On David Horowitz

Theodore Dalrymple on David Horowitz’s new book, A Point in Time: The Search for Redemption in This Life and the Next.

Here and After

Theodore Dalrymple

Political warrior David Horowitz reflects on life and death.

Horowitz begins by reflecting on the nature and character of his dogs, whom he takes for regular walks.

Perhaps those who don’t love dogs will think this an odd way to begin a book on the meaning of life, but it seems entirely natural and fitting.

Indeed, I was struck by how Horowitz’s meditations paralleled mine, occasioned by my relationship, and walks, with my own dog—a relationship intense and happy, at least on my side and, if I don’t delude myself, on his also.

The dog, of course, has no intimation of his own mortality, while the owner’s pleasure in the animal’s company is increasingly tinged with a melancholy awareness of his swiftly approaching dissolution.

Yet the dog maintains his passionate interest in the little world around him, his small-scale curiosity in his immediate environment.

In the face of the physical immensity of the universe and the temporal vastness that both preceded and will follow his oblivion, is a man in any fundamentally different situation?

Read the full text at City Journal