Conservatism: A Lecture (by Christopher Dawson) https://t.co/hqnLvEoFOz
— ImaginativeConservat (@imaginativecons) May 25, 2021
Showing posts with label Christopher Dawson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christopher Dawson. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Christopher Dawson on Conservatism
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
R. Hittinger on Christopher Dawson
How Would Christopher Dawson Redeem the West? by Russell Hittinger
Monday, May 18, 2015
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Misc Items for Today
The Lecture Works, and It Always Has by Collin Garbarino
How Many Friends Can Your Brain Handle?
Certain brain areas are enlarged and white-matter tracts were better connected in people with larger social networks
The Bourgeois Are At the Gates by Dale M. Coulter
How Many Friends Can Your Brain Handle?
Certain brain areas are enlarged and white-matter tracts were better connected in people with larger social networks
The Bourgeois Are At the Gates by Dale M. Coulter
Thursday, June 20, 2013
An Interesting Contrast Regarding Time and History
John Michael Greer: What Actually Happens and Vox Day: Mailvox: time-preferences and civilization
Related:
Augustinian History: As Understood by Kirk and Dawson by Brad Birzer
Related:
Augustinian History: As Understood by Kirk and Dawson by Brad Birzer
Saturday, June 08, 2013
Christopher Dawson, Historian of Christendom
Christopher Dawson's Christendom by Bradley Birzer (also posted at CWR)
Monday, June 03, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Christopher Dawson on Conservatism
The Imaginative Conservative: Conservatism: A Lecture by Christopher Dawson
Introduction and Notes by Joseph T. Stuart
Introduction and Notes by Joseph T. Stuart
Thursday, November 22, 2012
“The Integration of Theory and Practice”
Begun on October 16.
“The Integration of Theory and Practice:” Eric Heubeck’s Proposal For Cultural Guerilla War against the Leftist Establishment
I was looking through Orthosphere, and this caught my attention. As the introduction explains, the author of the essay is "Eric Heubeck, a protégé of Paul Weyrich at the Free Congress Foundation." Is the essay reconcilable with a localist/right communitarian program? Certain much of that proposal is precisely that. But it's more. Alan Roebuck writes in his introduction to the essay:
Let's take a closer look at one section:
Is he talking about the political, economic, intellectual, and social elites of this country? If the former, I don't think there is much of a shot at this happening, unless they already happen to be devout Christians. There may be a few, but how many of them are believers in "capitalism" or partisan Republicans? Certain priests who come into contact with the elites (like members of PSHC of Opus Dei) may evangelize and convert some, but how likely is this to happen? We do not seek to change just "private" morality, but healthy communities, and these need to have some measure of autarky, as well as be sustainable and resilient. It is more likely that a new "elite" will have to be created, but how?
A healthy and flourishing Christian community may be able to convert some of the wealthy, who can then act to preserve that community through their monetary support.
As it is unlikely that traditional conservatives could gain control of a national media outlet, what about employing alternate mass media sources (like the internet)? But is this not already being done now? What obvious results can we see from this?
Leaders for the group will be selected - but will there be a formal mechanism for this? Who gets to decide who gets to be a leader, unless they are already leaders? Or will leaders be recognized informally by the other members of the group, standing apart from the others because of their abilities, dedication, and the respect that they've gained? They may not have money but they make up for it in character and the commitment to a place. Do we Uhmericans have the sufficient humility that enables us to recognize that others are more qualified for leadership than we?
Traditional communities can foster a local identity (we recognize that there are valid differences between local cultures) while adhering to a common intellectual patrimony (or [Western] culture). Is that intellectual patrimony sufficient to define a group? No. There are also the [local] customs and mores.
As for the place of modern mass "art" in such an effort - they may be a necessary "cultural" reference points, but do movies and television suffice as stories and bearers of tradition? I am doubtful of their cultural value as a whole, other than providing images for the development of the moral imagination for beginners - scenes of heroism and virtue. The problem with the moving image is that one cannot replicate it through words, either spoken, through [lyric] poetry, or written, in books. To make use of the moving image one must have the means to display it, and in a future without cheap electricity, one should not depend too much upon it for the transmission of culture to the next generation.
Referring to the classics may not be enough to recover the tradition, if people are ignorant of the classics, but substituting movies and television shows is inadequate because they are unable to provide a long-lasting foundation for the transmission of the tradition. The neo-traditionalist leadership may need to study the classics, philosophy, political science; what suffices for the "average" traditionalist conservative? The knowledge of their history, familiarity with the intellectual tradition, coupled with a sound moral formation?
What stories do we tell and what history do we remember? Is it possible to create a history wholly anew? No, because we are not generated spontaneously from nothing. The Christian community will have their saints, but it is proper that we remember those who may not have been as holy but nonetheless contributed to the well-being of those who came before us and of our communities. As for our experience in being part of a nation/empire - this is reality, not something we can ignore in our history-telling, as if we could just wish it away. But the degeneration of the federal union into empire can be a useful warning to future generations.
“The Integration of Theory and Practice:” Eric Heubeck’s Proposal For Cultural Guerilla War against the Leftist Establishment
I was looking through Orthosphere, and this caught my attention. As the introduction explains, the author of the essay is "Eric Heubeck, a protégé of Paul Weyrich at the Free Congress Foundation." Is the essay reconcilable with a localist/right communitarian program? Certain much of that proposal is precisely that. But it's more. Alan Roebuck writes in his introduction to the essay:
What I find most appealing about Heubeck’s proposal is that it combines the two different strategies that traditionalist conservatives propose, but that are generally regarded as mutually exclusive: retreat, in order to develop a non-liberal counterculture, and attack, in an attempt to retake the nation.
Let's take a closer look at one section:
Support of an Elite More Valuable than Support of the Masses
We will initially operate according to the belief that it is more important to win over the elites (or create a new, better one) than to build up a mass movement. Furthermore, it is more important to have a few impassioned members than a large number of largely indifferent members. The amount of energy, élan, and self-assurance that we are able to inculcate in the leaders of our movement will ultimately determine its success or failure.
The new movement must be, in part, exclusive and elite. It must not be afraid to pass along a body of knowledge that is not readily accessible to and understandable by everyone. The strong appeal of a feeling of exclusivity and superiority will give our members a reason to endure the slings and arrows of popular disapproval.
The New Traditionalist movement will appeal to the masses, but not immediately. The ideas of the masses never come from the masses. To the extent that the masses are more conservative than the elites, this is primarily because the masses have a long collective memory, and they still value the beliefs articulated by a long-lost elite. The conservative instincts of the American people will continue to erode unless a new elite is formed to refresh that memory.
We must recognize that literature and philosophy do not appeal to the masses. This is why we must develop ways to spread our philosophy using non-rational means–especially the moving image.
Is he talking about the political, economic, intellectual, and social elites of this country? If the former, I don't think there is much of a shot at this happening, unless they already happen to be devout Christians. There may be a few, but how many of them are believers in "capitalism" or partisan Republicans? Certain priests who come into contact with the elites (like members of PSHC of Opus Dei) may evangelize and convert some, but how likely is this to happen? We do not seek to change just "private" morality, but healthy communities, and these need to have some measure of autarky, as well as be sustainable and resilient. It is more likely that a new "elite" will have to be created, but how?
A healthy and flourishing Christian community may be able to convert some of the wealthy, who can then act to preserve that community through their monetary support.
As it is unlikely that traditional conservatives could gain control of a national media outlet, what about employing alternate mass media sources (like the internet)? But is this not already being done now? What obvious results can we see from this?
Leaders for the group will be selected - but will there be a formal mechanism for this? Who gets to decide who gets to be a leader, unless they are already leaders? Or will leaders be recognized informally by the other members of the group, standing apart from the others because of their abilities, dedication, and the respect that they've gained? They may not have money but they make up for it in character and the commitment to a place. Do we Uhmericans have the sufficient humility that enables us to recognize that others are more qualified for leadership than we?
Traditional communities can foster a local identity (we recognize that there are valid differences between local cultures) while adhering to a common intellectual patrimony (or [Western] culture). Is that intellectual patrimony sufficient to define a group? No. There are also the [local] customs and mores.
As for the place of modern mass "art" in such an effort - they may be a necessary "cultural" reference points, but do movies and television suffice as stories and bearers of tradition? I am doubtful of their cultural value as a whole, other than providing images for the development of the moral imagination for beginners - scenes of heroism and virtue. The problem with the moving image is that one cannot replicate it through words, either spoken, through [lyric] poetry, or written, in books. To make use of the moving image one must have the means to display it, and in a future without cheap electricity, one should not depend too much upon it for the transmission of culture to the next generation.
Referring to the classics may not be enough to recover the tradition, if people are ignorant of the classics, but substituting movies and television shows is inadequate because they are unable to provide a long-lasting foundation for the transmission of the tradition. The neo-traditionalist leadership may need to study the classics, philosophy, political science; what suffices for the "average" traditionalist conservative? The knowledge of their history, familiarity with the intellectual tradition, coupled with a sound moral formation?
What stories do we tell and what history do we remember? Is it possible to create a history wholly anew? No, because we are not generated spontaneously from nothing. The Christian community will have their saints, but it is proper that we remember those who may not have been as holy but nonetheless contributed to the well-being of those who came before us and of our communities. As for our experience in being part of a nation/empire - this is reality, not something we can ignore in our history-telling, as if we could just wish it away. But the degeneration of the federal union into empire can be a useful warning to future generations.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Constitution Day...
A bit late... two available to subscribers to Mike Church:
2012 Constitution Day - Interview with Kevin Gutzman
2012 Constitution Day - Interview with Brion McClanahan
Plus, from 2010: What It Means to be an Imaginative Conservative
2012 H.L. Mencken Club Conference
The Fifth Annual H.L. Mencken Club Conference
Challenging the Historical Consensus
November 9-11, 2012
Ralph Nader on Rand Paul, Not His Father's Son
2012 Constitution Day - Interview with Kevin Gutzman
2012 Constitution Day - Interview with Brion McClanahan
Plus, from 2010: What It Means to be an Imaginative Conservative
2012 H.L. Mencken Club Conference
The Fifth Annual H.L. Mencken Club Conference
Challenging the Historical Consensus
November 9-11, 2012
Ralph Nader on Rand Paul, Not His Father's Son
Friday, June 08, 2012
Items of Interest, 8 June 2012
Ron Paul and the Sex Selection Abortion Ban
The New Liberal Apocalypse by Jordan Bloom
Landrieu: The King of The Mystically Imbecilic Krewe of Tacchzuss
The Detached Vision By MICHAEL OAKESHOTT
The Confederate Colonel: Michael Hill, Egalitarian Democracy, the Universal Wolf
The Amendment that Destroyed America
What’s Behind the HHS Mandate? by Gerard V. Bradley
Former president of APA says organization controlled by ‘gay rights’ movement
17-year-old tells world leaders to step up, give her a future by Greg Hanscom
Christopher Dawson on Liberalism, Part III by Brad Birzer, TIC Co-editor
Anthony Esolen, Liberality, The Fifth Lively Virtue
Flannery O'Connor: The Story of a Southern Soul
Kirk Center: Summer 2012 Reading
Memo From Middle America | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES’ Eva Longoria And The Failure Of Mexican Assimilation
Daniel McCarthy, From the Nation State to the New Church
Gamesmanship for a New Dark Age
Statism Means Culture War By ROBERT P. MURPHY
From gay marriage to education, state intervention pits citizen against citizen.
The American Empire:
Daniel McCarthy, Preparing for a Post-Imperial Future
Inside America’s Controversial Commando Conference
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Drones
Blowback and the Consequences of Obama's Foreign Policies
The Army’s Flawed Resilience-Training Study by STEPHEN SOLDZ and ROY EIDELSON
Islam:
Robin Hood, King Arthur, Muhammad by Howard Kainz
Agrarianism and Relocalization:
Cultivating Freedom By LEWIS MCCRARY (a feature on Joel Salatin)
A report on the truth of food deserts (pdf)
Small-Scale Slaughterhouses Aim To Put The 'Local' Back In Local Meat
A Review of the Localization Reader
Environmentalism:
Orion Magazine: Wendell Berry, Tim DeChristopher, and Teri Blanton discuss principled activism, April 15, 2011 (mp3)
Loaded Words BY DERRICK JENSEN
Writing as a combat discipline
The Human Costs of Fracking
An 80-Year License to Kill? by KARL GROSSMAN (nuclear power)
Catholic:
The Teen Porn Epidemic and What to Do About It
Why Isn’t Pornography Beautiful? by Mattias Caro
Fr. Z, My idea of concelebration
A little too traditionalist? I think Bouyer (and the Christian East) certainly would disagree with the multiplicity of private Masses, rather than a communal Mass, though not all priests present would be obliged to concelebrate. They could fill other clerical roles.
They show us what to be living for by Archbishop Jose Gomez
The reality is hard to believe
(on the Cristeros)
Why it's okay to be against heresy and for imposing one's will on others by Father Robert Barron
Liturgical Developments for the Anglican Ordinariate
Orthodox:
The True Self and the Story of Me
Metropolitan Kallistos of Diocleia on the Economic Crisis
Feminism:
Jack Donovan, Paycheck Fairness, “Legibility,” and a Recipe for Failure
The Problem With Patriarchy
Diet and Health:
Barefoot Running: Paleo-Fact Or Paleo-Fad?
The Real Deal on Adrenal Fatigue – Guest post on RobbWolf.com
Free the Animal: Paleos & Primals: YOU are the Key, not Disney or Michelle Obama
Tip 364: Train Like Your Ancestors: Tips to Achieve Optimal Health and Body Composition
Government not punishing individuals who choose to imbibe soda or compelling dietary decisions, just banning the product because it is unhealthy or dangerous. OK or not?
What Is Food? By MARK BITTMAN
Dating:
Final Exam – Navigating the SMP
Theology of Game
History:
‘De novo modo’: The birth of fashion in the Middle Ages
Misc:
What Duvet Said – The Tank (Crazy About You Cha Cha)
http://www.roguetwo.com/what-duvet-said-the-tank-crazy-about-you-cha-cha/
http://www.whatduvetsaid.com/audio/wds060712.mp3
Mevio
Tim Kennedy | I Want To Quit Fighting And Go Back To War
Tim Kennedy performs "Part of Me" by Katy Perry
The New Liberal Apocalypse by Jordan Bloom
Landrieu: The King of The Mystically Imbecilic Krewe of Tacchzuss
The Detached Vision By MICHAEL OAKESHOTT
The Confederate Colonel: Michael Hill, Egalitarian Democracy, the Universal Wolf
The Amendment that Destroyed America
What’s Behind the HHS Mandate? by Gerard V. Bradley
Former president of APA says organization controlled by ‘gay rights’ movement
17-year-old tells world leaders to step up, give her a future by Greg Hanscom
Christopher Dawson on Liberalism, Part III by Brad Birzer, TIC Co-editor
Anthony Esolen, Liberality, The Fifth Lively Virtue
Flannery O'Connor: The Story of a Southern Soul
Kirk Center: Summer 2012 Reading
Memo From Middle America | DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES’ Eva Longoria And The Failure Of Mexican Assimilation
Daniel McCarthy, From the Nation State to the New Church
Gamesmanship for a New Dark Age
Statism Means Culture War By ROBERT P. MURPHY
From gay marriage to education, state intervention pits citizen against citizen.
The American Empire:
Daniel McCarthy, Preparing for a Post-Imperial Future
Inside America’s Controversial Commando Conference
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Drones
Blowback and the Consequences of Obama's Foreign Policies
The Army’s Flawed Resilience-Training Study by STEPHEN SOLDZ and ROY EIDELSON
Islam:
Robin Hood, King Arthur, Muhammad by Howard Kainz
Agrarianism and Relocalization:
Cultivating Freedom By LEWIS MCCRARY (a feature on Joel Salatin)
A report on the truth of food deserts (pdf)
Small-Scale Slaughterhouses Aim To Put The 'Local' Back In Local Meat
A Review of the Localization Reader
Environmentalism:
Orion Magazine: Wendell Berry, Tim DeChristopher, and Teri Blanton discuss principled activism, April 15, 2011 (mp3)
Loaded Words BY DERRICK JENSEN
Writing as a combat discipline
The Human Costs of Fracking
An 80-Year License to Kill? by KARL GROSSMAN (nuclear power)
Catholic:
The Teen Porn Epidemic and What to Do About It
Why Isn’t Pornography Beautiful? by Mattias Caro
Fr. Z, My idea of concelebration
A little too traditionalist? I think Bouyer (and the Christian East) certainly would disagree with the multiplicity of private Masses, rather than a communal Mass, though not all priests present would be obliged to concelebrate. They could fill other clerical roles.
They show us what to be living for by Archbishop Jose Gomez
The reality is hard to believe
(on the Cristeros)
Why it's okay to be against heresy and for imposing one's will on others by Father Robert Barron
Liturgical Developments for the Anglican Ordinariate
Orthodox:
The True Self and the Story of Me
Metropolitan Kallistos of Diocleia on the Economic Crisis
Feminism:
Jack Donovan, Paycheck Fairness, “Legibility,” and a Recipe for Failure
The Problem With Patriarchy
Diet and Health:
Barefoot Running: Paleo-Fact Or Paleo-Fad?
The Real Deal on Adrenal Fatigue – Guest post on RobbWolf.com
Free the Animal: Paleos & Primals: YOU are the Key, not Disney or Michelle Obama
Tip 364: Train Like Your Ancestors: Tips to Achieve Optimal Health and Body Composition
Government not punishing individuals who choose to imbibe soda or compelling dietary decisions, just banning the product because it is unhealthy or dangerous. OK or not?
What Is Food? By MARK BITTMAN
Dating:
Final Exam – Navigating the SMP
Theology of Game
History:
‘De novo modo’: The birth of fashion in the Middle Ages
Misc:
What Duvet Said – The Tank (Crazy About You Cha Cha)
http://www.roguetwo.com/what-duvet-said-the-tank-crazy-about-you-cha-cha/
http://www.whatduvetsaid.com/audio/wds060712.mp3
Mevio
Tim Kennedy | I Want To Quit Fighting And Go Back To War
Tim Kennedy performs "Part of Me" by Katy Perry
Saturday, June 02, 2012
Items of Interest, 2 June 2012
What Did Americans Inherit from the Ancients?
by Russell Kirk
Homer and the Power of Men That Have Chests
Thomas Fleming, State Failure, Human Success
Thoughts on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee: Sixty Years a Rubber Stamp
Squat, Cough and Spread Your Cheeks! Is This Really Constitutional?
Fantasies of Liberty
A Stasi for America
Send In the Homeland Police Drones, Says Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell
Joel Salatin
Judge Napolitano Reacts to Texas Judge’s Decision to Jail Honor Student
The Homophile Agenda and the Attack on Free Speech
Daniel Larison, Some Strange Christian Nostalgia for Pre-Chrisitan Antiquity
Daniel Larison, American Exceptionalism, Foreign Policy and the Washington Rules
Andrew Bacevich, The Golden Age of Special Operations
Rod Dreher, We Should Be More Pagan and Wodehouse Cures Everything
John O'Callaghan, Pentecost and the Mandate (via MoJ)
The NG moms breastfeeding while in uniform
One Human Heart: Wordsworth’s Old Cumberland Beggar and the Sweetness of Being Human by Anthony Esolen
The Rhetoric of Alexander Hamilton by Forrest McDonald
The Household Gods of Freedom
by M. E. Bradford
A review: James Madison and the Making of America: The real story of the early American republic
Courtship, Etiquette, and the Adolescent Male
by Randall B. Smith
The Urgent Need for The Next Great Idea by Robert Nisbet
Investment and the Common Good, by Christopher Blum
Corporate Personhood and 14th Amendment Rights, by Thomas Storck
Subsidy or Subsidiarity, by Gerald J. Russello
Zeal: The Fourth Lively Virtue, by Anthony Esolen
Chinese Natural Law by Zac Alstin
How Modern Heresies Have Isolated Us and Left Us Unfulfilled
An Introduction to the Social Theories of the Middle Ages
JHK, Ponzi's End
Turn Out The Lights - The Largest U.S. Cities Are Becoming Cesspools Of Filth, Decay And Wretchedness
'Americans don't share global domination policies of their leaders'
Cardinal Wuerl:
EB: Fukushima Update, May 29
Christopher Dawson:
Christopher Dawson on Liberalism, Part I
by Brad Birzer, TIC co-editor
In Defense of Christopher Dawson
by Gerald J. Russello
Sustainability:
The Endangered Waters Beneath Our Feet
Five Questions for Carl Safina
Another documentary about overpopulation...
Relocalization:
BALLE Conference: The Heart and Soul of Local
Slow Money Northern California
6th Annual Building Green Communities Conference
Peak fiction excerpt — Buck: A Survivor of The Shut Down
Project Urban Food Forest
Why We Need to Put the Local Back into Local Enterprise Partnerships
Health Care Reform:
Misunderstanding Subsidiarity
By Peter Brown
Dan Bednarz, Goodbye, Bad Knowledge (EB)
Diet and Health:
Farm Fresh Less Expensive than Junk Food
Under Yellow Light: Mark Sisson
The Paleo Diet Moves From The Gym To The Doctor's Office
Episode 11 – Chris Masterjohn on cholesterol & heart disease (Part 1)
The Truth About Cholesterol With Chris Masterjohn (mp3)
How a Low-Carb Diet Affected My Athletic Performance
Misandry:
Hawaiian Libertarian: Diagnosis: ODD
Education:
David Mulroy, The War Against Grammar
The Beauty of a Christendom College Liberal Arts Education
Sales pitch...
The Most Honest Commencement Address You'll Never Hear
Christian:
Pageau Carvings
Evangelization -- One Family at a Time
Who is St Philip Neri according Benedict XVI
Vatican translates rules for assessing apparitions for first time
Music:
NYT obit on Doc Watson
Stetson and Cia Get Married
Misc:
Christina Cha on What Duvet Said Podcast
Top Chef tour - SF, June 16 and 17
The American West 150 Years Ago
How Do You Win a Gunfight
Debunked: 3 Reasons the AR Isn't Reliable
by Russell Kirk
Homer and the Power of Men That Have Chests
Thomas Fleming, State Failure, Human Success
Thoughts on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee: Sixty Years a Rubber Stamp
Squat, Cough and Spread Your Cheeks! Is This Really Constitutional?
Fantasies of Liberty
A Stasi for America
Send In the Homeland Police Drones, Says Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell
Joel Salatin
Judge Napolitano Reacts to Texas Judge’s Decision to Jail Honor Student
The Homophile Agenda and the Attack on Free Speech
Daniel Larison, Some Strange Christian Nostalgia for Pre-Chrisitan Antiquity
Daniel Larison, American Exceptionalism, Foreign Policy and the Washington Rules
Andrew Bacevich, The Golden Age of Special Operations
Rod Dreher, We Should Be More Pagan and Wodehouse Cures Everything
John O'Callaghan, Pentecost and the Mandate (via MoJ)
The NG moms breastfeeding while in uniform
One Human Heart: Wordsworth’s Old Cumberland Beggar and the Sweetness of Being Human by Anthony Esolen
The Rhetoric of Alexander Hamilton by Forrest McDonald
The Household Gods of Freedom
by M. E. Bradford
A review: James Madison and the Making of America: The real story of the early American republic
Courtship, Etiquette, and the Adolescent Male
by Randall B. Smith
The Urgent Need for The Next Great Idea by Robert Nisbet
Investment and the Common Good, by Christopher Blum
Corporate Personhood and 14th Amendment Rights, by Thomas Storck
Subsidy or Subsidiarity, by Gerald J. Russello
Zeal: The Fourth Lively Virtue, by Anthony Esolen
Chinese Natural Law by Zac Alstin
How Modern Heresies Have Isolated Us and Left Us Unfulfilled
An Introduction to the Social Theories of the Middle Ages
JHK, Ponzi's End
Turn Out The Lights - The Largest U.S. Cities Are Becoming Cesspools Of Filth, Decay And Wretchedness
'Americans don't share global domination policies of their leaders'
Cardinal Wuerl:
EB: Fukushima Update, May 29
Christopher Dawson:
Christopher Dawson on Liberalism, Part I
by Brad Birzer, TIC co-editor
In Defense of Christopher Dawson
by Gerald J. Russello
Sustainability:
The Endangered Waters Beneath Our Feet
Five Questions for Carl Safina
Another documentary about overpopulation...
Relocalization:
BALLE Conference: The Heart and Soul of Local
Slow Money Northern California
6th Annual Building Green Communities Conference
Peak fiction excerpt — Buck: A Survivor of The Shut Down
Project Urban Food Forest
Why We Need to Put the Local Back into Local Enterprise Partnerships
Health Care Reform:
Misunderstanding Subsidiarity
By Peter Brown
Dan Bednarz, Goodbye, Bad Knowledge (EB)
Diet and Health:
Farm Fresh Less Expensive than Junk Food
Under Yellow Light: Mark Sisson
The Paleo Diet Moves From The Gym To The Doctor's Office
Episode 11 – Chris Masterjohn on cholesterol & heart disease (Part 1)
The Truth About Cholesterol With Chris Masterjohn (mp3)
How a Low-Carb Diet Affected My Athletic Performance
Misandry:
Hawaiian Libertarian: Diagnosis: ODD
Education:
David Mulroy, The War Against Grammar
The Beauty of a Christendom College Liberal Arts Education
Sales pitch...
The Most Honest Commencement Address You'll Never Hear
Christian:
Pageau Carvings
Evangelization -- One Family at a Time
Who is St Philip Neri according Benedict XVI
Vatican translates rules for assessing apparitions for first time
Music:
NYT obit on Doc Watson
Stetson and Cia Get Married
Misc:
Christina Cha on What Duvet Said Podcast
Top Chef tour - SF, June 16 and 17
The American West 150 Years Ago
How Do You Win a Gunfight
Debunked: 3 Reasons the AR Isn't Reliable
Monday, February 27, 2012
Items of Interest, 27 February 2012
Judge Sides With Monsanto
Ridicules Farmers' Right to Grow Food Without Fear, Contamination and Economic Harm
NPR
California Farm Conference
Franklin Spinney, Lying for a Cause
Patrick Buchanan, For What? All These Wars
Peter Hitchens, The Myth of Margaret Thatcher
Daniel McCarthy, The Closing of the Cable Television Mind
Philip Giraldi, Afghanistan in the Rear View Mirror
Sanctifying the World: The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson
Wealthier People More Likely To Lie or Cheat, Study Says
The Place Where I Write: Cecily Parks
Wes Jackson, Forever Planting (for Peak Oil & Climate Change) (mp3)
Relocalization:
Don’t Mock the Artisanal-Pickle Makers
Creating Healthy, Sustainable Neighborhoods - Even in the Suburbs
Presenting the Community Resilience Guides
100 Mile Houses Expands the Locavore Movement from Food to Architecture
Cold comfort. Review: The Winter Harvest Handbook
Dr. Vandana Shiva - Occupy Our Food Supply
Vandana Shiva - Teachers for a Living World
Diet and Health:
Dr. Robert Lustig - Almost Everyone Eats it, But it's a "Breeding Ground" for Disease
Chris Masterjohn: My Interview With "Ask Bryan" Davis on his "Doc Fermento Discovers the World" Podcast is Now Up! (mp3)
Catholic:
Cornerstone Forum
The Ghent Altarpiece in 100 Billion Pixels
Music:
William Byrd - The sacred and the profound by Richard Fairman
The Infamous Stringdusters
Hollywood:
Meryl Streep - The Fresh Air Interview
SWCS:
SWCS Organization
Ridicules Farmers' Right to Grow Food Without Fear, Contamination and Economic Harm
NPR
California Farm Conference
Franklin Spinney, Lying for a Cause
Patrick Buchanan, For What? All These Wars
Peter Hitchens, The Myth of Margaret Thatcher
Daniel McCarthy, The Closing of the Cable Television Mind
Philip Giraldi, Afghanistan in the Rear View Mirror
Sanctifying the World: The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson
Wealthier People More Likely To Lie or Cheat, Study Says
The Place Where I Write: Cecily Parks
Wes Jackson, Forever Planting (for Peak Oil & Climate Change) (mp3)
Relocalization:
Don’t Mock the Artisanal-Pickle Makers
Creating Healthy, Sustainable Neighborhoods - Even in the Suburbs
Presenting the Community Resilience Guides
100 Mile Houses Expands the Locavore Movement from Food to Architecture
Cold comfort. Review: The Winter Harvest Handbook
Dr. Vandana Shiva - Occupy Our Food Supply
Vandana Shiva - Teachers for a Living World
Diet and Health:
Dr. Robert Lustig - Almost Everyone Eats it, But it's a "Breeding Ground" for Disease
Chris Masterjohn: My Interview With "Ask Bryan" Davis on his "Doc Fermento Discovers the World" Podcast is Now Up! (mp3)
Catholic:
Cornerstone Forum
The Ghent Altarpiece in 100 Billion Pixels
Music:
William Byrd - The sacred and the profound by Richard Fairman
The Infamous Stringdusters
Hollywood:
Meryl Streep - The Fresh Air Interview
SWCS:
SWCS Organization
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Zmirak on Dawson
Dawson’s Usura Canto by John Zmirak
Does Mr. Zmirak consider himself to be a student of Wilhelm Röpke? He offers some appropriate criticisms of Dawson's essay; Dawson goes to one extreme in reacting against modern capitalism. But Dawson's critique is salvageable.
Then Mr. Zmirak writes this:
It is not so much a concern with sin but the good that is the object of each role or function. The soldier is properly concerned with the defense of the polity, the aristocrat with its rule (and by extension the common good). But what is the object of the bourgeois? Making a living through commerce or facilitating some other exchange. (Or worse, profit.) I don't think St. Thomas differs that much from Confucius in their evaluation of the status of merchants in comparison to other classes (roles) in society - it's rather low. Dawson does not have in mind a degraded aristocracy, but one which lives up to its duties and is cultivated accordingly. A businessman's success does not indicate that he will be a good ruler, and yet many had pretensions to that part of political life.
As for Baroque Spain - yes, its cultural achievements may have been possible only because of its empire, but let's not miss Dawson's point, which is about priorities and orderings - or the end of society and how leisure is practiced. Is it ordered to something beyond itself or not?
Does Mr. Zmirak consider himself to be a student of Wilhelm Röpke? He offers some appropriate criticisms of Dawson's essay; Dawson goes to one extreme in reacting against modern capitalism. But Dawson's critique is salvageable.
Then Mr. Zmirak writes this:
Dawson clearly follows the Classical, pagan preference for soldiers and noblemen, who make their living employing force against their fellow men, over businessmen who traffic in voluntary exchange. While soldiers sometimes fight justly, nobles can rule fairly, and businessmen can engage in evil trades (like slavery), surely it’s deeply perverse to prefer force to persuasion, serfdom to salesmanship, and conquest to commerce. The Church sees war as evil in itself, allowing it only in narrowly circumscribed cases, setting standards that very few wars waged even by Catholic monarchs ever fully met. Conversely, she sees ordinary business and commerce as the means by which most men earn their bread by the sweat of their brows—though she marks off certain methods of business which are evil. But sins of business are the exception, not the rule. For a war to be good, it must climb through the eye of a needle. So why should we as Christians prefer soldiers to salesmen, militaristic empires to bourgeois republics? Because the former are more romantic, and leave in their wake such poignant ruins?
It is not so much a concern with sin but the good that is the object of each role or function. The soldier is properly concerned with the defense of the polity, the aristocrat with its rule (and by extension the common good). But what is the object of the bourgeois? Making a living through commerce or facilitating some other exchange. (Or worse, profit.) I don't think St. Thomas differs that much from Confucius in their evaluation of the status of merchants in comparison to other classes (roles) in society - it's rather low. Dawson does not have in mind a degraded aristocracy, but one which lives up to its duties and is cultivated accordingly. A businessman's success does not indicate that he will be a good ruler, and yet many had pretensions to that part of political life.
As for Baroque Spain - yes, its cultural achievements may have been possible only because of its empire, but let's not miss Dawson's point, which is about priorities and orderings - or the end of society and how leisure is practiced. Is it ordered to something beyond itself or not?
Monday, October 17, 2011
A liberal view of history
This was posted at a certain FB group: The Air I Breathe by L.Neil Smith. Note the emphasis on the individual, an exaggerated notion of liberty, and progress. It is given as a libertarian view of history, which is but one liberal version of history, akin to the Whiggish interpretation. Christopher Ferrara has written against the Austrians about the origins of the development of English capitalism vis-à-vis the enclosures (parts II and III). I think Kevin Carson has done so well. There would not have been the development of modern English capitalism (or British power) without the state.
The protection of liberty as a check on the abuse of power and bad governments may be even more important in a republic than in those polities where only one or a few rule. Nonetheless, in itself it is not the end of society, and libertarians who take the negative conception of liberty or freedom too far so as to deny the government's legitimate protection of morality are wrong.
One can see a tension between traditional conservatism and liberal conservatism at websites like ISI and its First Principles Journal. Another thing to note is how many contemporary conservatives talk about "Western civilization" without acknowledging the centrality of Christianity to American or European civilization. Some may be trying to advance a post-Christian version of Western civilization or to communicate with a non-Christian audience; others are just liberals attempting to claim that their tradition goes further back in antiquity than it really does.*
Russell Kirk who is held dear by many conservatives, was not a liberal but a Christian and he held the Christian understanding of Western understanding. See his "The Common Heritage of America and Europe," for example. Other exponents of the Christian understanding would be Christopher Dawson (The Making of Europe) or Hilaire Belloc (Europe and the Faith).
Even if it is possible "in theory" to maintain certain aspects of Western culture without being them vivified by Christ, can we separate the de-Christianization of the West from the spiritual warfare that is behind it? Besides, while most conservatives in academia and so on are trying to spread their ideas and message to a broad audience, what are they doing, as citizens, to further the cause of localism (states' rights, for example), or to counter corporatism? Too many hold on to the ideology of capitalism as a part of their conservatism, many of whom do not have real-life experience as a producer or laborer, occupying rather privileged positions in society instead. The university, for the most part, no longer exists as a locus of culture, neither representing the community nor serving it and its interests. It's just another part of the system seeking to perpetuate it in order to preserve itself.
The time for lectures is over -- one must be an example of what one believes.
*This would not apply to paleolibertarians like Tom Woods who acknowledge the centrality of Christianity but nonetheless attempt to interpret the silver age scholastics as being precursors of the Austrian school.
Related:
An Austrian responds to Christopher Ferrara's book The Church and the Libertarian (a review of that book by Thomas Storck - letters to the editor)
Christopher A. Ferrara: The Church & the Libertarian: A Defense of Catholic Teaching on Man, Economy and State (mp3)
Paleocrat's YT channel
Russell Kirk: The Conservative Convert
The protection of liberty as a check on the abuse of power and bad governments may be even more important in a republic than in those polities where only one or a few rule. Nonetheless, in itself it is not the end of society, and libertarians who take the negative conception of liberty or freedom too far so as to deny the government's legitimate protection of morality are wrong.
One can see a tension between traditional conservatism and liberal conservatism at websites like ISI and its First Principles Journal. Another thing to note is how many contemporary conservatives talk about "Western civilization" without acknowledging the centrality of Christianity to American or European civilization. Some may be trying to advance a post-Christian version of Western civilization or to communicate with a non-Christian audience; others are just liberals attempting to claim that their tradition goes further back in antiquity than it really does.*
Russell Kirk who is held dear by many conservatives, was not a liberal but a Christian and he held the Christian understanding of Western understanding. See his "The Common Heritage of America and Europe," for example. Other exponents of the Christian understanding would be Christopher Dawson (The Making of Europe) or Hilaire Belloc (Europe and the Faith).
Even if it is possible "in theory" to maintain certain aspects of Western culture without being them vivified by Christ, can we separate the de-Christianization of the West from the spiritual warfare that is behind it? Besides, while most conservatives in academia and so on are trying to spread their ideas and message to a broad audience, what are they doing, as citizens, to further the cause of localism (states' rights, for example), or to counter corporatism? Too many hold on to the ideology of capitalism as a part of their conservatism, many of whom do not have real-life experience as a producer or laborer, occupying rather privileged positions in society instead. The university, for the most part, no longer exists as a locus of culture, neither representing the community nor serving it and its interests. It's just another part of the system seeking to perpetuate it in order to preserve itself.
The time for lectures is over -- one must be an example of what one believes.
*This would not apply to paleolibertarians like Tom Woods who acknowledge the centrality of Christianity but nonetheless attempt to interpret the silver age scholastics as being precursors of the Austrian school.
Related:
An Austrian responds to Christopher Ferrara's book The Church and the Libertarian (a review of that book by Thomas Storck - letters to the editor)
Christopher A. Ferrara: The Church & the Libertarian: A Defense of Catholic Teaching on Man, Economy and State (mp3)
Paleocrat's YT channel
Russell Kirk: The Conservative Convert
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
ISI Lecture: Christopher Dawson and the Crisis of Western Education
Christopher Dawson and the Crisis of Western Education
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Is Latin necessary for catechesis?
We have heard of inculturation, and how it is necessary in order for Latin-rite missionaries to make Christianity intelligible to non-Latin peoples. It seems undeniable that this claim is legitimate to some degree, if one has a proper understanding of inculturation. Those whose duty is to evangelize others labor under with the burden of having to communicate with human language. It is easier for the apostle to learn the language of another people and to make the Gospel intelligible to them in their native tongue, than for that other people to learn his language. Moreover, inculturation can also be used to refer to the adaptation of the liturgical rites of the Church of Rome to other cultues in order to make them more familiar to the people (usually beginning with the replacement of Latin by the "vernacular"). (Would it be incorrect to say that the ability to create a wholly new liturgical rite or family of rites passed away with the Apostles and the first few generation of their successors?) However, often inculturation becomes syncretism, which is justified as being necessary to "translate" Christian teaching using [religious] concepts familiar to the people, and this is why inculturation has fallen into disrepute among traditional Christians.
What, then, are we to do with a culture that was once Latin, or heavily influenced by it? It seems ridiculous to say that there must be some sort of inculturation for the cultures of Europe and the Americas. But here in the United States it could be argued that we are so distant from our Latin roots that we do not need to familiarize the people with Latin culture. Why should the "Western Patriarchate" be tied to Latin? There are the historical and cultural ties of course... but is the Church of Rome to do when people are ignorant, both passively and actively so? There may be reasons for a certain few to embrace Latin and a classical education; those who know what it is to be a true Anglo-American republican, rather than a democrat of the modern mass liberal democracy. But the mission of the Church is to bring Christ to others, not to teach them Latin so they can read Virgil.
Even if one can present arguments for the necessity of Latin in Western cultures that are more deeply rooted in the Roman Empire, who is going to promote Latin among the laity and get them interested, or teach them the language (and culture)? Who can develop a Latin for Dummies course? As for Americans -- if they aren't even familiar with English, can they expected to learn Latin?
Should we therefore give up Latin, and go back to the original languages of Sacred Scripture and begin from there, as the Reformers thought they were doing, and what has been done since then by Biblical scholars and translators? Surely we can easily produce an English translation that is dignified, avoiding the worse excesses of those silly Bible translations whose rationale is that they can be understood by the youth or those who live in urban ghettos.
(It might seem that with regards to Sacred Scripture that there is less of a need to inculturate, because the language is relatively simple, referring mostly to concrete sensible things? It should not be difficult to find equivalents of words referring to sensible things in another language, unless that culture has no experience of those objects. If there are no equivalents, do we use approximations, or do we create neologisms based on transliterations? Or do we seek to invent a new word using the native language as the base?)
Bishop Cordileone on Latin (from his interview with Barbara Simpson): "Latin is our tradition, and it helps us keep in touch with our tradition." Americans may be too far removed from their classical and Christian roots. But it seems to me that even if we do not re-appropriate Latin for the sake of recovering our classical culture and heritage, we should do so as Latin-rite Catholics. Latin-rite Catholics should at least be able to understand the basic prayers in Latin, along with the ordinary of the Mass. (Those who pursue higher studies in philosophy, theology, and law should definitely know Latin.)
Even if English-speaking Catholics were to adopt a hieratic version of English for the liturgy,
hieratic language (vernacular), acquainting them with Latin would be useful. Our faith in Christ is mediated through the Church and Tradition, and is in this way dependent upon language. (Our knowing is dependent on language as well.) We are not rootless individuals, but are joined to others in history, and sharing a common liturgical language (even if only partially) unites us to those who have come before us. Christ does not obliterate our natural ties to one another, but elevates them. Was it not Christopher Dawson who emphasized that Catholic Christians have their own culture? Is the learning of Latin another way of showing love and honor for our forefathers in the Faith? Can we not have a catechesis that aids us in become latinized, while maintaining a balance with what is required by a legitimate inculturation? Familiarity with Latin may not be necessary for our salvation, but it is a natural perfection that "humanizes" us and is open to being raised by grace.
See the writings of Christine Mohrmann on liturgical Latin, which was not the vernacular of the people, but stylized and adapted for liturgical use. Fr. Z links to a reflection by Jesuit on the new Missal translation which uses Mohrmann as a starting point.
Pope John XXIII, Veterum Sapientiae
Rorate Caeli: Uwe Michael Lang traces the historical evolution of the liturgical language in the Roman rite--Latin vehicle of unity between peoples and cultures by Uwe Michael Lang (English translation by Fr. Anthony Forte)
NLM: Liturgical English and the Hieratic Tradition
Adoremus: Translation and Inculturation in the Catholic Church
Christopher Dawson: Is there a Christian Culture
What, then, are we to do with a culture that was once Latin, or heavily influenced by it? It seems ridiculous to say that there must be some sort of inculturation for the cultures of Europe and the Americas. But here in the United States it could be argued that we are so distant from our Latin roots that we do not need to familiarize the people with Latin culture. Why should the "Western Patriarchate" be tied to Latin? There are the historical and cultural ties of course... but is the Church of Rome to do when people are ignorant, both passively and actively so? There may be reasons for a certain few to embrace Latin and a classical education; those who know what it is to be a true Anglo-American republican, rather than a democrat of the modern mass liberal democracy. But the mission of the Church is to bring Christ to others, not to teach them Latin so they can read Virgil.
Even if one can present arguments for the necessity of Latin in Western cultures that are more deeply rooted in the Roman Empire, who is going to promote Latin among the laity and get them interested, or teach them the language (and culture)? Who can develop a Latin for Dummies course? As for Americans -- if they aren't even familiar with English, can they expected to learn Latin?
Should we therefore give up Latin, and go back to the original languages of Sacred Scripture and begin from there, as the Reformers thought they were doing, and what has been done since then by Biblical scholars and translators? Surely we can easily produce an English translation that is dignified, avoiding the worse excesses of those silly Bible translations whose rationale is that they can be understood by the youth or those who live in urban ghettos.
(It might seem that with regards to Sacred Scripture that there is less of a need to inculturate, because the language is relatively simple, referring mostly to concrete sensible things? It should not be difficult to find equivalents of words referring to sensible things in another language, unless that culture has no experience of those objects. If there are no equivalents, do we use approximations, or do we create neologisms based on transliterations? Or do we seek to invent a new word using the native language as the base?)
Bishop Cordileone on Latin (from his interview with Barbara Simpson): "Latin is our tradition, and it helps us keep in touch with our tradition." Americans may be too far removed from their classical and Christian roots. But it seems to me that even if we do not re-appropriate Latin for the sake of recovering our classical culture and heritage, we should do so as Latin-rite Catholics. Latin-rite Catholics should at least be able to understand the basic prayers in Latin, along with the ordinary of the Mass. (Those who pursue higher studies in philosophy, theology, and law should definitely know Latin.)
Even if English-speaking Catholics were to adopt a hieratic version of English for the liturgy,
hieratic language (vernacular), acquainting them with Latin would be useful. Our faith in Christ is mediated through the Church and Tradition, and is in this way dependent upon language. (Our knowing is dependent on language as well.) We are not rootless individuals, but are joined to others in history, and sharing a common liturgical language (even if only partially) unites us to those who have come before us. Christ does not obliterate our natural ties to one another, but elevates them. Was it not Christopher Dawson who emphasized that Catholic Christians have their own culture? Is the learning of Latin another way of showing love and honor for our forefathers in the Faith? Can we not have a catechesis that aids us in become latinized, while maintaining a balance with what is required by a legitimate inculturation? Familiarity with Latin may not be necessary for our salvation, but it is a natural perfection that "humanizes" us and is open to being raised by grace.
See the writings of Christine Mohrmann on liturgical Latin, which was not the vernacular of the people, but stylized and adapted for liturgical use. Fr. Z links to a reflection by Jesuit on the new Missal translation which uses Mohrmann as a starting point.
Pope John XXIII, Veterum Sapientiae
Rorate Caeli: Uwe Michael Lang traces the historical evolution of the liturgical language in the Roman rite--Latin vehicle of unity between peoples and cultures by Uwe Michael Lang (English translation by Fr. Anthony Forte)
NLM: Liturgical English and the Hieratic Tradition
Adoremus: Translation and Inculturation in the Catholic Church
Christopher Dawson: Is there a Christian Culture
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