Friday, October 23, 2020

The Eternal Clash of the Imbeciles

First, my unsolicited and entirely predictable take on last night's presidential debate -- and on every presidential debate, past and future.  In the words of Señor Dávila: 

The approval of imbeciles is the final factor in victories.

Of course I hope these imbeciles decide to pull the lever for Trump -- assuming they know how -- but they're imbeciles nonetheless.  Imagine how stupid one must be to not know whether or not one is a leftist!   And yet, the question of whether or not the United States will continue to exist as the United States is in the hands of these oblivious low- and no-fos.  

The principles that define left and right are deep, wide, pervasive, and irreconcilable.  Last night's moderator was, like Chris Wallace, another leftwing imbecile, but her final question was particularly imbecilic -- something along the lines of "if you win the election, what will you say to reassure those who didn't vote for you?"

There is nothing Biden could say to reassure me. Unless maybe he renounces Satan, which I don't see happening.   

Speaking of whom, let's get back to his revolutionary activity. 

No, wait.  One more thing.  What would Gagdad say to reassure those who despair at the prospect of a President Harris?  Once again, I will channel the good Señor.  I would draw from my own Book of Pointed Gags & Wisecracks, but they're too scattered and disorganized for quick reference:
Christianity does not solve “problems”; it merely obliges us to live them at a higher level.

The conservative is a simple pathologist. He defines sickness and health. But God is the only therapist.

I do not belong to a world that perishes. I extend and transmit a truth that does not die.

Defeats are never definitive when they are accepted with good humor.

With good humor and pessimism it is possible to be neither wrong nor bored.

Resignation must not be an exercise in stoicism but a surrender into divine hands.
There's another principle I like to keep in mind: that that which cannot continue will not continue.  After all, I live in California, which is a daily experiment in trying to prove that the impossible is possible, e.g., mandatory electric cars when there's not enough electricity to keep the lights on, or open borders when there's not enough water for existing citizens, or more funds for public employee unions when we've already accumulated $1,000,000,000,000 (a trillion) in unfunded pensions.  

Which of course is why Nancy Pelosi is trying to lard the COVID relief bill with bailouts for Democrat run disasters such as California and New York.   

Back to the book we were discussing in the previous post, Revolution and Counter-Revolution.  I'm going to cut to the chase and give my bottom-line take before I proceed to defend it:  when we talk about the demonic or diabolical, we are fundamentally describing the "spirit of revolution," bearing in mind that we must define what we mean by "revolution."

For example, in this context it is entirely inappropriate to call our founders "revolutionaries."  In fact, they were very much the opposite, in that they wanted nothing to do with overturning the order of the world, but rather, restoring the ancient rights to which we were and are entitled.  Our founders were terrified of revolution, which is precisely why they created a constitution to "contain" and neutralize such destructive impulses and energies.   

Conversely, everything about the left -- especially since the Wilson administration -- is about weakening our Constitution in order to strengthen the Revolution.  Now they want to pack the Supreme Court in order to transform it into a revolutionary body, but this is what the left does:  it ruins everything, from art to religion to education to whatever it touches.  

Of course, they wouldn't agree that they're ruining anything, rather, perfecting it.  Marriage is better now that it isn't restricted to one male and one female.  For that matter, women are better now that they are free to deny their femininity and pretend to be men.  Likewise a pajama-soyboy castratti is a perfect man.  

Which reminds me of an article by the always excellent David Solway.  I still haven't figured out how to embed links with the new blogger format, but here it is:

(https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-solway-2/2020/10/17/the-despair-of-feminism-n1066231)

I was going to discuss the piece anyway in the context of the Revolution, because the denial of male and female nature goes to its very essence; you might say to its denial of essence, for denial of essence is the essence of the Revolution.  And no, I'm not just trying to be clever; this is the thesis of Weaver's classic Ideas Have Consequences, the most consequential idea of all being....

Put it this way: you really have only two choices, or a choice of two principles.  Depending upon how you choose, hundreds of implications and entailments follow, right down to whether you are a conservative or revolutionary (of course, the leftist is never intellectually consistent, so in his case it doesn't matter that he believes mutually exclusive ideas).  

The choice is:  common sense realism or nominalism; Aquinas or Kant; God or nihilism; intellectual or anti-intellectual; order or dis-order; freedom or egalitarianism; light or darkness; individualism or conformity; gratitude or envy; racial colorblindness or racist identity politics;  justice or "social justice";  Etc.  

Exaggeration?  Polemical?  Simplistic?  Tendentious?  I really don't think so.  Let's cite some passages from the book in question.  Here's a description of how the Revolution kills institutions and souls:  it attacks Christian civilization like a certain tree in the Brazilian forest, the "strangler fig," which wraps "itself around the trunk of another tree, completely covers it and kills it."

Analogously, "the Revolution approached Christian civilization in order to wrap itself around it and kill it." Consider how homosexuality infiltrated the priesthood with predictable consequences. It very much reminds me of Iowahawk's Timeless Tweet about the four stages of leftist destruction:

1. Identify a respected institution.
2. Kill it.
3. Gut it.
4. Wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect.

The Supreme Court.  Marriage. Academia. Journalism. The "art world." And increasingly, science. 

Oh yes, and gender.  Back to Solway's piece and then we're out of time.  Why are feminists such miserable people?  This is like asking why the palm tree you're trying to grow in northern Canada isn't flourishing.  You're denying its essence, which is to say, its reason for being (i.e., its formal principle).  

By the way, I haven't even finished the article.  I just know ahead of time that it will provide us with some insultaining examples of what we're talking about:

The weakening of men and the empowerment of women, as “women claw their way to ever increasing power and fix men (especially young, white men), in their crosshairs,” destroy the sexual, romantic and institutional bond between the sexes. Similarly, the common preachment that men should jettison their manhood and become more like women is to distort the gender relationship and introduce a schism into the culture that can lead only to turmoil and unhappiness for both men and women....

Modern feminism, however, is determined... “to depict everything pertaining specifically to women as ‘oppression’,” leading to a pervasive resentment that vitiates their “essential nature”....  

Feminism is a conspiracy against productive relationships, romantic love and the traditional family—a conspiracy disguised as a historical necessity, much like the anti-family [Revolutionary] communist doctrine with which it has close conceptual ties....

What we are witnessing, in Robert Curry’s terms from Reclaiming Common Sense: Finding Truth in a Post-Truth World, is a war on the crucial role common sense plays in our lives, for example, “the denial of plain fact that humans are either male or female,” with all that the genetic binary has implied since the beginning of recorded time. This “plain fact” has been routinely and programmatically denied by feminists and gender mavens, for whom sexual differentiation is “fluid” and a matter of choice or feeling. The real “deniers,” however, are the feminists and their male enablers.... As a result, the culture is in disarray and its future, as Kierkegaard saw, is despair.

61 comments:

julie said...

Resignation must not be an exercise in stoicism but a surrender into divine hands.

If this year hasn't been a long, extended lesson in such a surrender, then I don't know what is.

Re. the strangler figs, there are a lot of those in Florida. For some amount of time, they seem relatively innocuous, simply using the host tree to lift themselves a little higher. Over time, the host tree all but disappears and all you see is a network of vines enmeshed around it. I don't know how long the host usually survives after that.

Consider how homosexuality infiltrated the priesthood with predictable consequences.

Now that the Pope has come out in favor of civil unions, how long will it be before we have a significant proportion of priests who are living in a "civil union?"

Gagdad Bob said...

David Warren: "The key thing to know, faithfully from our history, is that our victories generally begin with defeats. That is why we should never despair about losing. It happens, but within a larger scheme of things."

julie said...

Yes, it's true. The most difficult times can often only be understood properly in hindsight, at which point we may see how the seeds of greater blessing were being planted - if we are willing to trust in God to get us through it in His way, not ours.

Anonymous said...

So conservative christians don't want a theocracy. No mandated religion for you. This brings us back to the "fishers of men" concept, to replenish the pews. We're gonna have to convince people (especially the youth) that freely surrendering themselves into divine hands is a good thing.

So... didn't Jesus do enticingly cool stuff, like give these great spiritual speeches on mounts, turn water into wine, and feed the poor, as part of his "fishers of men" strategy? If I witnessed the selfless curing of leprosy, I'd be so thrilled I'd want to bite onto that hook.

Yet conservative Christians don't believe in those things anymore. Get your own wine they say. Cure your own leprosy. So these people try other strategies, like flaunting the wealth Jesus gave them and shaming anything to the left of Mitt Romney, and shunning or even attacking anything that's not them.

I'm still a bit lost on how this new strategy is supposed to fill the pews.

julie said...

If "filling the pews" is your goal, you are already wrong.

julie said...

Speaking of feminism, you can either be a feminist or scientist.

Physics. Right.

I loved physics in high school, our teacher was kind of a nerd but he loved his job and had a great time setting up demonstrations. Miraculously, he never set the building on fire. "Gender" issues never entered into it, that's part of the beauty.

Anonymous said...

This post was stellar work, Dr. Godwin. This is one of the better ones.

Regarding your remarks on feminism and feminists, it is archetypally true that females will seek power; many women are feisty and have a powerful desire to dominate others. Feminism has been around in various forms for ages. Read your Greek plays.

Feminist attacks occur sporadically within the confines of a marriage. Talk to some husbands. Feminism is the "nature of the beast." Perhaps the beast wears socialist hides now, it could just as well wear warrior hides in the future and Cary Nation you boys.

It is a common mistake to discount female aggression and cunning. A woman can be a fierce foe on the battlefield. Get some respect gents, or they'll take you unprepared. Be wise and keep your pork and clackers under guard. And maybe your bank account. Just sayin.

And this:
1. Identify a respected institution.
2. Kill it.
3. Gut it.
4. Wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect.

Love it! By far the best description of what we do ever delineated. Why didn't we think of that?

Medusa

Anonymous said...

<a href="https://youtu.be/-QK1IVi4REI>Just going to drop this here.</a>

julie said...

Now for something completely different, this boy's choir perfomance in St. Petersburg is... well, something. Not your standard Western choral fare, it reminds a little of Athos. Pretty sure when the blonde kid started singing my eyes about jumped from my head; his voice does not at all match his form. Also, it's interesting looking at this group of scrappy-looking Russian kids and realizing that sound comes from them.

julie said...

Re. the anon-linked video before mine, it's funny how the left is always accusing the right of being Nazis, but somehow they are always the ones with a history of literally dressing like Hitler, or appearing in the worst sort of black face, or saying the most shockingly racist/ homophobic/ misogynistic things, whereas no normal person I know would dream of acting that way. Not to mention bringing back segregation and actually persecuting Jews *cough*Cuomo*cough*.

Project much?

Anonymous said...

If "filling the pews" is your goal, you are already wrong.

So where will the choir boys sing? And worse, where shall we go to hear them?

As for actual right wing Nazis, I did know a few Germans who went through all that and they actually believed. They tell me that they didn't know that Nazis were actually a megalomaniacal death cult. Hitler was such an inspiring orator, they just believed that he'd actually set them free from all that was ailing Germany, that he'd Make Germany Great Again.

See what I did there? Qanon is still gaining in popularity. The major part of the authoritarian problem isn't psychopathy, it's the support psychopaths can sucker from their conned blind faithers.

So Bob tells us to believe in nobody except for Jesus. Which brings us back to filling the pews. Blind faithers do best in large groups. Just ask my brother, who's gotten season tickets for our perennially losing MLB franchise for twenty years now.

Anonymous said...

Medusa (aka well-droopy swingers),

It's not the faith I question. I think highly of deep big state skeptics. It's the vilification, the blind hatred, spewed with more rationalization than reason, which I question. They'll build up a caricature and attack the charicature relentlessly, while the person in question says: "Uh... That's not me and I'm standing over here."

The other team does the same, and they go back and forth each assuming they're winning, when it's actually just the poor strawmen who're suffering.

Stephen Macdonald said...

"I still haven't figured out how to embed links with the new blogger format"

Not sure if I'm using the same blogger interface as you (I don't use blogger, although I have an account). In my case there is an editing window, and one of the icons looks like a little chain link. If you click that you'll get a dialog that has spots for the text you wish to display in the link, and for the https://... link itself. Clicking Accept inserted the link into my blog text, and the link worked after I published.

Nicolás said...

The one who resembles me is not the one who accepts my conclusions but the one who shares my disgusts.

Nicolás said...

And the quality of an intelligence depends less on what it understands than on what makes it smile.

Anonymous said...

I am 40 years old and, out of a general disdain and disregard for politics, I have never voted in any election, ever. My 2020 vote for Trump will be the first and perhaps only vote I cast in my lifetime. Thank you to the approximately two dozen Democrat individuals and institutions who sent me smug letters and messages encouraging me to vote. I am only voting as a “fuck you” to you self-righteous bubble-living assholes.

Gagdad Bob said...

You are an exception to the rule that

--if the media need to remind you to vote
--if you need to "make a plan" to vote
--if you need help filling out your ballot

then you shouldn't be voting.

Cousin Dupree said...

Similarly, if you don't know why the Electoral College exists, you're the reason.

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the rant, but I’m irritated. I just got a letter in the mail from a grade school kid who was concerned about “preservation of our democracy” telling me to vote. And the manipulative fuck behind this scheme obviously had my voter records and knew that I had never voted before.

If they would just leave me the fuck alone, I would be quietly resigned to letting the forces of the world run this great country into the ground however they like. It’s an inevitability at some point at some point, and God always find a way. The rise of Christendom was hastened by the fall of Rome.

But it’s the moralizing and proselytizing for converts that I just can’t stand...

Nicolás said...

Let us live the militancy of Christianity with the good humor of the guerrilla fighter, not with the glumness of the entrenched garrison.

Anonymous said...

Man matures when he stops believing that politics solves his problems.

Gagdad Bob said...

The good news: what we admire does not die. The bad news: nor does what we detest.

Anonymous said...

Sure. But sometimes you just get a jonesing to immanentize the eschaton.

Anonymous said...

When the die has been cast, sometimes the best we can do is temporal resignation coupled with eternal hope. Anything else would be giving in to that temptation.

Anonymous said...

But what do I I know. I’m probably just down in the dumps because of the fake news polls and the letter from that kid

Anonymous said...

As a father of grade school children myself, I am just so disgusted that a parent would do that to their child. I can visualize the conversation. It was probably presented to the kid as an educational moment to teach them the “value of democracy” and “doing our part to ensure the future of our country.” Entirely based on lies, perpetuating those lies, and completely unaware of theIt ultimately Satanic origin. Sorry, I think I’m done now...

Anonymous said...

Maybe I’m not done yet.

It is literally the complete inversion of the ahavta command in Judaism.

https://www.templesinairi.org/vahavta.html

julie said...

Assuming it's authentic, yeah, that's pretty messed up. My kids have a hard enough time sitting down and writing a letter to a friend; if I made them write letters to strangers asking them to vote, they'd wonder what they had done to deserve such a punishment.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but it still might be better than Zoom school for most kids. Letter looks legit...

Anonymous said...

Anywho, thanks Bob for letting me blow off a little steam. I try to stay off the social medias and appreciate the forum.

Nice to see that you and the raccoon community are still going strong. I remember my first stop by this place in 2006. Seems like a lifetime ago. Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

If they would just leave me the fuck alone, I would be quietly resigned to letting the forces of the world run this great country into the ground however they like. It’s an inevitability at some point at some point, and God always find a way. The rise of Christendom was hastened by the fall of Rome.

So we've gone from defending liberty and Christianity, to full blown fuck you nihilism. Is this the new conservative Christianity?

Nicolás said...

Christianity does not deny the splendor of the world but encourages us to seek its origin, to ascend to its pure snow.

Anonymous said...

I’m no defender of liberty and Christianity. I have three kids and a demanding career and I’m just trying to make it through the day. I just don’t want obnoxious people abusing their kids to push their silly spoon-fed views in my face. Maybe one day I’ll have the luxury of pretending to be a hero.

Anonymous said...

Plus, acknowledging that the Devil will win some battles is not full blown nihilism. The die was cast when the veil to the Holy of Holies was torn in two. I see no future in American politics. The conservative agenda has been a complete failure at stopping the march of leftism. America has been a light unto the world and we were indeed the almost chosen people, but it is not the New Jerusalem.

Anonymous said...

I think one reason I am so upset by this letter is because something I have really loved about this country is now under attack. The freedom to live life and hold beliefs without stupid, smug, annoying people who think they know better pressuring me to join their mindless group-think.

Nicolás said...

Freedom is the right to be different; equality is a ban on being different.

Freedom is the right to be different; equality is a ban on being different.

Freedom is the right to be different; equality is a ban on being different.

Anonymous said...

I mean really. I would be happy to never vote and never discuss politics and let people hold whatever ridiculous and destructive views they want. I’ve become very good at pretending to be liberal, which is pretty much necessary in corporate America. I’m good with this arrangement because nobody pushes too hard and I know that the arc of salvation marches on bending human evil and stupidity to Gods will.

But the aggressiveness of the Democrat election campaign, to the point that they are manipulating their children... it just kills me.

Anonymous said...

Who thinks it is a good idea to have their 10-year old send an ideological letter to a grown man, absent any relationship, a complete stranger? It’s like that accounts payable software CEO who sent a letter to his 10 million customers, but with the addition of a little manipulation of minor children. What the FUCK is wrong with these people? I’ve read you long enough to know that mind parasites are powerful things. Intellectually I get it. But C’mon Man. It is just ridiculous.

Walter said...

This isn't Nam. There are rules!

Cousin Dupree said...

It just read like a 10 year old child. It was actually a tenured progressive.

Anonymous said...

Or maybe it was a coyote. But how the hell does a coyote write a whole letter pretending to be a human?

Gagdad Bob said...

How much did you pay him?

Anonymous said...

No charge. Just had to stuff a kilo of coke up my butt.

Anonymous said...

Freedom is the right to be evil; equality is a ban on being good.

Freedom is the right to be evil; equality is a ban on being good.

Freedom is the right to be evil; equality is a ban on being good.

Fixed that for you Nicolás. Now wipe the spittle off your screen.

Anonymous said...

I’ve become very good at pretending to be liberal, which is pretty much necessary in corporate America.

What is your definition of "liberal"? I worked in the conservative engineering world where being liberal was career suicide. Were you a scientist?

Anonymous said...

But the aggressiveness of the Democrat election campaign, to the point that they are manipulating their children... it just kills me.

I have an assignment for you, but it'll take some courage to complete. There are many republicans and former republicans who have taken out ads against Trump. I'd like you to explain that one to me, without blaming the public school system or Satan.

Anonymous said...

You want me to explain why some RINOs have taken out ads against Trump? Sure, I can try. I assume it’s because Trump can be a vulgar loudmouth and that turns off some of those who fail to understand the deeper principles that differentiate the major political parties.

Also, I have no problem with anti-Trump ads or any political ads in general. They are propaganda, and properly understood, that is fine. What I have a problem with is the massive invasion of privacy of someone looking up my voting records and having their grade-schooler send me a sanctimonious letter trying to pressure me into voting for their preferred candidate.

Dougman said...

Look into the secret societies that the Ivy League educated crowd belong too.

That’s why the Bush presidents would vote for Hillary Clinton and not Trump

Dougman said...

The Scull and Crossbones ☠️ society do not put the United States 🇺🇸 first.
They look after their own.

Anonymous said...

I’m more of the opinion that it’s good old elitism and social pretense, not adrenochrome addiction.

Anonymous said...

My definition of a liberal? Bob has spent half a life’s work on that definition. See the archives. Cliff notes version: someone who does not get the urge to vomit when they hear scolds like Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris speak.

No I am not a scientist. I am a business executive. Political conservatism is taboo in corporate leadership, even here in the Midwest.

Cousin Dupree said...

"Someone who doesn't get the urge to vomit when they hear Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris speak." Rule of thumb or eternal law?

Anonymous said...

Eternal law. It might have made for a good aphorism.

Nicolás said...

Our spontaneous revulsions are often more lucid than our reasoned convictions.

Gagdad Bob said...

Come to think of it, a PhD in Disgust would be no less substantive than a PhD in ______ Studies.

Anonymous said...

https://mobile.twitter.com/danrothschild

Anonymous said...

What I have a problem with is the massive invasion of privacy of someone looking up my voting records and having their grade-schooler send me a sanctimonious letter trying to pressure me into voting for their preferred candidate.

Good point and that is definitely messed up. Charlie Kirk was busted for hiring teens to create fake facebook profiles. Plenty of messed up stuff to go around. These things are what real Americans should be fighting against.

Anonymous said...

That’s why the Bush presidents would vote for Hillary Clinton and not Trump

I would've voted for Trump is he'd built the wall with Mexico's money, locked Her up, or drained the swamp. As it is, he's proven to be no different than Hillary, who he once buddied around with and helped with his 'Obama wasn't born in the USA' scam.

Anonymous said...

Political conservatism is taboo in corporate leadership, even here in the Midwest.

In my humble but extensive experience, a professional becomes a conservative after years of constant hard work, falling down to get right back up, who acquires a nest egg they want to protect from government overreach. A professional becomes a liberal after years of fairly easy money, like the talented coders making 150K+, who're surrounded by likeminded peers suffering from the emotional equivalent of "white guilt".

Evangelicals, tradesmen and born-intos get to conservatism by other means, usually career desperation or familial-tribal. Farmers and rurals have little vested interest in government, outside of farming subsidies which mostly Republicans provide. People who are in any way feel inescapably bullied, like minorities, working women and gays or those who've had their careers offshored, often wind up as liberals or progressives (who have little real power).

But neither party establishment really cares outside of donation money, grift or votes. Pelosi and McConnell have gotten quite wealthy mostly through connections. I'd hoped that Obama would be different but that "socialist" got his Wall Street bribe money and lives quite well in his mansion by the sea. Trump is probably in it to try and save his ailing businesses. Biden will make all kinds of progressive promises but capitulate to "political reality", and cause a Trump clone to emerge, if not a Trump again in 2024.

I just want less binary and more nuance.

Nicolás said...

If history made sense, the Incarnation would be superfluous.

Anonymous said...

History tells me that power crazed madmen can get the rock star treatment, if they play their speeches right. So there's that.

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