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We've talked about the "anima technica vacua" a bunch of times in the past, but now we do a deep dive, especially how the empty soul of the modern West affects our patterns of thinking.

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• Against Great Books by Patrick J. Deneen | Articles | First Things — Berry writes of the books that aimed to educate human beings by teaching the limits of human power and knowledge. Great books such as Paradise Lost sought to inculcate a sense of limits, a cognizance of knowledge inappropriate to humans. They sought to cultivate a capacity to accept and endure rather than the impulse to transform and escape, and they endeavored to foster an education in the accompanying virtues that are required in a world where such limits are recognized\u2014virtues such as moderation and prudence\u2014and in the avoidance of vices like pride and hubris. Here we could look at a dominant understanding of a long succession of great books, from antiquity through the Middle Ages\u2014books whose authors would include the likes of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Dante, and Aquinas, among others.\n\n
• Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? - The Atlantic — One of the ironies of iGen life is that despite spending far more time under the same roof as their parents, today\u2019s teens can hardly be said to be closer to their mothers and fathers than their predecessors were. \u201cI\u2019ve seen my friends with their families\u2014they don\u2019t talk to them,\u201d Athena told me. \u201cThey just say \u2018Okay, okay, whatever\u2019 while they\u2019re on their phones. They don\u2019t pay attention to their family.\u201d Like her peers, Athena is an expert at tuning out her parents so she can focus on her phone. She spent much of her summer keeping up with friends, but nearly all of it was over text or Snapchat. \u201cI\u2019ve been on my phone more than I\u2019ve been with actual people,\u201d she said. \u201cMy bed has, like, an imprint of my body.\u201d\n\n