To Ross Douthat’s recent (less-than-helpful) pieces here and here—neither of which are worth rereading—I can hear Nadezhda Mandelstam responding to some who “find comfort in the doctrine of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis”:
They hope they may last out till a new “synthesis” which will allow them to come into their own again with a vengeance. …
For my part, knowing that permanent ideas are formed in youth and are rarely revised later in life, I can only watch with hope and bated breath as more and more people read poetry—and the “Fourth Prose.” Between people like myself and those who stand on the other side, there is a clear division: we are thesis and antithesis. I do not expect to see a synthesis, but I would love to know whom the future belongs to.
Hope Against Hope (246)