... "The mountain is real. Our ideas about it, the world, and even ourselves are not. This is because we refer in times of need to institutions which we consider to be durable bastions of integrity and function. These institutions no longer exist outside your mind."
Beautifully stated. The choices of art, superb. I concur. A wonderful essay, that caused me to pour a coffee, and move to a comfortable armchair to read and savour, unlike most reading today. Thanks Frank.
4 years ago, I moved from my "oh so award winning - material evidence" of status and affluent progress, overlooking the twinkling city and convenience of 5 minute drives to everything in a packet - to an old run down farm 3 hours from everything in a packet - but 5 minute from the mountain, the ancient Jarrah trees, the birds, the snakes, the hard back breaking work, the abundant pomegranates, the peaches, the storms, the floods, the fires, the suddenly dead sheep, the busy task of burying the occasional heavy corpse for fear of stench and organs cast adrift by foxes.
I was motivated like many during 'the Covid times' upon seeing the state govt in West Australia take one step too far, when it announced at the daily podium, that it was arranging 'door to door' visits (in random suburbs which they would not reveal) on the weekends, of a pack of helpful 'nurses with little baggies', with police escorts, to arrange for you to be jabbed on your porch, as a kind of gracious public service. No need for your previous medical history but they would take your name down, and if you refused it.
This caused me to understand that there was no option but to move further away from the 'helpful' madness of organisation. The pack psychosis was real, and to find somewhere to 'shelter in place', somehow.
I always saw the game even as a child, as nuclear war was broadcast daily from the radio in an endless terrrorising of little children like myself. I grew up with nightmare dreams of the morning after Armagedon, where all humans were cindered but me as I staggered around picking up blackened cindered bones. Thank you gracious leaders. 'The Russians - the Russians are coming'. I stood on the roof and asked at 8 "Why are they doing this? Why are there no grown ups in charge?" Once I went to 'church' in desperation to see what went on there, (when I was about 9) to see if I could find some answers. I was ushered into the box for children, and given a bookmark with the ten commandments on it. The answer never came, only the box we were herded into as 'the processes were processed' and everyone went home.
It was not until much later - in fact when I was 63, that I realised, it was not about getting the answer to satisfy the query. The real quest was to ask the right question.
PS, I always saw that painting "The Incredulity of St Thomas" (Caravaggio, 1602) as a young woman, as evidence that the dry wound of Jesus in that painting, meant that the miracle of Jesus was that while he was wounded deeply, mortally, there came a time where our wounds stopped pouring blood. They stopped hurting. They remained as 'dry scars' of honour, to remind us that we can survive all this, but the only hope was for us is to retain the scars, for if we forget them we return to the same 'cycle' of hatred, war, maliciousness, and victimhood.
Liberalism was the last of the great twentieth‑century faiths, and like its cousins fascism and communism it promised salvation but delivered ruin. It claimed to be eternal, the end of history, yet collapsed at the first poke of reality, a ghost revealed as an advert for a product that never existed. Its institutions are Potemkin shells, its promise of progress a child’s fantasy, its only genius - the management of perpetual crisis. What we are witnessing is not tragedy but exposure, the grand illusion is over, and with it the pretence that this hollow creed was ever a civilisation….
You might as well have been describing my 31 year old niece who is so lonely and unhappy that she has been diagnosed (privately) as having ADHD and autism. She has neither. She is simply a confused product of the modern world who can't see her place in it because she has been taught to believe she is The Most Important Person And Everything Should Revolve Around Her. Which is an empty philosophy guaranteed to cause an amount of distress that no shopping trip can alleviate.
So many kids and younger adults have been patterned on a pathologising machine. It can and will be replaced - in many places with the best thing being absence - allowing normal life to flourish in its place.
Liberalism is anything but dead in Canada. The opposite if anything.
Conservatism is anathama in this country. Only the liberals speak openly and freely in public, always assuming everyone they talk to will be fully onboard. They are probably correct in their assumption 80% of the time.
Yep, but tick tock. I doubt they will be capable of buying the next election. As in Britain, France, Germany etc its a relic. Canada is basically a failed state given its financial corruption. Next big shock to the liberal regime is the endgame in Ukraine.
Fine piece of writing Frank, with amazing illustrations. Humanity has tried all the ¨isms¨ now and has found them wanting. Trouble is humanity does not learn and is destined to follow a new formula for Utopia. Darwin has a lot to answer for having convinced so many that we are just random accidents and it´s about survival of the fittest. A bigger scam than Covid in my view.
Love the illustration of The Social Contract! Alas, I am one of the oldsters in the lower right-hand corner hoovering up benefits. I would be willing to accept cuts in what I get if everyone else was willing too.
I will say I like Jackson Pollack's "No. 1" and "Ocean." I'm not one of those that looks at paint splotches, however, and reads any kind of meaning into it. I just think some of it is pretty. Most of it is meh. Much prefer classical art / sculpture. But I wouldn't mind having some great Impressionist work around me while I wait for The Great Implosion.
Different flavours of "Non-Serviam", a middle finger to the only conception of God that explains everything, including most importantly, why God who lacks nothing would deign to create us - The Holy Trinity. Atheists refuse to serve Him, so serve themselves. Talmudics serve the collective "Self". Unitarians and Muslims cannot square the circle so "god" is a whimsical tyrant for whom black can mean white. Polytheists misplace the category of God. Protestants are really Unitarian Talmudists but most don't have a clue, but they don't have an accurate conception of Jesus Christ as second person of The Holy Trinity.IF they did they would understand our veneration of Mary. Even Orthodox screw it up by denying the filioque. Rational conclusion? Tridentine Catholicism is THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN!
Great quote from Norman Mailer, from a 2002 interview:
"...I am not a liberal. The notion that man is a rational creature who arrives at reasonable solutions to knotty problems is much in doubt as far as I’m concerned. Liberalism depends all too much on having an optimistic view of human nature. But the history of the 20th century has not exactly fortified that notion. Moreover, liberalism also depends too much upon reason rather than any appreciation of mystery. If you start to talk about God with the average good liberal, he looks at you as if you are more than a little off. In that sense, since I happen to be—I hate to use the word religious, there are so many heavy dull connotations, so many pious self-seeking aspects—but I do believe there is a Creator who is active in human affairs and is endangered. I also believe there is a Devil who is equally active in our existence (and is all too often successful). So, I can hardly be a liberal. God is bad enough for them, but talk about the devil, and the liberal’s mind is blown. He is consorting with a fellow who is irrational if not insane. That is the end of real conversation."
... "The mountain is real. Our ideas about it, the world, and even ourselves are not. This is because we refer in times of need to institutions which we consider to be durable bastions of integrity and function. These institutions no longer exist outside your mind."
Beautifully stated. The choices of art, superb. I concur. A wonderful essay, that caused me to pour a coffee, and move to a comfortable armchair to read and savour, unlike most reading today. Thanks Frank.
4 years ago, I moved from my "oh so award winning - material evidence" of status and affluent progress, overlooking the twinkling city and convenience of 5 minute drives to everything in a packet - to an old run down farm 3 hours from everything in a packet - but 5 minute from the mountain, the ancient Jarrah trees, the birds, the snakes, the hard back breaking work, the abundant pomegranates, the peaches, the storms, the floods, the fires, the suddenly dead sheep, the busy task of burying the occasional heavy corpse for fear of stench and organs cast adrift by foxes.
I was motivated like many during 'the Covid times' upon seeing the state govt in West Australia take one step too far, when it announced at the daily podium, that it was arranging 'door to door' visits (in random suburbs which they would not reveal) on the weekends, of a pack of helpful 'nurses with little baggies', with police escorts, to arrange for you to be jabbed on your porch, as a kind of gracious public service. No need for your previous medical history but they would take your name down, and if you refused it.
This caused me to understand that there was no option but to move further away from the 'helpful' madness of organisation. The pack psychosis was real, and to find somewhere to 'shelter in place', somehow.
I always saw the game even as a child, as nuclear war was broadcast daily from the radio in an endless terrrorising of little children like myself. I grew up with nightmare dreams of the morning after Armagedon, where all humans were cindered but me as I staggered around picking up blackened cindered bones. Thank you gracious leaders. 'The Russians - the Russians are coming'. I stood on the roof and asked at 8 "Why are they doing this? Why are there no grown ups in charge?" Once I went to 'church' in desperation to see what went on there, (when I was about 9) to see if I could find some answers. I was ushered into the box for children, and given a bookmark with the ten commandments on it. The answer never came, only the box we were herded into as 'the processes were processed' and everyone went home.
It was not until much later - in fact when I was 63, that I realised, it was not about getting the answer to satisfy the query. The real quest was to ask the right question.
PS, I always saw that painting "The Incredulity of St Thomas" (Caravaggio, 1602) as a young woman, as evidence that the dry wound of Jesus in that painting, meant that the miracle of Jesus was that while he was wounded deeply, mortally, there came a time where our wounds stopped pouring blood. They stopped hurting. They remained as 'dry scars' of honour, to remind us that we can survive all this, but the only hope was for us is to retain the scars, for if we forget them we return to the same 'cycle' of hatred, war, maliciousness, and victimhood.
Liberalism was the last of the great twentieth‑century faiths, and like its cousins fascism and communism it promised salvation but delivered ruin. It claimed to be eternal, the end of history, yet collapsed at the first poke of reality, a ghost revealed as an advert for a product that never existed. Its institutions are Potemkin shells, its promise of progress a child’s fantasy, its only genius - the management of perpetual crisis. What we are witnessing is not tragedy but exposure, the grand illusion is over, and with it the pretence that this hollow creed was ever a civilisation….
You might as well have been describing my 31 year old niece who is so lonely and unhappy that she has been diagnosed (privately) as having ADHD and autism. She has neither. She is simply a confused product of the modern world who can't see her place in it because she has been taught to believe she is The Most Important Person And Everything Should Revolve Around Her. Which is an empty philosophy guaranteed to cause an amount of distress that no shopping trip can alleviate.
So many kids and younger adults have been patterned on a pathologising machine. It can and will be replaced - in many places with the best thing being absence - allowing normal life to flourish in its place.
Liberalism is anything but dead in Canada. The opposite if anything.
Conservatism is anathama in this country. Only the liberals speak openly and freely in public, always assuming everyone they talk to will be fully onboard. They are probably correct in their assumption 80% of the time.
Yep, but tick tock. I doubt they will be capable of buying the next election. As in Britain, France, Germany etc its a relic. Canada is basically a failed state given its financial corruption. Next big shock to the liberal regime is the endgame in Ukraine.
Many countries are dead men walking right now.
What will they be in 15 years? Not the same.
You're right, Frank. It's over. But how will the final curtain fall, I wonder?
With a whimper...or with a series of very loud, destructive, murderous bangs?
This is the question with which we should concern ourselves. Sudden collapse is neither pretty nor fun.
Fine piece of writing Frank, with amazing illustrations. Humanity has tried all the ¨isms¨ now and has found them wanting. Trouble is humanity does not learn and is destined to follow a new formula for Utopia. Darwin has a lot to answer for having convinced so many that we are just random accidents and it´s about survival of the fittest. A bigger scam than Covid in my view.
Liberated into the void by “enlightenment”. You have to give it to the Enemy - the branding is excellent.
Love the illustration of The Social Contract! Alas, I am one of the oldsters in the lower right-hand corner hoovering up benefits. I would be willing to accept cuts in what I get if everyone else was willing too.
I will say I like Jackson Pollack's "No. 1" and "Ocean." I'm not one of those that looks at paint splotches, however, and reads any kind of meaning into it. I just think some of it is pretty. Most of it is meh. Much prefer classical art / sculpture. But I wouldn't mind having some great Impressionist work around me while I wait for The Great Implosion.
Have a dekko at Frances Stonor Saunders for more on modern art and that.
Different flavours of "Non-Serviam", a middle finger to the only conception of God that explains everything, including most importantly, why God who lacks nothing would deign to create us - The Holy Trinity. Atheists refuse to serve Him, so serve themselves. Talmudics serve the collective "Self". Unitarians and Muslims cannot square the circle so "god" is a whimsical tyrant for whom black can mean white. Polytheists misplace the category of God. Protestants are really Unitarian Talmudists but most don't have a clue, but they don't have an accurate conception of Jesus Christ as second person of The Holy Trinity.IF they did they would understand our veneration of Mary. Even Orthodox screw it up by denying the filioque. Rational conclusion? Tridentine Catholicism is THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN!
Right now the British liberal state is running policy as if deliberately crafting a series of escalating insults to God Himself.
Great quote from Norman Mailer, from a 2002 interview:
"...I am not a liberal. The notion that man is a rational creature who arrives at reasonable solutions to knotty problems is much in doubt as far as I’m concerned. Liberalism depends all too much on having an optimistic view of human nature. But the history of the 20th century has not exactly fortified that notion. Moreover, liberalism also depends too much upon reason rather than any appreciation of mystery. If you start to talk about God with the average good liberal, he looks at you as if you are more than a little off. In that sense, since I happen to be—I hate to use the word religious, there are so many heavy dull connotations, so many pious self-seeking aspects—but I do believe there is a Creator who is active in human affairs and is endangered. I also believe there is a Devil who is equally active in our existence (and is all too often successful). So, I can hardly be a liberal. God is bad enough for them, but talk about the devil, and the liberal’s mind is blown. He is consorting with a fellow who is irrational if not insane. That is the end of real conversation."