Thursday, October 19, 2017

Thursday Morning Metaphysical Rant

Hello. This isn't part of the rant. Rather, the rant is now over, and I am now identifying it as one. A Get off my celestial lawn! moment, you might say. Getting stuff off my chest, AKA externalizing the fourth chakra. Venting the nonlocal spleen. Perhaps I should do it more often. After all, it's only how I really feel:

This should not be a controversial statement, but a first principle of any intelligent human being -- or a human being who endeavors to exercise his intelligence to the fullest: "Man by definition is a center, or 'the center' in a given universe" (Schuon).

Let's leave other hypothetical universes to the side, and restrict ourselves to this one. In this cosmos man is central, which is to say, Pontifex Maximus: not so much the Bridge Builder as the bridge itself.

Which we must simultaneously build. Irreducible orthoparadox, you see. How to put it... We are the bridge we construct in order to get from here to there. Not a horizontal there but a vertical one. In short, man is a vertical bridge, or a bridge of verticality to the father shore.

Better yet, just look at the caption of the icon in the sidebar: Your life is a path for the Spirit to pass from periphery to center. Thoughts and choices -- truth and virtue -- are the paving stones. To which I would add beauty, each integrated with and reflecting the others.

Anticipating objections, if man is not central, who or what is? Is there a greater being we might consult, one who "contains" us or puts us in context?

Well, yes and no. Of course there are men who are greater than we are, but they are men nevertheless. To the extent that they are greater, it is because they are more central, more integrated, more actualized. They do not belong to a different species, although it sometimes seems that way. They are like men, only better. Others are like men, only worse. There are always two possible perspectives on the worstovus: subhuman? Or all too human?

Which highlights the verticality of it all. In the absence of verticality there is no better or worse, just the multicultural relativistic mush of the left. I don't mind that they don't believe in superior people and civilizations, only that they want to outlaw them (even while privileging the worst).

We're getting a little far afield, but verticality and centrality are two sides of the same reality. In a purely horizontal universe, it would of course be absurd to suggest that man -- or anything else -- is central. Therefore, the materialist is correct that there is no center in the context of materialism. But once the materialist makes such a universal statement, he has actually left materialism behind and has placed himself at the center of creation in spite of himsoph (or sophistry, to be exact).

Now we see that verticality and centrality have something to do with universality. I'm just going to throw all my cards on the table and say that these three in turn relate to eternity, infinitude, personhood, and the Absolute Subject, AKA God. None of these categories can stand alone -- which is why it is strictly impossible to be a consistent atheist, but that is a slightly different argument. Let's stay focused on this scattershot rant.

The Absolute Subject is the only conceivable principle that ties the cosmos together. Put conversely, remove or deny the A.S. and everything falls apart: we are well and truly banished to the periphery. Not even the periphery, because that presumes a center. Unending alienation in an abyss of blind nothingness -- like being stuck in a liberal university forever, with no possibility of graduation. Or an eternal waiting room with CNN droning in the background. There are no words. Only a bone-rattling cry of existential pain from abdomen to larynx to void:

But there are words, and here again, words not only connect us to the center, but are its emanation. Not for nothing does man get to name the animals. Why? Well, for starters because they are relative to us, as periphery is to center. Note that (maybe) the most degrading effect of metaphysical Darwinism is to invert this reality, and to render man relative to the beasts! Which simply cannot be.

Think about it, genius: to even say the word "Darwinism" is to have transcended Darwinism. In so doing, you have placed yourself at the center of creation, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it, short of giving yourself a lobotomy and eating your neighbor. If you're an agglomeration of selfish genes, start acting like it, hypocrite! Don't partake of the detritus of Christian civilization while pretending your withered soul can subsist on the holy communion of sacred matter.

It's like the cult of Global Warming: I'll believe it when beachfront property is worth as much as a mobile home in Death Valley. Likewise, I'll believe in metaphysical Darwinism when liberals start behaving like uncivilized beasts.

Right. Let me put that in a different way.

Obviously the barbarians of the left place themselves at the center, but in the manner of the infant, who is also the center of the universe. Most of my readers probably have children, or at least were once children themselves. It is right and proper that we nourish the delusions of His Majesty the Baby, and treat him as the center of the world. We do this so he can eventually outgrow the delusion, and see that each person is a representative of the same center.

Two errors: deny him this delusion, or indulge it to excess, and the baby will spend the rest of his life in search of the Lost Entitlement. You will have created a monster. In other words, a liberal.

Bottom line for today:

"God became man that man might become God": the absolute Subject, perfect in Itself, descended into contingency so that contingency could be reintegrated into the perfection of the absolute Subject. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life": Christ identifies himself with the divine Subjectivity, which "is incarnated" in the world of contingency, in conformity with the saving tendency of the Sovereign Good....

God is intrinsically "I"; He is "He" only extrinsically and from man's vantage point.... God is the only and perfect Subject and His intent is to reintegrate the multiple and imperfect subjects...

16 comments:

julie said...

Two errors: deny him this delusion, or indulge it to excess, and the baby will spend the rest of his life in search of the Lost Entitlement. You will have created a monster. In other words, a liberal.

Was just reading at McCain's this morning about the cult of transgenderism and how it preys upon vulnerable teenagers. Given time and opportunity, lives with a promise of normalcy are transformed instead into walking monstrosities, and of course they affect not only themselves but also their families and the people who care about them. The parents, for their part, are forced to walk the fine line between denying the delusion or indulging it, as finding the balance seems to be the only way to hopefully bring their kids back to reality before it is too late. Sad.

julie said...

In the absence of verticality there is no better or worse, just the multicultural relativistic mush of the left. I don't mind that they don't believe in superior people and civilizations, only that they want to outlaw them (even while privileging the worst).

Seems like that was a point Gen. Kelly touched on in his magnificent press briefing yesterday. Knowing nothing about him prior to yesterday, you can't help but love and respect that man.

One of the things I love about this administration is that we have people who are not simply in power, but who have authority and the willingness to speak plainly. I can't imagine anyone in, say, the Bush administration talking like that and keeping his job.

Speaking of whom, I used to have a great deal of respect for that one, even when I disagreed with his policies. No more.

Gagdad Bob said...

Yes. There could scarcely be a a more vivid contrast than that between Kelly and that truly awful congresswoman. Hell would be having to spend eternity with her. Or five minutes.

Weigel makes a similar point in Lessons in Hope, on how JP helped to end communism. Turns out the most effective way was to stop pretending to live the lie -- that "truth, spoken clearly and winsomely enough, has the power to forge cultural tools of resistance to oppression.... amid the communist culture of the lie."

The left is such a flaming shithouse of lies. It's fantastic that Trump is giving people the courage to speak up and not be cowed by these soulless reptiles.

Gagdad Bob said...

And What You Said about Bush. What a pathetically clueless tool.

Van Harvey said...

"...Therefore, the materialist is correct that there is no center in the context of materialism..."

It's sad, and not a little frightening, to realize that all of their pro-regressive gibberish sort of makes sense, if looked at from the context of materialism. What any awful place that must be to live in. Obviously.

Gagdad Bob said...

No coincidence that the state provides a free indoctrination at no expense to the citizen. If you catch them early enough, they won't even miss their souls.

julie said...

Notably, if some polls are to be believed, all that indoctrination is backfiring. Among white male high school students, support for Trump was something like 90%. The current crop of millennials may have trouble "adulting," but the generation in their teens now may well be of a different mettle.

Interesting times ahead, there's no question of that.

debass said...

"It's like the cult of Global Warming: I'll believe it when beachfront property is worth as much as a mobile home in Death Valley."
I'll believe in global warming when Al Gore flies in an electric airplane. Also, dittos on GWB.

Van Harvey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Van Harvey said...

I've been saying for awhile, that I dont buy the Millennial meltdown. Obviously there are snowflakes among them - especially at colleges (duh) - but it seems to me that that's as unrepresentative of the whole, as was what we're told about the typical Trump voter, or of the Tea Party.

What I've been seeing over the last three decades, are kids who realize that they're being had by schools and media, and they are looking for what those entities have been trying so hard to keep from them.

I don't know what they'll do, or how they'll turn out, but I'd tell our cultural "light workers", as Luke says in the latest Star Wars trailer "This is not going to go, the way you think!"

Gagdad Bob said...

In the long run, human nature will always reassert itself, whether for good or ill.

julie said...

Good grief; this article posits that life is so miserable the best thing for everyone is to never have been born. He claims it is actually immoral to procreate, because at some point everyone suffers. It's like the written equivalent of Homer's screaming face.

Notably, the author didn't off himself after writing it (as far as we know), and presumably he hasn't stopped chasing his pleasures wherever he can. The sad thing about it, though, is how many people have bought into this idea.

Also sad: he actually argues that there is no such thing as chronic pleasure, only chronic pain. Clearly, nobody ever taught him the value of counting his blessings.

Gagdad Bob said...

Whenever I write a psychological report, I always have to mention whether or not the person has suicidal ideation. I feel like I should modify this to say: "While the patient is technically not suicidal, he is nevertheless a liberal."

Gagdad Bob said...

To paraphrase the Aphorist, The atheist who does not commit suicide has no right to be thought lucid.

julie said...

The one time in my life I went through a serious depression with serious suicidal ideation (many years ago), atheism and all its implications was a major part of it. If it's true, life is utterly meaningless.

Anonymous said...

Some animals weigh in on the centrality of humans:

Jhyoti, Bengal tiger from Tamil Nadu: "humans are a little bland. There are better menu choices available."

Ku, homing pigeon, Pyongyang: "Human navigation skills are weak. Their animal lackeys are deplorable. I met some greyhounds at a racing meet in Paris. Capitalist running dogs, every one of them. And cats: reactionary, cannot be trusted. Never turn your back on a cat."

Sirrah, racing horse, Marseille: "Humans think the sun rises and sets just for them. Well, I enjoy sunshine too, and I can beat Usain Bolt at any length of race. Put that in your feed bag."

Meph, skunk, woods near Nashville: Humans think their sh-t don't stink. I think we all know that's not true."

Just some perspective. From an Orangutan. Yes, I can type. Thank you.

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