The excellent British Politics weblog has returned, after a self-enforced hiatus. The anonymous author declares, “To adapt Juvenal, It’s hard not to write a blog.” (Davos Newbies readers of course recognise the reference to Juvenal’s first satire, Difficile est saturam non scribere — it’s hard not to write satire.)
“Never trust a chief of state in sunglasses.” Harrison Salisbury quoted by Adam Hochschild in the Times Literary Supplement.
I take issue with some of Tim Garton-Ash’s argument in today’s Guardian, notably his characterisation of “evangelical Darwinism”. But his observations on the nature of America’s religious belief are right on target.
“The leap of imaginative sympathy from Christianity or Judaism to Islam is much smaller than that from evangelical secularism to any of them. That’s why America, which has preserved the religious imagination it imported from Europe, may actually be better placed to accept the Islamic other. That’s not all. America has a rare combination of religious imagination and an inclusive, civic identity. Europe has a fateful combination of secular imagination and exclusive, ethnic identities.”