In the center of Prague’s Old Town Square stands a large monument. With the abundance of shops and restaurants on the square, it would be easy to rush by without considering the monument’s significance. The bronze statue portrays an imposing figure standing facing into the wind. His defiant posture contrasts the oppressed Czech people lying at his feet and his opponents huddled to his side. It might come as a surprise to find that the hero of the monument is a household name to most who have studied church history. The statue portrays, Jan Hus (or John Huss), one of the precursors of the Protestant Reformation.

Hus was a preacher, philosopher, professor, and Dean and Rector of Charles University. Hus had been assigned to preach at Prague’s Bethlehem Chapel, an unusual church that was founded with the stipulation that the preaching be done in Czech, the native language of the people. This was a remarkable idea in an era when most services were conducted in Latin.

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Jacques Barzun told us that modern society rejects anything that cannot be immediately understood. I think he was right. In my opinion, this intellectual tendency is at the root of many bad ideas in economics and politics: the best theories require a kind of extended propositional reasoning that modern society doesn’t value.

Two books chart and illustrate this trend well. (These are books I recommend often.) The first is Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. In terms of research, argumentation, and writing style it is among the best books I have read.

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