Galloway Propaganda

Check out this flyer I found on campus yesterday (click it for a bigger version):

Here is a man who has built an entire career out of evading the truth, and everyone who knows anything knows it, democratically elected by (presumably) sentient human beings in London. Christopher Hitchens has the low-down on this blackguard.

These are crazy times when a man known to have accepted bribes from a sadistic mass-murdering dictator can call the successful liberation of 25 million people from that dictator's long and oppressive regime, resulting in the birth of a new democracy, to be "a disaster" and be met with cheers around the globe and welcomed by his countrymen as some sick kind of national hero. How far the British have fallen.
The reverse of the flyer cites some of the Respect party's goals, including "ending the culture of capitalism" and "putting people before profit." Since when have political parties been involved in making profits anyway? I can only assume he means he wants to force the people of the United Kingdom (or at the very least, Bethnal Green & Bow) to "put people before profit," in which case -- [ring ring ring] oh excuse me -- Hello? Yes, hang on. George, it's Adam Smith, he'd like to speak with you about the culture of capitalism.

Now that I think of it, it makes sense that capitalism isn't Galloway's favorite system. I'm sure he'd much prefer one centered around bribes, extortion and blackmail.

The flyer creatively states that Galloway "crossed the Atlantic to give the U.S. Senate 'both barrels,' delighting anti-war campaigners in the U.S. and across the world." Actually, he crossed the Atlantic to be questioned about his extended relationship with aforementioned mass-murdering dictator. Galloway is a smart one. He's playing the "anti-war campaigners" for a pack of fools, and - surprise, surprise - it's working.

The Left's Exodus

I feel like I've seen a lot of articles in the past few months written by lifelong members of the "progressive" political left who are fed up with the blindness to the nature of the 21st century world and the rejection of traditionally liberal values (such as, oh I don't know, liberty) that now characterize the left. But this one by Keith Thompson I particularly like. He sums up just about all the reasons why I am not, as he is no longer, a member of the Western cultural left. This includes their refusal to call a spade a spade in the case of evil, their defense of terrorists who are the antithesis of goodness and honor, their support for equality at the expense of equal rights in the form of unjust discrimination, their abandonment of free speech in the form of campus speech codes, and their rejection of the ideas of personal responsibility and moral culpability (phew).

America must now focus on creating healthy, self-actualizing individuals committed to taking responsibility for their lives, developing their talents, honing their skills and intellects, fostering emotional and moral intelligence, all in all contributing to the advancement of the human condition.

Normally this article is the kind of thing that I love to read, but despair of it ever reaching the necessary audience -- that is, those members of the left who haven't completely lost their sense yet. But look where it was published -- the San Francisco Chronicle.

I would like to put Mr. Thompson's concluding paragraph next to one of my favorite bits of wisdom from C.S. Lewis. Mr. Thompson:

...I have come to believe, and gladly join with others who have discovered for themselves, that the single most important thing a genuinely liberal person can do now is walk away from the house the left has built. The renewal of any tradition that deserves the name "progressive" becomes more likely with each step in a better direction.

Mr. Lewis:

If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.

Christendom's Adolescence, Pt. 2

In my previous post on this topic, I explained how I believe that Christianity reached its adolescence in recent centuries, and is still in that stage now. Implicit in this terminology (and explicit in the previous post) is a comparison with the development of the individual. I said that the time of adolescence is the primary time for testing beliefs one once held without question, and that it results ultimately in the retention or rejection of those beliefs.

This is, then, a crucial time, but also one of hope, for our task is not to revive a dying old man but to mentor a developing young one. In considering how to influence the world to retain a strengthened Christianity rather than dispose of a distrusted one, my thoughts continually return to the absolutely essential essay by Richard John Neuhaus from 1998, C.S. Lewis in the Public Square. Fr. Neuhaus considers the question of how C.S. Lewis would have altered his strategy in the context of postmodernism, and in the process gives an excellent summary of the state of thought today, which itself can basically be summed up in the phrase we've all heard (essentially), "Right you are if you think you are."

The essay is dauntingly long for something to read on a computer screen (for me at least), but I'd really seriously recommend it to... everybody, but especially to anyone who has an interest about into which port this ship called society is being steered. Also, to anyone of the many people who haven't quite figured out what this whole postmodernism thing is all about, it offers a very good explanation. Right now there seems to be a divide between the academic philosophers and their admirers, who have for the most part fully embraced the incoherency of postmodernism, and the rest of the world, which has quite reasonably gone on thinking that x = x and that one is right only when one is right. Those who are most responsible for the defense of reason are the ones most eager to abolish it in favor of... what? I don't even know. Nothing, I guess. I don't know how long this divide between intelligentsia and the rest will last, but I know that the longer this fantasy is confined to the ivory tower, the better.

I have doubts that pure postmodernism will ever be accepted by society in general. Most of us are pretty attached to our old-fashioned idea of truth (even those who claim it doesn't exist are fond of it, as evidenced by the fact that they bothered to make any claim at all). Ridiculous ideas are for ridiculous people, and I think academia for the most part sadly qualifies. But if after nearly a century after Marcel Duchamp's readymades, the majority of people still don't consider the act of signing random objects and putting them in austere white rooms to be art, then I can have hope that post-modernism will remain locked in that tower until it finally dies of boredom.

It may well be that I was overly optimistic just now, and that post-modernist ideas (I have a hard time calling them that) are already doing their damage on a wider scale than I'd like to think. Indeed, discussions with typical college students might indicate that I was. Regardless, the secret to ending this insanity is to continually expose it as the direct attack on reason it is.

I pray that I might be able to see during my lifetime the beginnings of the widespread acceptance of Christianity as the True Story of the world, strengthened against any and all attacks after centuries of rigorous examination. Maybe it won't happen in my lifetime, but I have faith that it will eventually and I will tell you why. First, I have confidence, as Mr. Lewis and Fr. Neuhaus have confidence, "that human beings are hard–wired for reason in search of truth." Second, well, here: Revelation 5:13 --

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:

"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!"

Fiction Fragment 5

As always, you might want to consider reading the first, second, third and fourth parts before this one, or you'll be a little lost.

***

I was up and after it in a second, quite loth to see my only chance of a meal vanish into the woods. I sprinted over the grass and gave no thought to what I would do if I somehow caught it -- to the fact that my only knives were in the tent at least a mile north and that my capacity for strangling a hare with which I had so recently exchanged wordless recognition was dubious at best. It had gotten a head-start while I had scrambled to my feet, and was now several yards in the lead. It was lucky that I wasn't wearing my backpack, and I felt I would be able to win this race before the finish line at the tree line.

We turned up a gentle hill, and at this point several curious things happened in quick succession:

First, my hare disappeared. My eyes were glued to his brown bouncing back at one moment, and the next they were darting helplessly about in search of the vanished creature while I continued my course at full speed.

That course quickly brought me to the top of the hill, where I was barely able to kill my momentum before falling into a wide pit. It was full of slimy half-decayed leaves, from among which my big hare was frantically trying to extricate himself. But the sides of the pit were too high -- it was trapped by a few extra inches. The hare had won the race, but I had won the hare.

I jumped down into the leaves and advanced on the pitiful creature, who renewed its efforts with vigor. Looking back on what happened next almost feels like remembering a dream. To my astonishment, the hare cleared the walls of the pit, which came up past my waist, and resumed his flight. Forced to follow, I advanced four strides. One, two, three -- I remember them well -- four. On the fourth, my foot never found ground, but fell, bringing me with it. The last thing I saw before it all went dark was this: everything rising around me as I fell -- the pit walls, the meadow, the wood; my hare, once again bouncing away to the safety of the trees; and through those trees, red -- dark, brick-red -- a tall brick structure; and above that, a gray plume of smoke, reaching high into the gray sky, mingling with the gathering clouds. In an instant it was all quite gone.

Get Behind Me, Satan

Here's the album cover:


Just... wow. With that and the title, I'd say the upcoming White Stripes album has "one of the greatest records ever" written all over it. Now we just have to see about the music...

Christendom's Adolescence, Pt. 1

Here's something I've been thinking a lot about lately. As far as I know, it's an original idea. The more I think about it though, the more obvious it seems, and the more I feel it likely that it's not a very unique idea. To my knowledge I, at least, have never heard it before, and certainly not in these terms.

Consider a kid who believes in Santa Claus. Since his earliest days he's been taught that a jolly fat man slides down the chimney of his home and delivers presents every Christmas Eve, after which he kicks back and eats the cookies and milk left by the kid. The kid wakes up: the cookies are gone, the presents are there, just like he had been told. He doesn't even consider any explanation other than the obvious. Everything fits, why should he?

The kid gets older though, and his reasoning capacities grow. He realizes he doesn't have a chimney. He realizes that the presents from Santa were wrapped in the same paper as the presents from Mom and Dad. He discards the illusion and embraces the truth, however reluctantly. He leads a long life, gets married, paints the house, goes to Europe, receives some parking tickets and dies, all without ever returning to his early naive belief in Santa Claus.

Now, take the same kid: even in the womb his parents told him the Christian story and asserted its truth to him. He was born again practically before he was born the first time. As a kid, he goes along with it. It all fits, why should he do otherwise? Besides, memorizing Bible verses equals candy. He gets older though, and realizes that not everyone believes what he believes. Later on, he hears that it's foolish wishful thinking to continue to believe as he has since his birth. He reads something about how God is dead and if you don't think so you must be smoking the opium of the people, or something. So he investigates - what is the truth? The question proves much more complex than his earlier Santa Claus question.

Both of these are familiar stories. Many of us no doubt recognize them from our own lives. Whether it's the fat man in the red suit, or Jesus Christ, or something else, everyone knows what it's like to challenge one's own beliefs, especially during the rapid expansion of our reasoning capacity that occurs primarily during adolescence.

I would propose to apply this template, so universal in the case of individuals, to Christianity as a whole. Think of the early church. How did Christianity spread so quickly? Most people didn't need to weigh the evidence against their skepticism, or worry about whether they were engaging in wishful thinking. Some did I'm sure, but for the most part, they simply heard the Good News, were amazed, and believed. Just like our kid with Santa Claus.

And just like our kid's silly belief in Santa Claus, many beliefs of early church sects are silly in the light of modern theology -- things like Arianism and monophysitism, or attempts to combine Roman paganism with Christianity. There are many other examples, some of which are still seen as valid in some parts of the world. The age of reason, though, has been a long process of using our God-given faculty of reason to apply our growing knowledge of the world to our lives and our societies. In the course of this progress, scientific discoveries have challenged some things we believed. But with the work of great Christians like Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and Lewis, working in tandem with the development of scientific knowledge, our understanding of Christianity has grown with (not "despite," as some would have it) our understanding of the world.

The kid did the same thing. He applied his growing knowledge of the world and how it works to his belief in Christianity. He saw possible contradictions, and continually tested his faith by always asking, "How does this affect what I believe?" A kid raised by atheistic materialism would apply the same tests to his faith in that belief. So when the kid becomes a man, what does he do? At this point we can no longer speak in universal language - paths sadly diverge. Some faiths are strengthened by the test and others are broken.

That time of testing during the adolescent years is the crucial point, and I would like to suggest that it is that point of the narrative which we have reached so far. We are in the deepest throes of Christendom's adolescence. When Nietzsche so infamously spouted that "God is dead," he meant (to put it simply) that belief in God is dead -- it was all the same to him. Anyone with even limited knowledge of the world today, however, can see that he was dead wrong. The once-accepted narrative in which Christianity is made an anachronism while being replaced by stark materialism is now itself an anachronism. (In some parts of the world this narrative might seem like reality, but a look at Christianity around the globe is reassuring - the Church is alive.) I believe that Nietzsche and others who thought they were seeing the end of religion were quite off the mark. Christianity is not dying. Far from it -- it is growing up.

Part 2 of this post will come... later. So um, stay tuned.

Loose Lips Sink Ships

I wouldn't normally link to something Instapundit's already linked, since I'd assume everyone would have already seen it. But I feel that this story should be posted on every site on the internet, until every single American media consumer understands who exactly is giving them the "news."

Prof. Reynolds puts it well:

People died, and U.S. military and diplomatic efforts were damaged, because -- let's be clear here -- Newsweek was too anxious to get out a story that would make the Bush Administration and the military look bad.

Read that carefully. Now, I don't want to get all hysterical, but -- I mean, look: In other words, Newsweek damaged U.S. military and diplomatic efforts because they were too anxious to get out a story that would damage U.S. military and diplomatic efforts. That's tantamount to treason.

UPDATE: "But I feel that this story should be posted on every site on the internet..." Hey, looks like I just about got my wish!

Fiction Fragment 4

The fourth part in a series. Please read the first, second and third parts, or it won't make any sense!

***

Just as we reached the clearing, the blanket of clouds which had covered us constantly since our troubles began thinned a little, allowing the long-lost sun to warm us a bit for the first time in weeks. Its rays brightened the grass around us, painting the picture of a soft, dry and grassy bed. So welcome was this sight after weeks of damp and cramped woodland, and so weak were we from our search and involuntary fast, that we were unable to resist the urge to lie down.

We planned to stay only as long as the sunlight lasted, knowing full well that finding food was far more urgent than rest. We lay on our side, eyes level with the short grass. A few adventurous ants climbed onto our arms and wandered aimlessly. They too were looking for food. Flies landed on our legs and left again, mostly uninterested in the huge intrusion on their tranquil lawn. We closed our eyes and shortly the ground was swaying and wobbling below us like a crib or sailing ship as we slowly began sinking into sleep. But --

Something darkened the reddish-black color of our closed eyelids into a pitch-black -- a shadow was over us, too substantial for clouds. Opening our eyes, we found ourselves face to face with a curious brown hare, tentatively twitching its whiskers just inches away. We looked at each other for some time, none of us moving. It was a large, handsome creature -- it would make a large and handsome dinner. Man and beast considered one another, and as we did, we were -- that is, I suppose, I was -- struck, as I have often been before with some animals, at the peculiar sense of self-awareness I found in its eyes. But this time, there was the additional idea of extroversion -- it seemed to know me, and I don't think it's my sentimentality speaking when I say that I -- for a short moment -- thought I found sympathy for my trouble in its deep black eyes. Nonetheless, it appeared to intuit the culinary plan I had for its future, for he aprubtly turned tail and bounded away across the meadow.

Defending Capitalism

One thing that I get frustrated about is the seemingly universal practice of maligning that which benefits one most. It happens a lot regarding the United States, but here I'm especially thinking about capitalism in general. Here at the University of Sussex, it's generally assumed that we're all a bunch of happy anti-capitalists. I was once approached by a young woman who asked if I wanted to recieve some free issues of some magazine or other. Hip to her jive, I asked if it was generally anti-capitalist. She looked at me as if I had just asked the faith of the Pope. I declined the offer.

Here's a nice piece by Clive Crook (oh the irony) that asks a question I've been asking since I got here: "Why Does Capitalism Get Such A Bum Rap?"

Personally, I blame Marx. And also, as the article suggests, a pervasive forgetfulness concerning a little thing called the 20th century.

Narnia Trailer Released!

There are not enough exclamation points in the world for this link: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Exclusive Trailer Premiere.

And I'd just like to say, in case anyone has any misconceptions, this will not be Lord of the Rings. Especially after seeing the trailer, it's clear that this is a "family film" in every sense of the term. A film for all ages besides those ages in which one can't feel comfortable watching a film for all ages.. This will not be a Best Picture candidate. This is a good thing.

Fiction Fragment 3

Here's the third part of a story I'm finding in my head. I recommend reading the first and second parts before this one. It's a good idea even if you've read them before, just because your memory's not that good. What? No, it's really not. What did you have for dinner last Tuesday? Yeah, like I said.

***

The night was silent; not even the sound of insects crawled through our musty tent walls. Our last thought as awareness waned was to wonder what sounds a brick monolith might make, creeping through a wood, pushing past branches and over newly ragged stumps, plowing through earth to a nearby meadow-- would it make a sound at all?

---

It was good that they slept, and slept soundly. Had they not, they might have felt a sustained tremor from the ground beneath them, and heard a muted din, the distant clacking and clanking of stone and metal. It might have terrified them.

---

No sound woke us. Hunger courteously obliged to do that favor, and our first thought on that new day was not of any brick structure, but of the persistent gnawing discomfort in our gut. Still though, upon setting foot outside and straightening out a stiff back, we saw dark red through the nearby trees and the strange conclusion to the previous day returned to our memory.

Nothing had changed during the night, and in the sunlight we saw our vague foreboding of the pillar as pure foolishness next to the new and more tangible fear of starvation. Resisting the temptation to go north to examine our brick enigma and perhaps find a vantage point from which to view its top, we went south in search of nourishment.

It soon became apparent that wild game was out of the question. The silence of the wood was complete-- no life stirred its brush. So we looked for berries, fruit or a potato farm, wandering farther and farther from our camp as we did. The more distance we put between ourselves and the tent, the more hopeless our search appeared. The vegetation became more sparse and the trees thinner. Just as we were beginning to decide that there was more hope of nutrition in the denser forest behind us, the space between the trees opened up and we found ourselves in a small grassy meadow.

Post-Adventure Post

I made a big circle around Britain over the course of 4 weeks in March and April. Here is that circle's story, greatly condensed into photo essay form...



Cardiff, Day 2-3



Cardiff Castle in the heart of the Welsh capital (100 years old, Europe's youngest!). The chaps out front are rugby fans, just a few of the dozens and dozens of thousands who descended on the city for the Grand Slam match against Ireland.

St. David's, Day 3-4



Two pilgrimages to St. David's once equaled one to Rome and three equaled one to Jerusalem. It's the smallest city in Britain, only classified as a city because of its Bishop's Palace and St. David's Cathedral. This is a shrine at a spring near the birthplace of St. David, the patron saint of Wales, the water of which is said to cure illness. I'm still diabetic though.

Llanberis, Day 5-6



Here I am on the side of Mt. Snowdon, the tallest mountain in England and Wales. The first team to climb Mt. Everest trained here. Llanberis is the little lakeside town at its foot.

Shrewsbury, Day 7-8



Back in England now. A pleasant little city surrounded by a river, Shrewsbury is known for its bounty of Tudor-style buildings like this one. I did laundry here.

Chester, Day 8-9



Hey look it's Chester. I went to the Easter Sunday service in Chester Cathedral.

Carlisle, Day 10-11



Sorry Carlisle, but you were my least interesting destination. Here is Carlisle Castle, north of the city.

Pitlochry, Day 12-13



Pitlochry is south of the Scottish Highlands. The landscapes here reminded me of the American Pacific Northwest.

Stromness, Day 14-15



The nothernmost point of my journey, on Orkney Island. I hired a bicycle and rode around to a few of the ancient monuments there. This is the Ring of Brodgar. Note the rainbow on the right.

Edinburgh, Day 16-18



Edinburgh... Well, it's more like Edinburgh than any other city I've ever been in, I'll tell you that much. This view of the city is taken from Holyrood Park, the extensive wilderness literally adjacent to the city center.

Jedburgh, Day 19



My shortest stay was in Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders, and I only had time to go to the abbey ruins, pictured here.

Durham, Day 20-21



Back again into England. I love Durham. At just about every one of my destinations there were a cathedral and a castle, and Durham might have had my favorite of both. You can see both on the left.

York, Day 22-23



Basically, York is York Minster, the second biggest cathedral in Western Europe. Here is a view of the interior. A note about the cross: I have very mixed feelings about cathedrals, due partly no doubt to my Protestant upbringing. I feel like the point of it all can be easily lost in the endless monuments, stained glass windows, corbelled arches, clerestory windows, etc. etc. I have other reasons as well. Perhaps I'll make a post about it. But this cross was easily the greatest thing I saw in any of the many cathedrals I visited. Placed centrally in front of the organ, hanging in mid-air at the crossing, among the insane opulence of this massive minster, a clear, unembellished and unmistakeable reminder of what it's all about.

Edale, Day 24



Edale is a tiny village in the Peak District, one of England's most popular national parks. The area was serenely peaceful and quiet, which was very welcome between the busy tourist meccas of York and Oxford. The town of Castleton is behind me.

Oxford, Day 25-26



Everyone knows that Oxford was the home of C.S. Lewis, but there's also a little university called, perhaps not coincidentally, "Oxford," and I was surprised at the apparent popularity it had with the tourists. I guess it's pretty old. Anyway, here I am in the much more historically significant structure, the Eagle & Child pub, where Mr. Lewis met with J.R.R. Tolkien and other colleagues every Tuesday around noon. This picture was taken on Tuesday around noon. Later, my circuitous pilgrimage ended when I walked to Headington Quarry to see Mr. Lewis' home, church and grave. Pictured, L-R: Tolkien, Lewis, Goddard.

University of Sussex, Day 27-Present

So now I'm back at the university, hard at work once again...