Praying for 'This Generation'

When our Lord describes his generation, what simile does He use? He says in Luke 7,32:

"To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, `We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.'"

And that was only His generation. Or, was it only His generation? Elsewhere in Matthew 12, 39b-45, He describes the plight of a man who believes he can, on his own, whisk clean his "house" of evil spirits:

"An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nin'eveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here ... "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest, but he finds none. Then he says, `I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.

Then he goes and brings with him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. So shall it be also with this evil generation."

Gil Bailie posits that what our Lord means by "this generation" is "business as usual" in terms of how culture is always generated among fallen human beings, the taxonomy of which is most clearly spelled out by René Girard's mimetic theory, a worthy tool in the hands of the Church's Magisterium. (For example, cf. especially the work and homiletics of Father Raniero Cantalamessa, ofmcap.)

"This generation" is what Satan offers our Lord during His temptations in the wilderness (Mtt 4,8ff).

The staggering thing is to be living and moving and having our being as people who affirm Jesus Christ and His Catholic Church among leaders of nations, industry, and global policy who are plainly and willfully citizens of "this generation." They cannot begin to accept the beliefs of the Church's deposit of faith, the Magisterium, and lordship of Jesus Christ. And so, they are like the cleaner of the evil spirit; like children in the marketplace - all cleaned up and so blindly naive to the realities of Satan in their lives, their thinking, their politics and policies.

Good reason to pray during this season of Lent. Very good reason. And very good reason to join in-arms in Marian chivalry in this godless age in need of the hope and glory our Lord offers.

Power Corrupts. Again

If you hadn't noticed the low level of public discourse coming from Republican New Hampshire lawmakers, the Catholic League, fortunately, has.

What is more disturbing is that what goes around comes around.

A Study in Contrasts

We now have a Speaker of the House who is Catholic and, unlike his predecessor, practices what the Church teaches.

Anyone for Tea?

I've got to say, the Tea Party folks are reminiscent of my parents' generation at their prime - roughly the 1955-68 time frame. They are nothing if not generically American, conservative in morals and values, suspicious of centralized governance, and fiscally responsible at home and expecting the same from legislators - an expectation sorely and ridiculously exploited the last two years.

The Tea Party will look vvery carefully at the Republicans they successfully vote into office on Tuesday, and then decide whether or not to become the first and true viable third political party in American politics EVER.

Catholics may or may not want to become part of the Tea Party; time will tell because, as is always the case, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, as Lord Acton observed. Nothing is forever, particularly party politics (Dante immortalized this in The Divine Comedy).

Meanwhile, blithering theological idiots like this fellow make the Tea Party a pleasure to watch and cheer for the time being.

Tea Parties, Mimetic Rivals, and Hope

From a mimetic theory point of view, it was predictable that the tea party phenomenon occur. With the election to the presidency of the United States of the most leftist, progressivist, pro-abortion, socialist-like, and oligarchical candidate imaginable, there was an inevitability to the rise of the tea party movement.

Some, wrongly, want to accuse the tea party folk of having surreptitious racist motives. This is nearly as Procrustean an accusation as, say, the New Atheists' accusation that anyone who does not view reality like them solely through the empirical method criteria are "dim".

Mimetic theory posits the "problem of the doubles" in all conventional cultural structures. One might assume that a Democrat president in the Oval Office would find his "model/rival" across the aisle in Congress in the form of Republicans. The problem with this assumption is that there is an increasing awareness that in actuality there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. Hence, the inevitability of the tea party phenomenon: a structurally authentic "double" had to arise in the mimetic swirl, and it has.

Is this a good sign? Not really. I place no hopes in the tea party uprisings, at least no hope for it to help bring about a renewed and vital Christendom. At best, it may like Pentheus in Euripides' play The Bacchae, put the clamps on the skid into the sacrificial vortex for a while. The neo-pagan resurgence coupled with the Scimitar's demographic victory in the West seem all too preponderant in force and scope for the largely middle to older-aged tea party folk.

That does not mean, however, there is no hope. Rather, it means that unless you want to have your hopes dashed once again, you had best place hope - and faith and charity - on sources of true transcendence still availing us, even in these darkening ages.

A. West - Scimitar Goals and History

For the record: Lt. Col. Allen West on the Scimitar via the Creative Minority Report boys.

UPDATE: Wherein we hear what Lt. Col. West plans to say to Speaker Pelosi.

Off Their High Horses

What happened to the kinds of editorials once so common in American newspapers? You know the sort: "It's high time So-and-so realize s/he isn't above judgment. S/he had better start realizing it before s/he gets knocked of her/his high-horse. After all, every one of will have to face a time of reckoning, if not in this world then in the Next."

This goes, in particular, for elected representatives of our government on both sides of the aisle. I am not asking for "citizens' arrests" of some kind or another. Rather, I am speaking about the kind of common sense that once not only prevailed in American society, but was, in a sense, its hallmark; a trait we see in a diffuse, unfocused way in the rather unfortunate phenomenon known as "Tea Parties" these days.

The trouble with Tea Parties is that politicians have become too sophisticated in the ways of media exploitation and manipulation, quickly (and all too easily) branding them "racist" or other accusations that turn sympathy away from them and toward their (supposed) "victim". The trouble with this cool, snarky bit of sophistry is that it lends itself to that kind of hubris we now see in our present-day politicians in office.

I would simply like to see newspaper editorials once again appeal to a moral authority beyond that of focus groups or the set of values of any - ANY - group right or left, Democrat or Republican, etc.

I had better not hold my breath.

King of kings

The Crucifixion (1515) - Grünewald

One of the joys of Holy Week is having the opportunity to compare and contrast what Our Lord reveals is true leadership with what the world (Gr. κόσμος) considers leadership.

In mimetic theory terms, Girard calls the former "external mediation" and the latter "internal mediation." The former is revealed by One Who, by definition, comes from without the hall of mirrors of human mimesis, social interaction, terms of acceptable discourse, and, well, to be blunt, the two-sided political penny of fear-of-the-crowd and courting/fooling the crowd.

In His encounter with Satan in the wilderness just after His baptism in the Jordan by John, Our Lord is given three golden opportunities to grasp what the "prince of this world" (Jn 12,31) has in his keeping to grant: (a) making bread from a stone, (b) forcing the hand of divine intervention by throwing Himself off a pinnacle of the Temple, and (c) receiving political power extraordinaire over all the kingdoms of the world - clearly, Satan's to give Him.

What mere politician would not say "Done!" to at the very least the last one (c) as the expedient thing to do for "the greater good?" That's what politics is all about, after all.

But Our Lord, the "external Mediator" Who bears the light of God to a dark world of sin will have none of it.* He was, as the Evangelist St. John says,

...true light, which enlightens everyone ... coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him.

He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man's decision but of God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.

Remember, as we enter the holiest time of the holiest season of the Christian calendar, what the cosmos, the world, does to gain political power, and its motives. Remember what Our Lord did on the Cross and why. Remember that mere politics are not sufficient to save the world, or, gentle reader, your eternal soul.

Kneel at the foot of the Holy Cross again. And pledge your fealty to the King of mere kings, despots, prime ministers, and presidents. He and He alone deserves your ultimate loyalty, not mere mortal "internal mediators." Particularly the ones who are so good at politics, the pocket-coin of the "prince of this world."

You are made imago dei for the eternal weight of glory. Worship and adore God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, blessed Trinity.

Vexilla Regis prodeunt:

Fulget crucis mysterium,

Quo carne carnis Conditor

Suspensus est patibulo.

The royal banners forward go,

The Cross shines forth in mystic glow,

Where he in flesh, our flesh who made,

Our sentence bore, our ransom paid.

___________

*Jesus summoned them and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." - Mtt 20,25-28

Consequences

Francis Beckwith shares the Sen. Tom Coburn's form of laudable “community organizing.”

Spot the Trend

Hey, kids! Want to see if you can spot what grown-ups call a "trend"? Go here and have some fun! Maybe.

Scott Brown - Pro-choice

Told you so.

Scott Brown - A Cyrus of Persia Moment

While some Catholic sources see the recent and sizable election of Scott Brown to the senatorial seat of the late Edward Kennedy a victoryfor pro-life forces, giving glory for it where glory is truly due, others are more hesitant.

My take is that Senator-elect Brown is a bit of a Cyrus of Persia event for the weary warriors for the culture of life. Yes - God raised up Cyrus to issue his Edict of Restoration and allow the exilic Jews to return to Israel - a source of great rejoicing, and truly God's working in the warp and weft of human history. Yes - God shoved a spoke in the wheels of the out-of-control "health care reform," replete with on-demand abortuarial services - a source of great rejoicing, too, and truly God's will.

But the estimable Senator-elect Brown has yet to prove his personal worthiness, both as a patrician and as a culture of life proponent. I have seen too many upright souls become seduced by the power and glory of public office on Capitol Hill - let alone the overwhelming temptation to sell-out to the highest bidder and offer libations to the great god, $Mammon$.

Time will tell about Scott Brown; best to be pessimistic, keep praying, and, we hope, be pleasantly surprised. It is safer than the other way round.

What is a Scott Brown Republican

Or, as Hadley Arkes puts it, There should be no illusion that Scott Brown, right now, understands or accepts the moral premises of the pro-life movement.

Put no trust in princes ( Ps 146). Dante puts politician Julius Caesar in limbo, but those who betray public trust with fraud much further down - circle eight, Bolgia 5, immersed in a lake of boiling pitch, which represents the sticky fingers and dark secrets of their corrupt deals.

Forgive the lack of trust, but I have none regarding the two-party system. And, by the way, I am not a right-winger. This is a Marxian, secularist designation. I am a Catholic, and a pope's man. But, just in case you might think I condone the Last Self-Help Administration's American reformation, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
- Lord Acton

I Do Believe He Read All of It

But It's For Our Own Good, Right?

Who said this?

“This is not about insuring the uninsured, this is not about health care, this is about stealing one sixth of the private sector and putting it under the control of the Federal government, and when they get this health care bill, it they do, that’s the easiest fastest way for them to be able to regulate every aspect of human behavior.

“Because it will all have some related costs to health care, what you drive, what you eat, where you live, what you do, there will be penalties for violating regulations, it’s gonna be the biggest snatch of freedom and liberty that has yet occurred in this country.”

The answer is here.

Ominous Quotes of the Day

"The state is God walking among men."
- Hegel

"... the judges are custodians of the law only insofar as that law is framed and interpreted by the highest authority in the country. That authority has made it plain to the entire legal profession that every member of the profession must be firmly bound to the world view of the lawgiver."

- Dr. Gerlach in L. Beckett's A Postcard from the Volcano

Talk with Iran? Sure But Not with Fox

The Anchoress makes a strong point:

Obama’s behavior is not presidential. Criticize Bush all you like, and yeah, he made it clear he didn’t much like the way the press covered him, but he talked to all of those news outlets who clearly hated him – hell, he talked to CBS even after the fake TANG episode with Dan Rather and Mary Mapes (whose fakery was recently exposed as even more egregious than we already knew). Bush spoke to Newsweek even after Evan Thomas promised to deliver “an additional ten to 15 percentage points to John Kerry” (which they managed, btw).

Obama, thin-skinned, more than a little cowardly and a bit petty, prefers to “punish” those members of the press who do not lay prostrate before him. And the mainstream press, because it is over-populated with spiteful perpetual adolescents who have become enthralled to the weird duality of hate/love that informs their politics, do not close ranks and say, “no, Mr. President, if you don’t talk to one of us, you don’t get your daily exposure from any of us.”

The mighty I Wun and his ilk do not tolerate interference from those whose perception of the zeitgeist is at strong variance with their own romantic Gnostic one. Here, too, is where Bush differed with I Wun. Bush was unquestionably pushing the Right's agenda. But that wink and grin showed perspective, unlike the humorless intolerance we are now being forced to bear. Nothing is so intolerant as an humanist project sans the firm belief in a Magisterium beyond its party ideology and functional atheism.

Did Bush ever get mistaken for being a "messiah"? Any other presidents recently? How about this One?

This "punishment" of Fox News is a denial of a political opponent's common humanity. It is nothing Bush or anyone on either side of the aisle would have done so ostensibly before. It is a slippery slope toward even more dehumanizing of mimetic rivals in America. Your worst dreams tell you where it may end.

The most salient advice now is from mimetic theory: don't listen to the themes of the Last Self-Help Administration. Watch the structure, the actual behavior.

It will give you plenty to pray about.

Promiscuity and Politics

A reflection from long-time mentor and fine fellow, Gil Bailie:

Promiscuity means the lack of standards by which to judge or sort out things. Psychological promiscuity ... is the kind of involvement in mimetic contagion and mimetic desire which reaches the point [that] the self becomes unstable, because of the multitude of its influences. We do not have to be influenced by a multitude of people [in a negative way]; all that influence simply needs to be thematized. We do not want to turn off the influences of other people; we need other people ... The way the Christian economy works is we reach God through Christ, we reach Christ through each other. So we don’t want to be stopped being influenced, but that influence needs to be thematized or else it becomes polymorphously perverse -- and that is the mimetic crisis.

Politicians, by the way, depend upon promiscuity to confusticate the voting public. It is like spinning someone around with a blindfold on. Thus, the more citizens who are bewitched, bothered, and bewildered - or, in a word, promiscuous - the better for the politician.

It pays to have too many influences. It keeps the voting public helpless and more easily "governed".

As He Knew They Would

The Democratic Party politicians yesterday made President I Wun a liar.

Iran Around the Rosies ..

This, of course, is a no brainer in the vernacular of the peasantry. Only one besotted with a naïveté born of monumental romantic - and therefore soon-to-be nihilistic - Gnosticism could believe otherwise.