Looks about right.

 

Welp.

 

"Yeah, that might as well happen."

The Children of Modernity.

All of Hitler's political ideas had their origin in the Enlightenment. These included the concept of the nation as a higher historical force, the notion of superior political sovereignty derived from the general will of the people, and the idea of inherent racial differences in human culture.

These were distinct derivations from Enlightenment anthropology which rejected premodern theology and the common roots and transcendent interests of mankind. The cult of the will is the basis of modern culture, and Hitler merely carried it to an extreme. The very concept of National Socialism as the "will to create a new man" was possible only in the twentieth century context as a typically modern, antitraditional idea. 

The same may be said of the Nazi search for extreme autonomy, a radical freedom for the German people. Hitler carried the modern goal of breaking the limits and setting new records to an unprecedented point. For no other movement did the modern doctrine of man as the measure of all things rule to such an extent. 

Thus Daniel Bell has judged that all self-centered, subjective modern culture stresses the "triumph of the will"--one of the most common Nazi concepts--and that Hitler is another typical product of modernity.

This also holds with regard to social and economic programs. No ruler in modern times has gone to such lengths as Hitler to acquire, among other things, the natural resources necessary for a modern economy. Nazi Gleichschaultung ["co-ordination", the process by which NSDAP control extended throughout society] and the effort at status revolution tended to unite German society and overcome class distinctions for the first time in German history. 

Though Nazi antiurbanism is said to have been inherently reactionary, radical antiurbanism has become a major trend of the late twentieth century. In fact, though the German war economy promoted de facto urbanization and greater industrialization, rather than the reverse, an ultimate Nazi economic goal was to balance farm and industry. When sought by liberals, this is frequently deemed to be the height of enlightenment and sophistication. Finally, Hitler was well in advance of his times in his concern about ecology, environmental reform, and pollution.

Truly large-scale genocide or mass murder is a prototypical development of the twentieth century, from Turkey and Russia to Germany, Cambodia and the countries of Africa. The unique Nazi tactic was to modernize the process, to accomplish the mass murder more efficiently and surgically than other great liquidators in Turkey, Russia or Cambodia have done. Nor was Hitler's genocidal program any more or less "rational," since the goal of mass murder is always political, ideological, or religious and not a matter of practical economic ends, pace Stalin or Mao Tse-Tung. 

--Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism: 1914-1945, pp. 203-204 (Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1995). 

Wisdom from Juan Vasquez de Mella.

 "[Traditionalism] must not be a kind of crow lurking in the crevices of feudal keeps, disposed to damn every scientific discovery and condemn all the marvels of industry, a kind of romantic poet who, bowed down with present-day reality and a nostalgia for the past, turns tearful eyes toward bygone centuries."

 

 

One of the finest film endings I have ever seen.

Not to mention relevant.

In insane times, who is in charge? 

For your station in life and the duties you bear...

...you are.

 

If you still have Netflix--congrats.

Your subscription funds the sexualization of pre-teen girls.

Go here to read the grim, maddening story.

I dumped it last year after the same sacks of crap decided it would be hilarious to lampoon Jesus and the Blessed Mother.

Another season of "Stranger Things" isn't worth swimming in the moral outhouse that is this vile operation.

Shakespeare for Epsilons.

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” 
                                                                        --Ray Bradbury.

 An interesting article about our continued descent from our cultural heritage: essentially, a theatre troupe in Oregon is rendering Shakespeare into 21st Century American English. No word yet on whether the new scripts will use emojis.

My beloved wife's reaction when I told her this:

That's her verbatim response, by the way.

Hard to argue, really.

For nearly half a millennia English speakers have enjoyed, or at least consumed, Shakespeare’s work in its original language. Often the plays are shortened, sometimes variants from different folios are chosen, but Shakespeare’s words have never been changed wholesale to accommodate the intellectual laziness of a generation of artists and audiences. Why now, when more people graduate college than at any time in our history, do we need Hamlet for Dummies?

Is Shakespeare’s language difficult at times? Yes. Does it require effort to understand? Sure. But has anything happened to the English language or its speakers that make the works inaccessible? Absolutely not. Telling students and audiences they aren’t smart enough to get Shakespeare, that some appointed “experts” need to simplify it for them, turns appreciation of his work from an accomplishment into a literary participation trophy.

There is no reason for any of this. Shakespeare remains relevant to us on stages, in movies, and in our classrooms. Beyond that direct contact, works like “West Side Story,” “Sons of Anarchy,” and “Strange Brew” all use his stories in unique modern ways. But how equipped will we be to appreciate these adaptations if we don’t have a solid grounding in his actual plays?

I have to admit, I really got a kick out of the Strange Brew reference. Yes, it's true: the Bob and Doug Mackenzie classic really does have Shakespearean underpinnings.

But back to the major point: yes, this is bad news. Currently, it's just one troupe, but if it catches on, sheesh. 

Yes, Shakespeare can be rough-going at first. Especially when you approach him from the printed page. That's the key, though: seeing it performed? You see the players and the light goes on. 

As is the case with all parents, I like to think that all of my children are above average.  

I know they're not, but...

I do know that my older three (ages 14, 12 and 11) have seen Baz Luhrmann's take on Romeo and Juliet. The thing is...they got it. And they think Romeo's a twit, not so by the way.

Nevertheless, they followed along and understood it. And enjoyed it. Does that mean they are some trio of amazing prodigies? No, though I will defend their brainpower to all and sundry. 

The thing is, we didn't treat Shakespeare like some odd artifact from a bygone era suitable only for eccentric tweedy eggheads and other Anglophiles. Rather, it is something worthwhile for them, too--with a little effort. 

Apparently, such assumptions are bizarre, so now we have this exercise in mutilation to meet the dumbed-down expectations of our times. If "expectations" they are.

The tragedy isn't just that we're losing so much. Rather, it's that those to whom we are supposed to pass the torch will have no idea of what was lost.  

On the bright side, that might keep them from shooting us. 

That, and the latest distracting app for their smartphones.   

Next time, America...

...pick someone with at least a modicum of executive experience.

Meanwhile, the world is starting to burn and apparently vacations cannot be interrupted.

Oh, and Agence France-Presse offered this cheery tweet, too.

"MSF" is Doctors Without Borders.

Essential, if one reads the internet.

I had occasion to use it recently, as two lefties argued--with straight faces--that ISIS and the Tea Party were morally equivalent.

A growing number of people seem to have lost the needles for their moral compasses. 

Which reminds me: I need to buy more ammunition.
 

A stop-motion look at too much of Detroit.

The Detroit News chronicles the death of Garland Street over the past decade.

The heart breaks:

Click to enlarge.

An out-of-state friend of mine saw Google Earth pictures of Detroit and couldn't believe how much of it had been reclaimed by nature.

"Is Detroit really that bad?" he asked.

Not all of it, of course. Unfortunately, too many parts of it truly are, most of it located in a wide belt astride the city's midsection. There are numerous Garland Streets across Motown's 142 square miles--and no prospect that they will be repopulated any time soon.

If you're in the area, take the Chalmers Street exit (No. 222) off of I-94. Then take Hayes Street directly north. There are blocks upon blocks like Garland, former residential neighborhoods now reverting to forest. With the exception of Outer Drive, there aren't any stable zones until you get to around five blocks south of Eight Mile Road. 

What Detroit needs more than anything is people. And that's what she is losing by the literal truckload.

 

How not to argue.

Or: Spotting Godawful Arguments: A Short Primer.

As a public service to readers of the blog, I am happy to offer my nearly eighteen years of experience as an attorney to help you, the Reader, spot and understand a Bad Argument.

Bad Arguments are the scourge of civilized discourse, making for a corrosive effect on reasoning as a whole. 

Fortunately (?), we received a recent example in the comment box, just teeming with fallacies, perfectly useful for examination. It was offered in response to this post. Note that my post is about the Kasper proposal to allow divorced-and-remarried-without-annulment Catholics to receive communion, and the Pope's enthusiastic praise for and preclearance of it.

So, how does the counter-argument go? Here's the first part:

Actually the Church has a legitimate doctrinal way to make Cardinal Kasper’s alleged liberal policy on marriage a reality.

According to the current pastoral practice in the annulment process it is the Church’s policy to assume a disputed marriage is valid till proven invalid. There is no dogmatic reason why this must be the case. The Church can assume all formally disputed marriages are invalid till proven valid which is a high bar to climb and would make Annulments even more wide spread & granted with more ease.
Now would that be a pastoral disaster? It could likely be since the abuse of it will undermine the Church’s teaching on marriage on the practical level. Not that under the current policy historically it hasn’t been abused especially in America.

Would it be an example of detectability or Fallibility? Not at all. 

The opener is an instant sleight of hand. Does the arguer address the actual post itself, or the Kasper proposal? No, he does not. Instead, he changes the subject to an entirely unrelated proposal not under discussion--a classic red herring. This enables him to sidestep entirely the problematic Kasper proposal--one whose awfulness has been noted by men of no small theological erudition. Thus, instead of engaging with the actual problematic proposal, he can propose something different and use that to derisively attack his opponent. 

Note also that it is question-begging of a staggering order: his argument assumes--without bothering to prove--that it is the equivalent of the Kasper proposal. It also assumes that such would not touch upon indefectibility. Why? Because he said so. Ipse dixit, quod erat demonstrandum. Might as well throw in e pluribus unum while we're at it.

In any event, his devastating riposte--the question-begging red herring--is a proposal that he admits would be a probable "pastoral disaster."

Well, I stand refuted. Or not.

Now, does he address the notion of sacramental intent--ex opere operato? That longstanding Catholic teaching is that sacraments are presumptively valid, not invalid, if the proper form, matter and intent are involved? Even if more than one competent, conscious person is needed to confect the sacrament--see also, penance, confirmation, holy orders? No, he does not. 

One might be forgiven for thinking his argument was clouded by animus against his interlocutor. Here's the remainder of his argument:

You know Price rather then undermine people’s faith in the Church & Christ’s promises by extension, you might try learning some theology before getting hysterical and believing every radtrad conspiracy rumor mongering twit?

Ya Think?

Oh.... all righty then! Ah, the ever-popular Chest-Poking Tough Guy! Closer. Apparently, his argument isn't so air-tight that he can dispense with the troweled-on well-poisoning: I'm some kind of hysteric (paging Dr. Freud) pied piper who leads people astray, cavorting with with idiot rad-trads in the process--run, children!

Yes, folks--BEWARE.

I just like this one.

As you can see from the third link, some very capable and decidedly non-rad-traddish people are appalled by the Kasper proposal endorsed by the Pope. But Tough Guy! would rather try (and fail) to put me in my place than square off with them. Invoking his own alleged theological authority in the process. 

And that, folks, is darn near the Platonic ideal of a Bad Argument.

Orwellian group-think comes to real-world science fiction writing.

A little recondite, but instructive: the Hugo Awards and SFWA are the latest (if minor) institutions to have succumbed to the left's jackbooted tolerance enforcers. The issues have risen to the attention of USA Today, so it's newsworthy instead of merely nerdworthy.

Larry "Monster Hunter" Correia explains part of the problem (the Hugos) in a link within the USA Today column.

Then there's just the general stupidity of demanding that one simply must incorporate PC tropes in one's speculative fiction.

Finally, Sarah Hoyt (not exactly a charter member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy herself) and John C. Wright both lower the boom.

The Left: You'll Have Their Worldview and Like It, H8R!™

Forget it, Sun--it's a China town.

A lot of people worry that our future will be dominated by China.

I'm not one of them.

No one really knows the internal state of China's finances--save the Politburo. But there are signs, like this one, that internal indebtedness, bad loans and overall corruption exist on a level that would threaten to make Jon Corzine blush.

After Corzine has a soul transplant, that is.

Remember the Sovfilter I mentioned below? It's also helpful for analyzing official statistics from Beijing.

Interesting times.

Feasibility studies and you.

Admiral Miklos Horthy was the dictator of Hungary from 1920 until was deposed in a pro-Nazi coup in 1944. He had served as a reasonably competent officer in the Hapsburg Empire's navy, and declared himself "Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary," despite not wanting to let the Hapsburg claimants back in. The Hungarian joke was that Hungary "was a kingdom without a king, ruled by an admiral without a fleet, in a country without a coastline."

For a moment, Wyoming was threatening to resurrect that joke in an American setting. The context was the study of a doomsday continuity-of-government bill--not a crazy idea in a world of fast-moving disease, weapons of mass destruction and EMP. However, an early draft of the bill provided for a feasibility study for Wyoming's acquisition of strike aircraft and...an aircraft carrier.

An aircraft carrier.

For...Wyoming.

Wyoming.

WYOMING.

I hate to bring this up, Utah, and I'm not trying to get all rumory, but I think the folks in Cheyenne might have some long-term designs on the Great Salt Lake. You might want to consider some way to maintain naval superiority starting right...now.

Fortunately, the attempt to float a Nimitz class carrier in the nation's Mountain West has been axed from the current reading.

Or...has it?

Watch your back, Utah.

The difference between observing our lives and living them.

Hilary puts it beautifully in this essay. Read it all.

I have the same problem, taking pictures of my kids' activities instead of merely watching them. Sure, they're great keepsakes. But was I fully there? A good question.

This is probably why we are so irritated with tourists who take pictures of everything in sight. We instinctively know there is something wrong with it. I stopped taking pictures several times in Florence because I realised I was trying harder to save Florence for later than I was trying to actually be there at the time.

It is only in the here and now that life can actually be lived. When you are thinking about doing an act of charity or committing a sin, you aren't actually doing it. The act itself is the meritorious or culpable thing, not the contemplation of it. Humans in the West have been retreating from The Real for a long time. The reason Twitting is so popular is that it offers us a new way of doing what we have been doing for decades, pulling back and becoming observers rather than participants.

The Shrinking of Detroit.

Here is Detroit's problem, in a nutshell:



There simply aren't the people in what was once one of the country's greatest cities.

Did you know that Detroit came within an ace of getting the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Summer Games?

Now, she's less than half the size she used to be. If the 2010 Census shows the City to have a population north of 800,000, I'll be stunned. And dubious.

The mayoral administration has recognized the obvious, and is looking to reconcentrate the population in the viable areas (i.e., closer to Downtown or the viable neighborhoods along the borders with the suburbs).

More than 20% of Detroit's 139 square miles could go without key municipal services under a new plan being developed for the city, with as few as seven neighborhoods seen as meriting the city's full resources.

Those details, outlined by Detroit planning officials this week, offer the clearest picture yet of how Mayor Dave Bing intends to execute what has become his signature program: reconfiguring Detroit to reflect its declining population and fiscal health. Yet the blueprint still leaves large legal and financial questions unresolved.

Until now, the mayor and his staff have spoken mostly in generalities about the problem, stressing the need for community input and pledging to a skeptical public that no resident would be forced to move.

But the approach discussed by city officials could have that effect. Mr. Bing's staff wants to concentrate Detroit's remaining population—expected to be less than 900,000 after this year's Census count—and limited local, state and federal dollars in the most viable swaths of the city, while other sectors could go without such services as garbage pickup, police patrols, road repair and street lights.

I imagine there would have to be the occasional show of police force within the abandoned zones, though--otherwise, Very Bad Things are certain to be cooked up there.

Jeff Culbreath asked me on Facebook what could be done to reverse the situation, and suggested homesteading--focusing on bands of enterprising Catholics reclaiming (and sustaining) neighborhoods. I didn't answer because I wasn't sure how to respond.

Certainly the only thing that will save the City are more people--lots more people. But the only way you will get homesteaders in is if there is some level of independence afforded to the would-be settlers. By that I mean some liberty from the dead hand of bureaucracy which has helped to create this unprecedented American nightmare in the first place. Imagine trying to homestead in Permit Purgatory, red tape bidding fair to strangle the effort in its cradle. You'd have to pass something like the old Homestead Acts to carve through the inevitable problems.

But at this desperate hour, out of the box solutions are the ones that need to be tried.