T. S. Eliot and a very young Obama
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
There is a remarkable op-ed column in the New York Times today, by Adam Kirsch, a senior editor of The New Republic. It dissects a letter about T. S. Eliot written by Columbia undergraduate Obama. The op-ed piece isn’t just good on the subject of Obama himself. I found it tremendously encouraging because it helps explain why so many of us still love TSE. Even more important, it shows how one can be politically liberal (“the practical truth of liberalism”) while also being socially and culturally conservative (“the poetic truth of conservatism”). Overlooking Kirsch’s unaccountable use of the non-word “enthuse,” I love this piece.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/opinion/young-obama-an-eliot-conservative.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
