Friday, April 30, 2021

More Pompous Pronouncements

It's a truism that people are conservative about what they know best. Which is why people who know nothing are the ideal liberals.

Systemic racism. What, like the minimum wage? 

Neither causality nor purpose are intelligible without the element of chance, AKA  holy happenstance; without it, what is, is.

Surprise must be a primordial category, contained eminently in God. Without it, creation is a machine and art an algorithm. Determinism is absolute boredom. 

For a child, an immutable parent would constitute the ultimate nightmare. It is a living death.

The message of the internally related Trinity: don't absolutize the Absolute.

Logic is circular. But there are larger and smaller circles, not to mention a sphere.

Traces of spirit etched in time. Metahistory and history.

Knowledge is the conquest of ignorance, wisdom its restoration.

Let's start with what we don't know. It's the first step to sanity.

Tradition is an ensemble of successful adaptations and solutions to problems we no longer remember precisely because they were successful. Which is why solutions proposed by the left are predicated on not understanding the problem. 

Intelligence is the power without which humans are deprived access to whole worlds, including the most interesting material ones.

Political correctness is a declaration of war by omniscience on curiosity.   

Virtue signaling alerts us to toxic narcissism and dangerous psychopathy. Understood this way, the snake's  rattle is a courtesy.

A wise man said that without God, even truth is an idol. Which is why the first commandment precedes the second and third. No God, no truth, all vanity.

To be the man you gotta beat The Man. Or god and God, in the case of the left. 

 

14 comments:

julie said...

Virtue signaling alerts us to toxic narcissism and dangerous psychopathy. Understood this way, the snake's rattle is a courtesy.

Yep. How you can tell, also, the character of our most recent trolls. They don't engage any points, just rant about how awful you are (even as they clearly don't read what you write) while proclaiming their own goodness.

Petey said...

For progressives, epistemology is downstream from morality and ontology: it's not what they know, it's who and how good they are. What they know is Good and True because they are.

Anonymous said...

Petey wrote: "For progressives, epistemology is downstream from morality and ontology: it's not what they know, it's who and how good they are. What they know is Good and True because they are."

And you Petey? Are you good?

Anonymous said...


Julie wrote: "Yep. How you can tell, also, the character of our most recent trolls. They don't engage any points, just rant about how awful you are (even as they clearly don't read what you write) while proclaiming their own goodness."

No troll I've read here has ever proclaimed their own goodness. No self-respecting troll would put themselves down like that.

And the trolls from the last post's comments did indeed engage all points, which is why we now need to know Gagdad's relationship history with his father.

There is a root cause for all the awfulness and we are not saying it is necessarily Gagdad's moral character. He may have sustained emotional trauma for all we know. We would like to know.

Anonymous said...

Great post. I like this one: "Virtue signaling alerts us to toxic narcissism and dangerous psychopathy."

Now that is true. In a gang, for instance, loyalty is everything. This is why the obsessive concern with color and symbol used by the gangs. That is virtue signaling in a very obvious form.

The famous bumper stickers "Save the Whales" and "Free Tibet" are examples of 1970's era virtue signaling.

Country men have pick-up trucks with a Confederate flag sticker and/or with an ostentatious gun rack mounted in the rear window so you can view the weapons. That signals "Good 'ol Boy."

Then there is the infamous red MAGA hat, the ultimate virtue signaling tool of our time.

Psychopathy is very wide-spread indeed.

Cousin Dupree said...

Where I live a MAGA hat is a key-my-car signal.

Cousin Dupree said...

And a Confederate flag is a flat-out status symbol letting everyone know you can afford to have your house burned down.

Anonymous said...

Dupree, if you lived in Cheyenne that might not be the case. Now, if you choose to dwell among the enemy in SoCal, that choice needs be examined. The question being:

Why don't you move the family? Boise, Idaho, Missoula, Montana, or good ol' Pahrump, Nevada might suit you. MAGA hats and Confederate flags welcome, and open carry normal. Paradise. Yay, Jesus.

But maybe the wife has deep roots where you are and so there's no pulling up stakes. I get it. Happy wife, happy life.

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Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to - sticks and stones can break your bones, but names can never hurt you.

Gagdad Bob said...

It's been updated: Sticks and stones will break your bones if your words should ever trigger me.

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed the post, sir. I need some clarification on this one, though:

"Systemic racism. What, like the minimum wage?" I'm don't see the connection.

Especially liked: "Tradition is an ensemble of successful adaptations and solutions to problems we no longer remember precisely because they were successful."

Based on that aphorism, you could make a case that blindly following traditions can potentially saddle a person with tasks and obligations which serve a purpose not longer, wasting time and effort which could be better spent for other things. However I'm drawing a blank on any specific examples.

And finally, "Surprise must be a primordial category, contained eminently in God." Wouldn't you like to know. You will be surprised when you find out the answer.

Anonymous said...

At the end of a long day, it'd sure be funny if an intelligently effective balance between personal responsibility and social responsibility was the only way. This would cover religion too, methinks.

Unless you're rich of course. Bwahahahahahahahahshshshs!(*snork*) Aheh. Aheehee.

Van Harvey said...

"It's a truism that people are conservative about what they know best. Which is why people who know nothing are the ideal liberals."

Bwa-ha-Hah-hahahaha...Hahhh!

jorgen b said...

Their "morality" is merely that other people are bad because not perfect and are to be infinitely criticized but that they themselevs are exempt from criticism. So when you just say "For progressives, epistemology is downstream from morality and ontology" you're saying something wholly inadequate, even counterproductive.

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