Light Some Fires!

A while back, the New York Times ran a little story about some enterprising New York University students. The students were seen walking along busy streets peddling little live turtles which they were carrying in plastic bowls. A curious potential customer peered into a bowl of little swimming turtles and asked, “What’s in there?” The vendor said, “Nice turtles. They make great pets, and they’re easy to take care of.” Still curious, the customer asked, “What kind of batteries do they use?”

More than a hundred years ago, Soren Kierkegaard warned that the “Age of the crowd” was coming. In such an Age, said Kierkegaard, “people will no longer think of deciding for themselves.” Rather, “They will follow the advice given to children going off to a party: ‘Look and see what the others are doing and behave like them.'”

When it comes to the all-important questions in life about who we are and what we ought to be doing, “Do what the others…