Pentimento loves New York. It is a longing for home worthy for a poet or songwriter:
'The city is itself a massive safety valve; no matter how cramped your quarters, you can leave them at any time and actually go somewhere else and still return home in ten minutes. The teeming, rushing life all around buoys the spirits; aesthetic pleasures of all kinds abound. One can have myriads of secret lives there -- I don't mean affairs or other insidious secrets, but, rather, tiny, mundane ones: favorite places, favorite trees on favorite streets, favorite cups of coffee at favorite diners. It seems to me that in small towns, or in the suburbs, one has fewer means of release, fewer tiny secrets to maintain, and one is therefore much more exposed.'
I had to post a comment about Southern suburbia. I look forward to meeting my blogging friends in NYC one day.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
Retirement of Cardinal Law
Bernard Cardinal Law resigned as Archbishop of Boston several years ago and was kicked upstairs to Rome. He recently retired from his Roman post. Cardinal Law was the bishop in charge when the whole archdiocese imploded in sex scandal, but he followed a long line of bishops who seemed incapable of addressing pederasty among the clergy.
Cardinal Law was, according to people who knew him well, a decent man, not especially charismatic, but concerned for justice. Many Church leaders over five decades admitted neither the sickness among their own priests nor their own unwillingness to protect children. A frightful stubbornness kicked in. As I teach my daughter through J.R.R. Tolkien's characters, few people set out to do wicked things, but as with Gollum, sin eventually hinders us from doing the right things if we do not address it with humility and contrition. Like Gollum, we can become monsters.
As a Catholic familiar with political persecutions of bishops and priests in history, I could understand if the bishops had taken the wayward priests out of public ministry and not told the police, but they did not even do that. They refused to address repeated mortal sin in their own and allowed that mortal sin to destroy the lives of the faithful. The bishops in Boston, as in other places, were largely immigrants and children of immigrants who had "made it" in America, and their pride made it almost impossible to admit dangerous, ongoing mortal sins by the clergy on their watch. It does not surprise me that Boston, a city where the Catholics' distaste for the WASP is often palpable to this day, became the place where the Church could not own up to its own scandal. But sometimes, as in here, God can speak and work through The Boston Globe.
Cardinal Law is an old man. Though many want to see him in irons, that is not likely to happen. He is more likely to retire to a religious community outside the United States and be buried in a cemetery for priests and religious. If you read Dante, there are special places in The Inferno for bad priests and bishops, but thinking about Hell and wishing it for anyone risks your soul more than that of the one you despise. This blog's theme holds true:
"How small of all that human hearts endure
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure."
As Jesus said, some demons can only be cast out by prayer and fasting. Saint Anthony the Hermit, pray for us.
Cardinal Law was, according to people who knew him well, a decent man, not especially charismatic, but concerned for justice. Many Church leaders over five decades admitted neither the sickness among their own priests nor their own unwillingness to protect children. A frightful stubbornness kicked in. As I teach my daughter through J.R.R. Tolkien's characters, few people set out to do wicked things, but as with Gollum, sin eventually hinders us from doing the right things if we do not address it with humility and contrition. Like Gollum, we can become monsters.
As a Catholic familiar with political persecutions of bishops and priests in history, I could understand if the bishops had taken the wayward priests out of public ministry and not told the police, but they did not even do that. They refused to address repeated mortal sin in their own and allowed that mortal sin to destroy the lives of the faithful. The bishops in Boston, as in other places, were largely immigrants and children of immigrants who had "made it" in America, and their pride made it almost impossible to admit dangerous, ongoing mortal sins by the clergy on their watch. It does not surprise me that Boston, a city where the Catholics' distaste for the WASP is often palpable to this day, became the place where the Church could not own up to its own scandal. But sometimes, as in here, God can speak and work through The Boston Globe.
Cardinal Law is an old man. Though many want to see him in irons, that is not likely to happen. He is more likely to retire to a religious community outside the United States and be buried in a cemetery for priests and religious. If you read Dante, there are special places in The Inferno for bad priests and bishops, but thinking about Hell and wishing it for anyone risks your soul more than that of the one you despise. This blog's theme holds true:
"How small of all that human hearts endure
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure."
As Jesus said, some demons can only be cast out by prayer and fasting. Saint Anthony the Hermit, pray for us.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
"Branding" is for bulls.
A "brand" in modern parlance is a person, product, or line of products whose usefulness and/or suaveness is imprinted in the minds of consumers. As I explored setting up my own law practice, I found the web to be full of marketing consultants, some very good but most underemployed, who tell me that I must create my own "brand" as a lawyer. I know what they are saying, and I do not believe they mean harm. Nonetheless, the constant promotion of style and image over substance is what is wrong with the world.
I was introduced to Benetton twenty years ago. I received two pretty sweaters as a Christmas gift. They were colorful and had the label "United Colors of Benetton." I liked to wear them and received compliments whenever I did. Their "branding" I soon learned, however, was despicable, though they always claimed to be fighting for love and its modern twin, tolerance. They caught every politically-correct wind and threw sexual controversies into clothing ads as if no children were ever watching. I never purchased another Benetton product.
Most recently, their mocking of world leaders through the photo-shopped "kissing" images of the "UNHATE" campaign shows the truly discordant and incoherent colors of Benetton. Nobody has tried to reach out to Muslims and discuss faith and religious tolerance more than Pope Benedict XVI, yet there he is pictured, kissing Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed El-Tayeb. Below the men are the words "UNHATE," as if a big smooch among men would keep young Muslims from blowing themselves up along with the Coptic Christians. Benetton's brand is "trendy shock" masquerading as moral vision. It is really politically-correct sanctimoniousness.
Penn State had a great brand until two weeks ago. The association of Penn State with "Joe Pa," excellence, "Happy Valley," and clean football is now broken with the images of Jerry Sandusky in handcuffs and his lawyer trying to explain away a scathing indictment and more reports of pederasty. Nobody protected the Penn State brand as zealously as Graham Spanier, who, until two weeks ago was considered an outstanding university president. It appears that he carried a shovel and broom wherever he went in order to bury the bones and sweep away the rumors at the school and thereby protect the "brand."
The Irish diaspora produced a unique American ethnicity, even a "brand," the Boston Irishmen. Through political machines, trade unions, the public schools, the parochial schools, and the priests and bishops, they overthrew the Brahmins and WASPs and ran the city of Boston and many of its suburbs. But the Church became more concerned with its "brand" than its mission to children, and went down in scandal. If the bishops and clergy had been willing to let a priest or two face scrutiny and moral outrage for their deeds fifty years ago, they would have saved the "little ones" in their charge, set a disciplinary example for the rest, and avoided the millstones that several of them acquired about their necks.
Branding has its costs. Brands are abstractions. They have no relationships. They do not bleed. They do not make the world a better place. They simply, for a very short time, symbolize something people want and perhaps need.
Branding is one of the costs of over-specialization. Not too many people understand the medicines, machines, and investments they depend on, much less the laws they are beholden to. We depend on people whose skills we do not have time to understand. In the great unknown, a brand sometimes must suffice for reasonable certainty, e.g., good brands such as GM, AIG, Wachovia, and Lehman Brothers.
Steve Jobs had 'a theory about “why decline happens” at great companies: “The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The company starts valuing the great salesman, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues.” So salesmen are put in charge, and product engineers and designers feel demoted: Their efforts are no longer at the white-hot center of the company’s daily life. They “turn off.” IBM and Xerox, Jobs said, faltered in precisely this way. The salesmen who led the companies were smart and eloquent, but “they didn’t know anything about the product.” In the end this can doom a great company, because what consumers want is good products.'
After quoting Jobs, Peggy Noonan goes on to discuss how politics is where branding can hurt the most:
'America is in political decline in part because we’ve elevated salesmen—people good on the hustings and good in the room, facile creatures with good people skills—above people who love the product, which is sound and coherent government—”good government,” as they used to say. To make that product you need a certain depth of experience. You need to know the facts, the history, how the system works, what the people want, what the moment demands.'
Each party now is in the straight jacket of its own "brand." The partisans of the party of "no new taxes" and "no amnesty" cannot accept the fact that the tax code will need to be rewritten in the next few years to sustain growth and provide for entitlements; there will be winners and losers. (I myself prefer flatter rates, fewer deductions, and few if any tax credits for crony capitalists.) They cannot accept the fact that millions of loyal Americans are not legal citizens yet cannot be deported without a bitter new "trail of tears" and separation from their children who are U.S. citizens. The partisans of the party of "unions and entitlements forever" cannot accept the fact that confiscatory tax rates cannot guarantee entitlements, pensions, giveaways, and union hegemony for my lifetime, much less my daughter's.
We need creative people, producers, and innovators who are willing to sacrifice parts of our sprawling government in order to save it. Branding cannot be the substitute for either integrity or imagination. We need new leadership.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
"Why Some Women Are Burning Out of Work By 30"
I started law school in my mid-thirties; I was the third oldest person in my class. Most of my classmates came straight from college where they were "all-everything." As is normal today, bright women were well represented on the Law Review, on the Moot Court Board, on the other journals, and among the star interviewees for the best-known law firms in the nation. Many women graduated from Vandy Law and went on immediately to enviable positions in private practice, clerkships, government positions, and NGOs.
This article strikes a chord because I have seen it happen to dozens of my female classmates who have left law practice before our class' 10th anniversary, and often before they themselves hit 30.
This article strikes a chord because I have seen it happen to dozens of my female classmates who have left law practice before our class' 10th anniversary, and often before they themselves hit 30.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Who was Hitler?
We used to hear: "Bush is Hitler." Now we hear: "Obama is Hitler." Meanwhile, about one billion people living between Marrakesh and Jakarta do not believe there was a Holocaust. Are we nuts? Hitler should not be compared to Saddam Hussein or Pol Pot, much less to a U.S. president.
During the 1990s I taught a fellow who wanted to minimize the evils of Adolf Hitler. He had an older relative who was somewhat of an apologist for the Fuehrer. This kid was rare in those days; those who had fought Hitler still were present in the news media and would not let such misguided sentimentalism sneak into our public discourse. Today, weak references and comparisons to Hitler occur daily in the media and on the streets, propagated by both the right and the left.
Let's set the record straight: Hitler was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people. Mass extermination was his policy, method, end, and pleasure. His only competition at the top tier of evil during the last hundred years was from Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong. There were plenty of other mass murderers and rapacious dictators, but only those three, through force of personality backed by totalitarian parties, massive armies, and invasive legions of secret police, were able to order or cause the deaths of more than twenty million people over huge territories and across multiple ethnicities. Whatever evil most of us have witnessed, theirs was exponential in comparison.
Enough is enough. Hyperbole confuses. The present hyperbole comparing 21st-century U.S. presidents to the 20th century's most murderous dictator insults everyone who gave blood to defeat National Socialism and everyone who has served the last two presidents loyally and faithfully.
UPDATE: To compare anyone with Hitler is to declare him beyond the pale and therefore less than a person and unworthy of any respect. It destroys our political discourse and our own moral reasoning to compare anyone but a handful of human beings to Hitler.
Warp drive is on its way!
Neutrinos appear to travel faster than light. I am excited now about my prospects of intergalactic travel... which must be just around the corner (or around the Andromeda galaxy).
"George's God: The Faith of the Quiet Beatle"
Andrew Ferguson writes of George Harrison's quest for faith:
'It helps that Hinduism lets a believer off the hook more easily than Christianity. Harrison became a particular devotee of the god Krishna, a blue-skinned, flute-tooting playboy who, unlike Jesus Christ, rotates his way through a harem of thousands of nubile maidens. Compared with them, Ringo’s wife must have seemed like a trifle.
'Still, his mother may have succeeded more than he knew. When he went off with Maharishi, he wrote her a letter of reassurance. His Hindu practice, he told her, wasn’t taking him “off from any devotion to the Sacred Heart in any way. It only strengthens it!” Religious devotion of the most intimate sort preoccupied him, and his oscillation between guilt and redemption had a Catholic look to it—though his insistence on the split between spirit and body could have landed him squarely with the Manicheans.'
'It helps that Hinduism lets a believer off the hook more easily than Christianity. Harrison became a particular devotee of the god Krishna, a blue-skinned, flute-tooting playboy who, unlike Jesus Christ, rotates his way through a harem of thousands of nubile maidens. Compared with them, Ringo’s wife must have seemed like a trifle.
'Still, his mother may have succeeded more than he knew. When he went off with Maharishi, he wrote her a letter of reassurance. His Hindu practice, he told her, wasn’t taking him “off from any devotion to the Sacred Heart in any way. It only strengthens it!” Religious devotion of the most intimate sort preoccupied him, and his oscillation between guilt and redemption had a Catholic look to it—though his insistence on the split between spirit and body could have landed him squarely with the Manicheans.'
Monday, November 21, 2011
"Consecration to Mary"
Nice post by Betty Duffy, a friend of Pentimento. An excerpt:
'If everything I do is for Jesus through Mary, my sanctity is not my problem; it's not something I can earn of my own will or by perfect performance. I'm a slave, and my intentions are now Mary's intentions, and the graces of my prayers are hers to administer. I have confidence that I also share the benefit of those graces somehow.'
'If everything I do is for Jesus through Mary, my sanctity is not my problem; it's not something I can earn of my own will or by perfect performance. I'm a slave, and my intentions are now Mary's intentions, and the graces of my prayers are hers to administer. I have confidence that I also share the benefit of those graces somehow.'
Sunday, November 20, 2011
"The Sheep and the Goats"
The reading today, Matthew 25:31-46, is more than challenging. To embrace Christ is not just to embrace the joys of joyful people but the sorrows of sorrowful people:
44 Then they also will answer, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?'
45 Then he will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.'
Oddly enough, towards the end of the deacon's homily this morning, a fire alarm went off in the sacristy, and the priest got up reverently and turned it off. Later he said to the assembled that the deacon's "fire and brimstone preaching set off the alarm." It was funny to all because the deacon had challenged us in a most loving and gentle way.
After eating lunch with my father, we dropped him off, and as we drove home ourselves it occurred to me that I had not visited my uncle in months. As soon as I thought it, I tried to talk myself out of it, which usually happens when one gets a godly impulse. We went to see my uncle, a widower who is about ninety and legally blind. As I sat with him, I prayed that Our Lady of the Visitation which guide me of when to talk and when to shut up. I don't know how well I listened, but I tried. My wife and I agree that we ought to go more often, not to share, but to sit. The saints were never in a hurry when with those in need.
I thought about other things today in obedience to the Gospel, namely that if I give my time to God's needy children, all those professional things a lawyer is supposed to do, such as networking, Twittering, rubbing elbows with the mighty, etc. will be covered by God and the heavenly host. Ora pro nobis.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
"The Technocratic Nightmare"
Modernists in Europe save special scorn for the Medieval Church, but if any group deserves to be called an arrogant priesthood, it would be the evangelists and bureaucrats of the European Union, who have been selling indulgences of less value than anything ever hawked by the stupidest cleric. David Brooks notes:
'The European Union is an attempt to build an economic and legal superstructure without a linguistic, cultural, historic and civic base. It was the final of the post-World War II efforts — the United Nations was among the first — to build governments that were transnational, passionless and safe.'
He then writes something any Kirkite could cheer:
'On a superficial level, the fault lies with the current European leadership, their addiction to inadequate patches and fudges. But the real problems emerge from the technocratic mind-set, from the arrogant gray men who believe they can engineer society, oblivious to history, language, culture, values and place.'
He concludes by making an analogy I have thought about but not yet posted upon, that is, that Europe's leadership is as clueless today as it was in 1914. In 1914, there were military alliances ready to drag an entire continent into destruction; this year it is an economic alliance in which the responsible are manipulated into supporting the debts and fiscal policies of the irresponsible.
'The European Union is an attempt to build an economic and legal superstructure without a linguistic, cultural, historic and civic base. It was the final of the post-World War II efforts — the United Nations was among the first — to build governments that were transnational, passionless and safe.'
He then writes something any Kirkite could cheer:
'On a superficial level, the fault lies with the current European leadership, their addiction to inadequate patches and fudges. But the real problems emerge from the technocratic mind-set, from the arrogant gray men who believe they can engineer society, oblivious to history, language, culture, values and place.'
He concludes by making an analogy I have thought about but not yet posted upon, that is, that Europe's leadership is as clueless today as it was in 1914. In 1914, there were military alliances ready to drag an entire continent into destruction; this year it is an economic alliance in which the responsible are manipulated into supporting the debts and fiscal policies of the irresponsible.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Mike McQueary and Jerry Sandusky
Mike McQueary has kept silent on advice from his attorney. But he will tell his story before this thing is over.
What is difficult, though not impossible to comprehend, is how men of real virtues of fortitude, temperance, prudence, and justice could miss the mark and fail to protect these children. We wonder, but he have seen it before.
What is difficult, though not impossible to comprehend, is how men of real virtues of fortitude, temperance, prudence, and justice could miss the mark and fail to protect these children. We wonder, but he have seen it before.
Now you know what Purgatory is for.
If the allegations against Jerry Sandusky are true and backed by believable and admissible evidence, Clarence Darrow would not be able to save him from severe punishment. He is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars, and sex offenders are often given the worst treatment by jailers and the jailed. At the moment, he is spinning for the best jury he can hope to have.
But in the end, he is likely to go to jail. What then? He might become penitent in the penitentiary. Understandably, many of those whose lives he ruined will be angry with anything short of the death penalty.
What I am seeing and hearing, not from all but from a large number, is a sanctimoniousness that is palpable. People want vengeance and cannot imagine themselves missing the mark as McQueary apparantly did, and certainly not falling into some sort of predatory, addictive sin as Sandusky apparently did. Some folks on a radio call-in show today were smugly confident that if they had been Mike McQueary they would beaten up Sandusky and saved the children as if they were heroes in a cartoon. Unless you have experience with sexual abuse, you (and I) would likely walk away and ask: "Did I really just see what I just saw?" Most of us would keep silent rather than become a pariah in our hometown and a persona non grata in the profession of our dreams.
There is plenty of talk about jailing McQueary while cutting Sandusky open with a dull knife, but for those of us who pray for the prisoners and ask God to set them free, we pray that Sandusky (as well as his enablers) turns his face to God. Being that neither he nor we are pure and ready to rub elbows with the heavenly host, we believe that he, like the thief on the cross, will be forgiven if his contrition is true.
And in the words of a Irish priest I know who readily admits to a bitter and hateful former life as an IRA activist, "I not only believe in Purgatory, I'm counting on it."
But in the end, he is likely to go to jail. What then? He might become penitent in the penitentiary. Understandably, many of those whose lives he ruined will be angry with anything short of the death penalty.
What I am seeing and hearing, not from all but from a large number, is a sanctimoniousness that is palpable. People want vengeance and cannot imagine themselves missing the mark as McQueary apparantly did, and certainly not falling into some sort of predatory, addictive sin as Sandusky apparently did. Some folks on a radio call-in show today were smugly confident that if they had been Mike McQueary they would beaten up Sandusky and saved the children as if they were heroes in a cartoon. Unless you have experience with sexual abuse, you (and I) would likely walk away and ask: "Did I really just see what I just saw?" Most of us would keep silent rather than become a pariah in our hometown and a persona non grata in the profession of our dreams.
There is plenty of talk about jailing McQueary while cutting Sandusky open with a dull knife, but for those of us who pray for the prisoners and ask God to set them free, we pray that Sandusky (as well as his enablers) turns his face to God. Being that neither he nor we are pure and ready to rub elbows with the heavenly host, we believe that he, like the thief on the cross, will be forgiven if his contrition is true.
And in the words of a Irish priest I know who readily admits to a bitter and hateful former life as an IRA activist, "I not only believe in Purgatory, I'm counting on it."
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
"Do the Occupy Wall Street Protesters and America a Favor: Send Them to Rabbinical School"
They might get an education better than whatever got them their degrees. Jonathan Rosenblum says:
'The great Harvard medievalist Harry Austrn Wolfson described Talmdudic study as "the application of the scientific method to the study of texts." Hypotheses are continually being formulated and either successfully defended or rejected. The Talmud says that one who studies alone grows stupid, and the battles between study partners are nothing less than the "wars of Torah." Even when one studies alone, he must act as his own study partner, constantly asking: Does my theory fit all the facts? Is there another way to explain all the relevant data?
'Students must learn to follow complex arguments that proceed over pages of texts, and to hold firm at each step as to whether and in what way the argument is being advanced or questioned. Ten-year-olds learn to apply, without being aware of it, the tables taught in mathematical logic to actual cases.'
The ability to make a moral argument is what we need more than the credentialism that prevails in our colleges.
'The great Harvard medievalist Harry Austrn Wolfson described Talmdudic study as "the application of the scientific method to the study of texts." Hypotheses are continually being formulated and either successfully defended or rejected. The Talmud says that one who studies alone grows stupid, and the battles between study partners are nothing less than the "wars of Torah." Even when one studies alone, he must act as his own study partner, constantly asking: Does my theory fit all the facts? Is there another way to explain all the relevant data?
'Students must learn to follow complex arguments that proceed over pages of texts, and to hold firm at each step as to whether and in what way the argument is being advanced or questioned. Ten-year-olds learn to apply, without being aware of it, the tables taught in mathematical logic to actual cases.'
The ability to make a moral argument is what we need more than the credentialism that prevails in our colleges.
"Why We Study Useless Things"
I remember facts and details that no one remembers. Remembering stuff from long ago is what I am known for by my oldest and closest friends.
Reading history for me was never a mere pleasure, but a compulsion necessary for sanity. I am disturbed by much of the world, close and far away. Reading history is how I grapple with conflicts that cannot be resolved but cannot be left alone. Thus, I revisit them, i.e., the persistant topics of this blog.
Rev. James Schall, S.J. understands this:
'As Plato said and Aquinas practiced, we only know the truth of something when we also know the arguments against it. The whole truth includes a knowledge of what is not true. It is also the perfection of mind to know what is contrary to mind. That is why we study not just sound but also unsound philosophies, not just orthodoxy but heresies. All error is based in some truth, a truth that is worth finding for its own sake.'
Reading history for me was never a mere pleasure, but a compulsion necessary for sanity. I am disturbed by much of the world, close and far away. Reading history is how I grapple with conflicts that cannot be resolved but cannot be left alone. Thus, I revisit them, i.e., the persistant topics of this blog.
Rev. James Schall, S.J. understands this:
'As Plato said and Aquinas practiced, we only know the truth of something when we also know the arguments against it. The whole truth includes a knowledge of what is not true. It is also the perfection of mind to know what is contrary to mind. That is why we study not just sound but also unsound philosophies, not just orthodoxy but heresies. All error is based in some truth, a truth that is worth finding for its own sake.'
"The Devil and Joe Paterno"
Because I do not believe there can be "evil incarnate" (though I do believe someone can be so corrupted by evil that doing good becomes almost impossible), I cannot write off people who commit heinous and public sins as fundamentally different from those who do not. Ross Douthat writes well about those who fight so hard for the good they can become blind to the sins of others:
'Castrillón [Dario Castrillon Hoyos] is a Colombian, born in MedellÃn, who became a Catholic priest and then a bishop during the agony of his country’s drug-fueled civil wars. In Colombia, he was a remarkable figure: a “rustic man with the profile of an eagle,” as Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez described him, who left his episcopal residence at night to feed slum children, mediated between guerrillas and death squads and reputedly made his way to Pablo Escobar’s house disguised as a milkman to demand that the drug kingpin confess his sins.
'But that isn’t how the world thinks of him today. In the 1990s, Castrillón was elevated to the College of Cardinals and placed in charge of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, where he came to embody the culture of denial that characterized Rome’s initial response to the sex abuse crisis.'
Douthat writes insightfully about a man of real virtue can "miss the mark."
'Castrillón [Dario Castrillon Hoyos] is a Colombian, born in MedellÃn, who became a Catholic priest and then a bishop during the agony of his country’s drug-fueled civil wars. In Colombia, he was a remarkable figure: a “rustic man with the profile of an eagle,” as Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez described him, who left his episcopal residence at night to feed slum children, mediated between guerrillas and death squads and reputedly made his way to Pablo Escobar’s house disguised as a milkman to demand that the drug kingpin confess his sins.
'But that isn’t how the world thinks of him today. In the 1990s, Castrillón was elevated to the College of Cardinals and placed in charge of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, where he came to embody the culture of denial that characterized Rome’s initial response to the sex abuse crisis.'
Douthat writes insightfully about a man of real virtue can "miss the mark."
"The Narrative of Perpetual Palestinian Victimhood"
I have written about self-pity being one of the worst sins, for by it one can rationalize any misbehavior. National or cultural self-pity often leads to fascism masquerading as some sort of liberation movement. Shelby Steele writes a great piece on the Palestinians' problem, which is not Israel and colonialism but the end of colonialism and excuses for being backward. The end of the excuse is sometimes more painful than the former oppression and leads to well-educated professional victims.
Friday, November 11, 2011
"Brave New Transnational Progressive World"
I write sporadically on international law, which unfortunately seems to interest mostly those who have a quasi-religious faith in it. If international law is based upon natural law, that is, the belief that laws can modify human behavior but seldom if ever change human nature, it is healthy. Unfortunately today, international law is based upon the abstractions of the French Revolution rather than on the natural law tradition or the chartered rights of sovereign nations.
Indeed, the very purpose of international law since the Second World War has been to undermine national sovereignty in both theory and practice. What you get, Exhibit 1A being the European Union, is a centralized bureaucracy which tramples local governance and customs with the bludgeon of "international human rights." Just as Wm. F. Buckley, Jr. said he'd rather be governed by the first five hundred names in the Boston telephone directory than by the Harvard faculty, I'd rather be governed by unlettered local yokels who would answer my phone calls than by brilliant but invisible and unreachable bureaucrats answerable only to themselves.
Clifford D. May notes:
'Transnationals are not so much anti-democratic as post-democratic. They believe that in the 21st century, democracy should be updated to imply the enforcement of "universal principles of human rights" that they, of course, will enumerate and define. They talk not of surrendering sovereignty but of "sharing" it "collectively." The result, they assert, will be a new age of "global authority" that will produce "global justice" under "global rule of law."
'Indeed, since the end of the Cold War transnational progressives have been establishing international laws -- really supranational laws -- that no voters can repeal or even amend. One way they accomplish this: A treaty is drafted. International pressure is applied to get the U.S. president's signature and the U.S. Senate's ratification. Judges — often from undemocratic countries — in transnational courts then interpret the treaty to mean whatever they want it to mean. There are no courts of appeal.
'And if the U.S. rejects the treaty or agrees to only parts of it by issuing "reservations," the transnationals declare that that the U.S. is bound nonetheless — under what they call "customary international law" to which, they further insist, even the U.S. Constitution is "subordinate."
'It is on this basis that the argument is made that the U.S. is violating the Geneva Accords by declining to classify al-Qaeda terrorists as Prisoners of War — despite the fact that the U.S. has never agreed that unlawful combatants are entitled to such honorable status.'
The dirty little secret is if the last democracy in the world that does not care about international opinion, Israel, can be discredited and even disarmed by "international law," then the same precedents can be applied to the USA (which does care at least a tad about international opinion). Resisting the jihadis will make us a "rogue nation," just as Israel is called "fascist" by real fascists.
Indeed, the very purpose of international law since the Second World War has been to undermine national sovereignty in both theory and practice. What you get, Exhibit 1A being the European Union, is a centralized bureaucracy which tramples local governance and customs with the bludgeon of "international human rights." Just as Wm. F. Buckley, Jr. said he'd rather be governed by the first five hundred names in the Boston telephone directory than by the Harvard faculty, I'd rather be governed by unlettered local yokels who would answer my phone calls than by brilliant but invisible and unreachable bureaucrats answerable only to themselves.
Clifford D. May notes:
'Transnationals are not so much anti-democratic as post-democratic. They believe that in the 21st century, democracy should be updated to imply the enforcement of "universal principles of human rights" that they, of course, will enumerate and define. They talk not of surrendering sovereignty but of "sharing" it "collectively." The result, they assert, will be a new age of "global authority" that will produce "global justice" under "global rule of law."
'Indeed, since the end of the Cold War transnational progressives have been establishing international laws -- really supranational laws -- that no voters can repeal or even amend. One way they accomplish this: A treaty is drafted. International pressure is applied to get the U.S. president's signature and the U.S. Senate's ratification. Judges — often from undemocratic countries — in transnational courts then interpret the treaty to mean whatever they want it to mean. There are no courts of appeal.
'And if the U.S. rejects the treaty or agrees to only parts of it by issuing "reservations," the transnationals declare that that the U.S. is bound nonetheless — under what they call "customary international law" to which, they further insist, even the U.S. Constitution is "subordinate."
'It is on this basis that the argument is made that the U.S. is violating the Geneva Accords by declining to classify al-Qaeda terrorists as Prisoners of War — despite the fact that the U.S. has never agreed that unlawful combatants are entitled to such honorable status.'
The dirty little secret is if the last democracy in the world that does not care about international opinion, Israel, can be discredited and even disarmed by "international law," then the same precedents can be applied to the USA (which does care at least a tad about international opinion). Resisting the jihadis will make us a "rogue nation," just as Israel is called "fascist" by real fascists.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
"Growing Up Penn State"
Michael Weinreb has written the best article on Joe Paterno I have seen this week. He expresses my feelings closely. I lived in State College for a few months right after I finished college. I have always admired Joe Pa.
Without knowing all the facts, I imagine that Joe Pa could not imagine his close friend being a pervert, so he chose to send the issue upstairs. However, nobody in the administration at Penn State was going to go after Joe Pa's right-hand man unless Joe Pa's gave the green light. Jerry Sandusky retired, the local DA did not have enough evidence to prosecute, and the matter was buried until now. Cover-ups are always worse than the initial crime.
But as at least one critic has said, Joe Pa would not have looked the other way if it had been one of his one grandchildren being assaulted. I am sad. Even depressed.
Without knowing all the facts, I imagine that Joe Pa could not imagine his close friend being a pervert, so he chose to send the issue upstairs. However, nobody in the administration at Penn State was going to go after Joe Pa's right-hand man unless Joe Pa's gave the green light. Jerry Sandusky retired, the local DA did not have enough evidence to prosecute, and the matter was buried until now. Cover-ups are always worse than the initial crime.
But as at least one critic has said, Joe Pa would not have looked the other way if it had been one of his one grandchildren being assaulted. I am sad. Even depressed.
Dorothy Thompson and Rebecca West
They were married to, respectively, Sinclair Lewis and H.G. Wells. They were writers in their own right, and they saw how 1914 had unleashed our current times of troubles:
'What was very much within their powers was the capacity to perceive how the cultural and social rebellions that swept through Europe and America after World War I had unleashed forces of darkness. As the Berlin bureau chief for the New York Post, Thompson became the first foreign journalist to interview Adolf Hitler—in 1931, two years before his rise to power. She immediately saw the existential evil lurking behind his dream of a greater Germany. The sight of a Hitler Youth camp where young boys gathered under a banner that read "You Were Born to Die for Germany" horrified her. Nazism was, she said, "a complete break with Reason, with humanity, and Christian ethics that are at the basis of liberalism and democracy."'
More here.
'What was very much within their powers was the capacity to perceive how the cultural and social rebellions that swept through Europe and America after World War I had unleashed forces of darkness. As the Berlin bureau chief for the New York Post, Thompson became the first foreign journalist to interview Adolf Hitler—in 1931, two years before his rise to power. She immediately saw the existential evil lurking behind his dream of a greater Germany. The sight of a Hitler Youth camp where young boys gathered under a banner that read "You Were Born to Die for Germany" horrified her. Nazism was, she said, "a complete break with Reason, with humanity, and Christian ethics that are at the basis of liberalism and democracy."'
More here.
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Too much scrutiny... too little understanding of human frailty
No sport is more built on public and private video analysis than NFL football, which has a squad of analysts at every game and keeps the world's largest video library, both to promote itself and to give fans the closest and best view of the "game of inches." The "All 22" view, however, the NFL does not distribute, that is, the high camera that catches the movements of all 22 players on each play.
'Lonnie Marts, a former linebacker for the Jacksonville Jaguars, says there are thousands of former NFL players who could easily pick apart play-calling and player performance if they had access to this film. "If you knew the game, you'd know that sometimes there's a lot of bonehead plays and bonehead coaching going on out there," he says.'
But that is true for all of life, and the unrealistic expectations of competence in almost any field are soon dashed when one becomes familiar with the actual practice of any profession, skill, art, or craft. Failure is normal. But everywhere you turn, you find people hunting for "people to hold accountable," even for lost bets. In many cases, such as covered-up sexual abuse, there is at least one culprit, but in the failure of large organizations to excel in difficult things, you can fire the coach or shoot him, but the degree of difficulty does not change. I myself find the endless analysis of modern sports broadcasting to be boring and prefer the entertaining narratives of days gone by. We are technically competent but morally illiterate.
More here about "The Footage the NFL Won't Show You."
'Lonnie Marts, a former linebacker for the Jacksonville Jaguars, says there are thousands of former NFL players who could easily pick apart play-calling and player performance if they had access to this film. "If you knew the game, you'd know that sometimes there's a lot of bonehead plays and bonehead coaching going on out there," he says.'
But that is true for all of life, and the unrealistic expectations of competence in almost any field are soon dashed when one becomes familiar with the actual practice of any profession, skill, art, or craft. Failure is normal. But everywhere you turn, you find people hunting for "people to hold accountable," even for lost bets. In many cases, such as covered-up sexual abuse, there is at least one culprit, but in the failure of large organizations to excel in difficult things, you can fire the coach or shoot him, but the degree of difficulty does not change. I myself find the endless analysis of modern sports broadcasting to be boring and prefer the entertaining narratives of days gone by. We are technically competent but morally illiterate.
More here about "The Footage the NFL Won't Show You."
Ronald Reagan's Eureka College to celebrate fall of the Berlin Wall
Looking at the Berlin Wall was a transformative experience for me in 1984 and more disturbing than my visit to Dachau, because the Berlin Wall was not a museum, but an existing prison for millions outside, not inside. I have never since been surrounded by armed tyranny. The German government donated a section of the Wall to Eureka College in Illinois, in thanksgiving for President Reagan's work in fighting communism.
Monday, November 07, 2011
"Children, Rats, and Mazes"
John Rosemond:
'As a graduate student in psychology, I had trained a rat to run a maze. Indeed, it was simple. At the same time, I was struggling to discipline our first child, then a toddler. That wasn't simple at all. Ignoring his misbehavior didn't work. Neither did punishing him; nor did rewarding him when he behaved properly. In fact, the more I tried to discipline him using behavior modification-based methods, the worse his behavior became.'
I always thought the Skinnerians were arrogant nuts. Man is capable of knowledgeable and deliberate actions against his self-interests. The dumbest dog does not do that.
'As a graduate student in psychology, I had trained a rat to run a maze. Indeed, it was simple. At the same time, I was struggling to discipline our first child, then a toddler. That wasn't simple at all. Ignoring his misbehavior didn't work. Neither did punishing him; nor did rewarding him when he behaved properly. In fact, the more I tried to discipline him using behavior modification-based methods, the worse his behavior became.'
I always thought the Skinnerians were arrogant nuts. Man is capable of knowledgeable and deliberate actions against his self-interests. The dumbest dog does not do that.
"Happy Days Aren't Here Again"
Rupert Murdoch has allowed me to view Peggy Noonan's Friday column without a subscription now, and it is a good one about the challenge the Republicans have of defeating a Democratic incumbant:
'And there’s still a certain lingering mystique to the Democratic Party. It retains a vestigial reputation for a kind of glamour, sophistication and broadness. Isn’t that Averell Harriman over there with Chip Bohlen? There’s Babe and Bill, Jack and Jackie. There was an ethos of easily worn wealth joined to a spirit of declared egalitarianism. The guy standing with Averell, the rough-featured labor leader with hands like shovels: It’s Dave Dubinsky of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union. The Democratic Party in its best days was hard hat and top hat, a party of the little guy run by the most interesting and glamorous big guys.'
Not that this is reality, but it is what the Republicans must run against. I never bought it, but my Southern grandparents voted for Alf Landon in 1936.
'And there’s still a certain lingering mystique to the Democratic Party. It retains a vestigial reputation for a kind of glamour, sophistication and broadness. Isn’t that Averell Harriman over there with Chip Bohlen? There’s Babe and Bill, Jack and Jackie. There was an ethos of easily worn wealth joined to a spirit of declared egalitarianism. The guy standing with Averell, the rough-featured labor leader with hands like shovels: It’s Dave Dubinsky of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union. The Democratic Party in its best days was hard hat and top hat, a party of the little guy run by the most interesting and glamorous big guys.'
Not that this is reality, but it is what the Republicans must run against. I never bought it, but my Southern grandparents voted for Alf Landon in 1936.
"Why Wall Street Can't Handle the Truth"
Looking at the excerpt from Mike Mayo's book, Exile on Wall Street, it appears that Wall Street analysts, especially those that cover the financial sector, are often in bed with the corporations and institutions they analyze:
'The proportion of sell ratings on Wall Street remains under 5%, even today, despite the fact that any first-year MBA student can tell you that 95% of the stocks cannot be winners.
'Over the years, I have pointed out certain problems in the banking sector—things like excessive risk, outsized compensation for bankers, more aggressive lending—and as a result been yelled at, conspicuously ignored, threatened with legal action and mocked by banking executives, all with the intent of persuading me to soften my stance.
'Looking inside the world of finance—with its pressures to conform and stay quiet—may offer some insight into why so many others have fudged. And it may offer some answers as to how crisis after crisis has hit the economy over the past decade, taking the markets by surprise, despite what should have been plentiful warning signs.'
'The proportion of sell ratings on Wall Street remains under 5%, even today, despite the fact that any first-year MBA student can tell you that 95% of the stocks cannot be winners.
'Over the years, I have pointed out certain problems in the banking sector—things like excessive risk, outsized compensation for bankers, more aggressive lending—and as a result been yelled at, conspicuously ignored, threatened with legal action and mocked by banking executives, all with the intent of persuading me to soften my stance.
'Looking inside the world of finance—with its pressures to conform and stay quiet—may offer some insight into why so many others have fudged. And it may offer some answers as to how crisis after crisis has hit the economy over the past decade, taking the markets by surprise, despite what should have been plentiful warning signs.'
Sunday, November 06, 2011
"The Big College Scam"
I am grateful for my college education and both of my stints in grad school, but it could be so much better with the resources available. Jack Kelly discusses some of the reasons why. In "Schoolkids Need an Education Lobbyist", Brian Calle notes that education itself is a self-interested industry and ought to be looked upon as such.
I learned when I was at Vanderbilt that senior administrators spent fortunes in Washington chasing the federal dollar. The "military-industrial complex" has given birth to federally-subsidized research in areas that few Congressmen, much less taxpayers, would approve, if they bothered to read the appropriations bills. The real racket is that the university presidents ask for and receive raises in the maximum loans a student can receive and then raise tuition accordingly. The quality of instruction, research, or writing has certainly not improved in the universities during my lifetime, but the quantity has!
I learned when I was at Vanderbilt that senior administrators spent fortunes in Washington chasing the federal dollar. The "military-industrial complex" has given birth to federally-subsidized research in areas that few Congressmen, much less taxpayers, would approve, if they bothered to read the appropriations bills. The real racket is that the university presidents ask for and receive raises in the maximum loans a student can receive and then raise tuition accordingly. The quality of instruction, research, or writing has certainly not improved in the universities during my lifetime, but the quantity has!
"Buckley, If Not God, Returns to Yale"
A funny piece by Neal B. Freeman, who attended Yale and knew Wm. F. Buckley, Jr. well. An little excerpt from his speech:
'The joy that Bill Buckley brought to any room lingered long after his departure. Years after the event, I obtained excerpts of Bill's interview with the FBI on the occasion of my appointment to a federal position. At the end of such field investigations, the agent typically asks an omnibus, fanny-covering question: Would I, candidate Freeman, be likely to embarrass the administration? Replied witness Buckley, under oath: "I should think that the reverse is much more likely."'
Friday, November 04, 2011
"One Man Against Tyranny"
Georg Elser came as close as anyone to killing Adolf Hitler. The story of how he did it on November 8, 1939 is worth the read.
The article raises all kinds of moral issues: At what point is assassination an act of self-defense? Was the bombing of a beer hall an act of terrorism?
Herr Elser himself is an enigma: a simple Protestant who said the Lord's Prayer each day but became a member of a Communist group and voted for the Communists for many years. Tuesday is the 72nd anniversary of the assassination attempt.
The article raises all kinds of moral issues: At what point is assassination an act of self-defense? Was the bombing of a beer hall an act of terrorism?
Herr Elser himself is an enigma: a simple Protestant who said the Lord's Prayer each day but became a member of a Communist group and voted for the Communists for many years. Tuesday is the 72nd anniversary of the assassination attempt.
Give me liberty or give me... multiculturalism.
You cannot be American without being multicultural if for no other reason, you cannot eat, obtain goods, improve your house, or get vital services without working with people of different ethnicities. My former parish in Georgia is as multicultural as a UNICEF "holiday" card. But "multiculturalism," that's not something I can believe in.
As currently taught and theorized, multiculturalism is a repudiation of our chartered liberties and rights as Americans in favor of abstract egalitarian ideas about the human person. No thanks. I'll take the Judeo-Christian understanding of the human person combined with the established traditional rights of Englishmen and the long-practiced constitutional liberties of Americans over any of the abstractions of Rousseau and the French Revolution. More from Max Flax.
As currently taught and theorized, multiculturalism is a repudiation of our chartered liberties and rights as Americans in favor of abstract egalitarian ideas about the human person. No thanks. I'll take the Judeo-Christian understanding of the human person combined with the established traditional rights of Englishmen and the long-practiced constitutional liberties of Americans over any of the abstractions of Rousseau and the French Revolution. More from Max Flax.
"As Federal Crime Grows, Threshold of Guilt Declines"
This might be the biggest issue of American liberty today. The U.S. Congress passes laws that create criminal liability without criminal intent. I'll put it bluntly: This is an unfortunate change in our laws. Once upon a time, there were only a handful of federal laws, and most of them had to do with tariffs, customs, excises, and foreign trade. The small number of federal crimes required mens rea, that is, criminal intent, for conviction.
We are now undoing several centuries of Anglo-American law. One can go to jail for honest mistakes. We are making criminal remedies for things which should have civil remedies. We are giving regulatory agencies power to ruin the lives of citizens under procedures that offer only a remote chance of a jury trial.
We are now undoing several centuries of Anglo-American law. One can go to jail for honest mistakes. We are making criminal remedies for things which should have civil remedies. We are giving regulatory agencies power to ruin the lives of citizens under procedures that offer only a remote chance of a jury trial.
The religions of Obama and Cain
Harry Jackson:
'Mr. Cain's church subscribes to traditional Christian theology, which sees the black experience in light of scripture. Mr. Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, on the other hand, is known for teaching black liberation theology, which sees scripture in light of the black experience. It seeks to create a direct correlation between the black condition and the light of God's revelation in Jesus Christ. The freedom they gained from whites is a part of the freedom Jesus promised.
'According to Antioch's website, its early leaders "stressed the dignity of work and honest labor." By contrast, Trinity's website emphasizes God's displeasure with "America's economic mal-distribution." It's not surprising, then, that President Obama would see a government-run jobs program as the key to ending the current economic recession whereas Mr. Cain would look to private industry.'
An informative piece. Read the whole thing. Religion matters very much in politics because everyone has a religion, and that religion informs the conscience and that person's beliefs about right and wrong, war and peace, and freedom and justice.
'Mr. Cain's church subscribes to traditional Christian theology, which sees the black experience in light of scripture. Mr. Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, on the other hand, is known for teaching black liberation theology, which sees scripture in light of the black experience. It seeks to create a direct correlation between the black condition and the light of God's revelation in Jesus Christ. The freedom they gained from whites is a part of the freedom Jesus promised.
'According to Antioch's website, its early leaders "stressed the dignity of work and honest labor." By contrast, Trinity's website emphasizes God's displeasure with "America's economic mal-distribution." It's not surprising, then, that President Obama would see a government-run jobs program as the key to ending the current economic recession whereas Mr. Cain would look to private industry.'
An informative piece. Read the whole thing. Religion matters very much in politics because everyone has a religion, and that religion informs the conscience and that person's beliefs about right and wrong, war and peace, and freedom and justice.
OWS, the Recession, and Fannie Mae
Peggy Noonan expressed my thoughts exactly:
Occupy Wall Street makes an economic critique that echoes the president's, though more bluntly: the rich are bad, down with the elites. It's all ad hoc, more poetry slam than platform. Too bad it's not serious in its substance.
There's a lot to rebel against, to want to throw off. If they want to make a serious economic and political critique, they should make the one Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner make in Reckless Endangerment: that real elites in Washington rigged the system for themselves and their friends, became rich and powerful, caused the great cratering, and then "slipped quietly from the scene."
It is a blow-by-blow recounting of how politicians—Democrats and Republicans—passed the laws that encouraged the banks to make the loans that would never be repaid, and that would result in your lost job. Specifically it is the story of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage insurers, and how their politically connected CEOs, especially Fannie's Franklin Raines and James Johnson, took actions that tanked the American economy and walked away rich. It began in the early 1990s, in the Clinton administration, and continued under the Bush administration, with the help of an entrenched Congress that wanted only two things: to receive campaign contributions and to be re-elected.
The story is a scandal, and the book should be the bible of Occupy Wall Street. But they seem as incapable of seeing government as part of the problem as Republicans seem of seeing business as part of the problem.
Occupy Wall Street makes an economic critique that echoes the president's, though more bluntly: the rich are bad, down with the elites. It's all ad hoc, more poetry slam than platform. Too bad it's not serious in its substance.
There's a lot to rebel against, to want to throw off. If they want to make a serious economic and political critique, they should make the one Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner make in Reckless Endangerment: that real elites in Washington rigged the system for themselves and their friends, became rich and powerful, caused the great cratering, and then "slipped quietly from the scene."
It is a blow-by-blow recounting of how politicians—Democrats and Republicans—passed the laws that encouraged the banks to make the loans that would never be repaid, and that would result in your lost job. Specifically it is the story of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage insurers, and how their politically connected CEOs, especially Fannie's Franklin Raines and James Johnson, took actions that tanked the American economy and walked away rich. It began in the early 1990s, in the Clinton administration, and continued under the Bush administration, with the help of an entrenched Congress that wanted only two things: to receive campaign contributions and to be re-elected.
The story is a scandal, and the book should be the bible of Occupy Wall Street. But they seem as incapable of seeing government as part of the problem as Republicans seem of seeing business as part of the problem.
Thursday, November 03, 2011
"All the Single Ladies"- Post No. 3600 since November 2005
I'm blogging in the 13th century trying to catch up to the 21st, but what's new! I am reading right now about 16th-century Dominicans, and their problems were just as bad as ours, if not worse.
I have several articles to post, but no time to comment on them in a meaningful way. "All the Single Ladies" in The Atlantic was the most disturbing article I've read in a while. Kate Bolick examines the casualties of the sexual revolution and concludes it was worth it, even as she writes passages such as this one:
'One of Walsh’s pet observations pertains to what she calls the “soft harem,” where high-status men (i.e., the football captain) maintain an “official” girlfriend as well as a rotating roster of neo-concubines, who service him in the barroom bathroom or wherever the beer is flowing. “There used to be more assortative mating,” she explained, “where a five would date a five. But now every woman who is a six and above wants the hottest guy on campus, and she can have him—for one night.”'
Ms. Bolick continues a paragraph later about a group of women in their early twenties, all college graduates:
'Most striking to me was the innocence of these young women. Of these attractive and vivacious females, only two had ever had a “real” boyfriend—as in, a mutually exclusive and satisfying relationship rather than a series of hookups—and for all their technical know-how, they didn’t seem to be any wiser than I’d been at their age. This surprised me; I’d assumed that growing up in a jungle would give them a more matter-of-fact or at least less conventional worldview. Instead, when I asked if they wanted to get married when they grew up, and if so, at what age, to a one they answered “yes” and “27 or 28.”
'“That’s only five or six years from now,” I pointed out. “Doesn’t that seem—not far off?” They nodded.
'“Take a look at me,” I said. “I’ve never been married, and I have no idea if I ever will be. There’s a good chance that this will be your reality, too. Does that freak you out?” Again they nodded.
'“I don’t think I can bear doing this for that long!” whispered one, with undisguised alarm.'
"Innocent" is the wrong word. "Disengaged" and perhaps "systematically rejected" would be better. Marriage for many has been replaced by a strange form of bourgeois concubinage. I think the Greek warriors in The Iliad loved their captive wives more.
I have several articles to post, but no time to comment on them in a meaningful way. "All the Single Ladies" in The Atlantic was the most disturbing article I've read in a while. Kate Bolick examines the casualties of the sexual revolution and concludes it was worth it, even as she writes passages such as this one:
'One of Walsh’s pet observations pertains to what she calls the “soft harem,” where high-status men (i.e., the football captain) maintain an “official” girlfriend as well as a rotating roster of neo-concubines, who service him in the barroom bathroom or wherever the beer is flowing. “There used to be more assortative mating,” she explained, “where a five would date a five. But now every woman who is a six and above wants the hottest guy on campus, and she can have him—for one night.”'
Ms. Bolick continues a paragraph later about a group of women in their early twenties, all college graduates:
'Most striking to me was the innocence of these young women. Of these attractive and vivacious females, only two had ever had a “real” boyfriend—as in, a mutually exclusive and satisfying relationship rather than a series of hookups—and for all their technical know-how, they didn’t seem to be any wiser than I’d been at their age. This surprised me; I’d assumed that growing up in a jungle would give them a more matter-of-fact or at least less conventional worldview. Instead, when I asked if they wanted to get married when they grew up, and if so, at what age, to a one they answered “yes” and “27 or 28.”
'“That’s only five or six years from now,” I pointed out. “Doesn’t that seem—not far off?” They nodded.
'“Take a look at me,” I said. “I’ve never been married, and I have no idea if I ever will be. There’s a good chance that this will be your reality, too. Does that freak you out?” Again they nodded.
'“I don’t think I can bear doing this for that long!” whispered one, with undisguised alarm.'
"Innocent" is the wrong word. "Disengaged" and perhaps "systematically rejected" would be better. Marriage for many has been replaced by a strange form of bourgeois concubinage. I think the Greek warriors in The Iliad loved their captive wives more.
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