There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity.

Remember back in 2020 when everybody wanted to use the word “pivot”? Journalists, critiques, commentators, everyone really, loved an excuse to use the word “pivot.” It was so modern, so edgy, and sounded so informed and zeitgeisty.

Now everyone wants to say “adjacent.”

“This coffee isn’t fruity, but it’s fruit-adjacent.”

“This movie isn’t horror, but it’s horror-adjacent.”

“You don’t sound like an idiot, you’re just idiot-adjacent.”

Were adults always so much like teenagers?

I am surrounded by teenagers all day, every day, and they similarly cycle through words which make them feel important, words by which they identify themselves as being sophisticated, contemporary, and in-the-know.

With teenagers, it’s amusing. With adults, it’s pathetic.

“Yet many school leaders misunderstand the basis of culture, seeing it as something produced more by a shared vision than by shared behavior. In other words, they emphasize the ends while giving insufficient attention to the means. In the classical sphere, many leaders commit this error because they are more comfortable in the world of ideas than in the world of people. People are messy and complicated and require structures and disciplines. They require organizing principles and accountability. To lead and manage them is difficult work that often feels removed from the transcendental beauty classical education is meant to seek.”

-from Erik Twist’s Classical Education Needs Discipline and Vision, an absolute must read