I'm surprised they didn't go straight to the War Crimes Tribunal in Hague. Mis-gendering an obese, purple haired DEI ze/zhir is the worst crime of the 21 century.
OMG! “ Misgendering” is just the worst thing ever. It can’t even compare with rape or murder. Because it is actually raping and murdering a trans person, right? Or in other words it is genocide. Zirrrrr!
The subversion of the law/admin. of Civil Rights is at the heart of the ruling party's program; they are at present justifying the active pursuit of worldwide imperial hegemony on the basis of "civil rights violations."
None of this benefits the nation - that is not its purpose.
The "United States" is a kind of shell - for an international ideological movement which respects no borders or sovereignties. This has nothing to do with America as a nation; it is a partially-consolidated revolutionary régime acting as a class for-itself.
Yeah this ideology really does wear the skin of other things, using language games to try and mask this. Our democracy, etc. This is why the mask stuff was really symbolic, they really don't want to hear us speak or see us as people. We are to be ruled. Our voice is only to be used to validate them. Otherwise it's a threat to democracy. Irony.
Your post is excellent as always, Tommaso! Seva has been commenting similarly in response to other articles that the United States has ceased to be a country. I would add that the "shell" you mention might no longer exist either, but might consist completely of our wishful thought, our denial that what we are so afraid of losing is already gone.
Sandra, I’m writing from Canada. The denial you spoke of is rampant here too. But you guys watch the leader of the Conservative Party in the future. He’s blowing the whistle. Pray for us too along with all of you. By the way, I think I smell the rats at the base of all our problems. We’ll see.
Thank you ,Sandra. Cristopher’s article tonight really got my brain wound up. I’m gonna sleep on it before I shoot my mouth off. More tomorrow. But one more bit- Pierre is way, way above Trudope in the polls. I believe he’ll be our next PM!!
A terrible thought, and quite possibly true, but one we are not entitled to be dogmatic about - at-least not as to its finality. Italy was reconstituted, and Russia has reconstituted itself after much misery. The Puritans hanged the King, and were yet defeated. The ideologists never regained influence after their fall, despite having institutionalized themselves.
Of the ideological régimes, Germany is the worst case - not only the most malignantly violent, but the most permanently prostrate - it only half-reconstitute itself after the war - it has been an undeclared protectorate, and now nearly an outright vassal.
Our foreign behavior was traced by Athens in the years leading to the Peloponesian War. Ideology is not the only thing going on here - in fact, it is occupying space in the souls of people who are internally collapsing - it is desperate antidote before it is anything else - its religious function.
I agree that we can never be certain about the future. It is unknown in a profound way no matter how much we want to be able to predict the end point of any individual trajectory. I would, however, point out that it is quite legitimate to inquire about the presence of denial, in this case the kind that is often seen in cases of traumatic grief. Unfortunately, there is also some research on depression that shows that a darker than average outlook tends to be more objective than the rose shaded lenses that support a more optimistic one. I find this last conclusion to be amusing :-)
I think that your reference to the inner experience of cultural upheaval or fragmentation is very interesting. I am not clear though about what you are saying in your last paragraph. What do you see as "occupying space in the souls of people who are internally collapsing"?
I have wondered for some time if what I am feeling and what many other Americans appear to be feeling is how people typically feel when their countries are falling apart. Is that part of what you are saying?
I can be abbreviated to the point of unintentionally cryptic - sorry.
I like what you say - a kind of feeling of vertigo, maybe. I feel it, and I'm guessing you do, too - I think that a lot of us do.
I am referring to a kind of spiritual void in our ruling classes that this new religion is rushing in to fill - one does not join a cult unless susceptible. This I do not feel at all, and many of us don't. It is concentrated among that group as part of their class indoctrination at elite universities, etc. - and now everywhere. They are "anti" on-principle; The nation, family, God - you name it.
In the past, we would think of such people as "lost souls," but now they are part of a ruling party/class and their delusions are becoming law. It might as well be Nexium or Scientology. There are weird sub-cults within it - Trans, Race, the Sacklers, the Pritzkers, etc. It is, as they say, "intersectional."
What you are saying is certainly true of the people I know who endorse the woke platform. They usually are atheists, or simply say that they aren't interested in religion. When I was first in the process of discovering why I felt hatred for "Democrats," I posted on the WSJ that I thought the woke movement was a cult. Someone responded, "No. We are atheists and secular humanists." I thought that a person in that belief situation might have more reason to want to join a cult.
They flatter themselves by saying that they are atheists - no way. Atheism is a philosophical conclusion - an answer to the question: why reality and not nothing? The answer is either theism or atheism - that all is particles/accident. Being philosophical, it cannot be dogmatic - the question must always remain open. Secular Humanism has nothing to do with this - it is the appropriation of Divine Providence (or "History" if you like) by humans - atheism denies the existence of any Providence whatsoever.
They are ordinary moralists caught up in the process of secularization - "Secular Humanism." Within the Catholic Church, these people end up in a kind of mawkish cult of Suffering Humanity - they blame God for every misery. Their next step is to hate the Church and join all the other "Secular Humanists" - God speed.
I would certainly prefer to be mistaken - we'll have to watch and see if this holds true. There is certainly an explanation for what we see, though - and this is clearly part of it.
This does not mean that it acts rationally or competently according to its own purposes, or in a unitary or consistent manner.
For instance, its ideology is not altogether congruent with its own interests. It is, to some extent, "flying by the seat of ifs pants." There is, however, a discernable class and a discernable ideology involved - start from there.
True. And America, Canada and parts of Europe are under the same kind of attack. But it is self-destructing, in part because it is distorted and dysfunctional at its foundations. The forces of Rebirth are already moving in the deep.
The Soviet and National Socialism examples point to very difficult periods; the Russians reconstituted only after a very long and painful period of ideological supremacy/aftermath, and the Germans went from horror to aftermath to American satellite to finally, today, having less sovereignty than Canada.
Italy came out of it better than the others; its mania was also more short-lived and less malign than the others. The Americans are blowing past Italian Fascism and approaching Puritan Revolution-grade gnosticism.
Yes indeed. We might be looking at 20-30 years of upheaval, or more. At least in America. But it does seem to be right at the cusp now. Maybe 2024 is the year of Revolution or more deeper tectonic shifts.
Another factor is the success of the new global system that China is building incrementally and meticulously. It's soon likely to become a dominant force, at least short-medium term. And hopefully that will force the West to become functional again. The counter-forces in Europe are evident in many countries (Italy, Hungary, Sweden, Finland, increasingly France & Spain), at some point it might tip the EU as well. So based on the last 3-5 years, the dynamic for a Rebirth seems to be well underway.
Your remark concerning 20-30 years or more of upheaval "happily" confirms my impression that you are being realistic - optimism and pessimism can be sometimes faulted for not being strict in this way.
This isn't to say that hope is wrong - you have objective reasons for what you say; the future is unknown and unknowable always - and also undecided. It is also subject to the strangest reversals and unintended consequences, as God Himself promised those who contradict His Divine Providence (Genesis: The Tower of Babel). It is therefore our responsibility to make the most of what we can, knowing that we may not witness beyond protracted conflict.
(For the very very few who are actual, self-understanding atheists and can live in peace with Catholics and Jews, I observe that the underlying universal realities of Accident and Contingency are a permanent feature of reality, from which humans cannot escape; they are its children (for the moment).
For myself, I have the consolation of knowing that the City of God is "not of this world," and so my expectations are limited and my horizon very long. That said, my vocation obligates me to generosity to people of good will who might be neighbors - and who might yet come to sense the presence of His Kingdom.
We can hope, and we can say the truth, and we can try to live that life - bear witness.
Fully agreed. I think the argument that making ideologies and utopian aspirations a counterfeit of the Spiritual Paradise (or Kingdom of G-d) is causing tremendous damage to societies, and is doomed to repeated failure. It might be the overall problem of the last few centuries.
At the same time, in the long term the forces of Good will always prevail and persevere - simply because they are the ones that work (even from the secular perspective). Petty Babel building will always collapse under its own hubris. Which is what is about to/is already happening now in the US I think. (Or one could use the "I will Rise my Throne above the Stars of G-d" as a warning, as well.)
And I share the optimistic perspective of participating in the Good while keeping a long term perspective or horizon - but even if the fruits might come in the very far future, spending one's days in service of the Good is a gift in itself, in my opinion (and experience).
Btw. your vocation - is that as a practicing Catholic Priest?
Penrenial, I am a lay Carmelite, and happily married.
I was for many years an Epicurean - an atheist. My life was reading novels and poetry, mostly. I was a quietist - non-private social life was to me what Socrates says - a great, stupid roaring beast, to be carefully avoided.
I read Plotinus and was impressed by neoplatonism. Then, I read St. Augustine's City of God and changed my mind about the question of atheism. It is my work to understand above-all Genesis and The City of God and to defend them as true - which I believe them to be. God is either altogether present, or we are making unseemly noises about nothing.
It would be fair to say that I am fully post-modern; I have not avoided modernity, but rather have been defecated out the back end of it.
This would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. The Biden administration weaponizing government agencies against the populace is commonplace today. Hold strong New College of Florida......when the flak is the heaviest you know you're over the right target.
How do the gender issues relate to discrimination on the basis of disability, in the eyes of the DOE? I would have thought they’d see it as discrimination based on sex (broadly construed to include gender identity and the rest).
"How do the gender issues relate to discrimination on the basis of disability?"
Yes, this is one of the central self-contradictions in the activists' statements about gender. They have for years successfully lobbied to get one gender diagnosis after another purged from the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manuals (DSM), because they want "transgender" to be viewed as a naturally occurring, healthy variant of biological sexual identities. At the same time, they want puberty blockers, lifelong regimens of cross-sex hormones, and cosmetic genital and breast surgeries, to be regarded as medically necessary care for the people who claim to be in the transgender category. They argue that the treatment is necessary because transgender people (all?) commit suicide if they aren't put through these medical procedures. These arguments for the necessity for such aggressive and invasive procedures imply that the activists find something to be terribly wrong with both the bodies and the minds of "transgender people" (as the activists imagine them to be). In the woke U.S. and some other woke countries, however, it is considered to be "hate speech" to explicitly state this implication.
That is the case, indeed. And I believe that psychological difficulties are definitely involved and need to be diagnosed and treated in the usual way. This is a situation in which "treatment as usual" is the standard that should be followed.
Good point - a lot of mental dysfunction - and general derangement from the social pressures we mentioned, before. Jung talks about that - that as social dysfunction becomes widespread and intense, many become increasingly deranged. Makes sense to me - he observed it.
Yes, we know there have been these destructive movements before, usually organized around religion-like ideas and feelings. The idea of "social pathologies" makes sense to me. Like the self flagellation cults that broke out during plagues in Europe. Those certainly look like efforts to increase the flagellants sense of control over the plague.
That’s the trillion dollar question that won’t ever be answered. It’s probably best that people stop seeking answers from people who’s life’s work is to confuse for their own gains or out of naïveté
Chris, I am holding out for a hero who will destroy this pronoun silliness. It is my right, indeed my duty, to "misgender" whenever and wherever necessary to express my reality-based view of the world. Forced pronouns are magical cant. This is still America, these elitist snobs cannot make me enter their wizard circle or use their magic words and signs, how dare they.
You, musk, peaceful pro lifers, etc etc. they’re certainly not doing anything to dispel the communist agenda accusations, since they are acting 100% like the Soviets. Bless you and keep up the fight!
I would assert that mandating unisex bathrooms is in fact quite unfriendly to people of different cultures and different backgrounds. How do we expect people of faiths like Islam or Orthodox Judaism to feel comfortable at colleges & universities when their beliefs about the separation of the sexes are not only disrespected but sneeringly trodden on - and when they're called bigots if they so much as question this?
Moreover, how do we expect parents who adhere to such a faith to feel comfortable sending their children off to such institutions? These colleges can't guarantee sex-separated bathrooms, can't guarantee sex-separated dormitories, can't guarantee sex-separated changing rooms, can't guarantee any sex-based protections at all. Have so-called progressives forgotten that the vast majority of the world is not on board with their bizarre psychological notions? Call Muslims & Orthodox Jews backwards all you like, but right now we're giving them pretty darn strong evidence that sexual liberation leads straight to insanity. Get T out.
A couple of things: you can 100% have same-sex and unisex bathrooms to accommodate people of faith. That's not the issue.
In fact, if you read the complaint, the college's abolishment of their Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence (basically their DEI office of 4 people), caused all funding to go away for Muslim students to be able to eat after hours for Ramadan. When this was brought to the administration's attention, they ignored it. So, our alum organization provided meals to Muslim students this fall, paid for out of our own pockets, including mine.
Also, if you read the complaint, they discriminated against non-Christian students when it came to this Fall's admissions and giving of scholarships. (Scholarships which were supposed to be based on merit were disproportionately given to incoming Christan athletes with an avg SAT score of 1090). Having a score that low usually disqualifies you from any college or university except for community college, but it's also a DOE violation to not offer taxpayer funded merit-based scholarship money to the most deserving.
----
About parents feeling comfortable sending their students off to college... hmmm. So this is the thing, most college students are adults who should be making their own choices and being responsible for their own education.
I earned scholarships and fellowships and was self-driven to get an education. My parents didn't save or care. My younger sister didn't go, because she didn't have the same work ethic or ambition.
To imply that the best and the brightest students don't have strong opinions about where they would like to go to college and who they want to be culturally, is absurd. Students who are that controlled by their parents and can't get the scholarships to fund their own decisions often struggle really hard.
Best thing a young adult can do if they are struggling with controlling parents who do not support their goals is to become independent as quickly as possible and make their own way.
Being the parent is an act of letting go. You do your best to instill good values in your children, but you have to let them grow up, become their own person, make their own mistakes, learn to support themselves, and grow. Even if it means they grow up to be different from you politically or religiously -- you still give them human respect and show them unconditional love. And hope that respect and love can bridge any generational differences you might have.
I know it's hard, but trying to control where your adult child goes to college and what ideas they're exposed to is a form of enmeshment (a type of abuse) and just pushes your adult child further away.
And like I said before, a super bright student with options is not on the mercy of their parent to pay or approve of anything. And those are the students and honors college wants.
>you can 100% have same-sex and unisex bathrooms to accommodate people of faith. That's not the issue.
You're right, bathrooms are a minor issue compared to dormitories and sports teams.
>they discriminated against non-Christian students when it came to this Fall's admissions and giving of scholarships
Not good, but Harvard & UNC were just found to be discriminating against Asian students in favor of European students. Admissions will be tilted by the beliefs of admissions officers, so as long as we accept the concept of a holistic admissions officer, bias will result. Here it's pro-Christian, most places it's anti-Asian & pro-European. Admission by blind-scored exam - which could include means to judge character such as free essays - is the surest way to eliminate this kind of bias, and that's the route I would take personally.
>caused all funding to go away for Muslim students to be able to eat after hours for Ramadan
Not good either, I really didn't like how limited my university's after-hours food options were. All you could get was a breakfast sandwich and a hash brown - even the convenience & grocery store closed.
>most college students are adults who should be making their own choices and being responsible for their own education
They need their parents' cooperation regardless, either in paying for it or in submitting documents in the financial aid process. Then there' s parental support over summers & vacations during college that would be hard to do without even for students with free rides. An uncooperative parent can very effectively stymy an 18-year-old from going to college, leaving them the much harder track of working their way through. College enrollments are declining among men who poll as white conservatives - don't you think this could be part of why? Sure some kids will do it on their own but it will be fewer - and honestly any parent should be wary of sending their kids places where progress pride flags are flown. A teen having their first physician or Psychologist as an adult apart from their parents is a big step and it's reasonable to be concerned about their values and practices knowing the alignment of most colleges, generally speaking.
Wow! So this is how federal taxpayer dollars are being spent by the DOJ? A 78-page letter/legal memo that would not have earned a passing grade in law school 5-10 years ago? Nevertheless, it’s more Biden Administration and Leftist abuse of power through lawfare that is meant to terrorize New College. As frivolous as DOJ’s charges are (for things like not using pronouns that don’t exist and the Marxist crime of separating mens’ and women’s’ bathrooms) New College will still have to spend precious time and limited resources responding to the claims. It’s despicable. FL should counter by suing the DOJ for punitive damages, including recovering its legal fees and administrative costs in responding.
They know the process is the punishment. They know it’s a loser at SCOTUS; they just want to bankrupt the school on the way there. Good thing Florida has a budget surplus!
These dictatorial power abuses must be stopped, beaten back in court, and exposed as the corrupt, morally bankrupt, banana republic methods they are. Turn the bums out!
Um, the complaints were filed by students, faculty, staff, parents and alum of New College.
It took a lot of effort from an alum lawyer to put this together and get the attention of the DOE and DOJ.
Biden isn't aware we exist. Hard to get anyone's attention enough to help us after 9 months of relentless abuse and civil rights violations... until now.
Um, the complaints were filed by students, faculty, staff, parents and alum of New College.
It took a lot of effort from an alum lawyer to put this together and get the attention of the DOE and DOJ.
Biden isn't aware we exist. Hard to get anyone's attention enough to help us after 9 months of relentless abuse and civil rights violations... until now.
It would appear that many in Biden's justice system are desciples of Saul Alinsky. We also see the theories of Karl Marx, along with many varieties of anti-American thought which have been common in our academia since the 1960's. And all of these destructive theories and fantasies seem to have their roots in the idea of socialist utopia, and of course, the 'noble lie', the theory that evil is justified by the 'proper' end result. Whether we look back at Vladimir Lenin or Chairman Mao the results of these theories have been unmitigated disasters for the common folk. Yet those leading these movements are all in because they are narcissistic, power hungry people who visualize themselves as being leaders in the elite ruling class forever.
I'm surprised they didn't go straight to the War Crimes Tribunal in Hague. Mis-gendering an obese, purple haired DEI ze/zhir is the worst crime of the 21 century.
the Founding Fathers weep in heaven...
And here on Substack...
They are still amazed that we didn't do more to fix what they considered to be a stopgap document in the Constitution.
Worse than actual racism, murder, robbery, rape, medical experimentation upon children...
You might wish to work on your detection of facetious language.
OMG! “ Misgendering” is just the worst thing ever. It can’t even compare with rape or murder. Because it is actually raping and murdering a trans person, right? Or in other words it is genocide. Zirrrrr!
LOL!
Holocaust of our day, “misgendering,” ie using the correct pronoun.
Like a good Marxist
Why bother with a trial in this case? Sentence first, verdict afterwards.
Similar to - Hang them first then have a trial?
In the absence of consideration of the war crimes being committed by the Ukrainian military.
Russia?
Russia is winning.
What about it?
It's worse than the holocaust.
The subversion of the law/admin. of Civil Rights is at the heart of the ruling party's program; they are at present justifying the active pursuit of worldwide imperial hegemony on the basis of "civil rights violations."
None of this benefits the nation - that is not its purpose.
The "United States" is a kind of shell - for an international ideological movement which respects no borders or sovereignties. This has nothing to do with America as a nation; it is a partially-consolidated revolutionary régime acting as a class for-itself.
Yeah this ideology really does wear the skin of other things, using language games to try and mask this. Our democracy, etc. This is why the mask stuff was really symbolic, they really don't want to hear us speak or see us as people. We are to be ruled. Our voice is only to be used to validate them. Otherwise it's a threat to democracy. Irony.
Your post is excellent as always, Tommaso! Seva has been commenting similarly in response to other articles that the United States has ceased to be a country. I would add that the "shell" you mention might no longer exist either, but might consist completely of our wishful thought, our denial that what we are so afraid of losing is already gone.
Sandra, I’m writing from Canada. The denial you spoke of is rampant here too. But you guys watch the leader of the Conservative Party in the future. He’s blowing the whistle. Pray for us too along with all of you. By the way, I think I smell the rats at the base of all our problems. We’ll see.
I do and will pray for the people of Canada. The tyranny we hear about from the outside is a far cry from the freedom that you once had.
Thank you ,Sandra. Cristopher’s article tonight really got my brain wound up. I’m gonna sleep on it before I shoot my mouth off. More tomorrow. But one more bit- Pierre is way, way above Trudope in the polls. I believe he’ll be our next PM!!
A terrible thought, and quite possibly true, but one we are not entitled to be dogmatic about - at-least not as to its finality. Italy was reconstituted, and Russia has reconstituted itself after much misery. The Puritans hanged the King, and were yet defeated. The ideologists never regained influence after their fall, despite having institutionalized themselves.
Of the ideological régimes, Germany is the worst case - not only the most malignantly violent, but the most permanently prostrate - it only half-reconstitute itself after the war - it has been an undeclared protectorate, and now nearly an outright vassal.
Our foreign behavior was traced by Athens in the years leading to the Peloponesian War. Ideology is not the only thing going on here - in fact, it is occupying space in the souls of people who are internally collapsing - it is desperate antidote before it is anything else - its religious function.
I agree that we can never be certain about the future. It is unknown in a profound way no matter how much we want to be able to predict the end point of any individual trajectory. I would, however, point out that it is quite legitimate to inquire about the presence of denial, in this case the kind that is often seen in cases of traumatic grief. Unfortunately, there is also some research on depression that shows that a darker than average outlook tends to be more objective than the rose shaded lenses that support a more optimistic one. I find this last conclusion to be amusing :-)
I think that your reference to the inner experience of cultural upheaval or fragmentation is very interesting. I am not clear though about what you are saying in your last paragraph. What do you see as "occupying space in the souls of people who are internally collapsing"?
I have wondered for some time if what I am feeling and what many other Americans appear to be feeling is how people typically feel when their countries are falling apart. Is that part of what you are saying?
I can be abbreviated to the point of unintentionally cryptic - sorry.
I like what you say - a kind of feeling of vertigo, maybe. I feel it, and I'm guessing you do, too - I think that a lot of us do.
I am referring to a kind of spiritual void in our ruling classes that this new religion is rushing in to fill - one does not join a cult unless susceptible. This I do not feel at all, and many of us don't. It is concentrated among that group as part of their class indoctrination at elite universities, etc. - and now everywhere. They are "anti" on-principle; The nation, family, God - you name it.
In the past, we would think of such people as "lost souls," but now they are part of a ruling party/class and their delusions are becoming law. It might as well be Nexium or Scientology. There are weird sub-cults within it - Trans, Race, the Sacklers, the Pritzkers, etc. It is, as they say, "intersectional."
What you are saying is certainly true of the people I know who endorse the woke platform. They usually are atheists, or simply say that they aren't interested in religion. When I was first in the process of discovering why I felt hatred for "Democrats," I posted on the WSJ that I thought the woke movement was a cult. Someone responded, "No. We are atheists and secular humanists." I thought that a person in that belief situation might have more reason to want to join a cult.
They flatter themselves by saying that they are atheists - no way. Atheism is a philosophical conclusion - an answer to the question: why reality and not nothing? The answer is either theism or atheism - that all is particles/accident. Being philosophical, it cannot be dogmatic - the question must always remain open. Secular Humanism has nothing to do with this - it is the appropriation of Divine Providence (or "History" if you like) by humans - atheism denies the existence of any Providence whatsoever.
They are ordinary moralists caught up in the process of secularization - "Secular Humanism." Within the Catholic Church, these people end up in a kind of mawkish cult of Suffering Humanity - they blame God for every misery. Their next step is to hate the Church and join all the other "Secular Humanists" - God speed.
Excellent assessment. Couldn’t agree more
I would certainly prefer to be mistaken - we'll have to watch and see if this holds true. There is certainly an explanation for what we see, though - and this is clearly part of it.
This does not mean that it acts rationally or competently according to its own purposes, or in a unitary or consistent manner.
For instance, its ideology is not altogether congruent with its own interests. It is, to some extent, "flying by the seat of ifs pants." There is, however, a discernable class and a discernable ideology involved - start from there.
That’s my observation, as well. Controlled chaos
True. And America, Canada and parts of Europe are under the same kind of attack. But it is self-destructing, in part because it is distorted and dysfunctional at its foundations. The forces of Rebirth are already moving in the deep.
I certainly hope that you are correct.
The Soviet and National Socialism examples point to very difficult periods; the Russians reconstituted only after a very long and painful period of ideological supremacy/aftermath, and the Germans went from horror to aftermath to American satellite to finally, today, having less sovereignty than Canada.
Italy came out of it better than the others; its mania was also more short-lived and less malign than the others. The Americans are blowing past Italian Fascism and approaching Puritan Revolution-grade gnosticism.
Yes indeed. We might be looking at 20-30 years of upheaval, or more. At least in America. But it does seem to be right at the cusp now. Maybe 2024 is the year of Revolution or more deeper tectonic shifts.
Another factor is the success of the new global system that China is building incrementally and meticulously. It's soon likely to become a dominant force, at least short-medium term. And hopefully that will force the West to become functional again. The counter-forces in Europe are evident in many countries (Italy, Hungary, Sweden, Finland, increasingly France & Spain), at some point it might tip the EU as well. So based on the last 3-5 years, the dynamic for a Rebirth seems to be well underway.
Your remark concerning 20-30 years or more of upheaval "happily" confirms my impression that you are being realistic - optimism and pessimism can be sometimes faulted for not being strict in this way.
This isn't to say that hope is wrong - you have objective reasons for what you say; the future is unknown and unknowable always - and also undecided. It is also subject to the strangest reversals and unintended consequences, as God Himself promised those who contradict His Divine Providence (Genesis: The Tower of Babel). It is therefore our responsibility to make the most of what we can, knowing that we may not witness beyond protracted conflict.
(For the very very few who are actual, self-understanding atheists and can live in peace with Catholics and Jews, I observe that the underlying universal realities of Accident and Contingency are a permanent feature of reality, from which humans cannot escape; they are its children (for the moment).
For myself, I have the consolation of knowing that the City of God is "not of this world," and so my expectations are limited and my horizon very long. That said, my vocation obligates me to generosity to people of good will who might be neighbors - and who might yet come to sense the presence of His Kingdom.
We can hope, and we can say the truth, and we can try to live that life - bear witness.
A presto,
Fully agreed. I think the argument that making ideologies and utopian aspirations a counterfeit of the Spiritual Paradise (or Kingdom of G-d) is causing tremendous damage to societies, and is doomed to repeated failure. It might be the overall problem of the last few centuries.
At the same time, in the long term the forces of Good will always prevail and persevere - simply because they are the ones that work (even from the secular perspective). Petty Babel building will always collapse under its own hubris. Which is what is about to/is already happening now in the US I think. (Or one could use the "I will Rise my Throne above the Stars of G-d" as a warning, as well.)
And I share the optimistic perspective of participating in the Good while keeping a long term perspective or horizon - but even if the fruits might come in the very far future, spending one's days in service of the Good is a gift in itself, in my opinion (and experience).
Btw. your vocation - is that as a practicing Catholic Priest?
Ciao a presto, grazie 🙏🙏
Penrenial, I am a lay Carmelite, and happily married.
I was for many years an Epicurean - an atheist. My life was reading novels and poetry, mostly. I was a quietist - non-private social life was to me what Socrates says - a great, stupid roaring beast, to be carefully avoided.
I read Plotinus and was impressed by neoplatonism. Then, I read St. Augustine's City of God and changed my mind about the question of atheism. It is my work to understand above-all Genesis and The City of God and to defend them as true - which I believe them to be. God is either altogether present, or we are making unseemly noises about nothing.
It would be fair to say that I am fully post-modern; I have not avoided modernity, but rather have been defecated out the back end of it.
Ci vediamo presto.
This would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. The Biden administration weaponizing government agencies against the populace is commonplace today. Hold strong New College of Florida......when the flak is the heaviest you know you're over the right target.
How do the gender issues relate to discrimination on the basis of disability, in the eyes of the DOE? I would have thought they’d see it as discrimination based on sex (broadly construed to include gender identity and the rest).
"How do the gender issues relate to discrimination on the basis of disability?"
Yes, this is one of the central self-contradictions in the activists' statements about gender. They have for years successfully lobbied to get one gender diagnosis after another purged from the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manuals (DSM), because they want "transgender" to be viewed as a naturally occurring, healthy variant of biological sexual identities. At the same time, they want puberty blockers, lifelong regimens of cross-sex hormones, and cosmetic genital and breast surgeries, to be regarded as medically necessary care for the people who claim to be in the transgender category. They argue that the treatment is necessary because transgender people (all?) commit suicide if they aren't put through these medical procedures. These arguments for the necessity for such aggressive and invasive procedures imply that the activists find something to be terribly wrong with both the bodies and the minds of "transgender people" (as the activists imagine them to be). In the woke U.S. and some other woke countries, however, it is considered to be "hate speech" to explicitly state this implication.
American psychiatric quack association
The APA has been wholly captured by woke activists, as has the other APA for psychologists.
it is a psychological malady or it is not; it is a medical malady or it is not.
That is the case, indeed. And I believe that psychological difficulties are definitely involved and need to be diagnosed and treated in the usual way. This is a situation in which "treatment as usual" is the standard that should be followed.
Good point - a lot of mental dysfunction - and general derangement from the social pressures we mentioned, before. Jung talks about that - that as social dysfunction becomes widespread and intense, many become increasingly deranged. Makes sense to me - he observed it.
Yes, we know there have been these destructive movements before, usually organized around religion-like ideas and feelings. The idea of "social pathologies" makes sense to me. Like the self flagellation cults that broke out during plagues in Europe. Those certainly look like efforts to increase the flagellants sense of control over the plague.
That’s the trillion dollar question that won’t ever be answered. It’s probably best that people stop seeking answers from people who’s life’s work is to confuse for their own gains or out of naïveté
Most! Marginalized! EVER!
Chris, I am holding out for a hero who will destroy this pronoun silliness. It is my right, indeed my duty, to "misgender" whenever and wherever necessary to express my reality-based view of the world. Forced pronouns are magical cant. This is still America, these elitist snobs cannot make me enter their wizard circle or use their magic words and signs, how dare they.
Detach from the federal government. Pull a Hillsdale. The vast majority of Patriotic Americans will support you.💪🏼
Civil rights law applies to Hillsdale also. You might think of this as a trial run against Hillsdale.
Yep. You can still file a complaint with Hillsdale with the DOJ too.
Refuse to engage in compelled speech as it goes against our constitutional right to freedom of speech.
Refuse to accept pseudoscience as science because it is a political sham used on mentally ill pawns to push forward nefarious agendas.
“It is darkest before the dawn.”
Stay 💪
You would think the trans crowd would take offense at being considered disabled.
Not as long as it makes them oppressed
You, musk, peaceful pro lifers, etc etc. they’re certainly not doing anything to dispel the communist agenda accusations, since they are acting 100% like the Soviets. Bless you and keep up the fight!
I would assert that mandating unisex bathrooms is in fact quite unfriendly to people of different cultures and different backgrounds. How do we expect people of faiths like Islam or Orthodox Judaism to feel comfortable at colleges & universities when their beliefs about the separation of the sexes are not only disrespected but sneeringly trodden on - and when they're called bigots if they so much as question this?
Moreover, how do we expect parents who adhere to such a faith to feel comfortable sending their children off to such institutions? These colleges can't guarantee sex-separated bathrooms, can't guarantee sex-separated dormitories, can't guarantee sex-separated changing rooms, can't guarantee any sex-based protections at all. Have so-called progressives forgotten that the vast majority of the world is not on board with their bizarre psychological notions? Call Muslims & Orthodox Jews backwards all you like, but right now we're giving them pretty darn strong evidence that sexual liberation leads straight to insanity. Get T out.
A couple of things: you can 100% have same-sex and unisex bathrooms to accommodate people of faith. That's not the issue.
In fact, if you read the complaint, the college's abolishment of their Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence (basically their DEI office of 4 people), caused all funding to go away for Muslim students to be able to eat after hours for Ramadan. When this was brought to the administration's attention, they ignored it. So, our alum organization provided meals to Muslim students this fall, paid for out of our own pockets, including mine.
Also, if you read the complaint, they discriminated against non-Christian students when it came to this Fall's admissions and giving of scholarships. (Scholarships which were supposed to be based on merit were disproportionately given to incoming Christan athletes with an avg SAT score of 1090). Having a score that low usually disqualifies you from any college or university except for community college, but it's also a DOE violation to not offer taxpayer funded merit-based scholarship money to the most deserving.
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About parents feeling comfortable sending their students off to college... hmmm. So this is the thing, most college students are adults who should be making their own choices and being responsible for their own education.
I earned scholarships and fellowships and was self-driven to get an education. My parents didn't save or care. My younger sister didn't go, because she didn't have the same work ethic or ambition.
To imply that the best and the brightest students don't have strong opinions about where they would like to go to college and who they want to be culturally, is absurd. Students who are that controlled by their parents and can't get the scholarships to fund their own decisions often struggle really hard.
Best thing a young adult can do if they are struggling with controlling parents who do not support their goals is to become independent as quickly as possible and make their own way.
Being the parent is an act of letting go. You do your best to instill good values in your children, but you have to let them grow up, become their own person, make their own mistakes, learn to support themselves, and grow. Even if it means they grow up to be different from you politically or religiously -- you still give them human respect and show them unconditional love. And hope that respect and love can bridge any generational differences you might have.
I know it's hard, but trying to control where your adult child goes to college and what ideas they're exposed to is a form of enmeshment (a type of abuse) and just pushes your adult child further away.
And like I said before, a super bright student with options is not on the mercy of their parent to pay or approve of anything. And those are the students and honors college wants.
>you can 100% have same-sex and unisex bathrooms to accommodate people of faith. That's not the issue.
You're right, bathrooms are a minor issue compared to dormitories and sports teams.
>they discriminated against non-Christian students when it came to this Fall's admissions and giving of scholarships
Not good, but Harvard & UNC were just found to be discriminating against Asian students in favor of European students. Admissions will be tilted by the beliefs of admissions officers, so as long as we accept the concept of a holistic admissions officer, bias will result. Here it's pro-Christian, most places it's anti-Asian & pro-European. Admission by blind-scored exam - which could include means to judge character such as free essays - is the surest way to eliminate this kind of bias, and that's the route I would take personally.
>caused all funding to go away for Muslim students to be able to eat after hours for Ramadan
Not good either, I really didn't like how limited my university's after-hours food options were. All you could get was a breakfast sandwich and a hash brown - even the convenience & grocery store closed.
>most college students are adults who should be making their own choices and being responsible for their own education
They need their parents' cooperation regardless, either in paying for it or in submitting documents in the financial aid process. Then there' s parental support over summers & vacations during college that would be hard to do without even for students with free rides. An uncooperative parent can very effectively stymy an 18-year-old from going to college, leaving them the much harder track of working their way through. College enrollments are declining among men who poll as white conservatives - don't you think this could be part of why? Sure some kids will do it on their own but it will be fewer - and honestly any parent should be wary of sending their kids places where progress pride flags are flown. A teen having their first physician or Psychologist as an adult apart from their parents is a big step and it's reasonable to be concerned about their values and practices knowing the alignment of most colleges, generally speaking.
Sue them for that reason.
Wow! So this is how federal taxpayer dollars are being spent by the DOJ? A 78-page letter/legal memo that would not have earned a passing grade in law school 5-10 years ago? Nevertheless, it’s more Biden Administration and Leftist abuse of power through lawfare that is meant to terrorize New College. As frivolous as DOJ’s charges are (for things like not using pronouns that don’t exist and the Marxist crime of separating mens’ and women’s’ bathrooms) New College will still have to spend precious time and limited resources responding to the claims. It’s despicable. FL should counter by suing the DOJ for punitive damages, including recovering its legal fees and administrative costs in responding.
They know the process is the punishment. They know it’s a loser at SCOTUS; they just want to bankrupt the school on the way there. Good thing Florida has a budget surplus!
These dictatorial power abuses must be stopped, beaten back in court, and exposed as the corrupt, morally bankrupt, banana republic methods they are. Turn the bums out!
Um, the complaints were filed by students, faculty, staff, parents and alum of New College.
It took a lot of effort from an alum lawyer to put this together and get the attention of the DOE and DOJ.
Biden isn't aware we exist. Hard to get anyone's attention enough to help us after 9 months of relentless abuse and civil rights violations... until now.
> relentless abuse and civil rights violations
Lol. Hurting your feelings and refusing to play along with your delusions is not a civil rights violation.
The Biden admin "manufacturing complaints" to push their perverted agenda. They are evil to the core.
Um, the complaints were filed by students, faculty, staff, parents and alum of New College.
It took a lot of effort from an alum lawyer to put this together and get the attention of the DOE and DOJ.
Biden isn't aware we exist. Hard to get anyone's attention enough to help us after 9 months of relentless abuse and civil rights violations... until now.
Are you okay?
> Biden isn't aware we exist.
Most days Biden isn't aware he's president.
Omg they are such a despicable bunch! They need to be defeated!
It would appear that many in Biden's justice system are desciples of Saul Alinsky. We also see the theories of Karl Marx, along with many varieties of anti-American thought which have been common in our academia since the 1960's. And all of these destructive theories and fantasies seem to have their roots in the idea of socialist utopia, and of course, the 'noble lie', the theory that evil is justified by the 'proper' end result. Whether we look back at Vladimir Lenin or Chairman Mao the results of these theories have been unmitigated disasters for the common folk. Yet those leading these movements are all in because they are narcissistic, power hungry people who visualize themselves as being leaders in the elite ruling class forever.