someone else. Without it, a person is just a thing, an object, and...
The Death of Learning
I remember the first time the thought occurred to me that higher education may be dying in the U.S. It was around 1985 and I had just...
The Big Apple
New York City is a hard town to parse. It thrilled Whitman to walk its waterfront, the path around the old city reservoir, the raucous...
Fate and Freedom
I have long mulled the distinction between fate and freedom, words that seem to capture the mind of the Middle Ages and the world after...
The Mirage of Control
These days of information glut remind me of something the poet Percy Shelley once wrote back in 1821: “We have more moral, political, and...
The Past without History
The imagination is so starved in America that almost anything will do to stimulate interest and enthusiasm. Take New Orleans, for...
Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year
“Spring will be a little late this year,” as the old Frank Loesser song goes. In the center of Vermont, the Champlain valley to be...
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