{"id":8977,"date":"2014-01-05T20:54:54","date_gmt":"2014-01-05T20:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=8977"},"modified":"2014-01-05T20:54:54","modified_gmt":"2014-01-05T20:54:54","slug":"on-the-random-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/on-the-random-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Random Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vaganskovoye<\/a>The Atlantic<\/em>\u2019s Ta-Nehisi Coates has just been <\/a>reading Tony Judt\u2019s Postwar<\/em> (which I have yet to tackle, but plan to) and cites that book, together with Tim Snyder\u2019s Bloodlands <\/em>(which I reviewed here<\/a>) for a grander thesis about the failings European civilization. There\u2019s a lot to take issue with there, to put it mildly, but I did like this: <\/p>\n

I don’t have any gospel of my own. Postwar<\/em>, and the early pages of Bloodlands<\/em>, have revealed a truth to me: I am an atheist. (I have recently realized this.) I don’t believe the arc of the universe bends towards justice. I don’t even believe in an arc. I believe in chaos. I believe powerful people who think they can make Utopia out of chaos should be watched closely.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh yes.<\/p>\n

Coates then lets what seems like despair grip him as a result of this discovery (odd, as if that is how things are, it\u2019ll be a bit of a relief):<\/p>\n

I don’t know that it all ends badly. But I think it probably does.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not necessarily. Chin up!<\/p>\n

But then he brightens:<\/p>\n

I’m also not a cynic. I think that those of us who reject divinity, who understand that there is no order, there is no arc, that we are night travelers on a great tundra, that stars can’t guide us, will understand that the only work that will matter, will be the work done by us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And gets it:<\/p>\n

Or perhaps not.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

H\/t: Andrew Sullivan<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Atlantic\u2019s Ta-Nehisi Coates has just been reading Tony Judt\u2019s Postwar (which I have yet to tackle, but plan to) and cites that book, together with Tim Snyder\u2019s Bloodlands (which I reviewed here) for a grander thesis about the failings … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[69,864],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8977"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8980,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8977\/revisions\/8980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}