Another country …

… Dialogues in Scrutopia. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Scrutopia “is a world of farmers and philosophers, of Wagner and wine, of animals and Aristotle.” In Scruton’s rendering, this very English setting, which gives rise to humane judgment about what is a fitting way of life for human beings, is shorn of undue romanticism. Scruton does not despise cities or industrial civilization. He does not wish to universalize “Scrutopia,” to make it the basis of an ideology or a political program. He writes eloquently about hunting as a way of life that connects three species and informs a dignified rural way of life. But he is not an “agrarian,” or a “distributist,” or an ideologist of any sort. That is part of the charm of “Scrutopia.” It is a concrete reminder, a humanizing reminder, that human beings can live well in a modern world that gives little real thought to human flourishing.