Word: wisdoms
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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King Solomon, in his wisdom, would listen to the details of each dispute, carefully weigh the competing interests and then render a decision perfectly tailored to the circumstances. Great king. Lousy judge--at least by the lights of Justice Antonin Scalia...
Judges--not all of whom have the wisdom of Solomon--should apply general, unvarying rules to every case, Scalia says. And the Constitution, he maintains, consists of just such rules. Where others see highly abstract terms, intentionally written to evolve with the nation they're meant to govern, Scalia--who describes himself as a textualist and originalist--sees a text of fixed and narrow meaning: in the Bill of Rights, "liberty" cannot comprise the privacy and personal autonomy to choose to have an abortion or to engage in homosexual relations because it did not in 1791. The 14th Amendment...
...sense we're unplugging from political activity, civic duties or even responsibility to our neighbors by saying there are things greater than us and secrets hidden from us. We are a superstitious species, and we need to look outside ourselves for something larger that will bring either calamity or wisdom or maybe both. This is about belief, not just box office...
Arrayed next to the M.D.s and what might be called the spiritual innovators are synthesizers like Thomas Moore, who has researched the Christian and classical wisdom of millenniums to create his best-selling "owners' guides" to late-20th century souls. Moore does not prescribe cures but has much to say about illness. "We live in a world of fate and destiny and mystery," he writes. "Of course illness affects our entire being. It is a shame that medicine still treats illness as physical." Then there are those who offer old, if exotic, solutions straight up: the Tai Chi masters...
Conventional wisdom holds that any sane person, given the chance, would depart Cambridge as soon as possible for Cape Cod or Block Island or Newport or the Maine coast...