The mass shootings, homelessness, crime, drug epidemics, and mental illness in the United States are primarily caused by a lack of a healthy communal life and positive cultural identity. Someone trying to do something constructive about this is Dr. Anthony Esolen. I highly recommend his book “Nostalgia: Going Home in a Homeless World” if you are in a position of leadership or influence, or are just interested in the common good, as it offers some insight into the situation we are, in as well as some ways to improve it. A line he wrote in this book- “Modern man is lost in the cosmos, unable to rise above time, or step aside from it” reminded me of Mercia Eliade’s comment in “The Sacred & Profane” about how modern was dealing with the “terror of the mundane.” I don’t think we have a good grasp on how uniquely unhealthy our time is for the mind and soul. We have plenty of material comforts, but the human psyche is not meant to live the way we live. Read his book, and pass it on, because the ideas are timeless but uniquely pertinent to our age.
