Chris Clugston, America’s Self-inflicted Societal Collapse

America’s Self-inflicted Societal Collapse

Chris Clugston, Energy Bulletin

I have argued elsewhere that our American way of life is not sustainable, and I have presented compelling evidence to demonstrate that America is on the verge of imminent societal collapse. The purpose of the following paper is to make the case that we — all Americans — through our distorted worldview and resulting dysfunctional resource utilization behavior, are responsible for our “predicament”, and that we lack the collective will to take meaningful action to mitigate its catastrophic consequences.

Allan Carlson, Creative Destruction, Family Style

Creative Destruction, Family Style (Intercollegiate Review 37:2, Spring 2002) - 09/17/08

In the wake of com­munism’s late twenti­eth-century rout by a victorious market capi­talism, the pessimistic prognostications of the economist Joseph Schumpeter attract less and less attention. While not a Marxist himself, Schumpeter adapted some of his ar­guments from Karl Marx, particularly the view of capitalism as an evolutionary system, one full of nervous en­ergy, one that could “never be stationary.” Driving this industrial mutation was a process Schumpeter labeled “Creative Destruc­tion,” which “inces­santly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one.” He emphasized that this “gale of Creative Destruction” did not arise from changes such as new competitors, price fluc­tuations, or the flow of the business cycle. Rather, the impulse came from the intro­duction of new consumer goods, new technologies, new modes of production or trans­portation, new mar­kets, new forms of in­dustrial organization, or new methods of re­tailing (for example, Wal-Mart’s triumph over the shops on Main Street). Such changes command “a decisive cost or quality advan­tage” and strike “not at the margins and the outputs of the existing firms but at their . . . very lives.” In every specific economic field, he wrote, this process leaves “a history of evo­lutions”—and the de­bris of ruined compa­nies that could not keep up.

Controversially, Schumpeter believed that entrepreneurial capitalism could not survive. As he formulated this thesis in his 1942 volume, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, capitalism’s “very success undermines the social institu­tions which protect it, and ‘inevitably’ cre­ates conditions in which it will not be able to live and which strongly point to social­ism as the heir apparent.” He argued that the bureaucratization of large industrial units ousts the entrepreneur in favor of the manager. This “managerial revolution” undoes the bourgeoisie as a social class and undermines the very nature of private prop­erty. More fundamentally, capitalism lev­els the institutions of the pre-industrial world: the class of artisans operating through guilds, the village, the agrarian peasantry, and—most notably—the fam­ily itself.

Observing data from the 1930s, Schumpeter concluded that marriage, fam­ily life, and parenthood meant less to the men and women of modern capitalist soci­eties than they had before. He pointed spe­cifically to tumbling marital birthrates, “the proportion of marriages that produce no children or only one child,” as the clearest sign of this revolution in values. This revo­lution in the family derived from capitalism’s “rationalization of everything in life,” the embrace by moderns of an “in­articulate system of cost accounting” that exposed “the heavy personal sacrifices that family ties and especially parenthood en­tail under modern conditions.” This “de­cline of philoprogenitivity” rendered homes and home life of steadily less value. As “fam­ily, wife and children” faded as figures of motivation for the businessman, “we have a different kind of homo economicus,”one who has lost “the only sort of romance and heroism” that is left “in the unromantic and unheroic civilization of capitalism.” As the processes of capitalism undermined the “props . . . of extra-capitalist material” and the “behaviors” on which it rested, capitalism turned toward self-destruction: the pass­ing of entrepreneurship and family-held firms and the “emergence of socialist civili­zation.”

It is on these points that Schumpeter today is faulted. For has not market capi­talism triumphed around the globe? Even in once-Communist strongholds such as the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, do not entrepreneurs effectively rule? Is not socialism in broad retreat, found today only in crude backwaters like Cuba and North Korea?

The problem with these rejoinders is that Schumpeter was quite clear that there were different forms of socialism. And it was not the Russian Communist version that he thought most likely to triumph in Western Europe and America. Rather, he pointed to Swedish socialism as the more viable and adaptable model.

What were—and are—the main char­acteristics of this model? Sweden’s Social Democrats resolved in the late 1920s to forego most expropriation or nationaliza­tion of industry and private property. Let the capitalists remain as formal owners, they reasoned. Instead, the keys to the so­cialization of society would be a close regu­lation of industry and commerce to achieve social ends, a form of central economic planning through new mechanisms of co­ordination such as state-brokered wage agreements, and expansion of the welfare state into “the People’s Home.” Relative to families, this meant the socialization of re­maining family functions such as early child­care and the provision of clothing and meals. Most importantly, said Alva Myrdal, an influential social theorist in the 1930s, la­bor union socialism itself must change. The goal of “a living family wage” for fathers as heads-of-households must go, as must its companion institution, the “housewife.” They would be replaced by a commitment to the absolute equality of men and women. In the new order, Myrdal explained, both genders would be expected to work outside the home. Marriage and home life would be strictly focused on sex and reproduction; everything else would be the responsibility of private industry or government, now informally merged into a vast corporate state.

This union of individualistic or equity feminism with democratic socialism was an historically strange brew. It was hostile to the century-old goals of the European la­bor movement, which had striven for “the equality of households,” “family au­tonomy,” the “family wage,” and “the special protection of women and children.” And it was not fully realized, even in Swe­den, during the 1930s. But three decades later, in the 1960s, its time had come round at last. It was this socialism, with a vision of a union between “big business” and “big government” built on the ruins of families and small communities, that would tri­umph in developed nations around the globe. Indeed, its success would be so perva­sive, and its details so distracting, that hardly anyone would even notice the apotheosis of the grand Feminist-Capitalist-Socialist cause.

What does voting mean?

Or, upon what basis do we choose someone for political office?

Mr. Jeff Culbreath, explains his preference for the American Independent Party over the Constitution Party:

My objection to the CP platform is that it says too much about too many things. It’s a political straightjacket and the CP will forever remain a tiny party for that reason. I can’t imagine CP primary debates, for example, because if the candidates sign off on the platform there is nothing left to debate.

In contrast,

The AIP platform is brief and to the point, leaving room, as it explicitly says, “for debate over prudential policy matters within certain parameters of fundamental American political thought and a framework of ordered liberty.”

I agree with him on this point:

And the preface is creepy. This country was not “founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ” in point of fact. The language of a Republic “rooted in biblical law” reeks of Rushdooneyism. (from the Preamble to the National Platform)

Not that it is creepy, but it seems to be historically untrue. Without accepting the criticism offered by some Catholics that the United States is a project of the Enlightenment (or the propaganda offered by some nationalists that we should be looking to the Declaration of Independence and its proclamation of rights of divine origin as the foundation of the 'proposition nation'), I think that if we are talking about the federation established by the Constitution (or the Articles of Confederation, for that matter), then we should be looking more to the Anglo-American political tradition for the primary inspiration, rather than to Christianity.

(Is the CP more "pure" in its embrace of conservative principles at least, even if its history is a bit faulty?)

In contrast, saying that one state in the union or another has a Christian foundation--that seems ok, as some of the colonies were settled by believers, and some even had official state churches.

It got me thinking about the debates leading up to nominating convention (for certain Federal offices?). Historically, was the platform decided at the convention? How much variation was there for different offices? How were candidates selected in the past? Did the party vet its own members? Is it possible to practice this more "personal" kind of politics when the territory is too large, and the people are not familiar with one another?

How do debates between the candidates match up with the will of the people on various issues? Should there not be agreement on the general principles of the party; what should be prohibited (abortion, for the Church, is non-negotiable, unlike, perhaps prostitution)?

Some questions may be settled only by prudence and cannot be addressed properly in the abstract. So then beyond general principles, should we not be looking for people who respect law and authority and embody justice to hold office? Personality and character do matter. The platform is meaningless if the candidate is lying and will not implement it. And hence the need, first of all, for honesty and trustworthiness in our candidates, and the possession of the moral virtues.

As for the third party candidates: Baldwin or Barr (or even Nader) -- I know nothing about their personal qualities. Are they nonetheless "safe bets"? Voting for a third-party candidate is a concession to the circumstances, if it isn't misplaced trust. I will admit that this is not the best way to proceed with respect to civic life, but if one cannot vote for any of the candidates because one does not have sufficient knowledge of who they are, then one cannot vote. Even if they all turn out to be bad, then is it possible that the one who is the most correct regarding general principles and policies/solutions is the least evil? And one should prevent someone who is worse in this regard from taking office, to prevent greater evils from taking place?
(For example, some have claimed that McCain is better than Obama, if we consider mainly the sort of people they would nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court.)

But the fact that someone mouths the correct principles does not mean that he is the most "virtuous" or qualified to rule.

Americans need to practice being neighbors first (and running a household), before attempting to shape the community by engaging in politics?

What would the anti-Federalists say and do?

Yesterday was Constitution Day (recognized by the Constitution Party). Someone at Facebook, and a contributor to CHT, asked us to remember the Articles of Confederation.

Constitution Center--Constitution Day

What happened to the Reform Party?

Two from Boundless

Not Your Buddy
by Suzanne Hadley | September 16 | Related articles
Close male-female friendships can be fun and engaging, but are women putting their emotions at risk?


An Immodest Dilemma
by Candice Watters | September 15 | Related articles
"Please guide us to a resource that will help us through the issue of modesty in an adult manner and will help her feel like she can catch my eye without being immodest."

IGN review of Appaloosa.

The weak link in the cast is Zellweger, but the fault is not entirely hers. The story tries to make Allison a more complicated and enigmatic character than the female lead usually is in Westerns, but the end result is often confusing and sloppy. One simply never warms up to Allison, and the more she's drawn into the main plot the more bewildering and less appealing she becomes. You just never believe that Cole and Hitch will be torn apart over Allison, especially when Zellweger's makeup makes her look like she's walked into every shovel lying around the mining camp.

Didn't we see that coming from a long way off? Still, I think I'll watch the movie... If part of the problem is with the original character, is that due to the adaptation or the original novel?

Twitch: Wow… They’re Really Releasing 사과 (Sakwa) After All
and Choi Min-Shik Returns to Big Screen After 3 Years

Edit. I saw the trailer for Sakwa. The movie may seem fresh, or a reflection of 'reality' but it's just a sad indicator of how fast the movie industry has declined. The days of the innocent romantic comedies/dramas are gone.

Patrick Deneen, Abstraction

While it's certainly true that the most visible cause of this unraveling is attributable to the collapse of housing prices and mortgage defaults, reflection suggests that the root cause is deeper still: it lies in a culture of abstraction. At nearly every level this financial collapse was precipitated by transforming reality into abstraction, unmooring grounded commitments and obligations and fostering new patterns of fantastical behavior throughout the populace.

It begins with an altered perception of one's abode. A rootless people - abstracted from particular places and settled patterns of life - perceive their abodes as investments, as notional assets that are packaged and bartered. In the 1980s and 90's - at the height of the American build-out into the exurban wasteland, the transformation of farmland into cul-de-sacs, six-lane feeder roads and blighted vistas of strip malls and box stores - a generation of people clung to the advice of Martha Stewart on how to create a country home with both peasant and aristocratic touches by means of purchasing bedding and paint colors at K-Mart. Houses in developments called "Hunter's Glen" and "Meadow Run" - built usually by destroying whatever the development was named after, as Kunstler wryly has pointed out - were built in a faux Victorian or classical style, using materials that wouldn't likely last 25 years without need for replacement. Designed for indoor living, with professional kitchens in which little cooking was done and separate living spaces for every member of the family, these cookie-cutter houses were paeans to a domestic idyll that was crushed under a reality of abstraction. Far-flung commutes, deadening institutionalized public school days bookended by chaotic bus rides, a younger generation that lacked meaningful interaction with adults who were not paid to be with them, lives that could not be lived without large streams of electronically supplied entertainment and "news" (increasingly indistinguishable), and frequent automobile drives to places that supplied essentials and detritus of life at the end of worldwide supply lines fueled by decreasing quantities of petroleum were the hallmarks of our disconnection with everyone and everything. This is what we called "home." The abstraction of this existence was further supported by words that had lost their meaning.

Hrm. I was just struck with the thought that by now we could come up with a 'random generator' for conservative rants, just like people have done for movie plots or anime series. I would think that Walmart and Martha Stewart would be two items on the list used by the random generator.

It does make me want to build my own furniture, though.

Crunchy Con: Benedict Option and Tinker's Bubble

Rob Roy

It's been a while since I've seen the movie, so I re-watched it last night. (Also because it's available on Hulu.) There is a bit of raunch (plus an objectionable rape scene); the bawdy banter between a husband and his wife lends it some authenticity? Though I do not know much about Scottish culture, only about a family or two. The depiction of conjugal relations between Rob Roy and Mary is not explicit; same may even praise it for being honest and positive. (Plus there is a 'pro-life' element at the end of the story.) One is tempted to give it a pass, since it is minor in comparison to what might be shown in other rated-R movies, but this is conceding too much to Hollywood. Can the strong affection between a husband and wife be shown, without putting the conjugal act onscreen, even if both are clothed or covered by something else? I would think so. (Some may say that these scenes in Rob Roy are not pornographic, since they do not excite. That may be the case for many males, even most. But are they necessary for the story? There used to be a time when kissing was not shown.)

The language might be difficult to understand, given the dialect and use of slang. Perhaps it lends the movie an air of intelligence. Braveheart came out the same year--I preferred Rob Roy to that movie. "Less action, more story." (And Braveheart seemed to be approving adultery.) I don't know if my opinion is the same now.

How accurate is the portray of the Scottish independent spirit and informality (which is not necessarily the same as egalitarianism, since some sort of hierarchy or seniority exists), and the concern for honor? Are the actions consistent with Scottish mores and honor? I'd like to read more about clan politics and relations.

Some more photos of Liam Neeson from the movie here.

I should read the original novel by Sir Walter Scott. Both are based on a "true story," but based on the wiki entry, one can say that the scriptwriter took more than a few artistic liberties (including compression of the timeframe).

1671 Rob Roy McGregor Born
Rob Roy MacGregor and History of Clan MacGregor
Famous Scots - Rob Roy MacGregor

Related links:
Official Scottish Clans and Families
wiki: Scottish clan
Scottish Clans Tartans Kilts Crests and Gifts
Scottish tartans-Scotland clans heritage from Scotland On Line
The Kilt and Thistle Scottish Shoppes

Some more links... Perhaps the New Scot has purchased a new kilt already. There used to be a waiter at the Sunset Grill who wore something like a modern kilt. Does he still work there?

ATimes: Muqtada reinvents himself

New Mozart piece discovered

A detail of a previously unknown piece of music by Mozart is displayed, discovered by a library as staff were going through its archives, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008, in Nantes, western France. Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, said Thursday that there is no doubt that the single sheet was written by the composer and that it is "really important." He described the work as the preliminary draft of a musical composition. (AP/David Vincent)


Nantes vice-mayor Jean-Louis Jossic displays a previously unknown piece of music by Mozart, discovered by a library, as staff were going through its archives, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008, in Nantes, western France. Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, said Thursday that there is no doubt that the single sheet was written by the composerand that it is "really important." He described the work as the preliminary draft of a musical composition.

Reuters: Ave! Radio station to air show in Latin

Ave! Radio station to air show in Latin

Thu Sep 18, 12:28 PM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Berlin radio station will broadcast its morning show entirely in Latin on September 26 to mark the European day of languages, the station said Thursday.

Trailers, news and weather will be translated into Latin for the Kiss FM show, listened to by around 4.2 million people daily, to raise awareness of the tragedy of dead languages.

"We are particularly looking forward to a member of staff who has written a Latin rap song," station spokesman Michael Weiland said.

(Reporting by Josie Cox, Editing by Sonya Dowsett)

Zenit: Symposium Finds "Stunning" Facts About Pius XII

Pave the Way Foundation's Address to Pope
Papal Address on Pius XII Symposium

NLM: Fr. Anthony Symondson Questions the Borromean Revival

Edit. A response by Michael Sternbeck @ Rorate Caeli.

Korea Times: US Generals Experience Korean Folk Culture

Gen. Walter Sharp, right, commander of the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC), and Deputy CFC Commander Gen. Lee Sung-chool pound rice dough together with wooden mallets to make songpyeon, a crescent-shaped Korean rice cake with different kinds of fillings, at Lee’s residence in Seoul, last Friday. Lee invited U.S. generals stationed here and their families to his residence on the eve of the Chuseok holiday to have them experience Korea’s traditional folk culture and games. / Yonhap


Review: Jeon, Ha's Chemistry Give Life to 'Enemy'

B16, On the Message of Lourdes

On the Message of Lourdes

On the Message of Lourdes

"There Is No True Love Without Suffering"

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 17, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today at the general audience held in the Paul VI Hall, during which he evaluated his Sept. 12-15 apostolic trip to Paris and Lourdes.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today's meeting gives me the opportunity to review again the moments of the pastoral visit that I made in recent days to France; a visit that culminated with the pilgrimage to Lourdes on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Virgin's apparitions to St. Bernadette. While giving fervent thanks to the Lord, who granted me such a providential possibility, I again express my sincere gratitude to the archbishop of Paris, to the bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, to the respective collaborators and to all those who in different ways cooperated in the success of my pilgrimage. I also cordially thank the president of the republic and the other authorities who welcomed me so courteously.

The visit began in Paris, where, ideally, I met with all the French people, thus honoring a beloved nation in which the Church, since the 2nd century, has played a fundamental civilizing role. It is interesting that, precisely in this context, the need matured of a healthy distinction between the political and religious spheres, according to Jesus' famous saying: "Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" (Mark 12:17).

If the effigy of Caesar was imprinted on Roman coins, then imprinted on the heart of man must be the mark of the Creator, only Lord of our life. Genuine secularism, therefore, is not to do without the spiritual dimension, but to acknowledge that precisely the latter is, radically, the guarantor of our liberty and of the autonomy of earthly realities, thanks to the dictates of creative Wisdom that the human conscience is able to receive and fulfill.

Framed in this perspective is the extensive reflection on the topic "The Origins of Western Theology and the Roots of European Culture," which I developed in the meeting with the world of culture, in a place chosen for its symbolic value. It was held at the Collège des Bernardins, which deceased Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger wished to re-establish as a center of cultural dialogue, a 12th century building built by the Cistercians, where young people have studied. The monastic theology that gave origin to our Western culture is present there.

The starting point of my address was a reflection on monasticism, whose objective was to seek God, "quaerere Deum." In an age of profound crisis of the ancient civilization, the monks, guided by the light of faith, chose the "via maestra": the way of listening to the word of God. They were, therefore, the great cultivators of sacred Scripture, and monasteries became schools of wisdom and schools of "dominici servitii," "of the service of the Lord," as St. Benedict called them.

The search for God led the monks, by its nature, to a culture of the word. "Quaerere Deum," to seek God, they searched in the furrow of the word and they were to know, in ever greater depth, this word. It was necessary to penetrate the secret of language, to understand its structure. In seeking God, who has revealed himself in sacred Scripture, of great importance were the profane sciences, in order to go deeper into the secret of languages. As a consequence, that "eruditio" was developed in monasteries that made possible the formation of culture. Precisely because of this, "quaerere Deum" -- to seek God, to be on the way to God -- continues to be today as yesterday the "via maestra" and foundation of all true culture.

Architecture is also an artistic expression of the search for God, and undoubtedly the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris is an example of universal value. Inside this magnificent church, where I had the joy to preside over the celebration of vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I exhorted the priests, deacons, men and women religious and seminarians who had come from all parts of France, to give priority to the religious listening of the divine word, looking at the Virgin Mary as sublime model.

Later, in the portico of Notre Dame, I greeted numerous and enthusiastic young people. To them, who were about to begin a long vigil of prayer, I gave two treasures of the Christian faith: the Holy Spirit and the cross. The Spirit opens human intelligence to horizons that surpass it and makes it understand the beauty and truth of God's love revealed, in fact, on the cross. A love of which no one will be able to separate us, and that is experienced by giving one's life as Christ did. After a brief stopover at the Institut de France, headquarters of the five national academies, my being a member of one of them, enabled me to see with great joy my colleagues.

Afterward, my visit culminated with the Eucharistic celebration at the Esplanade des Invalides. Echoing the words of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, I invited the faithful of Paris and the whole of France to seek the living God, who has shown us his true face in Jesus present in the Eucharist, encouraging us to love our brothers as He has loved us.

Then I went to Lourdes, where I was able to join thousands of faithful on the Jubilee Way, which includes the places of St. Bernadette's life: the parish church with the baptismal font where she was baptized; the "cachot" where she lived in great poverty as a girl; the Massabielle Grotto, where the Virgin appeared to her 18 times. In the afternoon I took part in the traditional torchlight procession, which is a wonderful manifestation of faith in God and of devotion to his and our Mother. Lourdes is truly a place of light, prayer, hope and conversion, founded on the rock of the love of God, which had its culminating revelation in the glorious cross of Christ.

By a happy coincidence, last Sunday the liturgy celebrated the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, sign of hope par excellence, because it is the highest testimony of love. In Lourdes, in the school of Mary, first and perfect disciple of Christ, pilgrims learn to regard the crosses of their lives in the light of the glorious cross of Christ. Appearing to Bernadette, in the Grotto of Massabielle, Mary's first gesture was, in fact, the Sign of the Cross, though her hand was trembling.

And so the Virgin gave a first initiation on the essence of Christianity: The Sign of the Cross is the height of our faith, and doing it with an attentive heart we enter into the full mystery of our salvation. The whole message of Lourdes is contained in this gesture of the Virgin! God has so loved us that he gave himself up for us: This is the message of the Cross, "mystery of death and of glory."

The cross reminds us that there is no true love without suffering, there is no gift of life without pain. Many learn this truth in Lourdes, which is a school of faith and hope, because it is also a school of charity and of service to brothers. It is in this context of faith and prayer where the important meeting with the French episcopate took place: It was a moment of intense spiritual communion, in which together we entrusted to the Virgin our common hopes and pastoral concerns.

The next stage was the Eucharistic procession with thousands of faithful, among whom, as usual, were many sick people. Before the most Blessed Sacrament, our spiritual communion with Mary was made even more intense and profound because God gives us eyes and hearts capable of contemplating his Divine Son in the Holy Eucharist. Very moving was the silence of these thousands of people before the Lord, not an empty silence, but one full of prayer and awareness of the Lord's presence, who loved us to the point of being lifted up on the cross for us.

Monday, Sept. 15, liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, was dedicated especially to the sick. After a brief visit to the hospital oratory, where Bernadette received her first Communion, I presided over the celebration of Holy Mass in the portico of the Basilica of the rosary, during which I administered the sacrament of anointing of the sick. With the sick and with those taking care of them, I meditated on the tears Mary shed under the cross, and on her smile that illuminates Easter morning.

Dear brothers and sisters, together we thank the Lord for this apostolic journey enriched by so many spiritual gifts. We praise him especially because Mary, by appearing to St. Bernadette, has opened to the world a privileged place to find divine love that heals and saves. In Lourdes, the Holy Virgin invites all to regard earth as a place of pilgrimage toward our final homeland, which is heaven. In reality, we are all pilgrims, we need Mary to guide us; and in Lourdes, her smile invites us to go forward with great confidence in the awareness that God is good, God is love.

[Translation by ZENIT]

[At the end of the Audience, the Pope greeted pilgrims in several languages. In English, he said:]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Our encounter today gives me the opportunity to retrace the steps of my recent Pastoral Visit to France. After a warm welcome in Paris, I met with men and women from the world of culture, with whom I reflected on the monastic ideal of seeking God -- "quaerere Deum" -- as the bedrock of European culture. I wished to emphasize that meditation on the Scriptures opens our minds and hearts to the Logos, God’s Creative Reason in the flesh. In the magnificent Cathedral of Notre-Dame, I gathered with bishops, priests, religious and seminarians, sharing with them the treasures of the Holy Spirit and the Cross. My brief stop at the Institut de France was followed by the joyful Eucharistic celebration on the Esplanade des Invalides. I then made my way to Lourdes to join thousands of pilgrims in this Jubilee year commemorating the apparitions of Our Lady to Saint Bernadette. The Holy Mass near the Grotto of Massabielle providentially coincided with the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, the perennial sign of the "mystery of death and of glory". The Cross demonstrates that God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son. It teaches us that there is no genuine love without suffering, and no gift of life without pain. Lourdes is thus a school of faith and hope because it is a school of charity and service. I am deeply grateful to God and to all who made this trip a blessed, memorable success. Thank you!

I happily greet the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, including pilgrims from England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, Burma, Japan, and the United States of America. God bless you all!

© Copyright 2008 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Edit. Correction: General Audience of Sept. 17

The last sentence of the 11th paragraph should read, "Appearing to Bernadette, in the Grotto of Massabielle, Mary's first gesture was, in fact, the Sign of the Cross, in silence and without words. And Bernadette imitated her in turn making the Sign of the Cross though her hand was trembling."

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys

Chris Carlsson, Building an Anti-Economy

Building an Anti-Economy
by Chris Carlsson

More and more people, recognizing the degradation inherent in business relations, are creating networks of activity that refuse the measurement of money. They depend instead on sharing skills and technological know-how within new communities, such as the biofuels co-ops that have proliferated in many cities. Networks have grown, thanks to the spread of the Internet and other telecommunications techologies, and new kinds of “families” based on shared values, alternative living arrangements, and non-economic relationships are growing within the old society.

Collectively, I call these projects “Nowtopia.” Rarely do the individual participants conceive of them in political terms; day-to-day issues about how we live, what we do, how we define and meet our needs tend to be understood as outside politics. But all Nowtopian activities are profoundly political.

The Nowtopian movement embodies a growing minority seeking emancipation from the treadmill of consumerism and overwork. Acting locally in the face of unfolding global catastrophes, friends and neighbors are redesigning many of the crucial technological foundations of modern life, like food and transportation. These redesigns are worked out through garage and backyard research-and-development programs among friends using the detritus of modern life. Our contemporary commons takes the shape of discarded bicycles and leftover deep-fryer oil, of vacant lots and open bandwidth. “Really, really free markets,” anti-commodities, and free services are imaginative products of an anti-economy provisionally under construction by freely cooperative and inventive people. They aren’t waiting for an institutional change from on high but are building the new world in the shell of the old.

These practices require sharing and mutual aid and constitute the beginnings of new kinds of communities. Because these people are engaged in creative appropriation of technologies to purposes of their own design and choice, these activities embody the (partial) transcendence of the wage-labor prison by workers who have better things to do than their jobs. They are tinkerers working in the waste streams and open spaces of late capitalism, conjuring new practices while redefining life’s purpose.

Interview with Gus Speth, by Jeff Goodell

From the current issue of Orion.

Change Everything Now
One of the nation's most mainstream environmentalists says it's time to get a lot more radical
Interview with Gus Speth, by Jeff Goodell

JG: In your view, what’s the alternative to pro-growth capitalism? Should we rethink communism?

GS: No, it’s not that at all. But I do believe we should be looking for a nonsocialist alternative to today’s capitalism. I think we do want to make changes that are sufficiently profound that when you look back on them, you will see that it’s no longer the capitalism of the early twenty-first century.

JG: What would a revised capitalist system look like?

GS: Well, let’s take the core of it—the corporation. Corporations right now are mandated to serve and promote the best interest of stockholders, by law. And anything it [a corporation] justifies in the nature of doing well in communities or doing well by society, that’s also got to be justified that it’s in the best interest of the shareholders. And maximizing shareholder wealth is a very fundamental part of the motivational structure of the corporate sector.

I think that needs to change fundamentally, so that corporations really are in the business of serving all of the factors that help generate wealth—all of the stakeholders, in effect. One way to describe what has to happen, and the way that the situation in the future would be different, would be to describe it as a series of transformations. The first would be a transformation in the market. There would be a real revolution in pricing. Things that are environmentally destructive would be—if they were really destructive—almost out of reach, prohibitively expensive.

A second would be a transformation to a postgrowth society where what you really want is to grow very specific things that are desperately needed in a very targeted way—you know, care for the mentally ill, health-care accessibility, high-tech green-collar industries.

A third would be a move to a wider variety of ownership patterns in the private sector. More co-ops, more employee ownership plans, and less rigid lines between the profit and the not-for-profit sectors. I mean, Google is an example of that now, they are moving in that direction, although I think it’s small compared with what they’ve really got going.

JG: Do you think that this kind of change can be had with anything short of a real revolution in America?

GS: Well, I don’t think it can be had without a real citizens’ movement—a grassroots citizens’ movement that shakes up people’s consciousness and forces us to rethink what’s really important, and what our role in the world and in nature really is. I think there is a growing sense that something is out of whack in the country, and that we’re on the verge of losing something very important, not only spiritually but also environmentally. And if we don’t change, we really could pass into some situation where it would be irretrievably lost.

James Gustave Speth - Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Red Sky at Morning by James Gustave Speth
The Bridge at the Edge of the World - James Gustave Speth
Gus Speth - Big Think
Gus Speth Interview | Outside Online

AR: The Effluent Society

The Effluent Society

John Michael Greer, The Archdruid Report

The carnage currently underway in global financial markets is tracing the familiar trajectory of boom and bust. Is the three-hundred-year rise of modern industrial society simply the first half of the same pattern writ large?

(original)

Also via EB: John Michael Greer interview (audio)

KMO, C-Realm Podcast Episode 120
The Long Descent

KMO welcomes author and Archdruid, John Michael Greer, to the program to discuss his new book The Long Descent: A User’s Guide to the End of the Industrial Age and explore the possibility that Peak Oil may play out more like a fall down the stairs than like a plunge from a third floor balcony.

Do the worldviews of Peak Oil aficionados, Singularitarians, and Trekkies all spring from the book of Revelations, and are modern visions concerning progress and the human future really just ancient religious myths in secular drag?
(17 September 2008)

mp3

Melinda Briana Epler, How to grow a four-season garden - Part 2

How to grow a four-season garden - Part 2

Melinda Briana Epler, One Green Generation

How to grow food year-round, with special attention to extending the growing season for the fall and winter.

Patrick Deneen, Unraveling

Patrick Deneen, Unraveling

(On Lehman Brothers, the economy, and debt.)

Robert Baer, Washington Is Risking War with Pakistan

I've been looking at the SIECUS guidelines, which were cited by Obama Bill Burton for its kindergarten curriculum last year. Level 1 is what is 'age-appropriate' for ages 5-8--what do you think? Truly age-appropriate?

There is plenty to criticize in the document, which is put forth by an advocacy group which undoubtedly takes upon itself to be an expert on sex education. Look at the discussion of same-sex attraction and the pretense of a morally-neutral sex ed program.

Over at Crunchy Con and other blogs (like Ross Douthat) McCain's attack ad is seen as a salvo in a renewed culture war. One that McCain is exploiting for votes, and probably somewhat effective in strengthening his base of social conservatives.

From 1994: "The Failure of Sex Education," by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead

The Del McCoury Band & The Chieftains - Rain And Snow

Back at Xendom some of us mocked the 'fake Irish' for their devotion to Irish music (and dance), as some of them were not even Irish... Irish culture seemed a bit out of place. Others tried to bring some Italian culture into the mix, starting a celebration of St. Joseph's Feast Day in response to St. Patrick's Day. (I don't know what campus life is like now, it's been 6 years since I was last there.) In retrospect, we were too harsh in our judgment (and perhaps jealous that some were able to celebrate an identity, while we were stuck, far from home and from our own roots). The Irish music and dance were probably better than the Saturday college dances (lots of pseudo-swing plus modern pop), and anything resembling folk music would be much better than the cultural desert that is Californian suburbia.

Having come to appreciate bluegrass music, I'm surprised that there wasn't a move by studenst or faculty to appropriate Southern folk music (is there a native Virginian form of folk music ?). There were plenty of students who liked contemporary country. Some of the students who could play the right instruments, and a few were even interested in bluegrass, but nothing resulted from it, not for St. Cecilia's Night at least. Would it be too much to turn the college into a bastion of traditional Southern culture? I think students from other parts of the country might be more accepting of it than a Yankee would think.

I can't imagine bluegrass becoming popular at TAC, but maybe it could happen... all that is needed are talented and dedicated students who can play instruments and sing.

I discovered Paul Hébert (myspace) through a FB group dedicated to him--

Paul Hébert - Le printemps


Paul Hébert - Pauvres Riches


Paul Hébert - Tu es la seule


Paul Hébert - Bonjour bonheur


Joelle Bizier & Paul Hebert - Notre histoire