Utopia Has No Room for You… in the Inn

April 2, 2016 Leave a comment

 

Utopia comes from the Greek: οὐ (“not”) and τόπος (“place”) and means “no-place“, a non-existent place.

…..

And now a few clarion words from Claremont Institute Senior Fellow Angelo M. Codevilla:

 

“This dismissal of the American people’s intellectual, spiritual, and moral substance is the very heart of what our ruling class is about. Its principal article of faith, its claim to the right to decide for others, is precisely that it knows things and operates by standards beyond others’ comprehension.

While the unenlightened ones believe that man is created in the image and likeness of God and that we are subject to His and to His nature’s laws, the enlightened ones know that we are products of evolution, driven by chance, the environment, and the will to primacy. While the un-enlightened are stuck with the antiquated notion that ordinary human minds can reach objective judgments about good and evil, better and worse through reason, the enlightened ones know that all such judgments are subjective and that ordinary people can no more be trusted with reason than they can with guns. Because ordinary people will pervert reason with ideology, religion, or interest, science is “science” only in the “right” hands. Consensus among the right people is the only standard of truth. Facts and logic matter only insofar as proper authority acknowledges them.

That is why the ruling class is united and adamant about nothing so much as its right to pronounce definitive, “scientific” judgment on whatever it chooses. When the government declares, and its associated press echoes that “scientists say” this or that, ordinary people — or for that matter scientists who “don’t say,” or are not part of the ruling class — lose any right to see the information that went into what “scientists say.” Thus when Virginia’s attorney general subpoenaed the data by which Professor Michael Mann had concluded, while paid by the state of Virginia, that the earth’s temperatures are rising “like a hockey stick” from millennial stability — a conclusion on which billions of dollars’ worth of decisions were made — to investigate the possibility of fraud, the University of Virginia’s faculty senate condemned any inquiry into “scientific endeavor that has satisfied peer review standards” claiming that demands for data “send a chilling message to scientists…and indeed scholars in any discipline.” The Washington Post editorialized that the attorney general’s demands for data amounted to “an assault on reason.” The fact that the “hockey stick” conclusion stands discredited and Mann and associates are on record manipulating peer review, the fact that science-by-secret-data is an oxymoron, the very distinction between truth and error, all matter far less to the ruling class than the distinction between itself and those they rule.

By identifying science and reason with themselves, our rulers delegitimize opposition. Though they cannot prevent Americans from worshiping God, they can make it as socially disabling as smoking — to be done furtively and with a bad social conscience. Though they cannot make Americans wish they were Europeans, they continue to press upon this nation of refugees from the rest of the world the notion that Americans ought to live by “world standards.” Each day, the ruling class produces new “studies” that show that one or another of Americans’ habits is in need of reform, and that those Americans most resistant to reform are pitiably, perhaps criminally, wrong. Thus does it go about disaggregating and dispiriting the ruled.” (emphasis added)

Beyond the excerpt:  I commend Codevilla’s entire article to you.  In fact, I urge you to click on the link and print out the article.  Sit and read it and be forever changed by its content. I pray that the article opens your eyes and that moral courage arises in your heart.

America’s Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution by Claremont Institute Senior Fellow Angelo Codevillano_room_at_the_inn_postcard

 

Now, perhaps, you know these culprits,  the Unconstrained Visionaries, by their characteristics:  snobbish, name-calling bullies; cliquish; desiring kinship w/other like-minded people; seeking power by government association; demanding rule by ‘right’; believing themselves morally and intellectually right; saying “You must obey us because we know better”; blinded to their  ‘well-intentioned’ actions leading to horrible unintended consequences; believing they know better than you; applying a “living constitution” template to every legal decision; using science as leverage without any depth of scientific knowledge; posturing “settled science” to quash dissent;  believing they “have the one true faith”; deeming that intentions and not results matter most; obtaining snobbery wielding government power;… combining attitude with government power, coercive.

…

Utopia Has No Room for You (and Swaddled Truth) in the Inn.

Us Christians, we abide in Christ wherever we are.  We’ll leave the Light on.

…

Background on the Constrained and Unconstrained Visions, the intuitive assumptions that shape our worldview:

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No Stone Left Unturned

April 1, 2016 Leave a comment

 

“Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”” Matthew 24: 1-2

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jerichoA “Roll away the stone” anthology: Jericho’s stone wall fortifications fall under their own weight and with the help of a pro-God marching band. An adulterous woman, caught between a stoning and a hard place, looks to the Rock that is higher than her and her accusers. The man of God Stephen speaks aloud his rock-solid revelation while on trial and is consequently stoned to death by a PC jury of non-peers. Lazarus becomes memorialized forever, but not in stone. The disciples find that the stone in front of Jesus’ tomb has been rolled away – and pulverized! Even stones will cry out in praise to God if others are silenced! woman-caught-in-adultery

 

Urban fortifications, buttressed by Reason’s Redirects:

“…from the eighteenth century on, people have said that if you believe in modern science – by which they mean the Epicurean project of scientism, which claims empirical evidence for the philosophical worldview – then you can’t believe in the resurrection. This skepticism has, however, nothing modern about it. Lucretius, the greatest ancient Epicurean, would have scoffed at the idea of resurrection. So would Homer or Aeschylus or Plato or Pliny. The point is that the resurrection, if it had occurred, would undermine the Enlightenment’s self-congratulatory dream of world history reaching its destiny in our day and our own systems. That’s why the resurrection has been seen in scholarship not as the launching of new creation but simply as the most bizarre of miracles, then as an impossible miracle, then as a dangerous ideological claim. You bet it’s dangerous. If it’s true, other ideologies are brought to book. (Emphasis added) N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Scripture

Stephen being stoned (1)There are those, of course, who wish to remain under a rock, preferring to be entombed in “night’s predominance.” They would hate for anyone to turn over their stone and expose them to the “living light.”

There are those, of course, who wish to keep people under a rock, preferring them be entombed in “night’s predominance.” They would hate for anyone to turn over their stone and be exposed to the “living light.” See the Ruling class and its humanist Kulturkampf war on the family, Progressives, atheists and others disposed to slither from rock to rock.

lazarus8

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Truth-seekers turn over every stone until they find the Stone that was rejected by society’s builders. And regardless of what the culture is telling you, that Stone has become the cornerstone from which all things are to be aligned and made square.

 

Once you find that Stone, then like the resurrection you become “dangerous” and begin to turn the world upside down, stones included. The world will notice and protest vigorously…

Acts_of_the_Apostles_Chapter_17-6_(Bible_Illustrations_by_Sweet_Media)

“…they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,…” Acts 17:6

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HOSHIANA Once and for All

March 26, 2016 Leave a comment

sacrificial love

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Roll Away the Stone from Your Mouth

March 19, 2016 Leave a comment

 

“Take away the stone,” Jesus said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

…

Is ‘t night’s predominance or day’s shame

That darkness does the face of Earth entomb

When living light should kiss it?

Ross, Act 2, Scene 4, Shakespeare’s Macbeth

~~~

In the previous post Cow Bells Are for Fellow Travellers, the link presented Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s essay Live Not By Lies prefaced as follows:

Solzhenitsyn penned this essay in 1974 and it circulated among Moscow’s intellectuals at the time. It is dated Feb. 12, the same day that secret police broke into his apartment and arrested him. The next day he was exiled to West Germany. The essay is a call to moral courage and serves as light to all who value truth.

Solzhenitsyn’s polemical speech to Harvard was also a call to moral courage.

But what happens when moral courage is eschewed and truth is not uttered?  “Darkness does the face of Earth entomb.”

There has been a long history of “night’s predominance.” And you may think that you are a modern enlightened individual who can shed light on the road before you, but check your rear view mirror to see where you have been.

Epicurean philosophy, in vogue since before 300 BC, has denied the existence of a Personal God and, alternatively, has placed a high value on sensate feelings and friendship.  As a consequence, today truth is most often considered not to be Objective – the authority of an absolute infinite-personal God, but rather subjective, what our friends let us get away with saying.  Truth now lives with its ‘friends’ in the land of “Like” on Facebook and Twitter.

Epicurean atheists and agnostics posit science – Epicurean atomism – as the beginning and end of all knowledge, declaring revelation and immortality to be romantic nonsense or the effects of too much wine.

The Long March of Cultural Marxism up to the present day disregards any absolutes and even the verities of science.  President Barack Obama declares AGW to be “settled science” when in fact Obama has no published thesis or academic record to show if he is even worthy of us contemplating such an outrageous claim.

The Long March stomps out revered traditional values and Christianity wherever such Objective Truth-based morality is found, replacing them with immediate social consciousness sound bites. And thus, subjective truth becomes a milieu of Epicurean-based malleable “truth”, worthy of Karl Marx. Marx conceived of truth (only in political-economic terms, of course) as what friends contrive when amassing social consciousness. Later, French philosopher Foucault would say the same. Thus the importance our culture now places on social media, polls and majorities, and on discrimination instead of discernment, as opposed to Objective absolute Truth.

 

What happens when moral courage is eschewed and truth shunned?   There is a loss of liberty.

“You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” –Jesus. But the Ruling class elites want to define truth and set the narrative.

Professor emeritus of international relations at Boston University, Angelo M. Codevilla’s National Review article Standing Up to the Ruling Class: What citizens can do to resist the ruling class’s redefinitions of moral and cultural norms speaks directly to the reality facing us, and those who have recoiled from truth-speaking:

“If you’re wondering what Americans can do as our ruling class sets about enforcing its redefinition of marriage, start by looking back at what it did to the citizens of Indiana when their legislature raised the possibility that someone might object to joining in celebrations of homosexual marriage…

Indiana’s Republicans, its churches, and conservatives in general pled for the liberty to speak and act according to religious faith. They did not and do not argue the worth of the Judeo-Christian religious beliefs that the ruling class deems odious.This has proved to be self-defeating. Appeals for tolerance of all beliefs in the name of America’s traditional freedoms fail because they concede the ruling class’s assertion of its own moral-intellectual superiority, as well as its underlying assumption that good and evil, better and worse, are just other words for its own likes and dislikes…

Consequently, if we wish to remain who we are in the face of threats and declamations meant to force us to honor intellectual and moral falsehoods, we have no alternative but clearly and loudly to distinguish between true and false, fully making the case for what we believe to be right. There is no viable alternative to confronting the ruling class’s fantasies and euphemisms substantively, in detail.

Peaceable behavior will not protect you from being hounded as a “hater.” A whiff of “offensive” attitudes is enough for the ruling class to make you as untouchable as the lepers of old. Nor is silence a refuge.” (emphasis added)

You will want to read the whole article, contemplate its message and summon moral courage.

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Jesus stood before a member of the Ruling Class, Pontius Pilate:

“What is truth?” Jesus did not bear witness to what his friends wanted him to say. Jesus did not say, as French intellectual Michel Foucalt postulated, that truth is “regime” of beliefs and values linked to systems of political and economic power, a scientific, non-universal apparatus feeding into majority opinions.” 

In the days before his foretold crucifixion, Jesus told Pilate, and his disciples previously, that He came to bear witness to all that his Father does and says.  Crucifixion was invoked by the “Crucify him!” social consciousness to silence Objective Truth – what the Father does and says.  But then Objective Resurrection occurred and Truth was exalted to the highest place – God’s right hand.

 

Who is your father?  The father of lies who is the grand marshal of the Long March.  Or, is it the Father in heaven? Who do you testify about?

Have you ever seen the Father rejoice over homosexuality or homosexual marriage? Jesus at the wedding in Cana showed the Father’s blessing of his creation: male and female marriage. Never once has Objective truth ever endorsed homosexuality.

The unscientific paramours of homosexuality, psychology and psychiatry, add their voice to the loudest, angriest voices on social media so as “to raise awareness” and to alter the predominate consciousness of the natural union of male and female.

~~~

Speaking of the binary:  Truth-seekers need both reason and revelation.   Each informs the other. Both need to be declared. And, we must leave the nether land of sentimentality that keeps us entombed in darkness and ready to give up.

Start with the Objective historical facts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  There were hundreds of witnesses to the resurrection. And like Paul, we have become witnesses of the Resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus revealed truth about the Father, that there is life beyond atomism. There is immortality; life is more than the body, and incredibly more than the packaging of identity politics.

A.D. The Bible Continues

Be not afraid. Roll away the stone from your mouth. Do not remain silent. And, did not Jesus say that persecutions would come when we spoke truth? Were these persecutions based on silent acquiescence so as discern whether to be “Liked”? No. Here’s what Jesus said:

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

The Eternal Living light:

“The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.”  I John 1:2

~~~

 

“Scripture urges us to “expose the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11) and avoid becoming partners with those “who deceive with empty words” (Ephesians 5:6). Colossians implores us not to be “taken captive by deceit.” We’re warned in 2 Timothy that the time will come when people will not want to hear the truth, so they will surround themselves with frauds who tell them what their “itching ears want to hear.” I believe we have arrived at that moment, and it is now urgent that we specifically identify these frauds and false teachers. This is not a fun or polite process, but it is necessary, so we must get on with it.” (emphasis added)

Let’s Remember The Cowardly Conservative Leaders Who Betrayed Us For Trump

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Cow Bells Are for Fellow Travelers

March 14, 2016 Leave a comment

 

Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”

…

Do not submit your humanity and your dignity to cultural Marxism and its systematic lies. The narrative of the ruling class is meant dehumanize you, to make you cattle in need of prodding: “There is no need for discussion or debate.” “Truth is what we tell you.” “Shut up and listen!” “Dissent is bigotry!” “It is settled science!”

What should those in the Kingdom of God do to stop the Long March of cultural Marxism? Stand up to the ruling class. Do not equivocate to appease or to be inclusive. Truth is not relative. Truth is Revelation sent from God: “for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth.”

Why are you in this world? To deny Truth? To be yoked to lies?

What should those in the Kingdom of God do to stop the Long March of cultural Marxism? Like Jesus, speak truth to power.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918 – 2008)

Alexander Solzhenitsyn
(1918 – 2008)

A clarion call to moral courage is required. Here is an excerpt from Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s essay Live Not By Lies (emphasis added):

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Our path is to talk away from the gangrenous boundary. If we did not paste together the dead bones and scales of ideology, if we did not sew together the rotting rags, we would be astonished how quickly the lies would be rendered helpless and subside.

That which should be naked would then really appear naked before the whole world.

So in our timidity, let each of us make a choice: Whether consciously, to remain a servant of falsehood—of course, it is not out of inclination, but to feed one’s family, that one raises his children in the spirit of lies—or to shrug off the lies and become an honest man worthy of respect both by one’s children and contemporaries.

And from that day onward he:

  • Will not henceforth write, sign, or print in any way a single phrase which in his opinion distorts the truth.
  • Will utter such a phrase neither in private conversation not in the presence of many people, neither on his own behalf not at the prompting of someone else, either in the role of agitator, teacher, educator, not in a theatrical role.
  • Will not depict, foster or broadcast a single idea which he can only see is false or a distortion of the truth whether it be in painting, sculpture, photography, technical science, or music.
  • Will not cite out of context, either orally or written, a single quotation so as to please someone, to feather his own nest, to achieve success in his work, if he does not share completely the idea which is quoted, or if it does not accurately reflect the matter at issue.
  • Will not allow himself to be compelled to attend demonstrations or meetings if they are contrary to his desire or will, will neither take into hand not raise into the air a poster or slogan which he does not completely accept.
  • Will not raise his hand to vote for a proposal with which he does not sincerely sympathize, will vote neither openly nor secretly for a person whom he considers unworthy or of doubtful abilities.
  • Will not allow himself to be dragged to a meeting where there can be expected a forced or distorted discussion of a question. Will immediately talk out of a meeting, session, lecture, performance or film showing if he hears a speaker tell lies, or purvey ideological nonsense or shameless propaganda.
  • Will not subscribe to or buy a newspaper or magazine in which information is distorted and primary facts are concealed. Of course we have not listed all of the possible and necessary deviations from falsehood. But a person who purifies himself will easily distinguish other instances with his purified outlook.

No, it will not be the same for everybody at first. Some, at first, will lose their jobs. For young people who want to live with truth, this will, in the beginning, complicate their young lives very much, because the required recitations are stuffed with lies, and it is necessary to make a choice.

But there are no loopholes for anybody who wants to be honest. On any given day any one of us will be confronted with at least one of the above-mentioned choices even in the most secure of the technical sciences. Either truth or falsehood: Toward spiritual independence or toward spiritual servitude.

And he who is not sufficiently courageous even to defend his soul—don’t let him be proud of his “progressive” views, don’t let him boast that he is an academician or a people’s artist, a merited figure, or a general—let him say to himself: I am in the herd, and a coward. It’s all the same to me as long as I’m fed and warm

… You say it will not be easy? But it will be easiest of all possible resources. It will not be an easy choice for a body, but it is the only one for a soul. No, it is not an easy path. But there are already people, even dozens of them, who over the years have maintained all these points and live by the truth.

So you will not be the first to take this path, but will join those who have already taken it. This path will be easier and shorter for all of us if we take it by mutual efforts and in close rank. If there are thousands of us, they will not be able to do anything with us. If there are tens of thousands of us, then we would not even recognize our country.

 

If we are too frightened, then we should stop complaining that someone is suffocating us. We ourselves are doing it. Let us then bow down even more, let us wail, and our brothers the biologists will help to bring nearer the day when they are able to read our thoughts are worthless and hopeless.

 

And if we get cold feet, even taking this step, then we are worthless and hopeless, and the scorn of Pushkin should be directed to us:

Why should cattle have the gifts of freedom?

Their heritage from generation to generation is the belled yoke and the lash.”

…

Cow Bells Are for Fellow Travellers. Resurrection Day bells are for those wedded to the Truth.

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The Human Condition: A Root of Bitterness is Fuel to Burn

March 13, 2016 Leave a comment

 

Two campaigns. Two distinct political parties. And two very similar underlying class warfare tropes being megaphoned in order to incite discontent, anger and anarchy in the heart of the voter.

Both campaigns are stoking the political fire of self-interest with the dried roots of bitterness.

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“A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much while so many have so little…We need a tax system which asks the billionaire class to pay its fair share of taxes and which reduces the obscene degree of wealth inequality in America” –Bernie Sanders

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“There may be somebody with tomatoes in the audience. If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?

Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees.” –Donald Trump, encouraging violence at his rallies, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Feb. 1, 2016

~~~

Bernie Sanders wants the vote of the young and old dependents because life isn’t fair. There is a disparity of wealth in the world and Bernie’s wants to be your Fixer. Each generation’s Bernie knows better than anyone in history how to make envy work for you. Now, it’s OK to be envious when everyone gets on board. So, let’s call it “Democratic Socialism”.

And why Democratic Socialism: “You are human.” Well, yeah, I exist. But more than that, my better nature knows that envy is part of my baser nature.

2016:  The subhuman demands for all kinds of “more” by the soon-to-be jack booting vox populi is a paean to the “wonders” of collectivism. This populist tripe runs parallel with Trump’s hogwash.

 

The codependent “settled science” supporters of Trump, also young and old dependents of another’s largesse are hearing that a vote for Trump will leverage their dignity, influence and economic standing.  Apparently his supporters had allowed all three to be debased before Trump came along. Excuses are in vogue.

Listening to Trump, one would hear Trump boast that he is a “Fixer”, a negotiator, a wheeler-dealer bar none.  Free Trade, influence, Mexico…life in America hasn’t been fair and Trump is your man to make “America Great Again”, to level the playing field.

Trump’s teaser:  “The beauty of me is that I’m very rich.” –Donald Trump

 

 

Whether it is Bernie’s entreaty to a collective of common purpose with his take on “A Future to Believe in” or Trump’s Nationalistic common purpose appeal to “Make America Great Again” both slogans share a common theme:  “Vote for me and together we will make great gains against unfairness. The monopoly of our common purpose – “Fairness” – can be ours.”

Both camps ply the same Marxian argument: “You are not to blame. You have worked hard, you played by the rules and yet others are gaining more than you. Someone or something is to blame – “The Establishment”; “The Rigged System”; “Capitalism”; “Wall St.”, “China.” “Trade”; “The little people.”

 

For our benefit, ancient history recorded such fair-share covetousness, now called “fairness” by Bernie fans and “leveling the playing field” by Trump.

 

Scenario one:  Joseph and the gift of a coat.  This story is common knowledge so I won’t repeat the whole story here.

Joseph had many older brothers who tended their father’s flock.  They played by the rules.

Joseph was gifted a beautiful garment by his father, out of the father’s love for Joseph. Now, pop psychology would decry such a gift as being unfair to the older brothers.  But, in a Christian worldview, the older brothers should have rejoiced with Joseph.

Instead, out of growing envy, bitterness and anger, the brothers sent Joseph away into slavery, unbeknownst to a grief-stricken father.  They wanted things to be fair by leveling the playing field – Joseph out of the picture, more for them. They wanted to assuage their anger by removing the reason for their anger.

 

Scenario two:  the prodigal son parable. Told by Jesus.  Again, a well know parable.

The prodigal son demanded all of his inheritance up front. Perhaps he had home schooling tuition bills to pay and some wild oats to sow.  Later, coming to his senses after feeling his empty pockets he returned home to his father.

His father was ecstatic about his son’s return. His brother, not so much.  His brother saw what transpired – a willfully impoverished son is gifted a second chance by his father.  No fair!

The play-by-the-rules brother becomes disconsolate, pouty and sorely envious of such treatment.  The brother had tended to his father’s business and didn’t fall out of line. No fair! Expectations had been high all along.  But now a root of bitterness also began to grow deep inside.

The brother wanted the playing field leveled.  The daggers in his eyes told the story.  He wanted to stick it to his prodigal bother and be rewarded by his father for playing by the rules.

“I want somebody to make things fair!!! Use force. Use whatever to make things fair!!!”

~~~

Democratic Tyranny is something that you can vote for this election season. But not the next one. Your choices will be taken away.

~~~

“Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.” — Theodore Roosevelt

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Your Thoughts Will Be Narrated by Groupthink

March 12, 2016 Leave a comment

 

“it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence but their social existence that determines their consciousness” ―Karl Marx

~~~

Your personal property, including your thoughts, must be submitted to the Narrative…

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The Evolving Permanence Needs Your TLC

March 6, 2016 Leave a comment

tomato plant“…for anyone who is concerned about the survival of culture, there are some important lessons in the armory of cultural instructions accompanying a humble tomato plant.  Perhaps the chief lesson has to do with time and continuity, the evolving permanence that cultural animi no less than agricultural cultivation requires if it is to be successful. All those tips, habits, prohibitions, and necessities that have been accumulated from time out of mind and passed down, generation after generation:  How much in our society militates against such antidotes to anarchy and decay!”  Roger Kimball’s Fortunes of Permanence:  Culture in the Age of Amnesia

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“…once we recognize the deep-rooted Epicureanism of much of Western culture, our vocation as Christian thinkers is not to make an easy, compromising peace with it but to discern how to restate and reinhabit a genuinely Christian worldview in its place.”  N.T. Wright’s Surprised By Scripture

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“And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,

The instruments of darkness tell us truths,

Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s

In deepest consequence.”

Banquo, Act 1, Scene 3, Shakespeare’s Macbeth

 

You can’t help but notice that it is tax time again.  If you have any income at all then taxes are due.  If you have made more than a little income then you owe, progressively owe, unrelentingly owe. And make sure you pay through the nose for health care so you don’t have to pay through the nose for a tax penalty.  Thank you Democrats and SCOTUS for winning Americans “to our harm”.   tax forms.png

I finished my taxes.  Again, I find myself supporting that half of the nation that is not paying taxes – you know, the Queer studies students, the #Blacklivesmatter street walkers and so on.  Bernie Sanders, an avowed Socialist wants me to be shamed into paying more taxes so he can give away free stuff to more freeloaders. The Millennials are gaga over Bernie.  But they should know:  formerly socialist countries have already felt the Bern – the fires of riots. See Greece.

My 86-year-old mother is still paying taxes!  I volunteered to do her Fed and State returns this year.  Now, my mother receives an annuity. To figure her taxes I had to print out reams of IRS publications just to figure the amount due! America is forms on top of forms.

Comfortble truthsThe currently leading candidates from each party are both being investigated.  Hillary is being scrutinized by the FBI on felony charges related to her illegal use of a personal computer while in the State Dept. If AG Lynch does her job, then Hillary will be indicted and likely sent to prison.  But AG Lynch is an in-the-bag Democrat who thinks in political terms first, the people last.

Trump is being investigated on fraud charges related to Trump U. What are Trump supporters thinking? Didn’t they get enough Bernie Madoff? “Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s in deepest consequence.”  trump faces

So you are aware, I have never have voted for a Democrat in my life. I cannot in good conscience vote for a party platform that supports abortion and the party of the KKK or the party that booed God at their last convention or the party of big government and ever bigger tax increases.  It is no lie that Democrats do not support economic growth.  They will support redistribution by taxation until your money runs out.

Frederic Bastiat QuoteBefore you listen to the video of Ted Cruz, let me say that life in a republic requires your attention, your critical thinking and your tender loving care. Your vote must carefully tend the “evolving permanence”. Your vote must militate against “anarchy and decay.”

That is the reason I am voting for Ted Cruz.  Ted cruz supports

The Supreme Court.  The revered Justice Scalia recently passed. An offshoot of the same hardy, resilient, weather resistant genes must be grafted onto the court. And, not only must Scalia’s position be filled but Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s court seat will likely become vacant this next term.

“Sustainability” is an oft heard word these days. If you care about this republic, where freedom grows like nowhere else in the world, then…Ted Cruz is your caretaker.

Sen. Ted Cruz

Consititution folks

Ted Cruz, A Personal Look At A Humble Man

Donald Trump’s business disaster is worse than you think

The communist failures that await Obama when he goes to Cuba

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How’s That Fiat Culture Working for You?

February 28, 2016 Leave a comment

“Culture no longer necessarily implies self-cultivation or learning; it is a value neutral term embracing everything and nothing.  Its practitioners are largely oblivious of the noble ambition to transcend time and place to discover eternal truths or to create works of enduring beauty.

They are instead transfixed by technologically driven ephemera, guilt-induced humanitarianism, and status-defined identity politics.  In such circumstances, culture may lose its autonomy and become instead the mere reflection of society that Marxist and utilitarians of many stripes have always taken it to be.”  The Dereliction of Duty by Daniel Johnson

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“The study of the past is the main portal through which culture is acquired.”

“The acquisition of culture requires repose, sitting quietly in a room with a book, or alone with one’s thoughts even in any crowded concert or art museum.”

― Joseph Epstein, A Literary Education and Other Essays

~~~

“Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did.” 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

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“…the gold-standard, which had existed since the Lydian’s first coinage, disappeared forever in the two decades after World War I.

Freed from the obligation of having to exchange paper money for the yellow metal, governments began to print bills, sometimes with abandon…the result was the first great worldwide inflation.”  The Four Pillars of Investing by William J. Bernstein

~~~

Pictures at an Exhibition. Teaching students about contemplation…

“Opportunities to unlock the poetry and stories of their surroundings were no longer a given, and skill in doing so was waning.

[Harvard’s Jennifer] Roberts responded by placing one of her assignments, a three-hour “visual analysis” of an artwork, at the center of her teaching to show her charges that learning is not synonymous with access, that knowledge is not available at a glance…

For Roberts, introducing her students to the practice of “naïve observation” as preparatory research has become something more than a simple homework assignment. Time, she seeks to show, is not the enemy but the vehicle of understanding.  Slowness is not an obstacle to progress but a key to the practice of knowledge-making.  And close looking is preface to the hard-won making of thought.  At heart, she is coaxing her students to question what’s beyond surface appearances—of a painting, a frown, a flower, or an idea.” (emphasis added) Catching Our Eye by Maggie Jackson, The State of the American Mind

Beyond the data. Since the days of the Enlightenment there has been a conflict between two truth-seeking modes:  the scientific or rational and the intuitive or poetic. The latter is losing ground.  The packaging has become more important than the gift.  And so…

The little lambs of this generation are lost in self-discovery.  The wisdom of the ages, a shepherding influence, has been left far behind.  The sheep wander aimlessly, not realizing the danger they are in. Seeing this, the wolves salivate. Think political motivation. Think identity politics. Think liberal colleges. Think race and gender cards.

“Dereliction of Duty”. Christian churches have sought the lost sheep with the cultural gimmickry that deserves only a glance.  Worse. The church’s One Foundation has been replaced with a multilayered mosaic of cultural soapstones.

The return to the gold-standard for those of us in the kingdom of God:  see the side bar and the N.T. Wright quote.

 

Filed under Culture Tagged with

Nightmare on Envy St.

February 21, 2016 Leave a comment

Nightmare on Elm st 1Envy St. has been the road most travelled from the start. Covetousness and self-deception have been the vehicles of choice. The serpent promised the first couple that they could become like God – their projected 1%.

“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good from evil.” Genesis 3: 4, 5

And so they believed the lie that having the same quality as God would create equality with God. They believed they could transcend their humanity and become Singularity.  They democratically voted “Yes,” and bit off more than mankind could chew.
~~~
Man as Singularity – Freddie Kruger voters:  freddy_krueger
“Since the end of the second world war…a new ethic has, astonishingly, come into being, according to which envious man is altogether acceptable. Progressively fewer individuals and groups are ashamed of their envy, but instead make out that its existence in their temperament proves the existence of “social injustice,” which must be eliminated for their benefit. Suddenly it has become possible to say, without loss of public credibility and trust, “I envy you. Give me what you’ve got.”  (emphasis added) Helmut Schoeck, sociologist
~~~
The Day Democratic Socialism Died:

In his final semester, Trevor had earned enough credits to graduate.  Trevor had worked long and hard.  He would graduate in the top 1% of his class. And, as expected, Trevor’s school loan would come due a year from graduation. Trevor would need to find work. But.

 Trevor, a student of required Karl Marx readings, was told that 90% of his credits now must be redistributed to other classmates who were lacking credits. Trevor was taught that socialism is the way of the future and that he must submit.

Trevor, now, would need to apply for another student loan to earn more credits to graduate. And though tenured professors did not have to redistribute their years of teaching to create tenure for other teachers (some people being more equal than others), Trevor accepted his plight….by saying, “Hell no!”
~~~ Bernie Sanders bernie a true socialist
The push for equality through Democracy, equality tied to a certain feature of your neighbor’s life, is not unlike an out of control spender charging every purchase to a credit card to keep up with the Joneses or the Kardashians or the Real House Wives of Orange County and then paying the minimum due every month.
~~~  Frederic Bastiat Quote
“And it is a good thing that many ideas have a relatively short shelf-life. Some because they are bad, even pernicious ideas: the Master Race, the class struggle, the Oedipus complex, and Socialism are four bad ideas with wretched consequences that come immediately to mind.”
bernie sanders unicorn
“Being an anti-capitalist and hence being able to blame capitalism—often known more simply as “the system”—for any failure I might encounter through my own lack of talent or absence of energy not only provided me with a fine fallback position, but permitted me to view anyone who labored at a workaday job in the system with a rather lofty contempt.”  bernie sanders unicorn 1.gif
― Joseph Epstein, A Literary Education and Other Essays
~~~
More required reading. Credit applies to graduating with honors in saying “No” to socialism:

“This Presidential election looks more like an election in Europe than one from America. On the Democratic side you have a 74 year old self-avowed socialist and a 68 year old progressive. On the GOP side you have forgotten the message of Reagan where Government was the problem, now it’s just badly managed. At the GOP debate last week you had a debate over whether Obama is incompetent or an ideologue.”

Karl Marx’s 10 Point Checklist to Communism – Where Does America Rank?

“What Keynes succeeded in doing was to provide a rationale for what governments always like to do: spend other people’s money and pander to special interests.”

The Follies and Fallacies of Keynesian Economics

Thomas Sowell – Common sense economist

Socialism: The Force Is Not With You

Added, #FeeltheBern of socialism in Sweden:

“When leftists fantasize about Northern Europe, the first thing they think of is the region’s enormous public spending and its overly generous welfare state. However, as with all dreams, the time is coming to wake up. Along with several other social services, Sweden’s iconic “free” healthcare system’s days are numbered.”

Socialist Paradise of Sweden Reportedly Moving TO PRIVATE HEALTHCARE

This Is How Bad It’s Got In Latin America’s Socialist Utopia

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