A bit of humor from Jacques Maritain (Reflections on America, 1958), commenting on the faux-optimism that is often mandated in the American workplace. Perhaps not so apropos in this day and age, where dourness prevails (what with the pandemic and all), but nonetheless elicited a chuckle:

The yearning to make life tolerable is best revealed, it seems to me, in the American smile. You meet on American streets smiling faces, which plunge you into a stream of quite general and anonymous good feeling. Of course, there is an immense part of illusion, of ritually accepted illusion, in the universal benignancy thus displayed.

I had a dentist in a small town whose nurses were so well trained that you were dazzled by their radiant smiles and their unshakeable optimism. Finally you came to think, in a kind of daydream, that the fact of dying in the midst of these happy smiles and the angel wings of these white, immaculate uniforms, would be a pure pleasure, a moment of no consequence. Relax, take it easy, it's nothing. Thereafter, you would enjoy the cleanness and happiness of the funeral home, and the chattering of your friends around your embalmed corpse.

l left this dentist, in order to protect within my mind the Christian idea of death.

This Pope is Dope

#popebars

"obscurantisme terroriste"

With Derrida, you can hardly misread him, because he's so obscure. Every time you say, "He says so and so," he always says, "You misunderstood me." But if you try to figure out the correct interpretation, then that's not so easy. I once said this to Michel Foucault, who was more hostile to Derrida even than I am, and Foucault said that Derrida practiced the method of obscurantisme terroriste (terrorism of obscurantism). We were speaking French. And I said, "What the hell do you mean by that?" And he said, "He writes so obscurely you can't tell what he's saying, that's the obscurantism part, and then when you criticize him, he can always say, 'You didn't understand me; you're an idiot.' That's the terrorism part."

Reality Principles: An Interview with John R. Searle with Steven R. Postrel & Edward Feser. Reason.com. February 2000. (HT: Edward Feser).

Related

• Noam Chomsky Slams Žižek and Lacan: Empty ‘Posturing’ OpenCulture 6/28/13.
• John Searle on Foucault and the Obscurantism in French Philosophy OpenCulture. 07/01/13.

Most of these authors of course do not believe their own postmodern tenets. They criticize capitalism because it pays financial dividends [but] none wish to share their salary with the dispossessed or live among the muscular classes. They advocate multiculturalism [because] it promotes them out of the classroom and away from the lower undergraduates -- the very people their curriculum is supposed to liberate.

They say there are no facts, but are outraged when their research is criticized. They pile up the frequent-flier mileage on gravity-defying jets that whisk them to the latest conference on the social construction and relativism of the scientific method. They hate the West, but demand the freedom of speech, material prosperity, lack of religious interference, respect for diversity and competitive merit-based rewards that the West alone ensures. … They insist that nothing can be known, that knowledge is a mere construct of unreliable language, that linear thinking is phallocentric, imperialistic and oppressive, and then, without a hint of irony, write heavily-footnoted book after book to tell us so. They say that truth is relative, yet condemn opposing theories as being less valid than their own.

They reject "narrow" disciplines in favor of "inclusive" cultural studies -- and then rigorously exclude anything that does not support their tendentious political agenda. They denounce an imagined world governed exclusively by issues of power even as they spend their time handing out curriculum vitiate, applying for the next job, and running for office in professional organizations. They proclaim the death of the author, and then sign their names to their books and wear nametags at conventions. They advocate the overthrow of hierarchical privilege while clutching desperately an outdated system of tenure that guarantees their own power and privilege. […] They profess radical skepticism in their scholarship but use inductive logic to plan every second of their personal and professional lives: what car to buy, what neighborhood to live in, what schools to send their children to, what articles to write and classes to teach (or not to teach).

The contradictions of the medieval Church or eighteenth-century French letters to do not match the hypocrisy of contemporary American academic culture.

-- Introduction, Bonfire of the Humanities: Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age by Victor Davis Hanson, John Heath and Bruce S. Thornton.

God, Nietzsche.

Nietzesche says to God: "I too can create a man."

God says: "Try."

Nietzsche takes a fistful of dust and begins to mold it.

God says: "Disqualified. Get your own dust."

____________________________________________
(As relayed by J. Budziszewski).

Buddy Christ

"Them's Fightin' Words" -- Responses to a vile act of calumny from "The Food Babe"

If you're on Facebook and/or browse the web, you might have encountered -- or had foisted upon you -- "THE SHOCKING INGREDIENTS IN BEER!" -- a piece of hysterical drivel from a food-purist (and non-beer drinker) regarding various "additives" to beer, revealing along the way the author's general ignorance about the brewing process altogether.

As the situation may warrant, here are some helpful responses from defenders of God's Gift to Man:

• Beer Wars: The Calumny of The Food Babe, by Thomas 'Tom' Cizauskas. Yours for Good Fermentables
• What’s In YOUR Beer? Or, The Dangers of Dumbassery Maureen Ogle.

Joe Biden.

Funniest.Vice.President.Ever.

Megadeth for Santorum!

David Mustaine, the frontman for thrash-metallers Megadeth just came out in favor of the Republicans in the 2012 race:

"I'm just hoping that whatever is in the White House next year is a Republican. I can't bear to watch what's happened to our great country. Everybody's got their head in the sand. Everybody in the industry is like, 'Oh, Obama's doing such a great job...' I don't think so. Not from what I see.

"Looking at the Republican candidates, I've got to tell you, I was floored the other day to see that Mitt Romney's five boys have a $100 million trust fund. Where does a guy make that much money? So there's some questions there. And watching Newt Gingrich, I was pretty excited for a while, but now he's just gone back to being that person that everybody said he was – that angry little man. I still like him, but I don't think I'd vote for him.

"Ron Paul… you know, I heard somebody say he was like insecticide – 98 percent of it's inert gases, but it's the two percent that's left that will kill you. What that means is that he'll make total sense for a while, and then he'll say something so way out that it negates everything else. ...

"Earlier in the election, I was completely oblivious as to who Rick Santorum was, but when the dude went home to be with his daughter when she was sick, that was very commendable. Also, just watching how he hasn't gotten into doing these horrible, horrible attack ads like Mitt Romney's done against Newt Gingrich, and then the volume at which Newt has gone back at Romney… You know, I think Santorum has some presidential qualities, and I'm hoping that if it does come down to it, we'll see a Republican in the White House... and that it's Rick Santorum."

Mustaine's always been something of an enigma in heavy metal. Heralded as one of the top 100 metal guitarists in the world, he was kicked out of Metallica in the 80's for being a 'mean drunk' (hard to do, given Metallica's penchant for imbibing), tried the "7 steps" program but found it a distraction and decided to head straight for God in a Pascalian wager:

"Looking up at the cross, I said six simple words, ‘What have I got to lose?’ Afterwards my whole life has changed. It’s been hard, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. Rather go my whole life believing that there is a God and find out there isn't than live my whole life thinking there isn't a God and then find out, when I die, that there is."

Politically he's very conservative -- almost "fringe-right" (his album Endgame was influenced by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones). In 2011, he called President Obama "the most divisive president we've ever had. I've never, in my 50 years of being alive, listened to an American president try and turn one class of people against another class of people."

Recommended

• Megadeth: Rust in Peace [1990]

Limiricks and Humor at Vatican II

Joseph A. Komonchak has compiled an extensive collection of Limericks and humor at Vatican II. ( Via Commonweal).

"A Jesuit, a Franciscan and a Dominican were playing golf ..."

Jesuit jokes, courtesy of Brandon (Siris).

The Perils of Panentheism

The Advaita Vedānta school within Hindu philosophy holds that the self is identical with God. A student of mine recently lamented that too many Westerners who claim to follow this doctrine draw precisely the wrong lesson from it. Instead of freeing themselves from the limitations of their selfish egos and looking at the world from the divine point of view, they deify their selfishness. They bring God down to their level rather than rising up to His level.

Well, that is annoying. The trouble is that startling identity claims have a way of boomeranging. The Vedantist says “You are God!” hoping to shock his listener out of his egotism. The shallow listener thinks “Wow, I am God!” and his egotism is only reinforced. He puts the accent on the “I” rather than on “God.” And why not, if he and God really are identical?

Philosopher Ed Feser, "A is A" December 9, 2010.

Preach it, Nigel!

For fans of Nigel Farage, the British politician and leader of the Independence Party is at it again, taking Brussels bureaucrats to the woodshed ...

(HT: Creative Minority Report)

An Anglican Ghost Story

Theologically, “Hereafter” is unhelpful no matter what one’s beliefs may be. Straddling the fence between belief and non-belief, it does not say anything substantive about mortality. God, or any similar entity or force, is never mentioned. What can be gleaned is that, contrary to the opinion expressed by Marie’s boyfriend, the lights do not simply go out when we die—we are not immediately ushered into the eternal void. Some people, apparently, endure in a form that can communicate with the George Lonegan’s of this world. Further, the departed can intervene in the world in small ways.

Presenting the afterlife as a simple ghost story doesn’t give believers or doubters much intellectual sustenance. In general “Hereafter” studiously avoids anything that might be remotely inflammatory to either side.

Overall, the movie strikes me, if anything, as somewhat Anglican.

John P. McCarthy (America Magazine - review of Clint Eastwood's "Hereafter").

Scrutonizing the Moderns

Recently finished re-reading Scruton's A Short History of Modern Philosophy: From Descartes to Wittgenstein. Being out of an academic environment so long I'm getting a bit rusty, so I found this to be a good "refresher." Quite humorous too: Scruton has such a dry, sardonic (characteristically English?) wit. Several examples:

• On Fichte: "Fichte's philosophy rests not so much in argument as in impetuous explosions of jargon, in which that fabricated verb "to posit" (setzen) kaleidoscopes into a thousand self-reflecting images."
• On Schopenhauer: "Schopenhauer enjoyed his pessimistic conclusions too much to convince the reader that he really believed in them; and his sardonic assaults on popular prejudice reveal a far greater attachment to life than to the renunciation he officially favored."
• On Heidegger: "[T]he reader has the impression that never before have so many words been invented and tormented in the attempt to express the inexpressible."

Such quips are not to be taken as outright dismissals, however, as he does take painstaking effort to read and explicate the chief ideas of each.

Which is scarier?

• Orrin Hatch's "Eight Days of Hannukah"
• John Ashcroft's "Let the Eagle Soar".
• "MC [Karl] Rove"

Not the wisest name-change in the book.

We consulted at length with a brilliant friend of mine, one of the nation’s leading experts on branding. Her advice was direct and powerful: ”Nobody knows what the ‘next majority’ will look like. Maybe President Obama will be re-elected and your hopes of building a new modernized Republican majority will go unrealized for a long time to come.” In any event, she continued, whether Republicans return to majority or remain in minority status, the world of internet political commentary is a world built around individual personalities. Think DrudgeReport, HuffingtonPost, AndrewSullivan.com, Breitbart.TV. Her advice: Put my name on the thing.

- David Frum, on changing the name of his blog to 'FrumForum'.

* * *

Frum (Yiddish: פֿרום; [frum | frim]), from the German fromm, meaning "devout" or "pious", is a Yiddish word meaning committed to be observant of the 613 Mitzvot, or Jewish commandments, specifically of Orthodox Judaism. This appellative is used especially in reference to haredim (i.e. the "Ultra-Orthodox"), and to a lesser extent among the Modern Orthodox.

A deterrent to book theft.

The library of the monastery of San Pedro in Barcelona (as recorded in Manguel, p. 244) was inscribed with the following cautionary words:

“For him that steals, or borrows and returns not, a book from its owner, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying aloud for mercy…. Let bookworms gnaw at his entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not. And when at last he goes to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him forever.”

"On Stealing Books", by Ben Myers (Faith and Theology).

Well, I for one welcome our Puppet Overlords ...

Closing Liturgy of the 2008 West Coast Call To Action Conference[Video] |
Discussion @ Amy Welborn's