Kierkegaard and The View

Reading Søren Kierkegaard's Purity of Heart while The View is playing in the background can be a surreal experience. Everything in Purity of Heart calls us to turn to ourselves as individuals for self-reflection; nothing is to be more discouraged than directing our attention outwards at the behavior of others. This habit leads simultaneously to laxity in morals (because we make excuses for other's imperfections so as not to offend) and to severe, judgmental moralism (because once the boundaries for those excuses are set, our moral judgment of our neighbor is already completed). The View appears to be proof of this, and the fact that it so easily divides my attention away from Kierkegaard should be nothing but a sharp reminder of how seriously I need that Dane's medicine.