John C. Wright ponders. Ponder with him.
"Perhaps, like me, you have wondered how it is that so many people, otherwise honest, can adopt without demur the Orwellian anti-language of Political Correctness; how it is that so many people, otherwise rational, can adopt without demur the paradoxes, self-contradictions and logical absurdities involved in relativistic morality, materialistic ontology, subjective epistemology, and the other nuggets of vacuous blither forming the foundations of modern thought; how it is that so many people, otherwise possessing good taste, can without demur fund and support and praise the blurry aberrations of modern art, praise ugliness, despite beauty; how it is that so many people, otherwise good and peaceful, can praise and support and excuse the hellish enormities and mass murders of figures like Che and Mao and Stalin and Castro; or can view with cold eye the piles of tiny corpses heaped outside abortion mills, and make such enemies of the human race into heroes; or can rush to the defense of Mohammedan terrorists with freakish shrieks of 'Islamophobia!' and 'Racist!' even thought to be wary of Jihadists bent on your destruction is rational rather than phobic, and even thought Mohammedanism is a religion, not a race; how otherwise happy, moral, reasonable and decent people can not merely excuse sexual perversion, but will be swept up in a fervor of righteous indignation even if someone points out the biological or Biblical reality of the situation; and likewise excuse lies in their leaders, and adulteries, and abuses of power, and abuses of drugs, and any number of things these otherwise ordinary people would never do themselves.
"And, finally, perhaps, like me, you have wondered why it is that these people who are otherwise civil nonetheless can neither explain their positions nor stop talking, and their talk consists of nothing, nothing, nothing aside from childish personal attacks, slanders, sneers, and accusation, accusation, accusation. Why are they so angry? Why are they so noisy? Why are they so blissfully unaware of the vice, injustice, ugliness and evil they support?
Ponder all this and more at Restless Heart of Darkness / Part Four | John C. Wright's Journal
Posted by gerardvanderleun at February 9, 2014 4:55 AM
Laziness and envy.
Next time you encounter a LIEberal remember those two words and pay attention to how they are entwined in the LIEberals every existence.
Personally, I cannot be around *those* people for more than just a few minutes because, as Dirty Harry said, "A man has to know his limitations.", and I know mine.
Posted by: ghostsniper at February 9, 2014 7:15 AMOriginal sin.
We Catholics know that every man was born an asshole and will live as one absent a whole lot of work. That work used to be done by all of society and not just our parents. We no longer even recognize that work is needed, much less have the willpower to do it other than in the family.
If you're not a Catholic watch some video of monkeys and apes, tormenting each other, stealing, killing each other within the same troop, having indiscriminate sex and from time to eating each other.
I especially liked the one where a new male ape ousted the former dominant male, then chased down, killed and ate his infants, along with the rest of the troop, including the infants' mothers. Then he beat the pregnant females so they would miscarry.
Sound familiar?
Posted by: Fred Z at February 9, 2014 7:32 AMMr Wright is a better man than I; the pure selfless love he calls for from the Remnant [agape, or perhaps filios] is wasted on the parasite Insanity made Incarnate in the nation
Progs are a Death Cult - consider their stance in any arena ... self-defense, personal accountability, personal property and achievement, the rule of Law above the Rule of Class membership, or the sanctity of the innocent unborn.
He's a better man since he believes them to be redeemable. The concepts of sepsis, system collapse, and possible life-saving debridement apply to aggregate systems, not just an organic entity
He's an optimist. I tend toward realism. We'll soon enough find out.
Posted by: OhioDude at February 9, 2014 7:35 AMYes I have wondered all of these things, every day for twenty years. I still have no possible explanation.
Posted by: fuqdat at February 9, 2014 8:38 AMFred Z has publicly admitted to being born an asshole and is prone to violence like animals incapable of reason and if the community doesn't restrain him he will victimize you at his first opportunity. I hope your community restrains you indefinitely Fred Z.
Posted by: ghostsniper at February 9, 2014 9:24 AMSorry ghosty, I restrain myself because I was carefully trained by careful parents. Your nasty, intentional and unfunny misrepresentation of my comment casts doubt on your own self restraint.
Posted by: Fred Z at February 9, 2014 9:29 AMIn another time men lived in communities not so integrated between one another, for better and for worse. The better were free to advance, the worse were free either to suffer their lot or to see that there was a way forward. Individuals were free to move. But technology has eliminated the obstacles which distance placed and left universalism in its stead. Excellence is never universal. It is the object of universalism that there can be no place to escape it.
Tocqueville's great warning addressed the democratic disease of equality. We would seek it in freedom but if it could not be found there we would find it in slavery. Men would become afraid to have an opinion which stood out against the mass of men and instead their thoughts would become trifling and fearful, waxing and waning within a narrow band, even that determined by others. Men would then find their only solace in the conceit that they had voted for their masters, or tried to. Democracy in America.
Posted by: james wilson at February 9, 2014 11:34 AMIn another time men lived in communities not so integrated between one another, for better and for worse. The better were free to advance, the worse were free either to suffer their lot or to see that there was a way forward. Individuals were free to move. But technology has eliminated the obstacles which distance placed and left universalism in its stead. Excellence is never universal. It is the object of universalism that there can be no place to escape it.
Tocqueville's great warning addressed the democratic disease of equality. We would seek it in freedom but if it could not be found there we would find it in slavery. Men would become afraid to have an opinion which stood out against the mass of men and instead their thoughts would become trifling and fearful, waxing and waning within a narrow band, even that determined by others. Men would then find their only solace in the conceit that they had voted for their masters, or tried to. Democracy in America.
Posted by: james wilson at February 9, 2014 11:52 AMSimple Answer: The PC folks think that they are going to be on the committee, ride in the limo, and strut down their very own private streets while us serfs tug our forelocks and shuffle off to work.
Posted by: f1guyus at February 9, 2014 12:10 PM@Fred:
Obviously, ghopstsniper was not brought up properly. His behavior may not be entirely his fault, although a relatively intelligent person might have discerned by experience that certain forms of behavior are acceptable in a civilized society, and others are not.
Have pity.
Posted by: Dave at February 9, 2014 1:37 PMA somewhat different take. Society has always had a majority of followers. Worker bees, I call them. In fact I am one of them. Never started a business or invented a cool gadget, but I was a good worker. Gave a days work for a days pay. I was apolitical until confronted by the anti-war protesters during Vietnam. That experience caused me to examine every assumption I had about being a citizen of the U.S. Reagan's two terms demonstrated to me that less government obstruction of business was a good thing. The peace dividend from the end of the Cold War from 1989 until 2001 demonstrated how increased world trade and free markets could improve our economy. 1980 to 2001 was a period when few people stopped to examine what makes this country's economy work because the good times were rolling. And the schools were busy inculcating PC nonsense about the inequities of our history and system. The MSM was busy constructing a narrative about inequality and unfairness of our system. How often have people heard the mantra that, if you are successful (whatever that means, you need to give back to the "community." Does anyone even know what that means, except it is a handy phrase to guilt people who are reasonably well off. Worker bees have been relatively well off and busy pursuing their versions of happiness. They don't question the narrative. They don't understand how wealth is created. They don't look at economies like Cuba and North Korea, where economic equality is strictly enforced, to see what that might portend for their future under a Nanny State intent in creating economic equality. They have moved further and further from what used to be widely accepted values of Judeo-Christian philosophy. When they finally realize what the utopian Nanny State has created, they will wonder why no one told them what could happen.
At least that's what I see when I look at the large segment of our population that has followed blindly into what we have today.
Posted by: Jimmy J. at February 9, 2014 1:52 PMPoke a LIEberal or 2 with a pointy stick and watch them writhe in their own shit.
Posted by: ghostsniper at February 9, 2014 2:12 PMMy favorite part was when goatsniveller proposed violence after mocking Fred for Fred's acknowledgement of the nature of Man. That was awesome.
Posted by: Jason in KT at February 9, 2014 3:26 PM"I mean not merely the physical beauty in song and architecture and story telling where Christendom has no lack and has no peers; I mean also the beauty of virtue, of charity, of sympathy, of humanity, of heroism, of martyrdom."
I'm afraid they will probably consume alot of us christians in their future pogroms beofre they see the light, John. But then, sadly, the Tree of Liberty is probably in need of watering again. :(
---
On Gratitude - Very nicely written.
Soemthing I've been struggling with of late and didn't realize its importance - and daily remembrance. No need to crib the blessings received as your mind will readily bring forth the issues of the day which are in need of acknowledgement.
Gratitude is the cool, slow burning love that resides simultaneously in you past, present, and future. Sloth is the by-product of a soul who has forgotten gratitude. The point of inflection of a society - their babelic 'high noon' is marked by ingratitude (pride, perhaps?) - and a forgetting of the efforts of the others before them.
Very underrated form of love.
Long term Duty and Devotion (in the form of labor) is impossible without the slow-burning, long lasting effects of gratitude.
If Civilization 'falls', its okay: We who have the ability can rebuild. It may even shake awake the Liberals who are asleep to all the blessings they are enjoying and not even aware they are enjoying them.
---
Men build a road of Masonry
Across the hills and dales,
Unite the prairie and the sea,
The mountains and the vales,
They cross the chasm, bridge the stream,
They point to where the turrets gleam,
And many men for many a day
Who seek the heights shall find the way.
Men build a road of Masonry,
But not for self they build:
With footsteps of humanity
The hearts of men are thrilled.
This music makes their labor sweet:
The endless tramp of other feet,
The thought that men shall travel thus
An easier road because of us.
We build the road of Masonry
With other men in mind;
We do not build for you and me,
We build for all mankind.
We build a road! - remember, men,
Build not for Now, but build for Then,
And other men who walk the way
Shall find the road we built today.
Who builds the road of Masonry,
Though small or great his part,
However hard the task may be,
May toil with singing heart.
For it is something, after all,
When muscles tire and shadows fall,
To know that other men shall bless
The builder for his faithfulness.
~Douglas Malloch
Thinking about it a bit further, the living heart of a civilization is not its buildings or wealth - those are its bones - it is its people.
As long as some "immortal remnant of the classic and eternal truths" remain within the beating hearts of a few, it can be rebuilt.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ1KZvzXpKI
Posted by: cond0011 at February 9, 2014 6:30 PMNice commentary Jimmy J.
Something to think about.
Posted by: Cond0011 at February 10, 2014 6:08 AMWhy are they so blissfully unaware of the vice, injustice, ugliness and evil they support?
Because they haven't been throat punched as they so richly deserve. No negative consequences = continued douchey behavior.
Posted by: butch at March 12, 2014 4:25 AM
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