Learning from Young Muslims in Prison

The essay is a truly admirable literary form. Great essayists tend to be writers who range widely through literature, ideas and social mores, and distill the essence of their observations into powerfully cogent and concise prose. Great essayists have never been common on the ground, (George Orwell died in 1948) and there aren’t many around today that I know of.

Theodore Dalrymple is such a one. A well travelled, magnificently well-read physician who spent many years as a consulting psychiatrist in English prisons, his often rueful, sometimes keenly sardonic musings on the human condition are never less than fascinating, no matter what the specific theme may be. The man is incapable of writing a flabby sentence.

All ye who love eloquence and precision mixed with brevity check him out. Here is a link to one of his essays:

The Frivolity of Evil | Debt to Society | Why are People Evil