In his Takimag column, the philosophical doctor gazes at the stars from his country chateau in France and considers the consequences on his perception of his own significance.

On the other hand, not being able to look up at the stars, thereby being made aware of how tiny we are, might conduce to self-importance and small-mindedness. Our own affairs then grow in significance and occupy the totality of our minds. We lose the habit, and therefore the ability, to judge the size of our concerns with anything else. We have no sense of the order of things, especially if, at the same time, we do not study history; and minor inconveniences then become for us tragedies of the first magnitude. Thus we become egotistical, self-obsessed, ill-tempered, self-absorbed, and trivial-minded.

Over at The Epoch Times, our disbelieving doctor cites an absurd Canadian survey to illustrate the danger of the modern Western intellectual ideologue.

The sad fact is that, as George Orwell once remarked, it’s necessary to have a higher level of education than average to believe in a certain type of absurdity. This is even more the case today when so much of our education seems to fall into two stages: indoctrination by others followed by auto-indoctrination.

In last week’s Takimag, the skeptical doctor considers whether it is worse to be justly or unjustly accused after a heated parking argument in his neighborhood.

It is much easier, and more fun, to denounce bad behavior than to behave well. Denunciation brings its pleasures, among which is the discomfiture, or worse, of the person or persons denounced. We love to imagine the squirming of someone under the lash, or as a consequence of our words. And all this in the name of righteousness! A double delight.

In the February issue of New Criterion, our favorite doctor has the unenviable task of reviewing a book written by a committed Venezuelan Marxist on the literary style of Karl Marx.

In his short book Marx’s Literary Style, the Venezuelan poet and Marxist Ludovico Silva, who died in 1988 before the socialist experiment in his country got underway and reduced it to its current misery, examines Marx’s writings from the literary point of view and judges them superlative in every way.

In the February issue of New English Review, our mournful doctor reflects on the passing of former colleagues, and one particularly exemplary former boss back in his Rhodesian days.

Events has also taught us another lesson, a potentially dangerous one for a consumer society that requires for its functioning the constant renewal of desire: namely that a great deal of what we covet, desire or think necessary for our happiness is of very marginal or no importance at all to our well-being. But this, too, is a lesson that is likely to be soon forgotten: for if we had truly understood it, we should not have needed to be taught it in the first place.

Over at Quadrant, Theodore Dalrymple considers the great cultural accomplishments of European civilization against the backdrop of recent obnoxious acts of green radicals and SJW extremists.

Suppose that mankind had always applied its efforts strictly according to the most pressing needs of the time, that is to say according to the values of the contemporary equivalents of those who stick themselves to the walls of art galleries, what of value would it ever have bequeathed to subsequent generations?

In his Takimag column, the good doctor gets a haircut at a cash-only barbershop, goes in search of change for a 50 euro note, winds up in a bookstore, and ends up reading a polemic against Islamism. Just another morning out and about for our intrepid doctor.

I cannot say that I look forward greatly to the time when every purchase we make is traceable by them, which is to say the authorities, who will make use of the information in any way they please. Among other things, they will be able to compare our expenditure with our income, and since they think that all money really belongs to them, and any left to us is by their grace and favor, they will be able to tighten their control over us.

Over at The Epoch Times, the dubious doctor highlights the devious motivation(s) behind the Scottish nationalist leader’s support for a radical, contradictory, and absurd gender bill, which is opposed by the majority of her countrymen.

Therefore, she tries to square the ideological circle by means of the transgender issue. By making it easier for youngsters to change gender, she’s proclaiming her credentials as a progressive, though what progressives think they’re progressing to always remains unexplained. Perhaps Gomorrah.

In this week’s Takimag column, the pessimistic doctor picks up a magazine filled with articles on Lebanon and comes to the stunning conclusion that our once glorious, but slowly fading Western world is on the road to Lebanonization.

No analogies are exact, but Western societies seem to be fracturing into various confessional communities each of which, like the Maronites, Druzes, Shiites, Sunni, and others, claims its share of the politico-economic spoils. They struggle like worms or grubs in the tins in which anglers keep their bait, while an unchanging elite preside, or at least glide, godlike, over the whole. In the meantime, public administration deteriorates, infrastructure rots, and inflation rockets.