Deschooling

Infed: Ivan Illich: deschooling, conviviality and lifelong learning

Related:
Deschooling for all?

Dr. Fleming's Thoughts on Labor Day

The Indignity of Labor

Ralph Nader with a different view.

Related: Anthony Esolen, Owing Our Souls to the New Company Store

The Glory that is Rome

You get a glimpse of Roman soldiers in Pompeii and Son of God, both of which were released recently. Funny that the makers of Pompeii thought it was necessary to include a black African slave/gladiator as a character, even though it's been done repeatedly in recent depictions of the Roman Empire (Gladiator, Spartacus, what else?) Pompeii, with all of its CGI effects and lame Hollywood disaster movie plot, probably deserves its low freshness rating.



Is there any chance that for the sword and sandal movie, the Hollywood historical epic to get away from Political Correctness?

King Arthur, Centurion, The Last Legion, and The Eagle were disappointing though not all equally bad. What is Mel Gibson up to? His planned movies on the Vikings and the Maccabees don't seem to be going anywhere. Is there a movie about the Roman republic or the Empire that he would be willing to do, in Latin? (The Punic Wars? Caesar's campaign in Gaul?) Or maybe something on the Eastern Roman Empire, in Latin and Greek?

East of Byzantium and a movie on the Council of Nicaea


They may be inspiring to some and a must-see for history buffs but will they be too cheesy for the rest of the potential audience (much like Son of God appeals to pious Christians who do not have high standards for film-making)?



More episodes of Byzantium the Lost Empire.
Complete.

Plus, Byzantium - A Tale of Three Cities.

National Geographic did a documentary on Armenia.


The Rebirth of Armenia

A FB friend posted the following from Tim Stanley:
"I've reached the conclusion that traditionalists should reject politics and focus on art. We should take back control of the cultural institutions—universities, academies, churches, periodicals—and use them to promote beauty. We should try to live charitably, fully and well—to be examples and trend setters. We mustn't turn our backs on the people we disagree with, but embrace and cherish them (please, do not conflate traditionalism with snobbery—Yukio [Mishima] wrote, “The highest point at which human life and art meet is in the ordinary. To look down on the ordinary is to despise what you can’t have.”) And we should not accept our fate as mere critics of civilisation (the figurative version of Mishima’s suicide) but instead become the architects of a new one. For we traditionalists don’t contribute nearly enough to our society. Helping to improve it could mean anything from blogging to writing a symphony. My favourite way to keep the flame burning is to attend the Old Rite Catholic Mass. There is the real synergy of art and action: an ancient ritual, unchanged, unchanging that represents a communion with the past. And, of course, to God."
--Timothy Randolph Stanley
Telegraph. See also Daniel McCarthy.

Can't "take control" without numbers, and Christianity is not about numbers - it's about bringing Christ to others. Besides, the heavy use of print and electronic mass media in a system that is not sustainable may lead to their curtailment in the future - if we want to restore beauty we need to do so in a local context, in our communities and our temples.

The Benefits of Singing According to Brian Eno

Singing: The Key To A Long Life

More from Daniel McInerny on Work

Daniel McInerny: On Work as Craft

Misc.
An Ode to Great Books and Beautiful Libraries

Take Back Your Time

It's been a while since I've looked at the website. There is a conference, August 24-5, at Seattle University.

Related:
The Power of Social Movements

Leisure, Philosophy, and Liberal Education in Josef Pieper’s Thought by Lee Trepanier

Josef Pieper is best known in this country for his work, Leisure as the Basis of Culture, and its companion essay, The Philosophical Act, published as one book in 1952. In this book, Pieper’s argument is seemingly straight-forward: culture depends upon leisure, and leisure in turn depends upon the cult of divine worship. For Pieper, the cult is the ritual of public sacrifice that acts as the primary source of our independence and freedom, while culture involves natural goods of the world that belong to us but are beyond our immediate needs and wants. Leisure, as the basis of culture, therefore is our fundamental relationship to reality as a type of “philosophical act” where we learn to see how certain aspects of reality demand a celebration of them in divine worship. For Pieper, the highest relationship we can have with reality is one that is free of practical considerations, a philosophical theoria, and that can only be preserved within the sphere of leisure. Although his argument appears to be only about leisure, Pieper is actually exploring the nature of philosophy, specifically Christian philosophy, and its role in the education of souls.

In Praise of Leisure by Robert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky (via FT)

The irony, however, is that now that we have at last achieved abundance, the habits bred into us by capitalism have left us incapable of enjoying it properly. The Devil, it seems, has claimed his reward. Can we evade this fate? Perhaps, but only if we can retrieve from centuries of neglect and distortion the idea of a good life, a life sufficient unto itself. Here we must draw on the rich storehouse of premodern wisdom, Occidental and Oriental.

Opposition to the growth juggernaut has gathered pace in recent years. Growth, say critics, is not only failing to make us happier; it is also environmentally disastrous. Both claims may well be true, but they fail to capture our deeper objection to endless growth, which is that it is senseless. To found our case against growth on the fact that it is damaging to happiness or the environment is to invite our opponents to show that it is not, in fact, damaging in those ways—an invitation they have been quick to take up. The whole argument then disappears down an academic cul-de-sac. The point to keep in mind is that we know, prior to anything scientists or statisticians can tell us, that the unending pursuit of wealth is madness.

Bred into "us"? Seems like the authors are speaking for the few. Most were probably unwilling drones who were forced by circumstances and need to become wage slaves. Those who are the more enthusiastic participants tend to have upper middle class aspirations or higher. Without the destruction of community in the first place there would be no meritocracy of the sort lamented by the writers at FPR.

Alas, the authors remain believers in some sort of growth (which presumes cheap energy and a plentiful supply of natural resources which can be wasted):

In discussing our ideas with friends and acquaintances, we find that several objections have cropped up regularly. The first concerns timing. "Now, of all moments," we are told, "is not the time to be talking about an end to growth. Wouldn't Keynes himself, were he alive, urge us to resume growth as rapidly as possible in order to bring down unemployment and pay off government debt?" We do not dispute this. But we need to distinguish between short-term policies for recovery after the worst depression since the 1930s, and long-term policies for realizing the good life.

Too much of a good thing?

The Father's Day Festival in Grass Valley started today and will go on until Sunday. It was preceded or is accompanied, I believe, by workshops. It features a lot of bluegrass music and some old time music acts as well.



Without cheap energy would it be possible to have a festival lasting for so many days drawing people from all over California? And is that too much good music for one setting? A surfeit of audio pleasure may seem like a blessing, but does an excess of leisure becomes sloth? Or another instance of consumption rather than enjoyment - we can't space out our enjoyment of live music within a communal setting and a normal temporal cycle and so we have to take in as much as we can at these special events. We listen with other fans, individuals and their families, rather than with our neighbors and extended kin. (Though those who live in and near Grass Valley who are in attendance may be blessed by the company of those near to them.)

Still, if I had money and a family, I might go there for a short vacation. Beats Disneyland.

California Bluegrass Association
See also the Northern California Bluegrass Society.