Libertarians, My Libertarians!
Cruel to be kind means that I love you . Because, while I think you are mistaken, your hearts are in the right place -- yes, even you, Silas -- unlike some people . This Breitbart fellow (discussed in the link above), by all appearances, deliberately doctored a video of Shirley Sherrod to make her remarks appear virulently racist, when they had, in fact, the opposite import. I heard that at a recent Austrian conference, some folks were talking about "Callahan's conservative turn." While that description is not entirely inaccurate, I must say that a lot of these people who today call themselves conservative give me the heebie-jeebies.
I fear the same but then I wonder how we handicap the odds given the idea of decline in the West is very old and has been mostly wrong. https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Decline-Western-History/dp/1416576339
ReplyDeleteBut... it hasn’t been “mostly wrong”! It has been highly accurate!
ReplyDeleteThe decline going on now is the exact same thing that, eg, Spengler noted.
From a crudely materialistic perspective it is hard to say things have been getting worse since Spengler's time. If we shift it to the metaphysical domain Ok we can debate endlessly what counts as the good and how we would measure etc but... really... that's a reach. http://humanprogress.org/blog/things-are-looking-up-by-any-measure
ReplyDeleteWhat is a “stretch” is that you would comment on this issue without knowing that pretty much everyone pointing out this decline acknowledges the West’s great material success: in fact, they usually feel the two are directly tied together! And by the way, the idea that the health of civilization should be gauged by measurable, material factors IS a metaphysical position!
DeleteFrom a materialistic perspective (which I didn't say wasnt a metaphysical position, did I?) things have been getting better since Spengler's time (and Rousseau and... the Ancients.... ). So the only way to suggest things have not is to use a different perspective... and yes I recognise that not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts as the saying goes but I sincerely doubt anyone today would switch places in time to any imagined golden era, would they?
ReplyDeleteVery sobering.
ReplyDeleteThe poet I go to for refining my feelings towards this age is T.S. Eliot. His "Chorus' from the Rock" and "The Idea of a Christian Society" I find especially relevant to the "how to prepare oneself" and "how to think of this as a Christian" questions.
"It is hard for those who have never known persecution,
And who have never known a Christian,
To believe these tales of Christian persecution.
It is hard for those who live near a Bank
To doubt the security of their money.
It is hard for those who live near a Police Station
To believe in the triumph of violence.
Do you think that the Faith has conquered the World
And that lions no longer need keepers?
Do you need to be told that whatever has been, can still be?
Do you need to be told that even such modest attainments
As you can boast in the way of polite society
Will hardly survive the Faith to which they owe their significance?"