I finished Jack Beatty’s biography of Peter Drucker and moved on into The End of Economic Man. When I write something comprehensive of my thoughts on Drucker, remind me to include a paragraph touching on a point in the chapter “God Does Not Need a Managerial Consultant.” In the latter half of that chapter, Drucker is said to be key in the foundation of the “megachurch,” which he advocates as the only route for the church to fulfill its social obligations. I contest that, but there was an interesting, though possibly irrelevant, point in an earlier chapter, which stated that in order to relieve the government of its $77 billion welfare/social aid programs “every one of the 250,000 religious congregations (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, or otherwise) that exist in this country would have to raise an additional $300,000 per year in all future years…” This is not a quote from Drucker, but from Rebecca Blank - Beatty uses it as a response to Drucker’s view on the reprivatization of government functions in light of our new “knowledge society.” Anyway, I am really just writing that now so that I don’t forget it when I want to write a larger review. It’s a teaser, folks.

Also, I began The City of God. I’m through Book One, which is excellent in its rebuttal of suicide and sinning to prevent sin. It also provides some Roman history, of which I have had too little since my high school Latin classes. In my first Latin class, we translated many chapters of Confessions. I did not learn much grammar that way, but it was far more intellectually stimulating than writing “tu es un magnus bovus” or “semper ubi tonitrus ubi” (I was in the NRA and very much enamored with the prospect of being a concealed carrier when I ‘got legal.’). The Latin teacher for my second year did a fine job, but who can compare a grammar book to Confessions. I suppose if I had stuck with Latin for all four years, rather than running off to shop class, yearbook, or newspaper, then I could have translated the Gaullic Wars, like my friend Stephen did for Latin 3, but it’s good to have options.