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For this episode, Jay has a co-host – not just any co-host, as he says, but THE co-host: Mona Charen, of “Need to Know” fame. Jay asked her to join him, because, as he says, his guest was too large – too capacious of mind and activity – to be questioned by just one person.
That guest is Roger Scruton, the British philosopher, novelist, composer, etc. He has written more than 40 books, the latest of which is a novel, “The Disappeared.”
Mona and Jay take advantage of him to run a gamut of questions – about art, beauty, architecture, music, democracy, global warming, gay marriage, Israel, education, drugs, America, and conservatism.
Professor Scruton is open to anything, and illuminating on anything. You may want to listen to this interview more than once, as Jay immediately said he would.
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Thanks for this to everyone involved!
Scruton is coming to give a talk at Skidmore College in October–I will post something about the event in the fall.
First argument: Mr. Scruton explains the appeal of rock music to young people tyrannized by communism as a forbidden Western thing, without any reference to the democratic qualities of rock music & the fact the a lot of what was being claimed as freedom behind the Iron Curtain really was like what the hippies were doing in America. That’s, at least in part, an excess of politeness on his part.
I’m not fond of the social media trick of posting a link and saying “This!”
Episode 20 of Q&A may be my one exception. Every two minutes I kept thinking, “Yes, that’s it exactly. This man is a genius!”
I feel like an idiot not knowing anything about Roger Scruton prior to this, but I suppose there’s no shame in becoming enlightened.
This particular episode or Q&A is worth the price of membership to Ricochet. I know technically I could have listened to it for free, but it makes me feel great to support a media outlet that shares this kind of wisdom.
Thank you Jay and Mona for seeking to elevate the conservative conversation. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I haven’t heard the podcast yet, but I want to thank Jay Nordlinger in advance. He’s from Michigan and so am I (I’m an under-achieving lawyer from 45 minutes north of A^2; a bit west of Flint), and as time has gone on, I’ve found myself more and more in sync with Jay: I get mad at what he gets mad at, and I feel generous or magnanimous or tenderhearted at the same things that cause him to feel the same way (I still can’t see a Che Guevara poster or T-Shirt without thinking of Jay, but yet I’m moved positively by what he’s moved by). And now, I see he and Mona have interviewed the great Roger Scruton. Recently, I read the collection of essays by Roger Scruton called “The Roger Scruton Reader.” Despite my education, I never before understood Rousseau as well as I do now. Yet I don’t condemn Rousseau outright; I recognize his genius while at the same time I recoil in horror at what he wrought. Thank you Roger; thank you Jay. I truly can’t wait to hear this podcast, and I’d love to meet Jay some day, although I’m relatively ignorant about great music.
Great interview. Came here for the link to the “Why Beauty Matters” documentary. Found it on the author’s website. Here it is:
http://documentaryaddict.com/why+beauty+matters-542-doc.html
Great documentary, too.
I’ve watched this documentary at least a dozen times and find something new in it every time. Scruton is one of a kind.