Nostalgia can be a toxic impulse, reactionary and uncritical, but it can also hold revolutionary potential for the future. Here, nostalgia is more than a self-soothing search for comfort; it's about engaging with loss, reconnecting with ideals that might improve the future.
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We might not like the ancient world. I don't think I like it very much. But we can't just ignore it, or we have an impoverished view of our own culture if we try to ignore it.
Book of the Day
I've never wanted to say that the classical world offers us ready-made lessons to solve our own problems. But, whatever I morally think about some of the things that the ancient world in general stood for, I do know that the ancient writers faced the same kinds of problems that we face.
Book of the Day
Is the oxymoron really "the secret sauce to everything"? That's the case Ingels makes in this debut episode of our new video show Better in Person, filmed in Stephen Dubner's living room.
Freakonomics Radio