{"id":28530,"date":"2026-08-21T17:15:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T00:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=28530"},"modified":"2026-08-24T16:12:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:12:44","slug":"the-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/08\/21\/the-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Transition"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Fareed Zakaria responds to Ezra Klein about The Odyssey;<\/li>\n<li>Briefly: Trump running out of people to blame; How liberal families look pretty much like conservatives ones; The vacuousness of Darline Graham;<\/li>\n<li>Wojciech Kilar&#8217;s score for The Portrait of a Lady.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>Working some infrastructure pages recently. For today, more of the same, more or less.<\/p>\n<p>Here are two of my favorite writers, in discussion: Fareed Zakarian responding to Ezra Klein.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/wapo\/CZZPTCNN6RFHHJLD3V4MZZ7XG4.JPG&amp;w=1440&amp;impolicy=high_res\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2026\/08\/21\/what-homer-odyssey-can-teach-us-about-liberalism\/\">What Odysseus can teach us about liberalism<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The challenge is to preserve human dignity while recovering our capacity for heroic ambition.&#8221;<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I finally went to see Christopher Nolan\u2019s new movie, \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d to watch a summer blockbuster \u2014 and it more than delivered. I didn\u2019t intend to comment on the various controversies surrounding the movie, from the attacks that it is woke to the claims that it is historically inaccurate. (For goodness\u2019 sake, it is a nearly 3,000-year-old yarn that is filled with gods and goddesses, one-eyed giants and magic!) But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/08\/02\/opinion\/christopher-nolan-odyssey-elon-musk.html\" rel=\"\">Ezra Klein\u2019s commentary<\/a> on the movie did lead me to think about the broader issues the movie raises, which strike me as interesting and important.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I could note that in my broad overview of human history, and the key transition triggered by the agricultural revolution, both the Bible and Homer occurred part-way through from then until now. They&#8217;re both about the difficulty of the transition.<\/p>\n<p>Zakarian gets this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Beginning with Christianity, the West gradually replaced the pagan ethic of naked conquest and domination with one centered on universal human dignity, compassion and empathy. \u201cBlessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth,\u201d <a title=\"https:\/\/www.kingjamesbibleonline.org\/Matthew-Chapter-5\/\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kingjamesbibleonline.org\/Matthew-Chapter-5\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\">says the Gospel according to Matthew<\/a> \u2014 words no Homeric hero would ever utter.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wpds-c-PJLV article-body type-text\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p class=\"wpds-c-heFNVF wpds-c-heFNVF-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy\" dir=\"null\" data-apitype=\"text\" data-contentid=\"LRG6227ULVDRFDCMGESNW7FL4E\" data-el=\"text\" data-scroll-pos=\"3\" data-scroll-measured=\"true\">Pre-Christian values are having a revival these days, as the populist right, often joined by a new cadre of tech billionaires, looks back with admiration to an older world in which strength, domination and victory mattered more than empathy and equality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Beginning with Christianity, the West gradually replaced the pagan ethic of naked conquest and domination with one centered on universal human dignity, compassion and empathy. \u201cBlessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth,\u201d <a title=\"https:\/\/www.kingjamesbibleonline.org\/Matthew-Chapter-5\/\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kingjamesbibleonline.org\/Matthew-Chapter-5\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\">says the Gospel according to Matthew<\/a> \u2014 words no Homeric hero would ever utter.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wpds-c-PJLV article-body type-text\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p class=\"wpds-c-heFNVF wpds-c-heFNVF-iPJLV-css overrideStyles font-copy\" dir=\"null\" data-apitype=\"text\" data-contentid=\"LRG6227ULVDRFDCMGESNW7FL4E\" data-el=\"text\" data-scroll-pos=\"3\" data-scroll-measured=\"true\">Pre-Christian values are having a revival these days, as the populist right, often joined by a new cadre of tech billionaires, looks back with admiration to an older world in which strength, domination and victory mattered more than empathy and equality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For Donald Trump, \u201cwinning\u201d is all that matters, justifying all means&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the greatest moral achievement of the West over the last two millennia, and especially since the Enlightenment, has been the expansion of the circle of people who are considered fully human, having equal dignity and equal rights. We have come to recognize the humanity of people once dismissed as slaves, serfs and second-class citizens \u2014 foreigners, women, racial minorities, people with differing sexual orientations. These ideas spread throughout the world because they are, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, \u201c<a title=\"https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/founding-docs\/declaration-transcript\" href=\"https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/founding-docs\/declaration-transcript\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\">self-evident<\/a>.\u201d This is one of the West\u2019s greatest achievements, not a decadent sickness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Well, they&#8217;re obviously *not* self-evident to many people. Here again you need to recognize the evolution of human nature, that many commentators do not.<\/p>\n<p>But there&#8217;s this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But there is a serious critique buried beneath the crude MAGA attacks. It is one that German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche leveled, and it is being reprised by some of the tech bros today. Nietzsche worried that Christianity\u2019s egalitarian ideas made us less likely to be wildly ambitious, risk-seeking and reckless. Have we become so humane that we have lost the primal urges that made us heroic?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Are there trade-offs? Perhaps. But which would you prefer? Again, it&#8217;s not black or white: humanity is a mix of various kinds of human nature. The essay ends:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Liberals should not apologize for believing that every human being possesses equal dignity. The world\u2019s great liberal democracies managed to expand our moral universe while also expanding our physical universe. The challenge is to recover that older liberal tradition. This spirit will be sorely needed as we build out what may be the most transformative technology ever, artificial intelligence, because we will need to make sure that its awesome power is rooted in a system of ethics and values that prizes human dignity and equality \u2014 just those values that Christianity pioneered and the West enhanced so powerfully.<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t need to go back to Homer. Recovering the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt would be enough.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Briefly noted.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Trump-helipad-2290573237-1536x1024.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Salon, Brian Karem, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2026\/08\/21\/gop-is-finally-running-out-of-people-to-blame\/\">GOP is finally running out of people to blame<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Republicans control DC and have totally wrecked the place. Now the paint is peeling off their delusions&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/BOPZ5TIkubK3jlYFjYlcBJeaokE=\/0x0:4800x2700\/976x549\/media\/img\/mt\/2026\/08\/2026_08_19_Blue_Families\/original.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I might have given this a longer examination on a different day.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Atlantic, Joshua Sohn, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/2026\/08\/democrat-liberal-conservative-traditional-family\/688369\/\">Liberal Families Are Looking Pretty Traditional<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Subtitled: &#8220;What I see in my deep-blue D.C. neighborhood undermines the simplistic culture-war narrative.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Liberal&#8221; neighborhoods look just like &#8220;conservative&#8221; neighborhoods. Families, kids, etc. The two sides aren&#8217;t that much different.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/EEJMZB7YTOAURUL7GXASUDRIIE_size-normalized.jpg&amp;w=1440&amp;impolicy=high_res\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What can you say about Darline Graham? Nepotism obviously. And that anyone, no matter how unqualified, is welcome by the Republicans as long as they&#8217;re loyal.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Washington Post, Kathleen Parker, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2026\/08\/21\/darline-graham-senate-runoff-south-carolina-tests-trump-power\/\">\u2018I\u2019m not that informed\u2019: A rare Senate vacancy triggers a test for Trump<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Portrait Of A Lady - Soundtrack\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9RfErql2W04?start=54&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fareed Zakaria responds to Ezra Klein about The Odyssey; Briefly: Trump running out of people to blame; How liberal families look pretty much like conservatives ones; The vacuousness of Darline Graham; Wojciech Kilar&#8217;s score for The Portrait of a Lady. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/08\/21\/the-transition\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,96,50,17,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-human-nature","category-human-progress","category-music","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28530"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28543,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28530\/revisions\/28543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}