Photo illustration by Tyler Comrie. (Georges Seurat, “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884,” via the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection/The Art Institute of Chicago). [New York Times caption and illustration]
“But how much survives will depend on our own deliberate choices — the choice to date and love and marry and procreate, the choice to fight for particular nations and traditions and art forms and worldviews, the choice to limit our exposure to the virtual, not necessarily refusing new technology but trying every day, in every setting, to make ourselves its master.”
Here are excerpts from the article by Ross Douthat, conservative Catholic opinion writer for the New York Times.
Some of these choices will be especially difficult for liberals, since they will often smack of chauvinism and fanaticism and reaction. Family lines will survive only because of a clear preference for one’s own kith and kin as opposed to just some general affection for humanity. Important art forms will survive only because of a frank elitism, an insistence on distinction, a contempt for mediocrity. [… My bolding.]
Douthat’s phrase “as opposed to just some general affection for humanity” is dissonant to my ear. I would rather it read, “… in addition to general affection for humanity.” Also, is it settled wisdom that “insistence on distinction” and “contempt for mediocrity” shall forever be deemed to appertain to an “elite” and not to the generality of humankind?
“[Being pulled back into the virtual, the performative, the fundamentally unreal] is one temptation I’m very familiar with, as someone whose professional life is a mostly digital existence, where together with others who share my concerns I am perpetually talking, talking, talking … when the necessary thing is to go out into reality and do.”
Have the child. Practice the religion. Found the school. Support the local theater, the museum, the opera or concert hall, even if you can see it all on YouTube. Pick up the paintbrush, the ball, the instrument. Learn the language — even if there’s an app for it. Learn to drive, even if you think soon Waymo or Tesla will drive for you. Put up headstones, don’t just burn your dead. Sit with the child, open the book, and read. […]
(Ross Douthat, “Come With Me if You Want to Survive an Age of Extinction,” New York Times, 4-19-25)
(c) 2025 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved
EthicalDative 
I agree with your comments Jim. It’s troubling that this is the sort of discussion that’s occurring, but I guess it’s inevitable with the unravelling of what I would call a social conscience in the West generally and especially in the US.
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Well said, Sue. I like what Douthat says about doing things in the real world — such as painting and reading (entire books)!
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Yes I agree – taking time to do thoughtful things carefully is to be encouraged!
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“Algunas de estas decisiones serán especialmente difíciles para los liberales, ya que a menudo denotarán chovinismo, fanatismo y reacción. Los linajes familiares sobrevivirán solo gracias a una clara preferencia por los propios parientes y amigos, en lugar de un simple afecto general por la humanidad . Las formas de arte importantes sobrevivirán solo gracias a un elitismo manifiesto, una insistencia en la distinción y un desprecio por la mediocridad . [… Las negritas son mías.]”
Todo el texto es interesante.
Vamos o ya estamos en la sociedad que describes, con trazos de ir empeorando.
Preciosa ilustración.
Un saludo, amigo.
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Superb translation, Azurea20! Gracias por ella. Un saludo cordial.
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