If you haven't read Animal Farm recently, pick it up. It only takes about 3 hours to read. I always find out how long a book is on an audio CD recording and tell my students it should take you no longer to read a book than x hours. I know reading is different from comprehension, but I have some slow readers. If a speaker can read a book to someone else in 3 hours, you can read the book in that time too. But I digress.
I was reading Richard Weaver's classic Ideas Have Consequences recently and was reminded of how pragmatic we have become. The realm of the Ideal has no meaning for us anymore. Everything must have real, tangible value for us to even consider it. I noticed this even in Animal Farm. The only reason the animals are roped into Old Major's plan is that he promises them material gain for their effort. They are not idealists. They are materialists. They want their stuff. They want their eggs and milk. They don't want Jones to have it, they want to keep it.
Just a few thoughts from the reading list this week.
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