Musings Archive

A Short Note on Scidolatry

Posted October 27, 2024 By John C Wright

A wise and otherwise insightful political commentator was a lamenting the downfall of the Isle of Britain to the paynym savages, Moors, and Mohammadins, Communists and Jacobins currently overwhelming and dismantling that most august cradle of Western Liberty and rule of law, home of Milton and Shakespeare and Blackstone. He knew something was wrong, but could not put his finger on the source. He thought that it might be indeed the idolization and the glorification of science and reason in the modern era. He seemed not to realize that communism is a religion that speaks in the name of science and reason even while destroying science and reason. See Leninism or Lysenkoism for details.

Science and reason are useful tools when properly subordinated to Christian metaphysics. However making science into an idol, worshiping science, both destroys science and destroys worship.

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Musical Numbers Then and Now

Posted October 22, 2024 By John C Wright

Musical numbers from an earlier generation are entertaining and instructive.

Pass That Peacepipe (1947)

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Not Blue or Red — but Golden

Posted October 21, 2024 By John C Wright

For those of you following recent political burger joint events, Trump passed out free French fries at a local McDonald’s in Bucks County, PA, after being shown how to work the fry station.

The man has the common touch. Like kissing babies, adroit politicians imitate, a love for the little guy, an admiration for the workingman. Trump has these qualities authentically.

The Leftists in the media reacted as their stereotype dictated: accuse, accuse, accuse and belittle. “Nazi leader Trump claims the water is wet and fire burns, but offered no evidence to support this false lying and false claim.”

The Leftists called a publicity stunt a stunt and claim that a staged event was staged. As if the manager and staff at the store were blissfully unaware of the titanic crowd outside, the gaggle of press at the drive-thru, the secret service at all entrances, the camera crew and the president of the United States in the fry cook station.

As if politicians never before stage-managed a publicity stunt. The difference here, is that this stunt was master-class trolling, emphasizing the difference between the two candidates. Trump comes across as immensely likeable and genial, and he talks to everyone, worldleaders and fry cooks, the same way.

Kamala, meanwhile, was telling a youth who cried out “Jesus is King!” that he was at the wrong rally — and should go find a smaller rally down the street. (If this is a reference to Trump’s rallies, it is shockingly tin-eared. Trump draws unprecedented crowds, and it is nakedly absurd to pretend otherwise.)

But as a writer, I must also admire the artistry of how the franchise handled the firestorm of artificial controversy ginned up by the Pravda press.

Below is their internal memo.

“We are not red or blue — we are golden.” This is clever, conciliatory, and nonpartisan. Unlike other brands, McDonald’s is willing to “shut up and fry.”

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Quote from Cortez

Posted October 15, 2024 By John C Wright

Bernal Diaz, who served under Cortes, in The Conquest of New Spain, wrote:

“The dismal drum of Huichilobos [Huitzilopochtli] sounded again, accompanied by conches, horns and trumpet-like instruments. It was a terrifying sound, and when we looked at the tall cue from which it came we saw our comrades who had been captured in Cortes’ defeat being dragged up the steps to be sacrificed.

“When they had hauled them up to a small platform in front of the shrine where they kept their accursed idols, we saw them put plumes on the heads of many of them; and they made them dance with a sort of fan in front of Huichilobos.

“Then after they had danced, the papas laid them down on their backs on some narrow stones of sacrifice and, cutting open their chests, drew out their palpitating hearts, which they offered to the idols before them… ” (The Conquest of New Spain, volume II, chapter 152).

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On Columbus Day

Posted October 14, 2024 By John C Wright

Let me voice my vexed conclusions regarding the ongoing denigration by the self-anointed Elite of Columbus Day.

In the same way gratitude is the only attitude toward creation which makes the existence of any mortal in creation endurable, if not joyful, so ingratitude is the only attitude certain to despoil what joy one has. Even Eve was ungrateful for the blessings of Eden, or else she would not have been tempted to know more.

The ingratitude toward Columbus, however, is pitch-perfect in its archetypal self-destructiveness.

Those who hate Columbus hate themselves.

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Reminder: A Deathcult is a Cult

Posted October 7, 2024 By John C Wright

May longtime readers forgive me, for this a topic previously discussed, ad nauseam. But, given recent events, perhaps a repetition is in order.

Marxism is a religion, as it has the properties all religions have in common: (1) an explanation or myth to explain the human condition (2) which imposes moral duties on its adherents (3) which, at times, are paramount above all worldly duties.

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Creator Ineffabilis

Posted October 4, 2024 By John C Wright

“O Ineffable Creator, who, from the treasures of Your wisdom, have established three hierarchies of angels, have arrayed them in marvelous order above the fiery heavens, and have marshaled the regions of the universe with such artful skill. You are proclaimed the true font of light and wisdom, and the primal origin raised high beyond all things.

Pour forth a ray of Your brightness into the darkened places of my mind; disperse from my soul the twofold darkness into which I was born: sin and ignorance.

You make eloquent the tongues of infants. Refine my speech and pour forth upon my lips the goodness of Your blessing.

Grant to me keenness of mind, capacity to remember, skill in learning, subtlety to interpret, and eloquence in speech.

May You guide the beginning of my work, direct its progress, and bring it to completion, You who are true God and true Man, who live and reign, world without end.

Amen.”

***   ***   ***

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Quotes from DARKNESS AND LIGHT by Olaf Stapledon

Posted September 26, 2024 By John C Wright

This is a reprint of a column from 2011.

First, a word of background. I was clearing out old files, and came across this oddity: my own annotations and comments on a manuscript.

DARKNESS AND LIGHT by Olaf Stapledon was a novel I enjoyed, at least somewhat, in my youth, and I was favorably impressed with Olaf Stapledon’s breadth of imagination.

Rereading it with adult eyes, I am appalled.

This book was written in 1942, during the Second World War. It consists of a tale with no characters and no plot: or, rather, all mankind is the character, and all future history to the end of man or the abolition of man is the plot. With his characteristic Stapledonian gigantism and grandeur, the author escorts us down immensities, centuries and millennia flying past in a paragraph.

This is instead a history book of two fictional histories of the future, two branches of the time stream, one leading to darkness, and the other to light. As best I know, it is the first science fictional presentation of the theme of parallel and alternate timelines.

To my mind, Olaf Stapledon is nearly as inventive as HG Wells: galactic empires, dirigible planets, cosmic evolution, superhumanity, artificial elements, disembodied brains, and other basic science fiction tropes are his inventions. And yet he is rarely brought to mind as one of the founding giants of science fiction: Perhaps that is because his ideas were rarely brought to the public through radio or motion picture. There is no Orson Wells or George Pal that dramatized LAST AND FIRST MEN, or ODD JOHN, or SIRIUS before the ears and eyes of the general public.

The Narrator is an unidentified man of our era perceiving these things in a vision, perhaps the same man who performs a similar ‘framing sequence’ function in STARMAKER by the same author.

For the purposes of savaging him in this commentary, I called him ‘Olaf.’ Whether the opinions of Olaf the Narrator are the same as those of Olaf Stapledon the Author, I leave to wiser heads than mine.

Second, a word of explanation:

Any reader taken aback by the venom of my comments must understand that mine is akin to the fury of a fanboy scorned, of whom it is said Hell hath no Fury. Olaf Stapledon, if I may use the embarrassing metaphor, was a childhood crush of mine, an author beloved of my imagination.

But when I read him back then, in the innocence of youth, the political references sailed lightly over my head. Now that I am taller, they slap me in the face.

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Eternally Year Zero

Posted September 24, 2024 By John C Wright

For the poor deceived and self-deceived souls of the Left, it is always Year Zero, that is, the first year of the Revolution. All past history and tradition is rejected with disgust, all knowledge and learning painfully accumulated over centuries.

Current knowledge of the facts of reality is rejected as well — we are, as one fuddle headed politician so repetitively put it recently, “unburdened by what has been.”

As soon as we abolish history, civilization, economics, and reality, Utopia descends from the clouds adorned as a bride for her wedding, and Eden is restored.

Such is the delusion of the Progressive. In reality, the path to Progressive paradise is paved with skulls.

Old leaders are guillotined, law books and churches burned, kulak farmers starved to death, intellectuals sent to toil and die on state-run communal farms without tools. Anyone with eyeglasses is killed.  All monuments are torn down, all stained-glass windows smashed, all flags are burned, all crosses trampled.

The Revolution is freed from the past! The calendar restarts at Year Zero.

The Year Zero mentality is rooted in optimism, in malingering, and in the need for amnesia.

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Eternal Ingratitude

Posted September 20, 2024 By John C Wright

Part of an ongoing discussion. A reader with the singular and egressive name of Exit Only asks why no descendants of Union soldier families, who suffered so egregiously in warring to abolish slavery, are included in discussions of reparations.

He asks: “Where is the gratitude, for those who gave the last full measure of their devotion?”

Ingratitude is the hallmark of any cult whose slogans were forged in hell.

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Am I Racist?

Posted September 17, 2024 By John C Wright

This is astonishing. Out of 500 some odd audience reviews, a perfect score. Not a single establishment reviewer has reviewed it. Not one.

I have not seen the film, and make no further comment. The shame of the reviewers who have sold their souls to the establishment needs no remark from me.

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Leftism v Facts

Posted August 5, 2024 By John C Wright

A friend of mine sent me this link to a column on Slate:

https://slate.com/technology/2017/02/counter-lies-with-emotions-not-facts.html

It is not worth reading, so I will sum up: the writer is affirming that fact checking will not stop rumors and falsehoods, but jests and memes will, so the writer suggests giving up on facts, at least for a time.

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Hating Uppity Serfs

Posted July 5, 2024 By John C Wright

Part of an ongoing discussion.

Rudolph Harrier remarks:

The left views the default state of affairs as being that dems will never be prosecuted for anything. There doesn’t need to be a decision to keep Hillary or Biden from being prosecuted for misuse of classified information, or to keep Biden from being impeached for his blatantly corrupt political dealings. They are on the left, so the law of the universe is that they will not be prosecuted. Therefore any decision that keeps someone from being punished can only benefit the Republicans, since laws are only meant to punish Republicans.

My Comment:

The single most disorienting and disturbing interview I ever witnessed was one where Michael Knowles of DailyWire and Sen Ted Cruz interviewed podcaster Eric Weinstein.

I am not familiar with the man, but judging from the comments left in the comments box, Weinstein has impressive credentials, and a reputation for genius level intellect among Leftists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CCde6TAKdw&ab_channel=VerdictwithTedCruz
See at about 27.10

During the discussion, genius Weinstein expressed the opinion that the Left could afford to allow democracy to operate, and let the right gain control over the congress and White House for short periods, as long as the Left retained control over the courts.

He described this as a “balance of power” and a “Mexican stand off.” The courts were to be an “upper class, cerebral thing, counter to our populist instincts.”

He then said the nasty personal attacks — to this day still called Borking — against conservative candidate for Justice were the Left’s reaction to this, and, from his tone, a rightful reaction.

I do not recall if he said so directly, but the gist of his comments was this, or, at least, this is what I took away from his comments:

There is an unwritten social contract between the enlightened elite and the unwashed masses in our democracy. The unwashed masses were allowed to vote for representatives and leaders, using their mob powers to seek out their own self interest, and maintain a social order that they were too unwise to see benefitted the rich.

The enlightened elite were to control the court system, especially the High Court, and use its constitutional authority to overrule representatives and leaders whenever the unwise mob ventured into areas that were self destructive or destructive of the rights of minorities.

He did not say so directly, but I assume here he means, for example, outlawing Jim Crow laws, enacting forced bussing, outlawing contraception, outlawing abortion, or outlawing traditional marriage (which does not allow sodomites to wed each other), all were said to be against Constitutional principles which the unwashed mob was not trustworthy to protect.

The genius further implied (or so I interpreted him) that the appointment of conservative justices by the GOP violated the unspoken agreement ruling the nation since FDR’s administration.

The compromise was broken: Trump, by carrying out the will of the people who elected him (some of which voted GOP solely and only in hope of having a conservative majority on the bench) had betrayed the agreement between Dem and GOP, and undid the harmony between elite and unwashed.

The genius explained the most smug and unfair idea imaginable: that the Supreme Court belonged to the Left as their exclusive and rightful possession and property, and the Trump was a trespasser and thief for daring to rob the Left of the justices to which the social contract entitled them.

Got that? The legal and constitutional process to which all parties were avowed to uphold and obey, and which the GOP follows religiously, the Left regards as not applying to them, not even remotely, not even as a hypothetical.

It literally would never occur to the Left that the laws which require the Right to treat Leftist candidates with respect, not to commit fraud and perjury to unseat them, do not apply to the Left.

When Knowles and Cruz ignored and dismissed this absurd argument, the man’s face grew haughty and sullen like a spoiled child. It was pathetic to see. He was not willing to admit that Borking only ever occurred on the Left. The GOP denial of hearings to confirm Garland, for example, involved no personal attacks.

I was truly aghast at the sullen pride sinking into the man’s pudgy features. It was the face of a slaveowner offended and an uppity slave.

He thought he owned us, owned our laws, and that we had no right to vote for leaders who would appoint justices to uphold the Constitution. He thought we have no right to rule ourselves. The elite are meant to rule us.

It was a sick thing to see, and I felt beslimed and disgusted to have seen it.

If you saw the same video, no doubt this man would not look any worse to you than Peter Strzok, Peter Strzok, or Nancy Pelosi. They clearly have demons behind their eyes.

But to me, he looked worse than they. They do not say aloud they thing they own us.

Weinstein did.

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Cargo Cult Remake

Posted July 3, 2024 By John C Wright

This was remarkably insightful from the immortal Sargon of Akkad:

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Not Tired of Winning Yet CLXX

Posted July 1, 2024 By John C Wright

In Trump v. United States, the court holds that a former president has absolute immunity for his core constitutional powers.

The High Court language is clear enough to speak for itself. Allow me simply to quote:

A federal grand jury indicted former President Donald J. Trump on four counts for conduct that occurred during his Presidency following the November 2020 election. The indictment alleged that after losing that election, Trump conspired to overturn it by spreading knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the collecting, counting, and certifying of the election results. Trump moved to dismiss the indictment based on Presidential immunity, arguing that a President has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions performed within the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities, and that the indictment’s allegations fell within the core of his official duties. The District Court denied Trump’s motion to dismiss, holding that former Presidents do not possess federal criminal immunity for any acts. The D. C. Circuit affirmed. Both the District Court and the D. C. Circuit declined to decide whether the indicted conduct involved official acts.

Held: Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts. Pp. 5–43. (a) This case is the first criminal prosecution in our Nation’s history of a former President for actions taken during his Presidency. Determining whether and under what circumstances such a prosecution may proceed requires careful assessment of the scope of Presidential power under the Constitution. The nature of that power requires that a former President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office. At least with respect to the President’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute. As for his remaining official actions, he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity. Pp. 5–15.

The whole opinion is available behind the link above.

No comment is needed from me. The case is self explanatory to anyone familiar with even the basic principles of constitutional law, or, for that matter, basic common sense. That is had to go all the way to the Supreme Court when any District Court  or even any 1st year Law Student could have reached this result is a sad sign of the sick corruption rotting the minds and souls of our society.

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