[Alkhin]

There are two more pages to this article. I was very inspired and delighted by what he had to say.

The Romantic Movement Rises to Defeat the Enlightenment

[Alkhin]

*PING!!*

[rpierce]

As intelligent and thought-provoking an article as I've read in awhile. A good read. Thanks for posting it.

A good question for every person to ponder. Was the "Golden Age" of man in the past; or does the future yet hold it?

[sweetliberty]

"Will it succeed in distracting us for a while, conveying audiences to a world that is at once more beautiful and stirring than humdrum modern life?"

Admittedly, I haven't finished reading the article yet and perhaps this is addressed later on, but the ever growing and encompassing of malignent evil is beautiful and stirring? I might buy that the noble efforts of the simple and the good amongst the creatures of middle earth to overcome that evil is beautiful and stirring, but there is far more to this story than escape into fantasy.

That said, I will now read the rest of the article and will probably feel foolish for this post.

[Destructor]

HOBBITS ARE NOT REAL!!! Get a life, already!

[asformeandformyhouse]

Didn't we stop going to the Moon because it had become boring?

No, it's because we found out it wasn't made of cheese.

[Slainte]

I am outraged. I can't believe Moxie and Pepsi didn't even get passing mention when discussing "Bored of the Rings."

[Question_Assumptions]

I'm still mad at Brin because I'm pretty certain that George Lucas added the unbelievable footnote that Princess Amidala was "elected" (As a child, to an office limited to two terms, which just happened to follow a previous elderly "monarch" -- puh-leeze. That makes about as much sense as Jar-Jar speaking for his entire planet...) as a reaction to Brin's elitism in Star Wars essay.

[theFIRMbss]

>The very shape of society changed, away from the once-universal pyramid -- toward a diamond configuration, wherein a comfortable and well-educated middle class actually outnumbers the poor.

This observation
sees only economics,
And only little

of that. Our culture
is still based on pyramids.
How many people

make key decisions
in any context you name?
High finance. Movies.

Academia.
Politics. There are always
comparatively

small "gate keeper" groups
which make all the formative
decisions that then

trickle out and shape
the "options" available
to the great masses.

One could make the case
that the defining feature
of our modern world

is that -- as never
before -- real power structures
are hidden behind

sugar-coated "fronts."
We still have our pyramids.
Hidden by scribbles...