The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos by Sohrab Ahmari
Realizing that contemporary American culture is not conducive to moral formation, Sohrab Ahmari has written a book examining several perennial moral questions that are often ignored or dismissed because previous answers have been rejected. He emigrated as a youth from Iran, rejecting the repressive culture he experience there. In the United States, he married another immigrant (she came from China) and they have a child, Max. Ahmari wants what's best for his child (who was two when the book was written), which includes a grounding in human decency and moral excellence. Even though Iran's culture was undesirable, Ahmari sees a lot in American culture that is also unpalatable.
The book is divided into two sets of questions: Things of God and Things of Humankind. He grapples with issues like is God knowable, what is the role of God in politics, and can someone really be spiritual without being religious. For humanity, he considers responsibility to parents, what freedom is for, is sex really a private matter, among other issues. With each question, he introduces a person from history, going from Augustine in the 4th century all the way to modern times with late-1900s feminist Andrea Dworkin. The group represents a large variety of faiths (including people with no faith) and situations (including America, Africa, Asia, Europe at different historical points), showing the universality of these questions across time and the globe.
Ahmari is quite persuasive in his arguments. He also presents a very human face to his assertions, adopting ideas and answers from the people he presents (though not everything). He implicitly acknowledges that we all share the same human condition. Often, cultures try to fix or improve upon that condition with very mixed results. Advances in medicine and technology are amazing and useful, but unlimited freedom comes at a great cost, especially when corporations and media monetize that freedom and go further and further from a grounded truth. Or when government oversteps its boundaries in trying to "fix" the nation.
Another big theme in the book is COVID-19 and how the reaction to the pandemic has exacerbated many tendencies that are already dubious if not harmful in modern American culture. He provides an interesting analysis of that as well, though how well that discussion will age remains to be seen.
Recommended--this is a very thought-provoking book.
Sample quote, from the introduction:
A radically assimilated immigrant isn't supposed to complain about his freedom. Yet as I grow into my faith and my role as a father, I tremble over the prospect of my son's growing up in an order that doesn't erect any barriers against individual appetites and, if anything, goes out of its way to demolish existing barriers. [p. 12]
Posts
