The most subversive book in our time would be a collection of old proverbs. --Davila
In that case, the last thing I want to do is subvert our decaying system and its degenerate elites, so here are some new proverbs:
Critical race theorist: someone who not only can't specify the null hypothesis of Critical Race Theory, but has no idea what you're talking about.
The white man's burden: if we don't play the role of Satan, their whole universe collapses.
In the analysis of social problems, all roads lead to IQ differences, but the roads have been barricaded.
Man is free because he his rational. Unless he is only rational.
Everything bears witness to God. At least under cross-examination.
Safe spaces. Because the truth hurts.
The cosmic area rug is a tapestry woven of mystery and intelligibility. Which reduces to a mysterious Intelligence.
We are created from nothing, and a vestige of this nothingness persists like a retrovirus. Ideologies are born when this nothingness mates with stupidity.
Ideology encloses mystery in intelligibility, thereby eclipsing Intelligence.
Awareness of necessity is the first freedom. The Absolute is necessary being. This realization is eternity clothed in finitude.
If God weren't perfect there would be no imperfection.
In the vertical hierarchy, the last of a higher kind touches the first of a lower. The meeting point of natural selection and supernatural election.
What is the "glue" that binds the hierarchy? There is a truth above and a grace below. The rest is on you.
A border of the hierarchy appears as a horizon. The ship of thought disappears beneath it unless you shift dimensions from plane to sphere. Material brain and immaterial soul.
Or, part and whole. The soul is ordered to the latter, which is why endless adventure is the proper end of our adventuring.
The purpose of the Incarnation is our salvation. From what? From sin. Now, man is equal parts intellect, will, and sentiment. What is intellectual sin, and how does the Incarnation rectify it? What is the intellectual problem to which he is the solution? Ask Adam but watch the serpent.
Gross abuse of a corpse is a felony in all 50 states. It must not be a federal crime, so that's how Biden's handlers get away with it.
Those buzz-killing Puritans landed here in 1620. Four centuries of prudery and meddling has reduced them to their essence: wokeness. The left is puritanism with the humor.
27 comments:
According to an NY Times app, I "live in a Democratic bubble. Only 9 percent of your neighbors are Republicans." Funny, it doesn't feel like a bubble; rather, the Matrix.
Great post, love the new aphorisms. I think they are strong enough to undermine the degenerate elites.
Here's one: "The purpose of the Incarnation is our salvation. From what? From sin."
Now that's the beginning of the purpose, but not a complete statement. And you know that.
This is why, despite your most earnest intentions, you will never be a good Catholic. Because you see a larger picture, you are condemned to be a generalist. Worry not, Saint Peter knows all about your situation and your boarding pass will be on hand at the allotted time despite your un-orthodoxy.
And: "Critical race theorist: someone who not only can't specify the null hypothesis of Critical Race Theory, but has no idea what you're talking about."
That's me. I've no idea what you are talking about, and I cannot specify the null hypothesis of Critical Race Theory. Please explain.
What I DO know is the structure of legal thought or culture influences its content, whereby a particular mode of thought or widely shared practice determines significant social outcomes, usually occurring without conscious knowledge. As such, our system cannot redress certain kinds of wrongs.
But that's just me.
Here's another: "The white man's burden: if we don't play the role of Satan, their whole universe collapses."
The white man enjoys his role altogether to much to quit now. No, he will have to be compelled to stop playing the role of Satan. Obedient women and easy money. Why let that go?
-Degenerate Elitist
Ideology encloses mystery in intelligibility, thereby eclipsing Intelligence.
Awareness of necessity is the first freedom. The Absolute is necessary being. This realization is eternity clothed in finitude.
Just finished a conversation with someone who has spent his life thus far practicing faith not so much because he is in love with God as because he is terrified of hell. Needless to say, it is something he has been struggling with greatly. His ideology was that one must work their way into heaven.
Fear of hell is in essence the awareness of necessity; it'll get you in the door, so to speak. But it won't walk you down the aisle and bring you to the altar.
***
Bob, I'm surprised there are even 9% where you are. You have more allies in your neighborhood than you knew!
Gagdad wrote in a comment "According to an NY Times app, I "live in a Democratic bubble. Only 9 percent of your neighbors are Republicans." Funny, it doesn't feel like a bubble; rather, the Matrix."
So now it is time for you to explain why you are living in Democrat occupied territory. You are a committed conservative are you not? So why are slumming it with them?
I heard you used to be one. Just saying.
At first disappointing, these posts composed of aphorisms are growing on me. They can be mined for topics and unpacked endlessly because each condenses a wealth of inferences and assumptions. This is entertainment at its best; thank you Blog Author.
In the post you wrote:
"Those buzz-killing Puritans landed here in 1620. Four centuries of prudery and meddling has reduced them to their essence: wokeness. The left is puritanism with the humor."
But wait, Puritans were famous for being sincere God-fearing believers. And on your blog you've oft opined left wokeness is categorically impossible to embrace for a believer. So, there is a pretty glaring inconsistency between this aphorism and your prior views.
Turning over a new leaf? About time I'd say.
"Four centuries of prudery and meddling?" Did you not yourself write many times prudence was the flagship virtue without which all other virtues could not be properly exercised?
And meddling, as in cracking down on witches? Do you not yourself believe the left is diabolical and heavily involved in witchcraft? Are you not in favor of "locking her up?"
The inconsistencies here are really adding up; to which I might ask "What is wrong with you? Are your beliefs undergoing revision?
Let us know as soon as possible. This is important.
-Wet Shelly
Albion's Seed.
Looks interesting. Our curriculum has us studying mainly English history as a gradual lead up to American history. You can't understand who we are without knowing who we were; Albion's Seed would make a great reference.
Funny, we have early Puritan ancestors who hailed from East Anglia, which is where my family was stationed for four years when I was a kid. Would have been nice to know at the time.
Z Man traces the Woke all the way back from the Puritans to the Roundheads. It's one way of making sense of these nonsensical people.
There's a newer book on the subject called American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, albeit with some gratuitous insults of the deep south, being that the author is on the wokish side.
Yes, reading about the Roundheads was a real eye-opener. England's original equalitarians. Apparently, they were into burning people out of their manors and installing themselves in place of the original owners. Also handing out jobs to the "right" sort of people regardless of whether those people could do the job. Because equality.
On the other hand, of America's earliest settlers at least the Puritans were willing to do the hard work required to survive. Most who had come before them were nobility who expected to be served, and had never worked a day's labor in their lives. They mostly sat around and died of starvation, expecting the Indians to feed them when they ran out of supplies from Europe.
Wet Shelly, presenting oneself as a brainwashed extremist in league with rationalization is the only real freedom we have. I rather admire the boldness. The practicality... maybe not so much.
Moderation in all things.
...is only one of two real, practical aphorisms. This doesn't mean that one should be a moderate alcoholic or a centrist Dem. It means that if one drinks too much of even that simplest of most-ultimate life-giving substances, water, can be deadly. There should be a lesson in that.
The degree of moderation chosen is free will, within enforced legal limits I suppose.
I'd think the second aphorism would be "Maintain a healthy spiritual life", which relies on the first aphorism. But I haven't died yet to confirm. Everything else has strings attached, with many strings still undiscovered or beyond human reckoning.
Screwtape: "Our business is to get them away from the eternal, and from the Present."
cf. Dávila: "One must live for the moment and for eternity. Not for the disloyalty of time."
Dr. Godwin wrote: " In the analysis of solution social problems, all roads lead to IQ differences, but the roads have been barricaded."
What exactly do you mean by this? What are IQ differences? Does IQ have any bearing on social skills or outcomes? Why would the roads have been barricaded? Who would do such a thing?
Please address these concerns at your soonest convenience.
-Squat Piss
Just a typo: should be "in the analysis of social problems..."
As for IQ differences, I wouldn't worry about it.
For discussion:
"What else is socialism but Communism with the claws retracted?” 🙄
True? False? Partly true/false?
Weigh in, toot the horn. Fear of Communism? Is it a thing, or not so much?
-Panties in a Knot
Squat Piss here. Dr. Godwin, I appreciate your response to my comment, pointing out a type. I saw that. Such typos are unimportant and need not be pointed out. All good writers have artifacts like that. Just so we have that straight.
Your instruction to not worry about IQ seemed dismissive. Perhaps you realized you'd written some indefensible statements?
More likely you don't want to deal with the troll, because I don't matter. My kind are a dime a dozen, just another brainwashed leftist hack sent out to probe the neocon positions.
That's OK. It has been a long war and both sides tire of it.
Just scrolling through Instapundit, I came across this article talking about the wokification of Disney. This caught my eye: bombarded employees with trainings on “systemic racism,” “white privilege,” “white fragility,” and “white saviors,”,
Wait, they're opposing the phenomena of "white saviors"?
Ironically, that may be the single issue they support that would actually do some good! Imagine a world where white people believe that it's not their job to go forth and rescue people who don't look like them: no more missionary tourism where rich white kids go to the latest trendy African village to take heart-warming pictures with starving village children, no more handouts and gimmedats for people based on melanin content, no more programs meant to "lift people up" which actually only serve to hold them back by infantalizing them, no more endless harangues about how it's our job to go out and change the world (when can we get the ad campaign about how we all need to mind our own business?)... the list goes on, and the mind boggles...
Somehow, though, I don't think they actually mean it that way.
Can't live with us, can't live without us.
In the analysis of social problems, all roads lead to IQ differences, but the roads have been barricaded.
Everybody projects whatever it is that works for them onto the rest of the world, with a powerful drive to assume that their own particular viewpoint is all there could ever possibly be. In my little world, temperamental differences make all the difference.
Studies have shown that those who quietly, diligently, studiously, intelligently, just do their jobs, will be the least likely to advance in whatever business. Unless they’re the owners or inside with the owners. Far more likely to advance will be the average (but street smart) yutz’s who spend all their time wearing ruts in the carpet making social networking rounds, willing to play Machiavelli or Sun Tzu if need be.
Innate temperament, not intelligence, is the primary determinant of all success, excepting the innovative few who also happen to be street smart. Tesla vs Edison. Wozniak vs Jobs. Allen vs Gates. Bush vs Cheney. Trump vs Bannon. Who were the actual visionaries?
"Ideology encloses mystery in intelligibility, thereby eclipsing Intelligence."
Yep.
Gagdad & Julie, The Albion's Seed looks interesting, and I think an essential approach to understanding who we are, and if having any hope of recognizing any of history's lessons without having to repeat them first. And a big 'yep' on the Roundheads & Screwtape.
In regards to those who fake reality by fancying themselves to be fact based and 'realistic', a bit from one I just posted, Facing America's troublesome Ship of Theseus paradox, with 'Live not by lies', and The Lord of the Rings (pt 2 of 2)
"...Once upon a time we understood that grappling with what is timelessly true is more important than faking it, even though it can have frightening consequences to who we think we are, and are willing to be. What was also once understood, was that if you left it to the 'here and now' to grapple with such issues, you'd be beaten to a pulp by them - if you want to have a fighting chance in life, that requires venturing beyond the appearances of the moment by stepping into the poetic realm of stories and works of fiction. Realizing that, it was once a commonplace for us to teach our children not just to read widely, but to memorize passages of scripture and poetry, a habit which most continued throughout adulthood, for pleasure, inspiration, and to have the support in their minds to aid them in carrying on through those darker moments which naturally incline us all towards hopelessness and despair..."
From Van's excellent comment:
"..Realizing that, it was once a commonplace for us to teach our children not just to read widely, but to memorize passages of scripture and poetry..."
We still do that via TV. Here's one I recommend to kids, and which is easy to memorize:
"Things are getting clearer, yeah I feel free
To bare my skin, yeah that's all me.
Nothing and me go hand in hand-
Nothing on my skin, that's my new plan.
Nothing is everything
Nothing is everything.
-Skyrizi
This superior poem teaches self reliance, and also familiarizes the child with the concept of null/void, which is key to attaining inner peace.
Skyrizi is said to be Persian although her exact location on the globe is unknown at this time. She is widely considered to hold the title of "the world's greatest living poet."
This comes to our children on television courtesy of a drug company, which is laudable.
Van, well said. Funny, my kids are studying the story of Theseus this term :)
Julie, thanks and good to hear about your kids! If that's through a particular curriculum, do you know which set it is?
Yep, Ambleside Online. Both kids are doing the reading for year 3, then doing math & writing work according to their skill level. It's a free curriculum - you just have to find the material, a lot of which is also available for free or very inexpensively. We probably spend less than $500 on school materials per year, including the fee to register as a private school through a company that handles the paperwork.
More accurately, usually we parents read the day's study out loud, and we discuss as we are reading to make sure the kids are paying attention and understanding what it's about.
Thanks Julie, I like the look of that. Charlotte Mason... I remember reading through her a... well... a couple decades ago. I don't recall the details, but only that I liked her direction in general. That's the sort of curriculum plan I'm encouraged in seeing - most worthwhile material is available online for free and is far more valuable than the 'name' publisher textbooks.
Post a Comment