In the back of my mind, I’ve been pondering a strange blind spot in mainstream modern historians and political commentators since reading Barbara Tuchman’s March of Folly in May of 2013. It seems to me that she saw clearly the somewhat complex and fluid balance of forces between individuals and families or other tightly knit … [Read more…]
From a Catholic News Service article as published on the website of my diocese (Springfield, MA), Pope orders new rules on relations between bishops, religious orders : Pope Francis said he has ordered a revision of what he called outdated Vatican norms on the relations between religious orders and local bishops, in order to promote … [Read more…]
Scientific American published an article about research on the relationship between prayer and cure of diseases: Scientists Find One Source of Prayer’s Power. The results seem plausible and the interpretation of the results emphasize the natural but don’t deny the possibility of the supernatural. I’m probably more inclined to deny the supernatural when it comes … [Read more…]
The reliable science-writer, Ed Yong, published an article back in November, Bigger groups mean complex cultures, which leads off with the insightful paragraphs: Humanity’s success depends on the ability of humans to copy, and build on, the works of their predecessors. Over time, human society has accumulated technologies, skills and knowledge beyond the scope of … [Read more…]
Srdja Trifkovic wrote of Jean Raspail’s New Warning on the website of Chronicles Magazine. Raspail wrote The Camp of the Saints in 1973; that novel was a controversial take on immigration and multiculturalism; it depicted France decaying into a state of violent incoherence in a multicultural age. Forty years after publishing his prophetic dystopia Jean … [Read more…]
In Colossians 1:24, St Paul writes: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church…” [From the Catholic edition of the Revised Standard Version as published by Ignatius.] I suspect, partly on the … [Read more…]
A number of those most consistently and honestly upset by Obamacare seem to be libertarians and I’ll side with them on this issue though I consider myself to be what some have called Orestes Brownson—a radical conservative. I’ll ignore the clueless conservatives and liberals who think moral order to be a gloss upon their favorite … [Read more…]
In a typically erudite book review, The barbarism of reason: John Gray on the Notebooks of Leopardi , Gray tells us: With astonishing prescience, [the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837)] diagnosed the sickness of our time: a dangerous intoxication with the knowledge and power given by science, mixed with an inability to accept the humanly … [Read more…]
Conspiracies. Don’t underestimate the number and importance of conspiracies in human history, conspiracies political or economic or even cultural but usually criminal and often highly immoral. Don’t overestimate their importance in the general scheme of things but don’t forget their sheer abundance indicates they play a role in God’s story—I’ll pass over a discussion of … [Read more…]
My understanding of communal being is more exact and more explicit than the traditional understandings of our social natures. This is to say that traditionalists are vague enough about their understanding of our communal ties that they sometimes speak as if not so far from various sorts of radical individualists. No matter how committed to … [Read more…]