The Democrats are currently lost and leaderless, floundering in a paradox of their own creation.
This will last for a season, but will not last forever.
In the short term, the Dems cannot admit that they themselves are the Powers That Be against whom they stand in eternal rebellion, proud as Lucifer.
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Our own Stephen J brings this point by the late Canadian blogger Kathy Shaidle, of blessed memory, to our attention. She write about the people who used to screech about 9/11 being an inside job:
I wonder if the nuts even believe what they are saying. Because if something like 9/11 happened in Canada, and I believed with all my heart that, say, Stephen Harper was involved, I don’t think I could still live here. I’m not sure I could stop myself from running screaming to another country. How can you believe that your President killed 2,000 people, and in between bitching about this, just carry on buying your vente latte and so forth?
His comment:
That said, it occurs to me in hindsight I should be less judgmental of this reaction, because there are things I believe to be true with all my heart that don’t have as much of an impact on my behaviour as they should. Remove the plank in my own eye first, and all that.
My comment:
I have such a plank of my own.
At one time, I was neither pro-abortion nor anti-abortion.
Condemn me now if you will, but such was my honest opinion at one time. Abortion was an issue, the only issue known to me, logic could not solve. Neither side, given its axioms, proposes a self contradiction in any argument I heard: one side said humanity was a property that developed in the womb, like brain development, and the other said humanity was a property that exists categorically, like membership in one’s species.
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BREAKING NEWS:
Nov 13, 2024
President Joe Biden, Leader of the Free World and mankind’s final but failed hope against the now-inevitable dystopian deathfuture of Trumpofascist Handmaid’s Tale, shakes hands with the President-Elect, Mr. Literally Hitler, and promises a peaceful transfer of power to the autocratic super-tyrant, and a peaceful end to democracy, free elections, and human happiness here and worldwide forever.
In addition to the transfer of lawful and constitutional powers as is conferred to the chief executive and commander-in-chief, Biden promises a peaceful transfer of illegal, autocratic and absolute power.
A story is like a child. You nurse it along, aim it in the right direction, put your heart and soul into the baby, but then, if heaven smiles, it comes to life, grows up and has its own soul, its own spirit, its own essence.
Call it the muse or call it whatever you like, but there is something that directs a story in the direction it is meant to go — and I do not necessarily mean what direction the author is aiming. Stories speak of themselves, under their own power, or not at all.
I have it on good authority that it is “misogynist” merely to observe that paranormal romance is meant for girls, while boy’s adventure tales for boys. (See, for example, ANITA BLAKE: VAMPIRE HUNTER by Laurell K. Hamilton versus A PRINCESS OF MARS by Edgar Rice Burroughs.)
Note scarequotes. “Misogynist” in Woketalk does not mean misogynist in English.
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Modern society faces seven mountains of madness, that is, seven institutional strongholds, captured by the enemy, that command the culture and war against it:
While the Church is not entirely captured, the number of priestesses, pro-abortion, pro-sodomite and pro-contraception denominations, bishops, and orders who have fallen away from Christian teaching is severe and severely scandalous.
With the election of Trump, the centermost of the mountains of madness, the stronghold of politics, takes a sharp and shocking blow.
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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 from an earlier generation are entertaining and instructive.
Pass That Peacepipe (1947)
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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.
“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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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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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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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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“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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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.
