Luke Holzmann over at the Sonlight blog wrote about the Marketplace of Ideas today.
I think he is exactly right when he said, “Shocked, I realized that was my experience as well. The ‘marketplace of ideas’ is oddly empty.”
This is something Kelly and I have spoken about at length. How to participate in the “public discourse” is an interesting question for us. We are big fans of people like Marvin Olasky and the rest of the crew at World Magazine, David Berlinski, the “public intellectual” who lives in France and seems to be much smarter than almost everone else, Rodney Stark the emminent sociologist and author from Baylor University, and other people of their ilk. They have obviously worked hard to learn what they know and have honed their knowledge by engaging in discourse with those who have knowledge of their areas of interest. It seems to us that those types of people are few and far between. It does not appear that there are very many people who have the time, energy, and especially the will to participate in the Marketplace of Ideas. We do not think we are particularly well equipped or gifted to do so ourselves, but it certainly interests us and we try to make some level of investment in that.
Luke points to a blog post here that addresses a part of one of the questions with which, we are confronted daily. How does one go about preparing ones children to participate in the Marketplace of Ideas? It is a hard question to which I have no satisfying answer.
*Special note: This article on who should have a voice in the public square appeared at Evolutions News and Views shortly after this article was posted. It has something quite important to say by Michael Egnor. He is another of those to whom we pay a lot of attention because of their stellar record of participation in the Marketplace of Ideas. It comes from the Discovery Institute‘s Evolution News & Views blog. We read it every day and highly recommend it.