On his blog,Patrick Deneen (author of the 2005 book Democratic Faith) identifies himself as a political theorist. "Theory"comes from a Greek verb meaning "to see." The English word "theater,"denoting a place where scenes from human life are enacted to be seen(and to promote greater vision about life), comes from the same root.As Deneen himself explained in a 2002 essay on the nature ofpatriotism, the word "theory" came over time to designate a particularkind of seeing in the Greek world. "Certain designated city officials—theoroi—werecharged with the task of visiting other cities, to 'see' events such asreligious or theatrical or athletic festivals, and to return to theirhome city, where they would then give an account of what they had seen.To 'theorize' was to take part in a sacred journey, an encounter withthe 'other' in which the theorist would attempt to comprehend, assess,compare, and then, in [the] idiom of his own city, explain what hadbeen seen to his fellow citizens." Theorists in the best tradition arepeople who enable us to become "other-wise," encouraging us to realizethat the way we live life isn't the only way it could be lived, and maynot be the best way we could live.In the past few weeks, Deneen's posts have placed the Wall Streetmeltdown in a larger cultural perspective that is absent from mostmedia diagnoses and from the comments of politicians, whose handlersand PR experts forbid them from ever saying anything critical of thedominant trends of our cultural moment. . . .Read more from Ken Myers about Patrick Deneen's analysis on the MARS HILL AUDIO website. Subscribers to the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal will have heard our interview with Patrick Deneen on volume 91. If you missed that interview, you may hear a portion of it here.