Mwalimu Austin Bukenya stoked my literary instincts last week with his response to an article I wrote in the Daily Nations recently launched Higher Education magazine.

I was pleasantly surprised when he picked on the article as illustration of a good read and he went on to illustrate what makes any piece of writing qualify for that description.

The article was about Kenyatta Universitys Prof Stephen Runo who had won British Royal Africa Society Prize through research on the innovative way of killing the deadly weed, striga. According to Mwalimu Bukenya, among other things, the article was refreshing as it celebrated research, an area generally shunned by the general public, and the media too.

But confessions first. Mwalimu Bukenya, as those close to him fondly refer to him, was my literature lecturer during my undergraduate studies at Kenyatta University in the late 1980s.

He was an all-rounder literary scholar, enchanting us with poetry and taking us through East African prose to European theatre. His favourites, among others, were French dramatist popularly known as Moliere, but whose real name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, George Bernard Shaw and of course Shakespeare.

Mwalimu Bukenyas fascination with various genres from Caribbean and particularly the revolutionaries such as V.S. Naipaul, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, George Lamming, was breath-taking. His course on literary stylistics was a fascinating journey for upcoming writers.

Over the years, a number of us, his former students, have kept constant touch with Mwalimu especially through literary events. The latest interaction was late last year, before coronavirus struck.

One of our classmates, Simon Sossion, who went into publishing, hosted us during the 10th anniversary celebration of his publishing firm, Spotlight, at Sarit Centre, Nairobi. Classmates in attendance were Dr Evans Mugarizi, a literature lecturer at Moi University and Muthuri Nyamu, former KBC Deputy Managing Director and currently, media consultant. It was a reunion of sorts, full of classroom nostalgia.

In class, Mwalimu Bukenya had a way with words and that he has consistently demonstrated in his weekly column in these pages. His distinctive charge was that writing must be simple, easy and flowing.

Not surprisingly, he was at it last week when he made reference to my article and another by Dr Tom Odhiambo of the University Nairobi. Dr Odhiambos article was a book review of editor Saida Yahya-Othmans Nyerere: The Making of a Philosopher.

I was humbled by Mwalimu Bukenyas appreciation of our write-ups. It was a thumbs up from venerable Mwalimu. He used our stories to pronounce himself on the art of good writing.

His pitch was that a good read is identified by the twin catchphrase of facility and felicity. He went on to explain facility to mean fluency and ease of reading while felicity is about elegance.

Mwalimu always insisted on short and simple sentences and had aversion for verbosity and pomposity. He had a sneaky way of putting his view on simplicity, charging that; a long sentence is the rope with which you hang your neck. Not that long sentences are bad. But one has to be careful when using them because often times, many writers end up confusing syntactic rules and confusing readers. Another addition to good writing, he would say, was colour, perhaps, humour, but only in proper context. Those have stood out as the true North for his charges.

Those of us who went on to pursue higher degrees and make a career out of writing, editing and publishing stuck to Mwalimu Bukenyas edict. We are reminded of the works of Chinua Achebe, who though makes use of his vernacular, Igbo, and pidgin, in his English texts, is easily accessible because of simplicity and ease with which he weaves his narratives.

The reason Mwalimu Bukenyas verdict was fascinating was that he is no placatory reader. He is a seasoned literary critique; plain and forthright. He tells it as it, tearing any piece of work from the morpheme to syntax, paragraph to the full text.

Another trait we learnt from him is the art of reading. He always insisted that any literary scholar has to read at least one novel, a play and two poems every week. Reading is the salt of the soul, nourishing the mind and opening vistas to new knowledge. The advice has never failed.

Mwalimu Bukenya has reason to walk with his head high up because his students have kept the faith.

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Why Mwalimu Bukenyas students have kept the faith - Daily Nation

Suffragist Reading List

Courtesy of BookStore1 Sarasota and Georgia Court

The Womans Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, by Elaine Weiss

Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote, by Susan Ware

Alice Paul: Claiming Power, by J.D. Zahniser and Amelia R. Fry

Princess of the Hither Isles: A Black Suffragists Story from the Jim Crow South, by Adele Logan Alexander

Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence, edited by Kate Clarke LeMay

Sisters: The Lives of Americas Suffragists, by Jean H. Baker

The Book of Gutsy Women, by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton

The Women of the 116th Congress, forward by Roxanne Gay

Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote, by Kirsten Gillibrand

Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten, and 10,000 Miles, by Mara Rockliff, Illustrated by Hadley Hooper

Press Cuttings by George Bernard Shaw, 1909

Miss Ida B. Wells by Endesha Ida Mae Holland, 1992

Her Naked Skin by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, 2008

The Sound of Breaking Glass by Sally Sheringham, 2009

19: The Musical, by Jennifer Schwed and Doug Bradsha, 2017

A Militant Suffragette: 1913

Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony, 1999

Iron Jawed Angels, 2004

Suffragette, 2015

The Divine Order, 2017

Go here to read the rest:
A List of Books, Plays and Films to Illuminate Your Understanding of the Suffragist Movement - Sarasota

Beloved by generations of readers, our sister publication Ireland of the Welcomes is the largest and longest-running Irish interest magazine in the world. This glossy magazine is available by subscription, six times a year.

Produced in Dublin, Ireland of the Welcomes is an award-winning magazine that showcases the best of Ireland's history, scenery, culture, and traditions to the world at large.

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Ireland of the Welcomes content also appears online on IrishCentral, right here. The long-standing passionate Ireland of the Welcomes community also have a vibrant presence on Facebook also.

Each issue of Ireland of the Welcomes is a beautiful Irish mosaic of people, places, and cultural treasures. Ireland of the Welcomes has become a valued friend to many people with Irish ancestry and to legions of fans who are fascinated by the true spirit of Ireland.

Ireland of the Welcomes celebrates and brings to live that true spirit of the Emerald Isle.

The September / October issue of Ireland of the Welcomes is hot off the presses. Here's what the latest jam-packed issue has instore for subscribers.

- Cover story

The legacy of George Bernard Shaw and the impact his life had on The National Gallery of Ireland

- Ryan's Daughter

When Hollywood came to Ireland

- Cycle of Life

Exploring the Wild Atlantic Way

- Staycations

The best hotel deals in Ireland

- Photo Essay

Ireland in autumn

- Books

The latest releases fromIrish authors

Originally posted here:
Did you know about our sister magazine Ireland of the Welcomes? - IrishCentral

Asking a range of questions from all three ethical angles helps me arrive at an ethically measured decision: that I should be consistently wearing a mask when I go out.

Feeling torn about wearing a mask? Me too. I dont want to look like Im virtue signalling or get funny looks. But I also want to be responsible about public health. Ive ended up conflicted, wearing a mask one day but not the next.

The statistics suggest this isnt my dilemma alone. While mask sales have skyrocketed in New Zealand since COVID-19 reemerged, public mask wearing (even in Auckland) is still the exception.

This is where understanding ethical decision making can be useful. Ethics breaks down values-based decisions, helping us see when our ego is ruling us, and when our rationality is in control.

Ethical analysis cant make the decision for us, but it can make dealing with ethical decisions clearer and more conscious.

What Kind of Person DoI Want to Be?

Scholars divide the study of ethics into three main branches: virtue, deontological and consequential. All three can us help think about wearing a mask.

Virtue ethics is about developing good character. Our virtues come from our upbringing, experiences and education. We can change them by redefining what sort of person we want to be.

Simple virtue checks include:

(There are several recently disgraced politicians who probably wish theyd run the front page and significant other checks before acting.)

However, virtue ethics are individualistic: values differ by gender, age, culture and other factors. Our ego can help us moderate our behaviour, but it can also convince us we are right just because we sincerely hold a strong moral belief.

The no win debates we see on social media often reach a stalemate because people are relying on personal values as their only moral compass.

Also, prioritising reasonableness can result in apathy. While Aristotle praised the reasonable man as virtuous, George Bernard Shaw pointed out that all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Currently mask wearers are the exception rather than the rule, and some have even been mocked. Shaws approach would suggest the courage to show ethical leadership deserves praise rather than mockery. But we can only make a robust ethical judgement if duties and outcomes are also considered.

What are my Duties?

Deontologists try to identify rules for good behaviour that will hold true in every situation. They advise us to obey the law and any codes of conduct or standards that apply to our job or other group membership.

There is currently no law in New Zealand mandating mass masking, so that cant guide us. But many workplaces have conduct or health and safety codes, which can simplify decision making, and there are clear public health recommendations.

Deontology gives clarity rules define what can be done without penalty and is less muddy or personal than virtue-based ethics. It can also provide accountability. If we breach the rules of a group, often we can be removed from that group.

On the other hand, deontological ethics is inflexible. Codes and rules cant cover every situation, can date rapidly, and are usually made reactively. They mostly punish breaches rather than guiding good behaviour.

Nonetheless, considering laws and rules is an important ethical step, alongside thinking about our values and the impact of our actions.

What Kind of World DoI Want to Live In?

Consequentialists judge actions by their outcomes: who is affected and how. They aim to maximise benefit and minimise harm.

When weighing consequences, it is useful to ask:

Would you be happy for your action to affect you in the same way it does others (reversibility)?

Would the outcome be acceptable if everyone behaved this way (universalisability)?

What dont we know today that might be true tomorrow (unknowability)?

Consequentialists try to act ethically towards all groups of people, not just the group they currently occupy, because they know circumstances can change. If a friend was diagnosed with an unexpected respiratory condition tomorrow, for example, would we be happy with how we behaved today?

But, on their own, consequentialist approaches can be vague and complex. Most usefully, consequentialism adds depth to other approaches.

Ask Yourself These Questions

So, I run all three ethics checks: what values are important to me, what are my duties, and what are the potential impacts of my choice? To help, I can ask other questions:

What would mum say? (Be compassionate.)

What does my workplace code of conduct say? (It prioritises manaakitanga or care for others.)

What does the reversability test imply? (That I can show solidarity with, and reduce anxiety for, people at risk, even if I am at less risk.)

If someone Im in contact with got sick tomorrow, how would I feel about my behaviour today? (Id rather not be sorry in hindsight.)

Asking a range of questions from all three ethical angles helps me arrive at an ethically measured decision: that I should be consistently wearing a mask when I go out. And a careful decision is much easier to stick to, even if it means I still get the odd funny look.

Elspeth Tilley, Associate Professor of English (Expressive Arts), Massey University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image: Reuters

Read the original post:
The Ethical Argument For Wearing a Face Mask - The National Interest

1837: American Anti-Slavery Society agent Angelina Grimke is appointed to speak at abolitionist conventions in New York and New Jersey. Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke College, the first four-year U.S. college exclusively for women.

1848: Elizabeth Cady Stanton writes The Declaration of Sentiments, creating the agenda of women's activism for the next 70 years. Seneca Falls, the site of the signing of the document, is the first womens rights convention in America.

1851: At the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner Truth delivers her now-memorable speech "Ain't I a Woman?"

1865: The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, effectively ending slavery across American territories. Non-landowning and non-white people, however, are not given the right to vote.

1866: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass form the American Equal Rights Association, dedicated to the goal of suffrage for all regardless of gender or race.

1868: The first edition of The Revolution, a Suffragist periodical, is published alongside the ratification of the 14th Amendment.

1868: The 14th Amendment is ratified. "Citizens" and "voters" are defined exclusively as male.

1869: The National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association are formed.

1871: Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the first female law school student at Howard University, attempts unsuccessfully to register to vote in Washington, D.C.

1872: Susan B. Anthony is arrested after voting for Ulysses S. Grant in the presidential election. Sojourner Truth appears at a polling booth, demanding a ballot to vote. She is turned away.

1875: In Minor v. Happersett, the Supreme Court rules that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution does not grant women the right to vote.

1878: The Womens Suffrage Amendment, drafted by Susan B. Anthony, is first introduced to Congress.

1879: Lawyer Belva Ann Lockwood convinces Congress to allow women to practice before the Supreme Court.

1890: The NWSA and the AWSA unite to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association under the leadership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

1892: The Colored Women's League is founded in Washington, D.C., by Helen Cook, Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Frances E.W. Harper. The league fights for black suffrage and holds many movement parades.

1910: The Womens Political Union organizes the first suffrage parade in New York City.

1913: Alice Paul and Lucy Burns form the Congressional Union to work toward the passage of a federal amendment to give women the vote. The group is later renamed the National Women's Party in 1916.

1913: President Woodrow Wilson labels women who campaign for suffrage totally abhorrent.

1917: George Edward Creel, chair of the Committee on Public Information, meets with President Wilson daily to discuss his ideas and introduce the beginnings of several bills towards womens suffrage.

1918: Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Woodrow Wilson states that the Democratic Party platform will support suffrage, calling it a war measure.

1919: The Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment, originally introduced in 1878, is passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate.

1919: The Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment, originally introduced in 1878, is passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate. But it isnt until the Voting Rights Act is passed nearly a half century later in 1965 that women of color are officially allowed to exercise their right to vote. They were denied access to ballot boxes and voter registration through fraud and intimidation.

1920: Three quarters of the state legislatures ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. Henry Burn casts the deciding vote after being convinced to do so by his mama. Afterwards? He fled from the Capitol.

Courtesy of BookStore1 Sarasota and Georgia Court

The Womans Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, by Elaine Weiss

Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote, by Susan Ware

Alice Paul: Claiming Power, by J.D. Zahniser and Amelia R. Fry

Princess of the Hither Isles: A Black Suffragists Story from the Jim Crow South, by Adele Logan Alexander

Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence, edited by Kate Clarke LeMay

Sisters: The Lives of Americas Suffragists, by Jean H. Baker

The Book of Gutsy Women, by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton

The Women of the 116th Congress, forward by Roxanne Gay

Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote, by Kirsten Gillibrand

Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten, and 10,000 Miles, by Mara Rockliff, Illustrated by Hadley Hooper

Press Cuttings by George Bernard Shaw, 1909

Miss Ida B. Wells by Endesha Ida Mae Holland, 1992

Her Naked Skin by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, 2008

The Sound of Breaking Glass by Sally Sheringham, 2009

19: The Musical, by Jennifer Schwed and Doug Bradsha, 2017

A Militant Suffragette: 1913

Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony, 1999

Iron Jawed Angels, 2004

Suffragette, 2015

The Divine Order, 2017

Follow this link:
A Timeline of Notable Events Leading to the Passage of the 19th Amendment - Sarasota

Her first rebellion was to give me modern education in a Catholic school. She saw education as a way to broaden our minds, not to bring home glorious report cards. Fortunately, my father shared the sentiment and instilled in me an appreciation of everything artistic. He was extremely proud that he had gone to the Oriental Seminary, the school Tagore went to till about standard five.

Then followed stories of others who created modern Bengal which placed its values on education, knowledge and spiritual upliftment. I remember my parents pointing out the then dilapidated home of Narendra Nath Dutta, (we stayed close by), who the world came to know as Swami Vivekananda. This introduction to learning, education, culture, spirituality is what creates our inability to accept what is happening today in our nation.

As we grew older, the stories of Bhagat Singh, Udham Singh, Rani Laxmibai, Shivaji, along the Subhas Bose, introduced us to national pride. A pan-India feeling became a part of our childhood learning. This was also our introduction to politics. Rishi Aurobindo stirred something inside us. History was stories of Sikh valour against the Mughals. From Mark Twain to Tagore, from Bibhuti Bhusan to Bernard Shaw was the sweep of our literature.

Children in Bengal then were brought up on a diet of Rabindranath Tagore (Sahaj Path), Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (Barno Parichoy) and Satyajit Ray (Goopy Gayen Bagha Bayen & Felu da).

Read the rest here:
Candid Confession: The fault lies with our parents - National Herald

Editors note: Published on August 16, 1945,C. S. LewissThat Hideous Strengthis a dystopian novel that eerily reflects the realities of 2020, putting into a memorable fictional form ideas expressed in Lewiss non-fiction work, The Abolition of Man. To mark the former books three-quarter century anniversary,Evolution Newspresents a series of essays, reflections, and videos about its themes and legacy.

James A. Herrick is the Guy Vander Jagt Professor of Communication at Hope College in Holland, MI. His books include The Making of the New Spirituality: The Eclipse of the Western Religious Tradition.

This post is adapted from Chapter 10 ofThe Magicians Twin: C. S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society, edited by John G. West.

[Professor Filostrato:] The work is more important than you can yet understand. You will see.

We are at the start of something quite new in the scheme of things.

Professor Julian Savulescu is the head of the Uehiro Center for Practical Ethics at Oxford University and a leading proponent of human enhancement, the school of thought that promotes the progressive use of biotechnologies to improve human intellect, moral reasoning, and other traits such as physical strength. Savulescu has argued that deep moral flaws and destructive behaviors point indisputably to the need to employ technology and education to change human nature; either we take this path or we face extinction as a species.

In Savulescus view, rapidly advancing brain science will provide some of the data necessary to shaping a better human race: Once we understand the basis of human brain development, we will be able to augment normal brain development in a way that couldnt naturally occur. But smarter people are not necessarily better people, and so another key to better people is found in a deeper understanding of human biology. [T]here is reason to believe that even aggression is something that can be understood in terms of its biological underpinnings. A clue to human aggression is discovered in a mutation in the monoamine oxidase A gene, which in the presence of early social deprivation has been linked to criminal behavior in at least one study. Savulescu also notes that [w]eve been able to manipulate human moral behavior and cooperation through the administration of drugs, Prozac providing one prominent example. Other drugs have been shown to promote trust and willingness to take risks and recovery of trust after betrayal.

According to Savulescu, genetic treatments, improved pharmaceuticals, and moral education will hasten the emergence of a new and better human race. However, more is needed, including worldwide cooperation in a way that humans have never so far cooperated. We live in dangerous times, and greater dangers lie ahead. Weapons technology makes possible the annihilation of the human race. At the same time liberal democracy fails to promote any particular set of values or particular moral education as it seeks to guarantee maximum freedom. Why are personal freedoms a risk factor? The answer is found in a condition theologians might call fallen human nature: We have a human nature that is severely limited in terms of its origins and in terms of its capacity to respond to these new challenges. Human nature thus requires restraint, modification, or both. Our predicament is deep and complex: weapons of mass destruction, a fragmented political scene, excessive devotion to individual freedoms, and an unreliable nature.

Only aggressive research aimed at helping us to understand our moral limitations and the ways to overcome these will produce the scientifically grounded ethics needed to decide how we should reshape our nature. Employing a vivid analogy, Savulescu affirms that Western culture is entering a dangerous Bermuda Triangle with liberal democracy in the position of Miami, radical technological advance in the position of Bermuda, and human nature and its limitations in the position of Puerto Rico. To avoid entering this triangle will mean reducing one of our commitments to these points. It is neither likely nor desirable that we would restrain technology, so Bermuda remains on the map. Savulescu continues:

We could reduce our commitment to liberalism. We will, I believe, need to relax our commitment to maximum protection of privacy. Were already seeing an increase in the surveillance of individuals, and that surveillance will be necessary if were to avert the threats that those with anti-social personality disorders, psychopathic personality disorders, fanaticism represent through their access to radically enhanced technology.

So, liberal Miami is threatened and the dubious Puerto Rico of human nature is clearly targeted for radical change. Of the three points of the Savulescu Triangle only technological Bermuda is safe, a contemporary manifestation of Francis Bacons island of Bensalem.

Moral education founded on a new ethics is critical to the task of rescuing lost humanity. I believe that we should be promoting certain sets of values and engaging in moral education, says Savulescu. Tacking away from Miami will require reducing consumerism and accepting a lower standard of living. Political and economic austerity are also necessary. Well need to accept an ethics of restraint, and well need to adopt long-term strategies that go beyond a typical electoral term of three to five years. What Savulescu terms the very extreme adherence to liberalism that weve so far enjoyed may also have to go.

Of course, human nature will not quickly abandon a comfortable life for a new austerity. After all, we possess a set of dispositions that make us very ill-disposed to give up our standard of living, to collectively cooperate to solve the worlds global problems. Ultimate answers may lie not only in terms of our political institutions and the degree to which we curb our commitment to liberalism, but also inside ourselves. But, help is at hand because Bermuda survives: The genetic and scientific revolution that were a part of today represents a second great human enlightenment. We now possess the means of understanding the human condition, and we are moving toward an understanding of our nature as animals, of our dispositions to act, why some people will kill, why some people will give.

Stopping at nothing, we should adopt whatever strategies are most effective at protecting our future, which includes moral education, the inculcation of various values and ways of living are no doubt an important part of this. But the greatest obstacle to our survival and advancement is human nature itself; it must be changed. As impossible as such a transformation might seem to a layperson, Savulescu is hopeful. [I]t may be that as science progresses, we have at our fingertips the ability to change our nature. The power to transform humanity at the genetic level is in our hands, but its up to us to make a decision whether well use that power.3

This chapter compares certain warnings in C. S. Lewiss The Abolition of Man (1944) with recent arguments about our obligation to deploy biotechnologies to alter or enhance the human race. I begin with Julian Savulescu because he articulates clearly the values of a growing scientific and cultural phenomenon known as the human enhancement movement or Transhumanism. Not at this point a coordinated effort, human enhancement nonetheless represents the convergence of powerful cultural narratives, mind-boggling technological developments, and a progressive agenda with an improved humanity as its focus. Savulescus comments serve as an entry point for familiarizing ourselves with the goals and the reasoning of the human enhancement movement.

In order to understand Lewiss objectives in The Abolition of Man, particularly the most commented upon third lecture from which the book takes its title, it will be important to set the work in its historical context. To what specific threats was the great Christian apologist responding in the 1940s? Answering this question makes clear that Savulescu and other enhancement proponents did not invent the agenda they advocate. Todays proponents of biotechnological and ethical improvements to the human race write in a tradition that includes such intellectual luminaries as the eugenics theorist Francis Galton, playwright George Bernard Shaw, scientists such as J.B.S. Haldane and J. D. Bernal, and science fiction writers H. G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon, all figures with whom Lewis was quite familiar. A crucial historical development, however, separates todays advocates from their intellectual predecessors and from C. S. Lewis. No longer are technological alterations to the human constitution a matter of speculation only; they are now vigorously promoted scientific realities awaiting the political and cultural conditions that will allow their implementation.

In an almost uncanny fashion Savulescus comments reflect key elements of the educational, ethical, and scientific planning that Lewis was concerned to answer in The Abolition of Man as well as in his fictional work, That Hideous Strength (1945). Proposals by Savulescu and others who share his concerns thus provide an ideal opportunity for assessing the prophetic nature of Lewiss concerns about applied technology in the context of an ascendant Western science operating outside the limits of widespread traditional values Lewis dubbed the Tao.

Lewis employed the term scientism when discussing science characterized by principles and practices tending toward controlling rather than investigating nature. Science joined to modern ideologies also encouraged the kind of kind of centralized planning he targets in The Abolition of Man and elsewhere. Finally, this pivotal distinction between science and scientism, his derisive fictional portrayals of some though not all scientists, and provocative comments in letters and essays all raise the question of Lewiss attitude toward science and scientists. Examining The Abolition of Man in its historical context will provide help in answering this persistent question.

Lewiss arguments regarding technological modifications to human nature merit attention even urgent attention in an era in which human genetic structure may soon be shaped according to the moral vision of a relatively small group of decision-makers. Moreover, his suspicion of scientific planning cut free from traditional values needs to be understood in an age in which technology is advancing at an exponential rate while moral knowledge in the West is declining almost as precipitously.

Tomorrow: Why C. S. Lewis Wrote The Abolition of Man.

More:
The Abolition of Man and the Advent of the Posthuman - Discovery Institute

Old men are dangerous. It doesnt matter to them what is going to happen to the world. George Bernard Shaw

Theres an old guy spoiling for a fight in the small car park at the rear of the hardware store.

Hes glaring at me. Now hes shaking his head the way Robert de Niro does in the movies, the wrinkled corners of his mouth turned down in disgust.

As he watches me place a bag of groceries in the boot of my car he mutters something under his breath and you see his jaw clenching and eyes narrowing.

Whats the problem? I ask.

Hes shaking with anger. He stammers. And then all that bile and bitterness explodes.

This car park is only for people who use the hardware store, he growls.

I tell him Ive been to the hardware first and then went to buy some groceries. Sure you did, he says, rolling his eyes in disbelief.

Of course, I should politely smile and go.

I should dismiss him as just another grumpy old bugger whos been up all night cursing his stubborn prostate and now has nothing better to do on a Saturday morning than use some trivial issue to take out all his frustration and weariness on the rest of the world.

But his rolling eyes and sense of self-importance have lit a fuse and a surge of fury shoves me forward and now were standing toe to toe, fingers pointing, faces red, snarling and raging like two chained dogs straining to attack one another.

Me, bellowing: Mate, why dont you mind your own f business?

Him, spluttering, standing his ground: You can only use this car park if youre going to the f hardware store.

We stare at one another. And then, like two ageing gunslingers who no longer trust their fading eyesight or their trembling hands, we back away, slowly, warily.

The horror and anticipation in the faces of bystanders turns to relief and you suddenly realise how pathetic the whole thing looks; two old codgers at the point of ripping each other apart over a stupid piece of bitumen.

But we all know the dispute isnt about a car park. Its about an invisible enemy we know we cannot beat.

Theres a comfortable lie we tell ourselves that says life compensates you for what it takes away.

According to this wonderful fib, as our bodies deteriorate and our reactions slow, nature reimburses us with an accumulation of wisdom, insight and patience.

You only needed to be in that hardware car park or more likely glance in dismay at the coming US presidential election to know this notion of the Getting of Wisdom when it comes to men is a load of bollocks.

Donald Trump a mean, narcissistic 74-year-old driven by envy and greed is up against Joe Biden, a tottering, opaque, self-entitled member of the Washington political aristocracy who will soon turn 78.

If ever there was a year to declare this world no place for old men, surely it is now.

If Mr Biden wins and lives out his first term he will be 82.

By then another vain world leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin, will be 71, as will Chinese leader Xi Jinping, whose slavish fostering of his own personality cult now rivals Maos capacity for self-love.

Look at the current mess these old men have created.

Trump, Putin and Xi and a conga line of conservative Mini-Me followers like Brazils Jair Bolsonaro have combined ineptitude and a callous disregard for human life and turned the coronavirus into a global inferno that will now take years to extinguish.

They have taken the language of diplomacy and bludgeoned it to the point where their bombastic rhetoric now approaches levels not seen since the Cold War.

And all of them display the tell-tale signs of old men impatience, arrogance and an unwillingness to embrace new ideas.

Why would they? Old men are wedded to the past. Its a wonderful place where they covered themselves in glory and covered up their mistakes.

The future requires quick reflexes, adaptability and curiosity traits older men, if they ever had them, no longer possess.

Its an issue as relevant to business as politics.

Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch never saw the digital future coming and were slow so slow in understanding how it might undermine the empires they had spent a lifetime forging.

Compared to the literature on female menopause, medicine does not boast the depth or complexity of research when it comes to explaining why ageing men become grumpier.

But it does tell us that one of the culprits behind Irritable Male Syndrome is testosterone the hormone that once stoked a mans sexual desire, hardened his muscles, reduced his body fat and made his energy levels soar.

The betrayal begins when a man enters his mid-40s. Testosterone levels begin falling and by the age of 60 are plummeting. This can cause a chemical imbalance that often leads to sudden mood swings and outbursts of anger and irritability.

Now lets compound the problem with a massive rise in the use of prescription statins drugs that lower cholesterol levels to prevent strokes and heart attacks, but which can also affect serotonin levels, creating sleep problems and fuelling aggressive behaviour.

Throw in some important psychological issues a decline in libido, a decaying body that creaks and groans like an old farm truck and the knowledge that your best can only be viewed in the rear-view mirror and you understand why angry old men crowd the world stage.

And your hardware store car park.

So when the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine is finally over, can we search for one for grumpy old men?

Because if we are going to create a new world when this pandemic is over, the last thing we need is a bunch of greying men stubbornly clinging to the old one.

Garry Linnell was director of News and Current Affairs for the Nine network in the mid-2000s. He has also been editorial director for Fairfax and is a former editor ofThe Daily TelegraphandThe Bulletinmagazine

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Garry Linnell: Angry old men rule, and are ruining, the world - The New Daily

If you'd like to use this rainy Friday energy to shape your weekend, there are lots of virtual happenings you can enjoy while staying cozy at home. If not, there are options for socially distant outdoor things, too. We've rounded them all up below, from Hugo House's Strange Appetites with Karen Russell, Tara Conklin, and Tyehimba Jess to the first weekend of Mountainview Blueberry Farm's Berries & Blooms sunflower and blueberry U-Pick, and from Radical Women Seattle's Women's Rights Day Celebration to Hot Tub Boats' virtual Lake Union Summer Smash with acts like Razor Clam and Beverly Crusher. For even more options, check out our guides to movies to stream this weekend, our complete streaming events and protests & resistance calendars, and our guides to outdoor and socially distanced things to do this summer and anti-racism resources and events.

Marcus Green & Seattle City Council President Lorena Gonzalez Local journalist Marcus Green and Seattle City Council President Lorena Gonzalez will discuss the retirement of Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, the recent City Council vote to cut SPD's budget, and other actions being taken to "re-imagine" policing in Seattle.

Solitude Social Club Hugo House's bookish happy hour gives the digital floor to guest writers every Friday evening. This week, tune in to hear how author Matthew Salesses (The Hundred-Year Flood) is finding happiness and meaning through literature during this period of isolation.

Fellini's '8 1/2' Virtual Viewing Party Watching Fellini's seminal 1963 film 8over a feast of Italian food and wine is the right thing to do. This meal kit from Stoneburner (which you can order and pick up the day of the event) comes with everything you need to make your own pasta and pizza at home, plus your choice of wine and the provisions for a "Nino Spritz" cocktail. A screener link will be sent to you when you order.

Indigenous Drive-In Movies: 'Coco' Seattle's Indigenous Showcase will co-host this outdoor screening of Pixar's wonderfulCoco, about a boy who crosses over to the Land of the Dead, where he learns lessons aboutmortality, his Mexican ancestry, and memories. Skyline Drive-In Theatre

Pike Place Market Dine & Donate Pike Place Market turns 113 years old this month! The occasion is usually marked by Sunset Supper, where over 100 local restaurants, wineries, breweries, distilleries, and other market vendors commune on the cobblestones as the sun goes down. But since it's postponed until next year, make a pledge to dine at a participating restaurant (like Caf Campagne, Matts in the Market, orPikes Pit Bar-B-Que) and donate to the Power of Pike Place Recovery Fund.

HDLSC Presents: DATENITE Get into some moody synth-pop with DATENITE, coming at you live from High Dive's virtual stage.

Kremwerk x Budget Cuts Livestream Descend into the dark web with electronic music collective Budget Collective at this virtual Kremwerk takeover.

Live from the Rooftop: A Virtual Concert Bridge Music Project musicians will entertain you live from the roof of the Washington Center for Performing Arts, but you don't have to worry about keeping your distance from othersthis virtual concert can be enjoyed from your own living room.

The Clockwork Professor by Maggie Lee Theatre Off JacksonandPork Filled Productions will revive Maggie Lee's steampunk adventure The Clockwork Professor for this livestreamed performance. Lee and director Amy Poisson will come onto your screen after the show for a Q&A.

Seattle March for the Dead The Washington Poor People's Campaign will host this march and vigil for those who have died or are at risk of dying of COVID-19a disproportionate number of which are people of color, and specifically Black people. The event will start at UW's Drumheller Fountain. Drumheller Fountain (University of Washington)

A Map to the Sun: Talk with author/illustrator Sloane Leong Tune in to Outsider Comics' Instagram Live for a talk with author and artist Sloane Leong on her new book A Map to the Sun.

Hugo Literary Series: Strange Appetites For this edition of the literary series, for which writers and musicians present new work based on a theme, you can enjoy the great privilege of listening to Karen Russell (Rich Smith has praised her "Americana magical realism and lush prose" in Orange World), Tara Conklin (author ofThe Last Romantics), and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tyehimba Jess.

Magical Marauder's Scavenger Hunt 2020 Want to win prizes for your love of Harry Potter? Of course you do. This remote scavenger hunt allows you to complete a list of Hogwarts-themed challenges from wherever you are.

utopia: Touch Nine isolated dancers explore "the tenderness of unity and rebellion"in this politically charged piece inspired by brutalist architecture, "principles of socialism and democracy," the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the power ofYugoslav monuments dedicated to the Peoples Liberation War against Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers during World War II.

Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation's Virtual Furry 5K 2020 You and your real or imaginary dog can help raise money for the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation's Help the Animals fund at their annual Furry 5K fundraiser. It's virtual this year, which means you can stay socially distant and post about your route on social media.

Visual & Virtual What would an art fair in Seattle be without the bluest of chips, Greg Kucera Gallery? The roster of artists that are currently hanging in his replica booth constructed inside his gallery is off the charts with someStrangerfavorites likeRamiro Gomez,Jacob Lawrence, andDrie Chapek. But what I'm most excited to see in person again is Seattle-based artist Anthony White's recent work, which continues to evolve. JASMYNE KEIMIG Greg Kucera Gallery (Pioneer Square) Closing Saturday

Bamboo Circle E-Celebration This annual fundraiser for the Seattle Chinese Garden will move online, bringing a whole week of cultural activities like calligraphy, tea ceremonies, and live music to wherever you are.

Berries & Blooms Sunflowers and heirloom blueberries are ready for picking atMountainview Blueberry Farm. Wander through the late-summer fields and mull over about what you'll do with your bounty when you get back home. They also have a socially distanced beer and wine tent. Mountainview Blueberry Farm (Snohomish)

Sunflowers in Snohomish at Thomas Family Farm Wander through this farm's eight acres plucking sunflowers in yellow and red. Thomas Family Farm (Snohomish)

Patio Summer Series: Brisket Burgers & Chili Dogs, & Elysian Get yourself aDouble R brisket burger and chili dog with a Contact Haze IPA from Elysian ($3!) to top it off, and enjoy it all on Jack's social distancing-friendly patio. Jack's BBQ (Sodo)

Pike-Pine Summer United Get 10% off your bill at local bars and eateries like Amandine Bakeshop, A Pizza Mart, Bateau, and tons of other places on Capitol Hill moving into Phase 2 of reopening by mentioning The Stranger's Pike-Pine promotion. Various locations (Capitol Hill)

Whidbey Island Summer Music Festival This monthlong virtual music festival will highlight baroque and classical chamber music by artists near and far. In honor ofBeethoven's 250th birthday (cheers to you, Ludwig), this year's event will feature some classicfortepiano and cello sonatas.

Saint Joan Despite George Bernard Shaw's trenchant atheism, his classic depiction of the Maid of Orleans stresses her strength, bravery, faith, and humanity in the face of political and religious oppression. The original date of this production, staged by Mathew Wright, was canceled due to COVID-19. This is a digital rendition.

Felines of the Fey Braden Duncan, a member of the Seattle Arts Coalition and the international Strange Dreams Surreal Art Collective, will show watercolors of charming kitties infaerie realms. Gargoyles Statuary (University District) Opening Friday

Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair The Seattle Art Fair was canceled, but a bunch of local galleriesmany of which are in Pioneer Squareare taking it upon themselves to keep the tradition alive while abiding by social distancing guidelines with a DIY, self-guided version featuring exciting new pieces by artists like Anthony White.

Seattle Design Festival Now in its 10th year, Design in Public's Seattle Design Festival will switch over their programming to the internet to continue to explore how urbanism, architecture, and design can further justice, ecology, and community. Look forward to livestreamed webinars and discussions, a weekly "Thinkercyze" virtual challenge, and even in-person displays throughout the city that you can visit while social distancing.

Women's Rights Day Online Celebration This year marks the centennial of the 19th amendment! With a very major vote coming up in November, this Radical Women celebration is sure to have some extra zeal. Tune in to hear remarks from Seattle Central College teacher Anna Hackman, King County Metro driver and workers' rights organizer Cheryl Jones, and others.

Drive-In Movie At The Fair Get in your car and watch The Goonies, a notable example of Spielberg-style "old-fashioned adventure" cinema, complete with pirates, treasure, and that signature peril-and-fun-in-equal-parts recipe you've come to love. Donations from this free 35th-anniversary screening at the Washington State Fair's Blue Lot will give any donations to the Puyallup Food Bank. Washington State Fair Events Center (Puyallup)

9th Annual James Bond Soiree James Bond's favorite brandsRolex, Versace, Luis Vuitton, Chanelare teaming up for this luxe virtual affair complete withMI-6 party kits teeming with 007 face masks, champagne glasses and sparkling wine, oysters, and charcuterie. Proceeds will benefit breast cancer research.

Hops For Hope Fill up a growler or get a fresh one from Snohomish'sSnoTown Brewery, knowing that proceeds will benefit breast cancer research through Snohomish County Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. SnoTown Brewery (Snohomish)

Pop-Up Whidbey Makers Market Take a day trip to Whidbey Island with your picnic blankets in tow to shop from local vendors like Woodcrafts by Fish, eat seafood, and enjoy live music by Weak Sheep and Handsome and Gretyl. You can stay socially distant on a spot near the lagoon or on the Penn Cove beach dock. Captain Whidbey Inn (Whidbey Island)

Smoked Meats Class with Jack & Pit Master Joe Jack Timmons of Jack's BBQ andpitmaster Joe Whelan will go live to teach you the secrets of sumptuous, Central Texas-style BBQ, from cooking techniques to how to trim ribs to how to smoke a cocktail, along with some history of the cuisine.

DC Fandome Since Comic-Cons had basically just become a place to herd members of fandom for the express purpose of showing them trailers and commercials for upcoming movies, shows, toys (oh and comics sure comics too) it makes a ton of sense that the modern Con experience could move online pretty easily (see: San Diego Comic-Con @ Home) and that major studios would just hold their own cons. AND SO: DC Fandome, a 24-hour, free, virtual convention for fans of DC Comics and all the live-action, animated, video game (oh and comics sure comics too) entertainment based on their venerable characters.

'A Real Sensation' Visual Album Release Party Local dream-pop sweethearts Sundae Crush will release their new album, A Real Sensation, online. Stream it at home in its entirety and stick around after for a live chat with the band.

Hot Tub Boats' Lake Union Summer Smash Bliss out in your toasty apartment or socially distanced backyard to sets from Pedro the Lion, Massey Ferguson, Beverly Crusher, Razor Clam, Punktuals, and DJ AC Lewis to raise money forSeattle Musicians Access to Sustainable Healthcare. The show will be streamed live on Hot Tub Boats' YouTube.

Jeff Daniels Join singer-songwriter Jeff Daniels for an evening of original songs and stories on the Triple Door's virtual stage.

Kremwerk Livestream Series presents: Sub 49 Local DJ collective Sub 49 invites you to "get plamp, pay homage to broth, and get virtually groovy with some sick beats."

Let the Strings Speak Ujima Mona Terry, Lesa Terry, Munyungo Jackson, Evan Flory-Barnes, Karen Briggs, Josephine Howell, Otieno Terry, and other masters of string instruments will perform virtually in this fifth annual concert.

TRL Night Live Stream w/ #All4doras and LO KNOWS Local boy band cover band #All4doras and TRL cover bandLO KNOWS will link up for a virtual show.

Virtual Bothell Block Party & BrewFest 2020 This downtown Bothell event will take place online in the form of afundraiser for UW Bothell's Black Opportunity Fund. Jam out in your house to awesome local acts like the Black Tones, Black Stax, King Youngblood, BEARAXE, Shaina Shepherd, All Star Opera, and Tres Leches.

Everything's Fine Tonight LIVE! Billing itself as "the Internet's goofiest talk show," this program featuringLauren Baumbauer, Morgan Dusatko, Kristine Ota, and others promises lighthearted bits and sketches, fictional sitcom reunions, Jane Austen superfans, and aliens.

No Closet Follies Vol 3 Burlesque performers from around the countryincluding Egypt Blaque Knyle from California andBeary Manatease from Tennesseewill titillate your senses virtually. Seattle's own Mx. Pucks A'Plenty will host.

Save the Post Office Saturday Day of Action Organizers will meet up at post offices around the country demanding thatPostmaster General Louis DeJoy resign and that the USPSwhich safeguards mail-in voting, the more common method used by Democrats, whose turnout is essential this November for obvious reasonsbe saved. US Post Office (Ballard and other locations)

Alki Beach Pride - Roll OUT to Alki 2020 Decorate your motor vehicle in rainbows galore (bonus points if your mask has rainbows on it, too) and head out to Alki Beach for a zoomy (the fast kind, not the video chat kind) Pride parade. Jack Block Parking Lot (West Seattle)

Ray Bradbury Read-A-Thon Need even more dystopia in your life? Don't have an audiobook subscription? Watch or listen to a reading of Ray Bradbury's classic novel Fahrenheit 451,streamed live on YouTube by the Library of Congress, Seattle Public Library, and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.

Richard Scholar with Kathleen Cain - French Words That Turned English Why does the English language borrow so many French words? Professor Richard Scholar has some thoughts. He'll be joined by Kathleen Cain for a virtual rendezvous where he'll talk about his book migrs: French Words That Turned English.

The Virtual Griot Party Experience 2.0 A collaboration of many municipal and civic organizations, this virtual edition of Columbia City's Griot Party, based on West African storytelling tradition, will feature local performers on Zoom.

Seattle Marathon Summer 5/10K Choose your distance and course and submit your results and race photos in this modified version of the annual 5K and 10K race.

Tibet Fest 2020 - A Virtual Celebration The 25th annual Tibet Fest will go on virtually this year. Enjoy a day of learning about the country's rich culture and heritage.

Celebrate Woodinville Summer Virtual 5k Complete a 5K course at your convenience, in any location (even if it's a treadmill). Once you've completed the challenge, submit your results and receive a medal.

The "Secret History" of Bellevue! Seattle's not the only one with stories under its beltour nearby neighbor to the east is full of secrets, too. Learn about them in this virtual tour fromHidden Northwest Tours.

14th Annual Urban Poverty Forum: Challenging Black Voter Suppression At this virtual edition of the annual forum dealing with systemic issues surrounding urban poverty, see a screening of the documentary Suppressed 2020: The Right to Vote, followed by a discussion withAngela Rae (Barringer Global Enterprise) andCelina Stewart (League of Women Voters).

Valhalla Dinner Series with Tieton Cider Works Yakima'sTieton Cider Works will storm the beer hall with a six-course dinner paired with their fruit-infused goods.

The Royal Room Staycation Festival: Crystal Beth You can find Beth Fleenor fearlessly indulging her wildest creative inklings whenever she materializes in a musical forum. A classically trained clarinetist and imaginative soloist and with a music degree from Cornish, Fleenor has made a name for herself in Seattles experimental-music scene both as a solo artist and with well-known composers like Wayne Horvitz. The music Fleenor makes with Crystal Beth & the Boom Boom Band falls somewhere between the grisly skronk-punk of Stickers and earthy freak-indie of tUnE-yArDs, but even fans of those left-of-center acts will be thrown for a loop. Wailing vocals not bound to any conventions but Fleenors own, paired with percussive Bethnic chants, are set over freely drawn jazz figures and world-y rhythms. TODD HAMM

Desus & Mero's Virtual Experience - Northwest Show Bronx-bred pals Desus Nice and the Kid Metro of Showtime's Desus & Merowill host a livestreamed episode of their talk show. They promise an all-star lineup of guests that "spans the cultural landscape."

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The 55 Best Things To Do in Seattle This Weekend: August 21-23, 2020 - TheStranger.com

Broadway is dark these days, but the lights of theaters around the world should be dimmed in honor of author, critic, translator and playwright Eric Bentley, who died this month at his home in New York at the age of 103.

Bentleys legacy in the theater as a pathbreaker is profound. By shining a critical light on the American stage, he exposed the gimcrack that had been fobbed off as treasure and in the process made room for the genuine.

Longevity of such ostentatious proportions, however, can fog the mirror of reputation. The titles of books may be remembered but few are around to testify to the impact of Bentleys critical writing, the way it incited new modes of thought and, just as crucially, revealed the limitations of the prevailing wisdom.

I know Im not the first critic to feel as though his intellectual path was set by Bentleys The Playwright as Thinker, first published in 1946 and still a necessary text of modern dramatic criticism. Richard Gilman, who asked his incoming graduate students at the Yale School of Drama to read the book before beginning their studies, writes in his introduction that Bentley helped open his eyes to the aesthetic and intellectual possibilities of the stage.

Combining the wide frame of reference of a literary scholar with the practical knowledge of a man of the theater, Bentley wrote not to a readership of academic or professional specialists but to a culturally informed audience that understood the value of both learning and unlearning. Philistine prejudice (a particular bte noire), simplistic dichotomies and smug anti-intellectualism were routinely assailed in his essays and reviews.

Born in England and educated at Oxford on a scholarship, he came to America to continue his studies at Yale, where he received a PhD in comparative literature. It was in the U.S. where Bentley found his critical services to be most urgently needed, and he was fortunate to be plying his trade in his adopted nation at a time when space was being made for public intellectuals.

There were outlets the New Republic, Harpers Magazine, Theatre Arts, the Kenyon Review, the Nation, to name a few that werent afraid to take theater seriously. And Bentley gave them something more valuable than smart ideas: He provided dialectical argument, presenting a mind in dialogue with itself in much the same way that Ibsen, in Bentleys priceless formulation, allowed us to be present at thinking during his characters awakenings.

Through his drama criticism and translations of world classics, Bentley deprovincialized the American theater in the 20th century. One of his essay collections is called In Search of Theater, and the title reflects the exploratory spirit of a critic who couldnt understand why the glories of 2,500 years of dramatic literature were being neglected for playwrights of the caliber of Maxwell Anderson, a prolific author whom Bentley facetiously labeled the king of the Broadway intelligentsia while writing about Andersons hit historical drama Joan of Lorraine, starring Ingrid Bergman.

Bentley found what he was looking for in 5th century B.C. Athens, Elizabethan England and the Spanish Golden Age, among other epochs in which an appetite for soaring dramatic poetry flourished. But he was just as keen to revisit those modern titans we kept getting wrong.

in his virtuosic monograph on George Bernard Shaw, Bentley dismantles the naive notion that drama is fundamentally an art of feeling. Arguing that emotion and intellect arent mutually exclusive, he traces the way passion fuels the political and philosophical convictions of characters in symphonically structured comedies that are far too witty to be monotonously didactic. In Ibsen, he urges us to look for the idea behind the idea and not confuse the once-scandalous social problems of the plays for the deeper human questions animating them.

Bentley recognized that theater criticism has no more urgent function than to encourage the good. This entails not only praising, parsing and differentiating but also cultivating a sensibility in audiences for more complex pleasures. Within my own sphere what I am asking for is a new criticism of the theater, he wrote. By that he meant a new climate, the climate of a new generation. To that end, he sought out both the contemporary best and the best from other times and places that had yet to find welcome on our stages.

Italian playwright Luigi Pirandellos stature in the English-speaking world owes an enormous debt to Bentleys work as a critic, translator and editor of play volumes. The metatheatrical high jinks of Six Characters in Search of an Author playfully confounded illusion and reality. But Bentley wanted theatergoers to understand that Pirandellos plays grew from his own torment, and that for all their buoyant philosophical humor they can only succeed in performance if their tragic gravitas is respected.

For a long time Bentley served as a quasi-ambassador to Brecht. The two met in Los Angeles when Bentley was teaching at UCLA and the German playwright was in exile from Nazi Germany and not yet enjoying his status as the 20th centurys greatest political playwright. Bentley helped elucidate the principles and procedures of Brechts epic theater so that theatergoers would be able to judge the plays for what they were attempting to do rather than condemning them for not following a sentimental rule book.

Bentleys translation of Mother Courage and Her Children was performed on Broadway in a Jerome Robbins production starring Anne Bancroft, and he staged his own adaptation of The Good Woman of Setzuan in a New York production with Uta Hagen and Zero Mostel. But Bentleys advocacy wasnt uncritical. He was dubious of the cultish celebrity that grew around Brecht and dismayed by the way Marxist ideology came to eclipse the poetry and the stagecraft.

Bandwagons werent Bentleys preferred means of transportation. He thought Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman resorted to rhetoric when it needed poetry and he complained that Eugene ONeills characters were blown up with psychological gas.

In the essay Trying to Like ONeill, Bentley uses his experience of directing a production in Zurich of The Iceman Cometh to see if he could at last embrace what critics as great as Stark Young and George Jean Nathan admired in ONeills work. He didnt quite succeed, though he gained a more acute awareness of the playwrights strengths and weaknesses. In later years, he questioned some of his more polemical positions, but his fearlessness in bucking trends seems especially valiant in these days when social media has the critical world too often marching in lockstep.

Criticism was never Bentleys sole focus, and he came to feel that his reception as a playwright was hindered by his reputation as a critic even though he had long stopped wearing that hat. He insisted on being identified as a dramatist, and in the early 1990s when I was guest-editing a special issue of Yales Theater magazine, he stipulated that he would only consent to an interview with me if our conversation would focus on his plays.

I regret passing up that opportunity, if only for the chance to have better understood why a writer utterly opposed to facile binaries was convinced that his critical and creative sides had to be kept apart. Bentleys rich variety of theatrical interests is what made him invaluable. He may not have become a dramatist of significant stature, but his critical writing was immeasurably enriched by his work as a teacher, translator, author, director and playwright.

His unparalleled career as a critic is a reminder that popularity is not the same thing as influence. He wasnt an entertainer, one of the ingredients he thought went into being a good reviewer, but the lucidity of his writing gives pleasure all the same. His reviews at the New Republic didnt have the power to make or break a show but they widened and elevated sensibility.

Would a modern-day Eric Bentley (the idea is almost oxymoronic) find a niche in todays numbers-obsessed media landscape? One has to have faith that, despite the insidious way publicity has infected our critical discourse, rigorous intelligence of such an uncompromising order will not be turned away even if the readership for such writing would have to be rebooted.

Whats clear is that we still need Bentley to clear up the murkiness in our thinking. To remind us, for example, that the task of the theater is to find its own public, not grovel before a general public, an abstraction he found as meaningless as the common man.

In contrast to the unheroic failure of the commercial theater, which abandons the ideal for pecuniary gain, Bentley championed the heroic failure of keeping standards up as long as possible, come what may.

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Death of theater critic Eric Bentley marks the end of an era - Los Angeles Times