When I meet a senior scholar or someone who has been at life for a while, one of the questions I usually get around to asking deals with their reading and own intellectual development.  In particular I usually ask something like, "What did you read that really helped you, or changed you, or marks you?"  Similarly, I am intrigued with a person's intellectual development, and shifts and twists over time.  I am particualarly intrigued when someone's intellectual journey has taken them down a road which will not benefit them in terms of career, financial gain, prestige, etc.  These people are rare.  The academy is filled with sycophants and a variety of persons who spend their time posturing and jockeying for position.  Early on in my own development I stumbled upon Joseph Sobran.  Sobran died in 2010, and I was sad that he had passed.  I discovered a book of his essays, Single Issues: Essays on the Crucial Social Questions, and it galvinized my already fairly-strong pro-life convictions.  Sobran was a major player at National Review until his convictions ran him afoul of William F. Buckley.  This linked essay traces his intellectual development over time, and is fascinating.  Sobran made a big mistake; he read the Constitution and took it seriously. And he was willing to question the orthodoxy of his day.  May his tribe increase.

• Prev
• Next