Sunday, September 02, 2012
Saturday, September 01, 2012
Supporting War as an Answer to Man's Search for Meaning
The War on Terror and the Quest for Community by Greg Weiner
“It is hard,” Nisbet writes in Quest for Community, “not to conclude that modern populations depend increasingly on the symbolism of war for relief from civil conflicts and frustrations. … The power of war to create a sense of moral meaning is one of the most frightening aspects of the twentieth century.” Moral war, he argues, is uniquely apt to become total war. He continues:
One of the most impressive aspects of contemporary war is the intoxicating atmosphere of spiritual unity that arises out of the common consciousness of participating in a moral crusade. … The clear tendency of modern wars is to become ever more closely identified with broad, popular, moral aspirations: freedom, self-determination of peoples, democracy, rights, and justice. Because war, in the twentieth century, has become rooted to such an extent in the aspirations of peoples and in broad moral convictions, its intensity and range have vastly increased. … The enemy becomes not only a ready scapegoat for all ordinary dislikes and frustrations; he becomes the symbol of total evil against which the forces of good may mobilize themselves into a militant community.
Yet this “community,” Nisbet warns, is hollow. The sense of participation it generates is ephemeral compared to the richer and more rooted relationships of subsidiarity. Nisbet is not, to be sure, hostile to affiliation with a cause larger than oneself. His point is that contemporary man gravitates toward vast, diffuse and impersonal causes that open vacuums filled by power rather than traditional forms of authority and meaning.
This moral element of war drives the false sense of meaning and participation in a cause in which, let us be serious, the vast majority of people waving flags and lionizing troops are not participating at all. Hence the decision to invade Iraq, whose most ardent backers never contended that Hussein threatened American “freedom,” became a moral crusade to free the Iraqi people from their chains and, in our own rhetoric, to protect ourselves from the apparent danger of tyranny imposed by—whom?—the onward-marching troops of the Iraqi Republican Guard? The result is a sense of community and common endeavor that is, on Nisbet’s reading, precisely and only that: a sense.
More Photos from the Fort Ross Celebration Last Weekend
The 200th-Anniversary Celebrations at Fort Ross (Photo-Report)
These photos have already appeared at the Mospat site: Metropolitan Ilarion of Volokolamsk Celebrates Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow”
Милость мира / Mercy of the World / 救主慈悲
Seeing the mitres of the bishops I was reminded of what was written in The Myth of the Domus Ecclesiae by Steven J. Schloeder:
The Byzantine-rite mitre is more obviously derived from the Imperial crown, is it not? (Though the same is true of the Western mitre and papal tiara.) It is supposed to be a symbol of their office and a reminder that they are representatives of Christ. Still, given its secular origin (shared by other vestments?) might repel some, but there is a hierarchy associated with the sacrament of order, and as animals we need sensible reminders of this reality. Still, could a unique Christian headdress have been created?
These photos have already appeared at the Mospat site: Metropolitan Ilarion of Volokolamsk Celebrates Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow”
Милость мира / Mercy of the World / 救主慈悲
Seeing the mitres of the bishops I was reminded of what was written in The Myth of the Domus Ecclesiae by Steven J. Schloeder:
The ascendency of the residential model as the authentic liturgical form raised another question of architectural history: what to do with the intervening 1700 years of church building? For the mid-century and later architectural writers, the simple answer was that the domestic model was the ideal, and all later grand and hierarchical buildings are the deviations. Therefore, all the intervening eras, liturgical and artistic expressions, and architectural forms and styles came in for censure.
The changes in the age of Constantine were implicated for the advent of clericalism, turning the congregation into passive viewers at a formalistic ritual, the loss of liturgical and spiritual intimacy, and the subjugation of the Church’s evangelical mission to the politics of the emperor. The Christian basilica was thereby rejected as an expression of power-mongering and imperialistic tendencies.7
The Byzantine churches were rejected for their courtly imperial formality, where the ministers are hidden behind the iconostasis, only to venture out in courtly processions.
The Byzantine-rite mitre is more obviously derived from the Imperial crown, is it not? (Though the same is true of the Western mitre and papal tiara.) It is supposed to be a symbol of their office and a reminder that they are representatives of Christ. Still, given its secular origin (shared by other vestments?) might repel some, but there is a hierarchy associated with the sacrament of order, and as animals we need sensible reminders of this reality. Still, could a unique Christian headdress have been created?
Some C4SS Stuff
Kevin Carson, George Washington vs. the Licensing Cartels
What if the problem is not with the licensing, but with the scale and the bureaucracy that is doing it? What if it were in the hands of local guilds, with oversight by the government?
Kevin Carson, For Fake Corporate “Libertarians,” The World’s Just one Big Billy Jack Movie
Students for a Stateless Society (re)Introduced
What if the problem is not with the licensing, but with the scale and the bureaucracy that is doing it? What if it were in the hands of local guilds, with oversight by the government?
Kevin Carson, For Fake Corporate “Libertarians,” The World’s Just one Big Billy Jack Movie
Students for a Stateless Society (re)Introduced
Friday, August 31, 2012
Hesperion XXI: Esprit D'Arménie
To be released in September by Alia Vox - Armenian music played by Jordi Savall, Hesperion XXI and Armenian musicians! (And the duduk will be featured!)
Also to be released soon: Deo gracias Anglia! by Alamire
Also to be released soon: Deo gracias Anglia! by Alamire
The Institute of Catholic Culture
It's website. FB. Something I'd attend if I were living in the area - Byzantine Vespers and Church Tour at Holy Transfiguration Church.
Now a piece by David Clayton at NLM: The Institute of Catholic Culture - An Organisational Model for the New Evangelisation
Praise be to God if this is a model that can be successfully used elsewhere, but I'm skeptical about whether it is financially feasible or if it can be carried out in an area without a substantial Catholic academic presence (in the case of the ICC, Christendom College). How can the wealth of the American Church (the wealth of the laity, that is) be that different from their non-Catholic counterparts, i.e. on a precarious foundation?
via Christendom College:
Also...
This just seems like a bad decision: Vatican to work with Apple, iTunes to produce e-books
Can't have monks making copies of those books if there is no power source for the device.
Now a piece by David Clayton at NLM: The Institute of Catholic Culture - An Organisational Model for the New Evangelisation
Praise be to God if this is a model that can be successfully used elsewhere, but I'm skeptical about whether it is financially feasible or if it can be carried out in an area without a substantial Catholic academic presence (in the case of the ICC, Christendom College). How can the wealth of the American Church (the wealth of the laity, that is) be that different from their non-Catholic counterparts, i.e. on a precarious foundation?
via Christendom College:
Also...
This just seems like a bad decision: Vatican to work with Apple, iTunes to produce e-books
Can't have monks making copies of those books if there is no power source for the device.
John Taylor of Caroline on Tyranny
The Imaginative Conservative: The Wisdom of John Taylor of Caroline
by Bradley J. Birzer
"Tyranny is wonderfully ingenious in the art of inventing species phrases to spread over its nefarious designs. ‘Divine right, kings can do no wrong, parliamentary supremacy, the holy alliance,’ are instances of it in Europe. ‘Common defense, general welfare, federal supremacy and political economy,’ impressed into the same service here. When the delusion of one phrase is past, another is adopted to work out the same ends as its predecessor."
by Bradley J. Birzer
"Tyranny is wonderfully ingenious in the art of inventing species phrases to spread over its nefarious designs. ‘Divine right, kings can do no wrong, parliamentary supremacy, the holy alliance,’ are instances of it in Europe. ‘Common defense, general welfare, federal supremacy and political economy,’ impressed into the same service here. When the delusion of one phrase is past, another is adopted to work out the same ends as its predecessor."
Meaningless Advocacy
Civil Eats: A Meal Without a Mexican? Your Food Has Already Migrated!
A better economist can speak on this, but we will not have parity of costs and wages until we start pricing energy (in particular, fossil fuels) according to its true value.
Misc.
The 80/20 Rule of Healthy Eating: Why Follow It and Reasons to Live by It
In short, most Americans—not just those residing in the Southwest border states—have become increasingly dependent on food produced, harvested, processed and serve by Mexican-Americans in the U.S. or Mexican citizens who have recently returned to their homelands. Regardless of the tremendous growth in and success of “food relocalization” efforts across the country, most of our schoolchildren and elders could not eat a nutritionally-balanced diet without the fresh produce and seafood pouring across our borders from Mexico.If a living-wage is to be paid (and how can this be achieved without increasing the price of food, if we are to keep food production local and limited), then why wouldn't average Americans be willing to do farm labor? Thus a liberal is caught trapped in his platitudes. The reason why cheap labor is used by industrial agriculture is because they can get away with it, while local/organic farms have to do so because the businesses would not be able to survive otherwise.
But this flow of food will not last if Mexican lands and waters are degraded or overexploited, and if the farmers, farmworkers, fishers and truckers who grow, weed, process, and deliver us much of our food are not offered liveable wages and healthier working conditions. It is time to reset the balance so that those who bring us our daily bread are adequately rewarded financially and ethically for their intelligence, hard work and sacrifices, rather than being treated as second class citizens at best and unwanted presences at worst.
A better economist can speak on this, but we will not have parity of costs and wages until we start pricing energy (in particular, fossil fuels) according to its true value.
Misc.
The 80/20 Rule of Healthy Eating: Why Follow It and Reasons to Live by It
Power to the People
We don't need no education by Charlotte Du Cann (EB)
Some comments about unschooling (vs. homeschooling) in this thread at Free the Animal. (*caution* profanity warning)
Plus, Richard Nikoley and others talk about their understanding of anarchism, which is not the absence of order or government, but a rejection of the modern state in favor of the individual, families, and communities, which should be self-governing rather than governed from without by a distant bureaucracy. It is part of a reaction against the consolidation/centralization of power accompanying the development of the nation-state.
This isn't to say that they would agree with traditional conservatives about all aspects of morality, but they do share a more localist vision of communal life (and governance).
Some comments about unschooling (vs. homeschooling) in this thread at Free the Animal. (*caution* profanity warning)
Plus, Richard Nikoley and others talk about their understanding of anarchism, which is not the absence of order or government, but a rejection of the modern state in favor of the individual, families, and communities, which should be self-governing rather than governed from without by a distant bureaucracy. It is part of a reaction against the consolidation/centralization of power accompanying the development of the nation-state.
This isn't to say that they would agree with traditional conservatives about all aspects of morality, but they do share a more localist vision of communal life (and governance).
James Matthew Wilson Offers a Description of Modernity
James Matthew Wilson, Against Rationalism, Idealism, and Abstraction
Part II in an ongoing series, Localism and the Universal Church. Read Part I here.
I hope he elaborates more on what he takes to be the weakness of the traditionalist position is (as stated in the first paragraph).
Part II in an ongoing series, Localism and the Universal Church. Read Part I here.
The traditionalist wishes to defend the reverence and deference due to inherited folk ways in spite of their appearances of irrationality, and often does so by taking a stand in defense of the irrational per se. Such is political romanticism. And the traditionalist presumes, understandably, that securing allegiance to a tradition will in turn keep in place the essential elements of a localized and intergenerational community. If one toes the line of spiritual tradition, the body of natural community will be sustained. If one demands fidelity and solidarity to one’s own as the highest if inexplicable good, one can secure the perseverance of an entire way of life. Modernity is consequently decried as rationalist, idealist, and abstracting—claims I take to be true, but perhaps not for the reasons the traditionalist critique would recognize.
Surely, modernity is beholden to this triad of fetishes. I would argue that insofar as modernity is “rationalistic,” it has ceased to believe in reason; insofar as it is idealist, it neglects not simply the body but the idea of reality; and insofar as it tends toward abstraction, it has failed rather than succeeded in being adequately critical of the concrete conditions of human knowledge.
I hope he elaborates more on what he takes to be the weakness of the traditionalist position is (as stated in the first paragraph).
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Good work in the South Bronx.
Green Bronx Machine
Stephen Ritz: A teacher growing green in the South Bronx
YT video of the above
Another TEDx talk: Green Bronx Growing Machine
Welcome to the Green Bronx Machine
Expert Q&As Green Bronx Machine with Steven Ritz
Edible Schoolyard
From earlier this year:
Bronx Breakdown: Star Bronx Teacher Banished to Basement & More (Updated)
Related:
SUSTAINABILITY: Our future (Part 3)
Kevin Carson, Obama’s Last, Desperate Attempt to Save Capitalism
Stephen Ritz: A teacher growing green in the South Bronx
YT video of the above
Another TEDx talk: Green Bronx Growing Machine
Welcome to the Green Bronx Machine
Expert Q&As Green Bronx Machine with Steven Ritz
Edible Schoolyard
From earlier this year:
Bronx Breakdown: Star Bronx Teacher Banished to Basement & More (Updated)
Related:
SUSTAINABILITY: Our future (Part 3)
Kevin Carson, Obama’s Last, Desperate Attempt to Save Capitalism
Proposition 37, Mandatory Labeling of Genetically Engineered Food
Ballotpedia
Yes on 37
Farmer Debunks Corporate Propaganda Against Proposed Law to Label Genetically Modified Food by Will Allen (a different Will Allen)
What do Monsanto, GMO's, Corn, Round Up have in common?
http://www.alternet.org/food/farmer-debunks-corporate-propaganda-against-proposed-law-label-genetically-modified-food
More:
Genetically Modified Foods & California’s Proposition 37: What’s All the Fuss About?
Prop 37: California GMO Fight Pits Big Food Against Activists (VIDEO)
SFGate
Related:
Bitter Seeds
The World According to Monsanto- HQ & Full Length - alt - website
Yes on 37
Farmer Debunks Corporate Propaganda Against Proposed Law to Label Genetically Modified Food by Will Allen (a different Will Allen)
What do Monsanto, GMO's, Corn, Round Up have in common?
http://www.alternet.org/food/farmer-debunks-corporate-propaganda-against-proposed-law-label-genetically-modified-food
More:
Genetically Modified Foods & California’s Proposition 37: What’s All the Fuss About?
Prop 37: California GMO Fight Pits Big Food Against Activists (VIDEO)
SFGate
Related:
Bitter Seeds
The World According to Monsanto- HQ & Full Length - alt - website
Videos from The 21 Convention
here
Richard Nikoley was at this year's event, and he says he will write something in response to the PUAs.
See his post on Dr. Douglas McGuff. (LLVLC and Dr. McGuff's Body By Science.)
From several years ago - Biochemistry of the Paleo Diet.
Eat Locally Grown: Should I Switch to the Paleo Diet, or Not?
Richard Nikoley was at this year's event, and he says he will write something in response to the PUAs.
See his post on Dr. Douglas McGuff. (LLVLC and Dr. McGuff's Body By Science.)
From several years ago - Biochemistry of the Paleo Diet.
Eat Locally Grown: Should I Switch to the Paleo Diet, or Not?
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