tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post113492748880680830..comments2024-03-27T11:16:36.951-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: Paranoia Runs Deeper Than I ThoughtGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1135012880897055412005-12-19T09:21:00.000-08:002005-12-19T09:21:00.000-08:00The novelist, financial planner, firearms instruct...The novelist, financial planner, firearms instructor, pilot, and race-car-driver wannabe John Ross is a cousin of Jane Smiley. Ross is a good example of the plain style and plain sense. In general see<BR/><BR/>http://www.john-ross.net/ross_in_range.htm<BR/><BR/>esp the recent column on Maureen Dowd. For his comments on Jane and her famous column on the invincible ignorance of the red states, see<BR/><BR/>http://www.john-ross.net/smiley.htm<BR/><BR/>It sounds as if she's gotten more desperately loony since the election.Simon Kentonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03569879198630338210noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1134948827788494382005-12-18T15:33:00.000-08:002005-12-18T15:33:00.000-08:00Well, there comes a point where if one does not ca...Well, there comes a point where if one does not call one's enemies by their true names,one cannot defeat them.<BR/><BR/>I could not disagree more with the notion that to do so somehow renders one "irrelevant." If fact, I would suggest that the results are quite the oppposite of what you suggest.<BR/><BR/>It is not merely an issue of rhetoric or language - evil is not defeated by words alone. I would think that you of all people would understand this.<BR/><BR/>This is a deep spiritual problem, the central spiritual problem of the West, and it can be neither agrued or wished away.<BR/><BR/>We are running out of time.<BR/><BR/>There may be a local triumph of "conservativism" (what ever <I>that</I> might be,) but the issues at hand go far beyond notions of economics, political governance or personal responisbility, no matter how true, valid and reasonable these notions may be.<BR/><BR/>The fate of the human spirit seems to be at issue in our time.<BR/><BR/>Melodramtic? Perhaps. But consider this: An ascendant Asia that is "Conservative and Capitalist" in the Asian sense, but yet still a satrapry and beehive of the spirit will not advance man, and if such an order destroys the West in the process it will in fact be a grievious set back, a throwing off of centuries of advance.<BR/><BR/>Capitalism is an economic technique - one that optimizes resource allocation with reasonable controla and rewards - it is neither a theology or philosophy. It does not address the higher needs of man. The same is true to a degree of "conservativism" in both its fiscal and social senses. American conservativsim presumes that the individual resides in our western civilisation, and has as loci and nexi for its prime tenants in the large mesh of Judeo-Christian religious, social and cultural forms, structures and truths.(I am an arch capitalist and arch-conservative, BTW.)<BR/><BR/>This is one of the reasons that in the broader world, socialist often wins the porpoaganda battle, for socialism is <I>not</I> a technique, it is a religion.<BR/><BR/>To the other poster that imagines that the world is turning toward American conservatism, I suggest he travel a bit more ofr this is not really the case. America herself is but a very few votes away from EU style socialism.<BR/><BR/>That a mediocrity and obvous traitor like Kerry could come so close to beating GWB does not bode well for the future of this great nation.<BR/><BR/>No, these folks are not going away any time soon, particularly when the rest of us imagine that the fight is merely one of dissauding them.<BR/><BR/>The Christian will say that the sinner must be seperated from the eveil and redeemed. SO be it. But their agenda must at all cost be defeated.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1134940682049287912005-12-18T13:18:00.000-08:002005-12-18T13:18:00.000-08:00Yes, I do believe in ontological evil. But if yo...Yes, I do believe in ontological evil. But if you begin to describe those with whom you disagree as "evil," then you will succeed only in removing yourself from relevance. You can be "dead right," you know, as when you insist on the right of way while driving, only to have your car totalled by the opposing traffic.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1134939138851107912005-12-18T12:52:00.000-08:002005-12-18T12:52:00.000-08:00Well, I am surprised that you just now have realiz...Well, I am surprised that you just now have realized just how "out in left field" the Left actually is.<BR/><BR/>I would point out that to one degree or another the world view of the Left is the dominant view of the political, social and cultural elites of what we call "the Western World." These people have been "guiding" us for decades. What do you have to say about <I>that?</I><BR/><BR/>These are people that teach our young make our "Art" and have had their mitts on the "atomic football." No matter how bizaare might be their goals, they pursue them quite rationally and with the zeal of Jesuits.<BR/><BR/><BR/>How can one account for all of this?<BR/><BR/>Have you considered that what you see is in some manner the embrace of evil, and I do not mean some sort of "New Age" notion of evil as the absense of good, or some sort of "mental imbalance" or "pathology."<BR/><BR/>Rather, I suggest that here we have a case of the old fashioned, supernatural sort.<BR/><BR/>While I enjoy your vision of the spirit, I must say that you seem a tad pollyannyish on the subject of evil. There is such a thing, you know. It is not a "pathology."<BR/><BR/>What say you to this?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com