I value my Catholic background very much. It taught me not to be afraid of rigorous thought, for one thing.
Deconstruction insists not that truth is illusory but that it is institutional.
Like all the best radical positions, then, mine is a thoroughly traditionalist one.
I say that virtue is really all about enjoying yourself, living fully; but of course it is far from obvious what living fully actually means.
Those who sentimentally indulge humanity do it no favours.
In the end, the humanities can only be defended by stressing how indispensable they are; and this means insisting on their vital role in the whole business of academic learning, rather than protesting that, like some poor relation, they don't cost much to be housed.