Being as encounter …

… Attention crisis by Ian Tuttle — The New Criterion. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

… Where our current egalitarianism-on-principle “is content to posit rather than to see the humanity of its beneficiaries,” recognizing the mechanic’s superiority over me in matters of bit sockets and brake fluid prompts me to recognize his humanity. This posture of attentiveness toward other persons offers an alternative to the American political Left’s fetish for democracy and the American political Right’s sometimes-unthinking paeans to free markets. (Some of these explicit connections come out in the endnotes, which the attentive reader should not ignore; they include, besides useful clarifications and qualifications, several amusing digressions.)