While Nietzsche himself may have had a view of hedonism that was different from that which grips the popular imagination today (he understood the pleasure to be gained from struggle and from triumphing over adversity), the idea that personal satisfaction is to be the hallmark of the life—or perhaps better, moment—well lived is basic to our present age. Again, Nietzsche’s books may not be widely read, but his central priorities have become common currency. Carl Trueman

Great weather for riding… a pity my body wasn’t so keen. It seemed like harder work than it should have been 😁

Darwin was, of course, neither a philosopher nor an economist, but his account of the origin of human beings dealt a decisive blow to those systems that granted special essential status and significance to humanity.  Carl Trueman

Very crunchy underfoot this morning. Cold start but great riding. The Namoi River is looking splendid.

But since then, technology has assumed a key role in the more radical context of making plausible the separation of biological sex and the concept of gender. This separation is now basic to much of the modern social imaginary and that clearly rests on the psychologized notion of self that emerged in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and now dominates our contemporary world. Carl Trueman

Consumerism makes us believe we can be whoever we want to be, but the market always places limits on that in reality.  Carl Trueman

A very cold morning but glorious sunshine.

Most people have not read Freud, but many find appealing the message preached in myriad movies and soap operas that life is about finding individual sexual satisfaction and that one’s sexual appetites lie at the very center of who one actually is. Carl Trueman

The idea that Christian sexual codes prevent people from living free and happy lives—from being true to themselves—is not of recent vintage. Carl Trueman

Cold and cloudy this morning but it was a good ride anyway.