Just pay for it, already

They say information wants to be free, but what they mean is people don't like paying for content on the internet. Nonetheless, content producers and providers have to make a living somehow, and sometimes the good stuff isn't free. That's the case with the August/September issue of First Things. As always, a half-dozen or so articles are available online for no charge, but what I'd like to recommend requires purchasing a copy. Since, however, the Kindle version of the "print edition" is only $1.99, cost really is no excuse.

R.R. Reno's "The War on the Weak" compellingly argues that the libertarian moral anti-nomianism promoted by today's upper classes and cultural elites have the effect of destroying necessary social institutions (such as marriage and family) in the lower classes, which in turn subjugates them to unending poverty. Mary Eberstadt's "Revolving Revolutions" provides a helpful dose of optimism in light of our national establishment's deliberate plunge into moral turpitude, arguing that the tide can turn, has turned previously in our history, and may be helped to turn by the faithful. In "No Enduring City," David Bentley Hart explores the collapse of Christendom with lines of reasoning which will be familiar to students of OPC history and readers of the most recent OPC denominational historians. Lastly, Jean Bethke Elshtain's lecture "On Loyalty" provokes thought and reflection on an overlooked but essential element of every aspect of the Christian life.

Truth is, information doesn't want anything other than to be read. Do so.