Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), the great American essayist, said “nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm.”19 What a deconstructed culture lacks, because of its deep cynicism and pessimism about reality, is a basic confidence and enthusiasm that is necessary to start almost anything. We cannot begin with mere criticism or againstness—or it finally turns against our own group (witness the later stages of most angry revolutions, even much of the work of the Protestant Reformation, and the new Catholic reactionaries who are already splitting over who is more orthodox). The brittle or
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