After a cataclysm: that defines our moment, claims Alasdair MacIntyre in his classic 1981 work, After Virtue. Yes, now is after a cataclysm: the grinding down – almost total annihilation – of ways of life that orient us to what matters most. There's a great deal of know-how that we've simply lost: how to wake up in the morning or go to sleep at night in gratitude; how to say yes to life even when the world is in full-collapse; how to show respect to the body of the deceased; how to comfort their mourners? All of this, we once knew. The wrecking ball we call modernity, and the fuel that powers it, capital, MacIntyre declares again and again – and continuing to speak this way well after having ceased to call himself a Marxist – has now … [Read more...] about After Cataclysm: MacIntyre, Marburg, and the Circle of Life
36 LEARNING MATTERS