Respectfully, what is the point of going to a Seder without understanding what it means? See Exodus 12. And Pascha (the correct name for what the English strangely call Easter) is quite different.
“Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, also was sacrificed.”
“And when the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. “For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.””
part of going to a different religious ritual is to try to learn; to try to see through the other guys' eyes, to understand what makes them who they are. A little knowledge is very good going in, the goal is to come away from the shared event more knowledgeable and more aware.
You're welcome Mr. Taibbi. Great post. As I get older I realize that my elders' Christian ways were more sensible and based than I was told by the boomer era turds who laughed at religion and cynically dismissed it. It's all part of our journey. How will it end? Only time will tell.
The past and the future only exist in your mind; Love everyone you can today, this minute, this opportunity; it won't come again. The little dopamine Hits you get from buying stuff, the internet Hits you get and All the other ultimately meaningless trash taking up your life can't compare to feelings you get from loving someone and being able to help them in little or great ways. Truly make someone happy, it's the best you can do!
Also a recovering Catholic but I watch the Daily Wire podcasts a lot and those guys are really religious and very smart. I wish I could be a part of a community but but today churches are either crazy leftist or semi-literate bible thumpers and/or grifters. I thought about hanging out with the jews because they have a pretty intelligent approach to the Bible but the traditions are too foreign to me. So I spent Easter morning picking up some things I needed at Walmart.
It’s true that there are lefty (woke) churches, illiterate fundamentalist churches, and grifter churches. But it’s not true that those are the only options. Try not to let the modern world dump all its cynicism on you.
Me too: Long term Buddhist, raised Catholic but rejected it all for most of my life. Buddhist practice and healing from childhood trauma helped me come around to appreciate Christianity and desire to learn more but the “real deal”, not the social control deal. Certainly the rise of what feels like “something evil this way comes” over the past 2 years hastened my appreciation too. I tried to find a church but discovered they are degenerate (Buddhist sense). Not just my opinion but the Christians I respect said that. For many, they go for what it means to them more than what they get out of it. That’s interesting to me because Buddha taught the decline, degeneracy, of Buddhism would arise in the future (seeing it now). Same like Christianity, per the prophecies there. When you cut through the noise, the signal across most religions and spiritual traditions is very, very similar. Happy Easter, and happy Odin on Yggdrasil day for the Vikings. Happy Dorje Shugden day (for the New Kadampa Buddhists, since old kadampa cancelled Dorje Shugden.) There are many other stories of resurrection/intentional reincarnation that remind me of the risen Christ too. The Rainbow Body/Vajra Body is unjversal in Vajrayana . There’s much more crossover to be found for the interested. Time to work on my pollinator victory garden. For it is rising. That is my Easter celebration: growing things. Death leads to new life every spring.
As your response (wasted sarcasm aside) suggests that you might not have attended a Seder, the Haggadah story I mentioned refers to sons with different orientations to Judaism. Given your initial comment, I assumed (quite wrongly, apparently) that you might be interested in reading how traditionally these divergent views were considered.
I think our interaction is over. Your lack of intellectual curiosity about Jewish traditions or customs, to the extent they are, as you wrote, “foreign” to you, is a curious position for a Jew to be in, but if it works for you, that’s fine. No one’s judging.
Try Bay Haven OPC. I think it's a relatively new start up congregation. You could also try Providence OPC but it's in Bradenton, FL. I've never been to either (I live in Ohio) but it's the same denomination as my church.
Like I said, I've never been to either, just the same denomination as what I go to here. Shouldn't be anything fancy, 3 hymns, a sermon and then communion. Could be a little liturgical--apostles or nicene creed, public prayer of confession, the lord's prayer and the doxology thrown in the mix. There are several presbyterian denominations (sometimes called the split p's), the OPC is one of the more conservative one's. If that doesn't work out, you could try and look up a PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) church, similar just a little less formal.
I used to have a good deal of fun trying to fluster people in the same way. I've never been religious myself, but know many who are. I quit arguing with the faithful some time ago. The reason I stopped finding this fun or a challenge to take on at every opportunity was the result of some reading and a confluence of ideas. I was reading a long article on the Big Bang and the expansion of the universe, I don't recall the specifics. I had also recently re-read a book I've read several times throughout my life which reads differently as I age (I first read it in high school). A prominent theme from the book came to mind as I read the article: What is good..and what is not good - need we ask anyone to tell us these things? Is the Big Bang theory as an origin story good? Not so much in the aesthetics, but in a more general sense. Is it, actually, any better than a biblical origin story? I can demand of the biblical story "proof" and poke holes based on scientific principles, but does that make it less good? It may lack provable facts, but it is a good story. Really, the version offered by science is no more provable. There must be faith in the math, the physics, the instrumentation, and theoretical constructs and relationships. Is it any more satisfying or valuable? I can't think of anyone's life having been improved or given greater purpose because of it. It won't help deal with death or hardship, doesn't foster greater respect or love for anyone, it is not comfort or companionship, and it doesn't provide any greater meaning to anything. It is simply knowledge, not a form of Truth. I have looked at the Faithful since and view them differently. Who am I to bash their faith, so long as they are decent, caring people? It really doesn't matter what they believe, more how they behave and most I know behave wonderfully. I've arrived at a similar place and take pride in caring for my family, honoring my vows and obligations, treating those around me with compassion and kindness. It doesn't help anyone to demand proof or question their beliefs so long as they are not imposed on others and cause no harm. This has become even more apparent as the world around us shakes off traditional faith in favor of new secular religions, with their own true believers and heretics and which do nothing to improve people's lives, rather seeking to control, cajole, divide, and hate. These new religions seek to impose on everyone no matter the cost. Maybe these folks could have found something better in the CCD world many of us have railed against.
Yes, wanting proof in the modern sense is at the Sunday School level of Christianity. The kind that made "The Life of Brian" and the brains of our New Atheists. "Village Atheists, Village Idiots" https://thebaffler.com/salvos/degrasse-tyson-kriss-atheists
If your interested in Bible stories and how they relate to our lives today, I would recommend Jordan Petersons Bible series on the Old Testament. Its free on YouTube. It will give you a perspective you never had on why the morals of these stories hold up thousands of years later. The purpose is not to evangelize, just to explain the psychology behind them. As far as I know Peterson is an atheist.
Years ago a friend sent me a gift of rubber boots when I was living on a semi flooded farm. I used to joke that Jesus Christ might have walked on water, but thru the grace of M*** Christ, I can walk through water, which can be just as cool and thankfully miraculous.
I couldn't remember well with the first one. It was Carl Sagan that originally said....“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. Sagan reworded Laplace's principle, which says that “the weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness”
A decent CCD teacher would take those VALID questions and open the door to a discussion of the nature of faith and how it can sustain us during hard times. Touch a little on ceremony, describing how as a group (community/congregation) comes together in ritual because what we're trying to do is have a deeper understanding of the universe around us.
I could go on and on, but I'm already too close to sermonizing.
My point is these doubts and skepticisms are valid and could and should have been addressed in a manner that was meaningful to you rather than having you guys cancelled.
You and Matt were pioneers - they now have Confirmation and Holy Communion at the same time in Grade 1. It is used to be grade 8 and I assume too many kids started refusing. I was confirmed under threat of death from my Dad after trying to refuse the day of the ceremony.
I also started quoting Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods. I thought I was a latter day Martin Luther speaking truth to power. Teenagers are a treat - as I now know.
I was a CCD teacher and on the CCD Board at the Georgetown Church. I once said in a meeting that I don't really care if my son becomes a Hindu as long as he is a goodman. Bouncerino.
My wife was a CCD teacher in a Bethesda church. She got bounced by Sister Joy in a youth movement.
At my daughter's Holy Communion, the pastor's homily talked about the church groundskeeper. He emphasized clipping the dead wood off the trees and shrubs to preserve their good life. Then he went further and started talking about how the clippings were burned in a semi-bonfire twice a year and reduced the to ashes.
As a girl I questioned the “ black & white” nuns too much about faith. They called my mother to say I couldn’t attend summer school again. As a teen when I left my Catholic home I left the church behind. Yet I did learn from a family of 10 all about love & celebrating all the pagan holidays with joy & fun. BTW Jesus the Christ was the ultimate activist. Got nailed to a cross for it. The young man in white mask in the video spoke truth. Wish Ford would have been around in 2016 to share footage ( that most people never saw; extreme censorship) of what happened on Standing Rock Indian Rez. An invasion of a sovereign nation , brutality to the extreme ongoing since 1492. I respect the young people from Minnesota driving to DC. And the Indian elders beating drums along with white scientists chained to fence. With all this said time for looking for eggs outside in the forest with my grandson. Joy!
I come from a family of 7 girls and a boy. My parents were devout Catholics, and raised us in the Church with love, security, responsibility and fun!. I still have truly Christ-like values, love thy neighbor, although I left the Church at 20 (and later Christianity) when, at university, learned how The Church influenced US aid to third world countries. Specifically cutting birth control from aid packages to central and South America. Catholic women here in the US enjoyed the right to contraception, with our parish priests uncomfortably talking about using our Christian conscience as to its use or not, knowing they’d lose most of the parish if they towed the official Church line. The poor women in South America however, those so desperate for ways to control reproduction, were denied.
But on a lighter note… I remember the days when women and girls were required to wear a head covering to Mass. In the 60s hats were losing popularity and most wore small lace pieces. Well with the rush of getting 7 girls (and one boy and Grandma too) bathed, dressed and polished for Sunday Mass…inevitability one or more of us would get to church and find we’d forgotten our head covering. My grandmother would then pull out her Kleenex and bobby- pin a piece of Kleenex to our heads!!! Hah ha! Gotta love it!
As a long lapsed Catholic ( who was the beneficiary (?) ) of a Catholic education, I appreciate your humor….my sentiments exactly. The more important thing often lost in our festivities is family, and the important bonding throughout the generations.
Interestimg aritcle in Barri weise's substack this a.m. Evidently, there are a number of sites that are now discussing the "meaning of life" issues that people have faith have struggled with for generations.
David Mamet had a great interview with Joe Rogan the other day. Mamet is an observant Jew and he and Joe talked about the Hebrew scriptures being myth in the form of stories about the human predicament. . - We tend to thnk that myth is untrue when it may be the truest of all. He says the claims of both the Jewish and christian religions have people saying "oh that is rubbish" (not a diredt quote) but he goes on to say if one says two octopuses walk into a bar" people don't argure that Octopi (?) don't walk - they know a joke is coming. So, Mamer argues, the religious person knows that a lot of wisdom is coming when someone says quotes scripture.
The oral traditions that preceded the written scripture by thousands of years were subjected to an intense process of memetic evolution given the constraints of human memory, language, and conceptual understanding at the time. They can convey profound insights in very simple packages.
Great. Before these new "sites," no one had considered the meaning of life. There hasn't been an unending stream of philosophical thought in the world since 500 BC or so. I'm glad the Web invented this. Seriously though, there are plenty of free materials online for people to educate themselves.
Just for fun, I googled the word "apostate" this morning. What a delightful experience. Found several long diatribes by good Christian theologians, mansplaining how apostates are NOT in fact Christians who had unrequited doubts about the inherent logical fallacies of religion, but, au contraire, NEVER WERE actually Christian at all--and therefore deserving of neither the Lord's salvation nor sympathy on earth. Honestly, it was the type of language I would expect from the radical Islamists who encourage their followers to throw battery acid in the faces of women who wish to get a divorce.
This type of thinking is disturbingly similar to some of the crazy women I've dated in my younger years, who insisted that breaking up with them meant that I never loved them in the first place, and that I wasted their time; as if I was planning the breakup from day one. Well, as I have had to explain numerous times, Twizzlers were once my favorite food--and now they're not. I once had an aversion to scotch whiskey, which tasted like bad medicine when I was 16 years old--and now I love it. People change, which inevitably upsets other people.
But isn't that at the root of the current epidemic of ill-mannered discourse in America, as well as the wider world? When someone converts out of a foreign religion into my religion, that stranger becomes a friend. But when they convert the other way, that's the ultimate betrayal, isn't it? It can't be simply explained as their personal evolution that no longer includes my tribe; it must be evidence of a morally bankrupt soul. Such a worldview sounds so miserably myopic that I don't know why I even have to spell it out...but that's still how most people think, is it not?
I suppose you're referring to political views, especially leftist, as religion, especially obvious among climate cultists. I've never heard of anyone who was conservative becoming leftist. It seems to go the other way as people mature.
Hmm, interesting point; how can we know for sure? As a Democrat who had a Libertarian epiphany two years ago due to COVID cultists, all the friends I've lost were leftists, and they wasted no time in throwing logic [as well as years of consistent friendship] under the bus due to their perception of ideological differences. I say perception because I was scarcely able to articulate my thought process in the avalanche of being told exactly how I think by people who once saw a Libertarian say something dumb on TV. Since I live in California, my few Republican friends have always been polite centrists, so I experienced no hostility from that camp. But I imagine if I lived in Arizona, I might have opposite views based on political demographics. So I'm wondering if what you say about people migrating from left to right is universal, or just what we perceive? Or is it more that we are experiencing an era in which the left has seized the reins of power, and are now the advocates of autocracy? Because for most of my life, that has described the right wing. Funny how things change over time...
I wasn't raised an observant Christian, but saluted the flag, learned the Lord's prayer, and rehearsed the pledge of allegiance in class. Aside from periodic visits to the front door from polite teenage Jehova's Witnesses, there was almost zero coercion. By comparison, I find the cultural shift toward government/corporation as God, absolutely terrifying.
I don't like this trend either, but perhaps it's not absolutely terrifying in a historical context. For most of human history, until very recently in fact, one's most significant concern was alienating one's community. In many parts of the world, it still is. For most people in most of history, their neighbors could isolate them, or in many cases do them physical harm, if people expressed religious or political views that were out of step with community norms. I'm old enough to remember people being assaulted for being flamboyantly gay, or black, in areas that frowned on such things. That used to be a much more immediate threat than an overbearing government or corporate crimes. Fortunately it no longer is, for most of us.
People are Left as long as they need subsidy. Take the Hispanic population. They came here with nothing. A lot needed subsidy to get on their feet. Now they are making money, working hard, paying taxes and proud of it. 2/3 of the federal tax payers get more back than the paid and less than 1/2 the adult population is working.
Progressives need to keep them dependent or minorities will no longer need them as a party. The Hispanics see millions of people parading into the country competing for their jobs and wages.
Sep 12, 2017The Census Bureau reported on Tuesday that the median household income was $59,000 in 2016,
In 2019, the average household income was as high as $69,560 and would have likely kept growing if not for the COVID-19 Pandemic. The median US income in 2020 was $67,521, UP $9,904 in 4 years.
Wage is contingent on Supply/Demand. Biden Median household income FALLS to $67,463 in 2021 year and will continue to fall through the millions more border trespassers competing for jobs.
Hispanics are moving Republican as a block and I would say as immigrants in general start making money and higher wages, they see unauthorized invasion as a threat to themselves, personally. The more intelligent minorities also don't appreciate the Left removing pre requisites from education to jobs because they truly believe they do not have the ability to learn. That is an insult.
I could be wrong. We will find out in November, unless Face Book breaks out their PERSONAL BALLOT BOXES again.
All agreed, except I don't think the Biden administration is actually immigrant friendly in any way. They pretend to be, just as they pretend that all their novel taxation schemes are intended to get money from billionaires (which is why they lamely proposed last year that the IRS should have full access to anyone's bank account that received more than $600 in deposits per year). To give you an idea of how "open borders" we are these days, we've accepted maybe a dozen Ukrainian refugees, after all the bellyaching about the moral calamity, and how Putin must be overthrown. Already forgotten are the thousands of Afghan refugees who worked with the US military against the Taliban, whom we promised asylum and then left them hanging like we always do. Anyway, I do agree that the "relaxed" state college admissions standards seem like the typical liberal condescension, and that it's weird to think legal immigrants are expected to support the rights of illegal immigrants. But for all the reformist rhetoric of this administration, they are adhering to the old playbook, as Trump did, and Obama did before him. It seems to me there are only two goals: scare working class republicans about crime and immigrants, and fool working class democrats into voting more tax burdens upon themselves.
Thank You. Democrats bill themselves being for the minorities and against the Republican BOOGIEMAN. Biden got more corporate sponsorship than Trump.
Trump got the little people like the Marines Army, Postal Service, UPS
Trump generally fared better with manual laborers, with 84% of donors who reported being ranchers and 75% of construction workers giving to him.
Biden got FB, AMAZON, Google, Apple, Microsoft, JP Morgan, U of California, Wels Fargo,
Biden - Forced Diversity, WOKE colleges and Universities. Dr.s and Physicians thanking him for keeping their incomes HIGH!
Trump became the enemy of the Globalists when he touted "America First". That does not fit in with the New World Order that Biden is trying to institute where all countries have Equal everything to the US. That means all the US workers will have to foot the bill for the rest of the world to have equity cause we print our own money.
“The affirmative task we have now is, uh, to actually, uh, create, uh, New World Order because the global order is changing again. And the institutions and the rules that worked so well in the post-World War II era for decades, they need to be strengthened, and some need to be changed…. So we have to lead. We have to update the rules of the road, and we have to do it in a way that maximizes benefits for everyone, because it’s overwhelmingly in our interest that China prosper, that Mongolia prosper. …We have to level the playing field.”
Only 1/2 the adult population is working (131.66 million full-time. Over 18, 258.3 million were adults,) 60% of THEM are receiving more back from the IRS than they paid in. Another 20 % barely pay for themselves that leaves the top 20% paying 87% of the income taxes. taxes... which means 10% of the population is paying 87% of the taxes and why we are going bankrupt. How many of the Democrats are working? Of Welfare recipients:
Democrat - 81% receive Public Housing and 74% Medicaid.
I think we should fly all new South, Central and Mexican Refugees to Europe as they never take Latinos and we are expected to take everyone. The world thinks it's OUR responsibility to equalize a whole continent by immigrating them to the US. (cost $24,691 per refugee per year. Children are at least $12,600 more for ed Special ED, twice as much). It is our right to refuse refugees if it will negatively affect our population and finances. Why are we taking refugees from Europe? Let Europe take care of the Ukraine. I don't see them importing Mexicans.
I suspect the leaders who direct policy for the rest of us don't know what they're doing, and make many dumb mistakes just like everyone else does. The Chinese government is much more dangerous than our own, but they are also making foolish errors. They have unlimited powers to implement totalitarian social control, and are trying hard to do so, yet still weren't able to foresee the catastrophe in commercial real estate, or the backlash against their new COVID lockdowns. Even if their strict social controls are able to prevent internal revolution, they are severely constraining creativity and economic participation with the wider world.
The Ukrainian situation shows how rusty most nations are when it comes to real warfare, as there hasn't been a war between great powers in so many decades. Russia, the EU, the UK, and the US are all making strategic miscalculations that look stupid, but also remind us how easily a nuclear war could start from a combination of poor decisions. I think the war itself has been a long play to cripple Russia, but backfired because Europe didn't have a backup plan for oil and gas. I can't begin to guess what Pentagon planners expect to happen, since we couldn't intimidate the Taliban out of Afghanistan after a 20-year campaign. Now we're going to put the squeeze on Putin by helping Ukraine resist the invasion? Makes no sense.
I guess I would expect a much greater risk of disaster coming from short-term thinking and lack of real-world experience, rather than a global consortium of elites who are playing 3D chess with human pawns. People who aspire to rule are seldom as clever as they think they are; and even if they are clever in some areas, that doesn't imply universal ability. The main reason we are governed by incompetent narcissists is that few of us can tolerate the pain of uncertainty in turbulent times; it's like an itch you can never scratch. When discussing such fun topics as COVID, inflation, or Ukraine, I've seen very few people able to exercise critical thinking. The reality of emotionally disturbing situations is that we lack information required to make optimal decisions--that's what makes them disturbing. The ability to come up with a strategy in the face of uncertainty, and to debate with others who may have different but also plausible strategies, and to be able to change course quickly when new information is available, is a rare skill, and one that requires strong internal discipline to acquire.
Next up on my reading list: The Wise Men, by Walter Isaacson, about the rare confluence of political wisdom in post-WWII America. I recently read an excellent biography of the Dulles brothers by Stephen Kinzer, which showed the dark side of what we unleashed on the world in the 20th century. George Kennan represented a more noble aspiration for a harmonious global future; if only there were people like that available to us now! The New World Order is an idiotic and poorly conceived ploy to "harmonize" taxation, immigration, and implement some unrealistic socialist/capitalist hybrid governance. There are far better ways to achieve a world in which everyone can coexist, if superpowers were focused on establishing a trust umbrella--meaning the minimalist rule of law required for trade cooperation.
Is this even possible? Not at the moment, but it was in the aftermath of WWII. America had the chance to create an atmosphere of mutual cooperation, and we blew it, big time. It can be done, but we might have to go through another period of great sacrifice to realize what every civilization has already learned: When the strong are allowed to prey on the weak, we are abandoning progress for chaos. I'm distinguishing the rule of law from welfare and aid. We don't owe poor nations financial support, any more than we owe it to our own people. Such policies always create dependencies and negative social stigma that combine to make people worse off in the long run. What we do owe to our fellow man is an environment of legal equality, in which the fear of harassment by the legal system is no greater for the poor than the wealthy. Do we owe people a good education? If we want them to be productive, then maybe so. Is government suited to this task? Doubtful, but there are other options, as we have seen with the charter school movement. Some private options are outright scams, some are well-intentioned but mediocre, and some are excellent. Parents are figuring out how to get what they need outside of the state system, just as young adults are considering whether a college education is still worth incurring massive debt.
My point is that there are no universal answers, just as there are no completely good or bad institutions, and very few definitively good or bad people. Life is complex, and requires trial and error to improve on the status quo. A healthy society recognizes this reality, and learns how to grapple with uncertainty. Hopefully we'll figure that out before things get ugly...
I grew up Catholic but it never took. I went to Catholic school so Easter week was hell week. We had to go to Mass 3 or 4 times. I am still not religious- but as you get older you see the community it creates and it’s value to society.
Matt's thoughts were just perfect from where I sit.
Made me think of a conversation I had with a professor of religious studies (secular college) at a party. He was raised a Catholic and had left the church. I commented that all religions are cults. He disagreed and said one couldn't leave a cult easily. I asked him how easy it has been to leave the Catholic church. He looked at me a minute and said, "Oh, yeah...."
I'm not Catholic so can't speak to that. I've found that whenever someone in the media or Hollywood (or someone who teaches religion at a secular college) disagrees with someone who goes to church, they use the word "cult." Very lazy (and ignorant).
No, it isn't. It's absolutely true. Whenever one must believe in the supernatural to be in a group, it's a cult! No other word is as perfectly descriptive. BUT I do say, to each his/her own.
Folks can disagree but I read it as unironically pro-Easter and pro-holiday, insofar as it is good to get together with one's family and wish well for everyone who isn't one's family? Matt has really mellowed out since his classic NY Press article "Burn, Christmas, Burn," which seems to have vanished from the internet (I'm too lazy to trawl the Internet Archive for purposes of a comment which virtually no one will read).
Though for a trip down memory lane, these letters in response are hilarious: https://www.ourtownny.com/news/the-mail-CDNP1120050111301119989 "His writing makes your skin crawl and leaves visions of maggots in garbage in its wake." "We always started with a couple of six-packs and a pickup truck. Then we borrowed some assault rifles and any other guns we could get our hands on for the annual 'Santa Shoot.'"
This past Christmas (like Matt, I'm a recovered Catholic) I put up lights for the first time in forrr-everrrr... It was pretty cool. I'm 63, no grandkids and I just did it because it's kind of cool.
Well!
This past summer a new family moved in across the street. I no sooner finish MY lights when my new neighbor puts lights up. Hmm...
So I go to the store and pick up another display thingie and put that outside.
The next day my neighbor lines his walkway with illuminated candy canes.
IT'S ON BUBBA!
I wrap solar lights alllll around a tree out front- the trunk, and branches! Think of a poor man's Tavern On The Green...
WELL! Buddy across the street lights up the tree in front of his house!
My inner Clark Griswold is incensed!
Back and forth for a week it goes- I put out illuminated wire reindeer, Bubba puts out illuminated wire presents! I put out a small Christmas tree, Bubba does his windows!
AAAaaaa!
On the 23rd, we got hit with a whopper of a snowstorm. I go out and blow out my driveway and see Bubba struggling w/ his snowblower. I can hear from the sounds it's making that there's an adjustment needed.
So I wander across the street and introduce myself to Sammy. We have a laugh over our light rivalry. He does it for his little kids (he's got 4). I explain what a choke does on a small engine and we fire his snowblower up right away. Now my nemises is my bud.
Get this: Sammy's Muslim. He puts up the lights 'because the kids like it and it's cool, y'know?' That's a quote.
Well, this April, Sammy's out front of his house, and he's stringing lights again. He hangs banners too. One says 'Ramaden' and the other says 'Mubarak'. Professor Google tells me what that means.
Hmmm...
So guess who BREAKS OUT HIS CHRISTMAS LIGHTS AGAIN!
And so on my street at night Sammy's home is illuminated with wishes of peace and joy, and across the street my home replies in kind.
Matt, I love your insights...they often cause me to think. But this piece for some reason caused me to stop in my tracks and think. Thank you and Happy Whatever to you, too.
I lost my Christian faith (raised Methodist) during high school, when I began to think for myself. My wife and I never had our children baptized nor sent to Sunday school. But they are healthy adults now, of good character, so apparently everything turned out all right. However, the one thing I miss most about Easter is hiding Easter eggs at home, as the children spent an hour looking for them and never found them all.
I once had dinner In Portland with the first director of the Holocaust Museum in D.C. I said I understood lots of Jews are atheists. He immediately said, "85%."
[So tell, me how can they be god's chosen children?]
Had a Seder last night with my Ashkenazi Armenian Japanese grandchildren. Going to an Easter luncheon today. Only in America. Happy whatever.
Oy vey! Omedeto gozaimasu!
no longer only in America. Sharing holidays is becoming universal.
My opera group in Athens & Piter just wished us a Happy Easter this week with theirs next. Joyful
Respectfully, what is the point of going to a Seder without understanding what it means? See Exodus 12. And Pascha (the correct name for what the English strangely call Easter) is quite different.
“Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, also was sacrificed.”
(1 Corinthians 5:7 LSB)
https://accordance.bible/link/read/LSB#1Cor._5:7
“And when the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. “For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.””
(Luke 22:14–19 LSB)
https://accordance.bible/link/read/LSB#Luke_22:14
part of going to a different religious ritual is to try to learn; to try to see through the other guys' eyes, to understand what makes them who they are. A little knowledge is very good going in, the goal is to come away from the shared event more knowledgeable and more aware.
You're welcome Mr. Taibbi. Great post. As I get older I realize that my elders' Christian ways were more sensible and based than I was told by the boomer era turds who laughed at religion and cynically dismissed it. It's all part of our journey. How will it end? Only time will tell.
All the best to you and your family.
The past and the future only exist in your mind; Love everyone you can today, this minute, this opportunity; it won't come again. The little dopamine Hits you get from buying stuff, the internet Hits you get and All the other ultimately meaningless trash taking up your life can't compare to feelings you get from loving someone and being able to help them in little or great ways. Truly make someone happy, it's the best you can do!
This is pretty much the most important truth.
All the best to you and your family, and fuck the boomer-era turds. You seem nice.
I’m a boomer and I guess that makes me a turd. Seems a little bigoted, but hey, as long as your bigotry is ‘hip’…
P.s. i detest religion. There’s your confirmation.
I am an old Catholic who loves your writing, your wit, and your intellect. It’s all about family, enjoy!
Ditto, and ditto.
Same and today we went to our first Baptist Easter Service of a family friend. Much more fun and more singing!! Happy Easter.
Also a recovering Catholic but I watch the Daily Wire podcasts a lot and those guys are really religious and very smart. I wish I could be a part of a community but but today churches are either crazy leftist or semi-literate bible thumpers and/or grifters. I thought about hanging out with the jews because they have a pretty intelligent approach to the Bible but the traditions are too foreign to me. So I spent Easter morning picking up some things I needed at Walmart.
It’s true that there are lefty (woke) churches, illiterate fundamentalist churches, and grifter churches. But it’s not true that those are the only options. Try not to let the modern world dump all its cynicism on you.
In the original Greek, go for zoe, not just bios.
Downeyite Deryl?
One and the same. I’m guessing this is the guy I last saw at the Musical Box show.
Si'
It is not too surprising to bump into you here even though it seems like a small chance. I hope all is well with you.
Me too: Long term Buddhist, raised Catholic but rejected it all for most of my life. Buddhist practice and healing from childhood trauma helped me come around to appreciate Christianity and desire to learn more but the “real deal”, not the social control deal. Certainly the rise of what feels like “something evil this way comes” over the past 2 years hastened my appreciation too. I tried to find a church but discovered they are degenerate (Buddhist sense). Not just my opinion but the Christians I respect said that. For many, they go for what it means to them more than what they get out of it. That’s interesting to me because Buddha taught the decline, degeneracy, of Buddhism would arise in the future (seeing it now). Same like Christianity, per the prophecies there. When you cut through the noise, the signal across most religions and spiritual traditions is very, very similar. Happy Easter, and happy Odin on Yggdrasil day for the Vikings. Happy Dorje Shugden day (for the New Kadampa Buddhists, since old kadampa cancelled Dorje Shugden.) There are many other stories of resurrection/intentional reincarnation that remind me of the risen Christ too. The Rainbow Body/Vajra Body is unjversal in Vajrayana . There’s much more crossover to be found for the interested. Time to work on my pollinator victory garden. For it is rising. That is my Easter celebration: growing things. Death leads to new life every spring.
Buddhism is the way to go. The Abrahamic religions belong to humankind's infancy.
Buddhism or Hinduism. Great philosophy, great practices, but not really a viable community. In this country they tend to be old hippies.
I’m Jewish and they’re foreign to me too!
You may wish to ponder the Seder story of the four sons, then.
Never heard that one. Thanks for the religious instruction, Padre.
As your response (wasted sarcasm aside) suggests that you might not have attended a Seder, the Haggadah story I mentioned refers to sons with different orientations to Judaism. Given your initial comment, I assumed (quite wrongly, apparently) that you might be interested in reading how traditionally these divergent views were considered.
lol.
Suffice it to say I’ve found the afikomen many times.
Keep going, one of these days you’ll make a right assumption.
I think our interaction is over. Your lack of intellectual curiosity about Jewish traditions or customs, to the extent they are, as you wrote, “foreign” to you, is a curious position for a Jew to be in, but if it works for you, that’s fine. No one’s judging.
Shopping is, in its own way, a form of worship.
George W. Bush to the American public immediately post-9/11: "Go to the mall."
"The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation" by Harold Bloom is the best description of American religion.
Oh come on. Semi-literate Bible thumpers? Don’t be an ignorant, condescending dope.
I’m with you on scorn for the lefty churches though. They mean well but you can’t ride two horses at once.
I live near Tampa, feel free to recommend a good church.
Try Bay Haven OPC. I think it's a relatively new start up congregation. You could also try Providence OPC but it's in Bradenton, FL. I've never been to either (I live in Ohio) but it's the same denomination as my church.
Oh, Presbyterians, not very familiar with them except the relation between their name and presbyopia (root is elders). Worth a shot.
Like I said, I've never been to either, just the same denomination as what I go to here. Shouldn't be anything fancy, 3 hymns, a sermon and then communion. Could be a little liturgical--apostles or nicene creed, public prayer of confession, the lord's prayer and the doxology thrown in the mix. There are several presbyterian denominations (sometimes called the split p's), the OPC is one of the more conservative one's. If that doesn't work out, you could try and look up a PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) church, similar just a little less formal.
Good information, the local Presbyterian church sounds kinda lefty.
I think, of the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism is the only one that accepts atheists, at least, in some congregations
I got bounced from CCD as well. Instructor was tired of my questions. I kept asking for some kind of proof. I might have been missing the point.
That was my exact offense!
The resurrection is the proof. Where are the remains of Jesus’ body?
Religion is FAITH, my son, not Proof. It is not of this world and why the IRS is afraid to tax it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Prepuce
I used to have a good deal of fun trying to fluster people in the same way. I've never been religious myself, but know many who are. I quit arguing with the faithful some time ago. The reason I stopped finding this fun or a challenge to take on at every opportunity was the result of some reading and a confluence of ideas. I was reading a long article on the Big Bang and the expansion of the universe, I don't recall the specifics. I had also recently re-read a book I've read several times throughout my life which reads differently as I age (I first read it in high school). A prominent theme from the book came to mind as I read the article: What is good..and what is not good - need we ask anyone to tell us these things? Is the Big Bang theory as an origin story good? Not so much in the aesthetics, but in a more general sense. Is it, actually, any better than a biblical origin story? I can demand of the biblical story "proof" and poke holes based on scientific principles, but does that make it less good? It may lack provable facts, but it is a good story. Really, the version offered by science is no more provable. There must be faith in the math, the physics, the instrumentation, and theoretical constructs and relationships. Is it any more satisfying or valuable? I can't think of anyone's life having been improved or given greater purpose because of it. It won't help deal with death or hardship, doesn't foster greater respect or love for anyone, it is not comfort or companionship, and it doesn't provide any greater meaning to anything. It is simply knowledge, not a form of Truth. I have looked at the Faithful since and view them differently. Who am I to bash their faith, so long as they are decent, caring people? It really doesn't matter what they believe, more how they behave and most I know behave wonderfully. I've arrived at a similar place and take pride in caring for my family, honoring my vows and obligations, treating those around me with compassion and kindness. It doesn't help anyone to demand proof or question their beliefs so long as they are not imposed on others and cause no harm. This has become even more apparent as the world around us shakes off traditional faith in favor of new secular religions, with their own true believers and heretics and which do nothing to improve people's lives, rather seeking to control, cajole, divide, and hate. These new religions seek to impose on everyone no matter the cost. Maybe these folks could have found something better in the CCD world many of us have railed against.
Me too. Got thrown out of an exclusive Catholic girls HS school for arguing against and daring to refute the dogma, insanity of nasty Irish nuns.
Yes, wanting proof in the modern sense is at the Sunday School level of Christianity. The kind that made "The Life of Brian" and the brains of our New Atheists. "Village Atheists, Village Idiots" https://thebaffler.com/salvos/degrasse-tyson-kriss-atheists
Me too! I finished CCD and made my confirmation but I questioned it all. They hated that. "He walked on water...how?"
Children asking childish questions can be annoying though.
If your interested in Bible stories and how they relate to our lives today, I would recommend Jordan Petersons Bible series on the Old Testament. Its free on YouTube. It will give you a perspective you never had on why the morals of these stories hold up thousands of years later. The purpose is not to evangelize, just to explain the psychology behind them. As far as I know Peterson is an atheist.
Years ago a friend sent me a gift of rubber boots when I was living on a semi flooded farm. I used to joke that Jesus Christ might have walked on water, but thru the grace of M*** Christ, I can walk through water, which can be just as cool and thankfully miraculous.
I couldn't remember well with the first one. It was Carl Sagan that originally said....“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. Sagan reworded Laplace's principle, which says that “the weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness”
What is an "extraordinary claim?" I don't rate Sagan or any of the other scientists who step outside of their lane to talk about things then know nothing about. https://thebaffler.com/salvos/degrasse-tyson-kriss-atheists
A decent CCD teacher would take those VALID questions and open the door to a discussion of the nature of faith and how it can sustain us during hard times. Touch a little on ceremony, describing how as a group (community/congregation) comes together in ritual because what we're trying to do is have a deeper understanding of the universe around us.
I could go on and on, but I'm already too close to sermonizing.
My point is these doubts and skepticisms are valid and could and should have been addressed in a manner that was meaningful to you rather than having you guys cancelled.
You and Matt were pioneers - they now have Confirmation and Holy Communion at the same time in Grade 1. It is used to be grade 8 and I assume too many kids started refusing. I was confirmed under threat of death from my Dad after trying to refuse the day of the ceremony.
I also started quoting Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods. I thought I was a latter day Martin Luther speaking truth to power. Teenagers are a treat - as I now know.
Fantastic claims require fantastic proof.
Such as what?
Something fantastic.
Faith is a gift from God
Exactly! The b&w’s were demanding only their version
I was a CCD teacher and on the CCD Board at the Georgetown Church. I once said in a meeting that I don't really care if my son becomes a Hindu as long as he is a goodman. Bouncerino.
My wife was a CCD teacher in a Bethesda church. She got bounced by Sister Joy in a youth movement.
At my daughter's Holy Communion, the pastor's homily talked about the church groundskeeper. He emphasized clipping the dead wood off the trees and shrubs to preserve their good life. Then he went further and started talking about how the clippings were burned in a semi-bonfire twice a year and reduced the to ashes.
Lordy, Lordy.
T. Hoy Booker
I got kicked out of Hebrew School. Basically too many "debates" and such with the rabbi. He just got tired of it, I guess.
As a girl I questioned the “ black & white” nuns too much about faith. They called my mother to say I couldn’t attend summer school again. As a teen when I left my Catholic home I left the church behind. Yet I did learn from a family of 10 all about love & celebrating all the pagan holidays with joy & fun. BTW Jesus the Christ was the ultimate activist. Got nailed to a cross for it. The young man in white mask in the video spoke truth. Wish Ford would have been around in 2016 to share footage ( that most people never saw; extreme censorship) of what happened on Standing Rock Indian Rez. An invasion of a sovereign nation , brutality to the extreme ongoing since 1492. I respect the young people from Minnesota driving to DC. And the Indian elders beating drums along with white scientists chained to fence. With all this said time for looking for eggs outside in the forest with my grandson. Joy!
We need a substack for former Catholics to exchange childhood stories! My kids have no idea what it was like.
I come from a family of 7 girls and a boy. My parents were devout Catholics, and raised us in the Church with love, security, responsibility and fun!. I still have truly Christ-like values, love thy neighbor, although I left the Church at 20 (and later Christianity) when, at university, learned how The Church influenced US aid to third world countries. Specifically cutting birth control from aid packages to central and South America. Catholic women here in the US enjoyed the right to contraception, with our parish priests uncomfortably talking about using our Christian conscience as to its use or not, knowing they’d lose most of the parish if they towed the official Church line. The poor women in South America however, those so desperate for ways to control reproduction, were denied.
But on a lighter note… I remember the days when women and girls were required to wear a head covering to Mass. In the 60s hats were losing popularity and most wore small lace pieces. Well with the rush of getting 7 girls (and one boy and Grandma too) bathed, dressed and polished for Sunday Mass…inevitability one or more of us would get to church and find we’d forgotten our head covering. My grandmother would then pull out her Kleenex and bobby- pin a piece of Kleenex to our heads!!! Hah ha! Gotta love it!
Happy Easter all!
Ann kindred spirits we are. 5 girls 3 boys. Many a kleenex bobby pinned also. Smile
CCD was a good place to meet the girls in the neighboring town.
What am I saving my soul for?
As a long lapsed Catholic ( who was the beneficiary (?) ) of a Catholic education, I appreciate your humor….my sentiments exactly. The more important thing often lost in our festivities is family, and the important bonding throughout the generations.
Interestimg aritcle in Barri weise's substack this a.m. Evidently, there are a number of sites that are now discussing the "meaning of life" issues that people have faith have struggled with for generations.
David Mamet had a great interview with Joe Rogan the other day. Mamet is an observant Jew and he and Joe talked about the Hebrew scriptures being myth in the form of stories about the human predicament. . - We tend to thnk that myth is untrue when it may be the truest of all. He says the claims of both the Jewish and christian religions have people saying "oh that is rubbish" (not a diredt quote) but he goes on to say if one says two octopuses walk into a bar" people don't argure that Octopi (?) don't walk - they know a joke is coming. So, Mamer argues, the religious person knows that a lot of wisdom is coming when someone says quotes scripture.
The oral traditions that preceded the written scripture by thousands of years were subjected to an intense process of memetic evolution given the constraints of human memory, language, and conceptual understanding at the time. They can convey profound insights in very simple packages.
"octopuses" is correct.
Yeah, you, Jacques Cousteau, and the Ocean Conservancy say so. I like "octopodes."
https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2022/02/01/plural-octopus/
Great. Before these new "sites," no one had considered the meaning of life. There hasn't been an unending stream of philosophical thought in the world since 500 BC or so. I'm glad the Web invented this. Seriously though, there are plenty of free materials online for people to educate themselves.
The pagan holidays were the best part of being Catholic.
The pagan origins are sketchy at best... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJq70tf0AsY
Just for fun, I googled the word "apostate" this morning. What a delightful experience. Found several long diatribes by good Christian theologians, mansplaining how apostates are NOT in fact Christians who had unrequited doubts about the inherent logical fallacies of religion, but, au contraire, NEVER WERE actually Christian at all--and therefore deserving of neither the Lord's salvation nor sympathy on earth. Honestly, it was the type of language I would expect from the radical Islamists who encourage their followers to throw battery acid in the faces of women who wish to get a divorce.
This type of thinking is disturbingly similar to some of the crazy women I've dated in my younger years, who insisted that breaking up with them meant that I never loved them in the first place, and that I wasted their time; as if I was planning the breakup from day one. Well, as I have had to explain numerous times, Twizzlers were once my favorite food--and now they're not. I once had an aversion to scotch whiskey, which tasted like bad medicine when I was 16 years old--and now I love it. People change, which inevitably upsets other people.
But isn't that at the root of the current epidemic of ill-mannered discourse in America, as well as the wider world? When someone converts out of a foreign religion into my religion, that stranger becomes a friend. But when they convert the other way, that's the ultimate betrayal, isn't it? It can't be simply explained as their personal evolution that no longer includes my tribe; it must be evidence of a morally bankrupt soul. Such a worldview sounds so miserably myopic that I don't know why I even have to spell it out...but that's still how most people think, is it not?
I suppose you're referring to political views, especially leftist, as religion, especially obvious among climate cultists. I've never heard of anyone who was conservative becoming leftist. It seems to go the other way as people mature.
Hmm, interesting point; how can we know for sure? As a Democrat who had a Libertarian epiphany two years ago due to COVID cultists, all the friends I've lost were leftists, and they wasted no time in throwing logic [as well as years of consistent friendship] under the bus due to their perception of ideological differences. I say perception because I was scarcely able to articulate my thought process in the avalanche of being told exactly how I think by people who once saw a Libertarian say something dumb on TV. Since I live in California, my few Republican friends have always been polite centrists, so I experienced no hostility from that camp. But I imagine if I lived in Arizona, I might have opposite views based on political demographics. So I'm wondering if what you say about people migrating from left to right is universal, or just what we perceive? Or is it more that we are experiencing an era in which the left has seized the reins of power, and are now the advocates of autocracy? Because for most of my life, that has described the right wing. Funny how things change over time...
I wasn't raised an observant Christian, but saluted the flag, learned the Lord's prayer, and rehearsed the pledge of allegiance in class. Aside from periodic visits to the front door from polite teenage Jehova's Witnesses, there was almost zero coercion. By comparison, I find the cultural shift toward government/corporation as God, absolutely terrifying.
I don't like this trend either, but perhaps it's not absolutely terrifying in a historical context. For most of human history, until very recently in fact, one's most significant concern was alienating one's community. In many parts of the world, it still is. For most people in most of history, their neighbors could isolate them, or in many cases do them physical harm, if people expressed religious or political views that were out of step with community norms. I'm old enough to remember people being assaulted for being flamboyantly gay, or black, in areas that frowned on such things. That used to be a much more immediate threat than an overbearing government or corporate crimes. Fortunately it no longer is, for most of us.
People are Left as long as they need subsidy. Take the Hispanic population. They came here with nothing. A lot needed subsidy to get on their feet. Now they are making money, working hard, paying taxes and proud of it. 2/3 of the federal tax payers get more back than the paid and less than 1/2 the adult population is working.
Progressives need to keep them dependent or minorities will no longer need them as a party. The Hispanics see millions of people parading into the country competing for their jobs and wages.
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Sep 12, 2017The Census Bureau reported on Tuesday that the median household income was $59,000 in 2016,
In 2019, the average household income was as high as $69,560 and would have likely kept growing if not for the COVID-19 Pandemic. The median US income in 2020 was $67,521, UP $9,904 in 4 years.
https://www.census.gov/libr...
Wage is contingent on Supply/Demand. Biden Median household income FALLS to $67,463 in 2021 year and will continue to fall through the millions more border trespassers competing for jobs.
https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-household-income-percentiles/
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Hispanics are moving Republican as a block and I would say as immigrants in general start making money and higher wages, they see unauthorized invasion as a threat to themselves, personally. The more intelligent minorities also don't appreciate the Left removing pre requisites from education to jobs because they truly believe they do not have the ability to learn. That is an insult.
I could be wrong. We will find out in November, unless Face Book breaks out their PERSONAL BALLOT BOXES again.
All agreed, except I don't think the Biden administration is actually immigrant friendly in any way. They pretend to be, just as they pretend that all their novel taxation schemes are intended to get money from billionaires (which is why they lamely proposed last year that the IRS should have full access to anyone's bank account that received more than $600 in deposits per year). To give you an idea of how "open borders" we are these days, we've accepted maybe a dozen Ukrainian refugees, after all the bellyaching about the moral calamity, and how Putin must be overthrown. Already forgotten are the thousands of Afghan refugees who worked with the US military against the Taliban, whom we promised asylum and then left them hanging like we always do. Anyway, I do agree that the "relaxed" state college admissions standards seem like the typical liberal condescension, and that it's weird to think legal immigrants are expected to support the rights of illegal immigrants. But for all the reformist rhetoric of this administration, they are adhering to the old playbook, as Trump did, and Obama did before him. It seems to me there are only two goals: scare working class republicans about crime and immigrants, and fool working class democrats into voting more tax burdens upon themselves.
Thank You. Democrats bill themselves being for the minorities and against the Republican BOOGIEMAN. Biden got more corporate sponsorship than Trump.
Trump got the little people like the Marines Army, Postal Service, UPS
Trump generally fared better with manual laborers, with 84% of donors who reported being ranchers and 75% of construction workers giving to him.
Biden got FB, AMAZON, Google, Apple, Microsoft, JP Morgan, U of California, Wels Fargo,
Biden - Forced Diversity, WOKE colleges and Universities. Dr.s and Physicians thanking him for keeping their incomes HIGH!
Trump became the enemy of the Globalists when he touted "America First". That does not fit in with the New World Order that Biden is trying to institute where all countries have Equal everything to the US. That means all the US workers will have to foot the bill for the rest of the world to have equity cause we print our own money.
“The affirmative task we have now is, uh, to actually, uh, create, uh, New World Order because the global order is changing again. And the institutions and the rules that worked so well in the post-World War II era for decades, they need to be strengthened, and some need to be changed…. So we have to lead. We have to update the rules of the road, and we have to do it in a way that maximizes benefits for everyone, because it’s overwhelmingly in our interest that China prosper, that Mongolia prosper. …We have to level the playing field.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1AMYHHAXhI
Only 1/2 the adult population is working (131.66 million full-time. Over 18, 258.3 million were adults,) 60% of THEM are receiving more back from the IRS than they paid in. Another 20 % barely pay for themselves that leaves the top 20% paying 87% of the income taxes. taxes... which means 10% of the population is paying 87% of the taxes and why we are going bankrupt. How many of the Democrats are working? Of Welfare recipients:
Democrat - 81% receive Public Housing and 74% Medicaid.
I think we should fly all new South, Central and Mexican Refugees to Europe as they never take Latinos and we are expected to take everyone. The world thinks it's OUR responsibility to equalize a whole continent by immigrating them to the US. (cost $24,691 per refugee per year. Children are at least $12,600 more for ed Special ED, twice as much). It is our right to refuse refugees if it will negatively affect our population and finances. Why are we taking refugees from Europe? Let Europe take care of the Ukraine. I don't see them importing Mexicans.
The Ukraine? If you break it, you own it.
I essentially agree with you on everything.
I suspect the leaders who direct policy for the rest of us don't know what they're doing, and make many dumb mistakes just like everyone else does. The Chinese government is much more dangerous than our own, but they are also making foolish errors. They have unlimited powers to implement totalitarian social control, and are trying hard to do so, yet still weren't able to foresee the catastrophe in commercial real estate, or the backlash against their new COVID lockdowns. Even if their strict social controls are able to prevent internal revolution, they are severely constraining creativity and economic participation with the wider world.
The Ukrainian situation shows how rusty most nations are when it comes to real warfare, as there hasn't been a war between great powers in so many decades. Russia, the EU, the UK, and the US are all making strategic miscalculations that look stupid, but also remind us how easily a nuclear war could start from a combination of poor decisions. I think the war itself has been a long play to cripple Russia, but backfired because Europe didn't have a backup plan for oil and gas. I can't begin to guess what Pentagon planners expect to happen, since we couldn't intimidate the Taliban out of Afghanistan after a 20-year campaign. Now we're going to put the squeeze on Putin by helping Ukraine resist the invasion? Makes no sense.
I guess I would expect a much greater risk of disaster coming from short-term thinking and lack of real-world experience, rather than a global consortium of elites who are playing 3D chess with human pawns. People who aspire to rule are seldom as clever as they think they are; and even if they are clever in some areas, that doesn't imply universal ability. The main reason we are governed by incompetent narcissists is that few of us can tolerate the pain of uncertainty in turbulent times; it's like an itch you can never scratch. When discussing such fun topics as COVID, inflation, or Ukraine, I've seen very few people able to exercise critical thinking. The reality of emotionally disturbing situations is that we lack information required to make optimal decisions--that's what makes them disturbing. The ability to come up with a strategy in the face of uncertainty, and to debate with others who may have different but also plausible strategies, and to be able to change course quickly when new information is available, is a rare skill, and one that requires strong internal discipline to acquire.
Next up on my reading list: The Wise Men, by Walter Isaacson, about the rare confluence of political wisdom in post-WWII America. I recently read an excellent biography of the Dulles brothers by Stephen Kinzer, which showed the dark side of what we unleashed on the world in the 20th century. George Kennan represented a more noble aspiration for a harmonious global future; if only there were people like that available to us now! The New World Order is an idiotic and poorly conceived ploy to "harmonize" taxation, immigration, and implement some unrealistic socialist/capitalist hybrid governance. There are far better ways to achieve a world in which everyone can coexist, if superpowers were focused on establishing a trust umbrella--meaning the minimalist rule of law required for trade cooperation.
Is this even possible? Not at the moment, but it was in the aftermath of WWII. America had the chance to create an atmosphere of mutual cooperation, and we blew it, big time. It can be done, but we might have to go through another period of great sacrifice to realize what every civilization has already learned: When the strong are allowed to prey on the weak, we are abandoning progress for chaos. I'm distinguishing the rule of law from welfare and aid. We don't owe poor nations financial support, any more than we owe it to our own people. Such policies always create dependencies and negative social stigma that combine to make people worse off in the long run. What we do owe to our fellow man is an environment of legal equality, in which the fear of harassment by the legal system is no greater for the poor than the wealthy. Do we owe people a good education? If we want them to be productive, then maybe so. Is government suited to this task? Doubtful, but there are other options, as we have seen with the charter school movement. Some private options are outright scams, some are well-intentioned but mediocre, and some are excellent. Parents are figuring out how to get what they need outside of the state system, just as young adults are considering whether a college education is still worth incurring massive debt.
My point is that there are no universal answers, just as there are no completely good or bad institutions, and very few definitively good or bad people. Life is complex, and requires trial and error to improve on the status quo. A healthy society recognizes this reality, and learns how to grapple with uncertainty. Hopefully we'll figure that out before things get ugly...
If you aren’t a liberal at 20 you have no heart, if you aren’t a conservative at 40 you have no brain-Winston Churchill
Actually, Disraeli said it. Probably, Churchill agreed with it, though.
I know people who’ve gone from Right to Left even though as you say, most people, especially most men, become more Right wing as they get older.
Most relativists are above this.
Or proximate to it in some way.
I wish there were more of them...
"The guardians of religious orthodoxy are like some of the crazy women I've dated." Goddamn, I'm using that in this weeks homily.
Inherit my mantle and surpass my achievement... Bonus points if you can identify that quote!
I grew up Catholic but it never took. I went to Catholic school so Easter week was hell week. We had to go to Mass 3 or 4 times. I am still not religious- but as you get older you see the community it creates and it’s value to society.
My in-laws went to church their whole lives--in the Disciples of Christ--and were never religious. It was all about the social aspect.
Every day that I received another example of your extraordinary journalism, gives me reason to smile!
I came home from Easter services filled with joy to read a post like this, mocking and sarcastic. Disappointed.
There was no sarcasm intended. Not sure where you saw it.
I was referring to Matt's post, not your's.
Matt's thoughts were just perfect from where I sit.
Made me think of a conversation I had with a professor of religious studies (secular college) at a party. He was raised a Catholic and had left the church. I commented that all religions are cults. He disagreed and said one couldn't leave a cult easily. I asked him how easy it has been to leave the Catholic church. He looked at me a minute and said, "Oh, yeah...."
I'm not Catholic so can't speak to that. I've found that whenever someone in the media or Hollywood (or someone who teaches religion at a secular college) disagrees with someone who goes to church, they use the word "cult." Very lazy (and ignorant).
No, it isn't. It's absolutely true. Whenever one must believe in the supernatural to be in a group, it's a cult! No other word is as perfectly descriptive. BUT I do say, to each his/her own.
Folks can disagree but I read it as unironically pro-Easter and pro-holiday, insofar as it is good to get together with one's family and wish well for everyone who isn't one's family? Matt has really mellowed out since his classic NY Press article "Burn, Christmas, Burn," which seems to have vanished from the internet (I'm too lazy to trawl the Internet Archive for purposes of a comment which virtually no one will read).
Though for a trip down memory lane, these letters in response are hilarious: https://www.ourtownny.com/news/the-mail-CDNP1120050111301119989 "His writing makes your skin crawl and leaves visions of maggots in garbage in its wake." "We always started with a couple of six-packs and a pickup truck. Then we borrowed some assault rifles and any other guns we could get our hands on for the annual 'Santa Shoot.'"
Here's a true story...
This past Christmas (like Matt, I'm a recovered Catholic) I put up lights for the first time in forrr-everrrr... It was pretty cool. I'm 63, no grandkids and I just did it because it's kind of cool.
Well!
This past summer a new family moved in across the street. I no sooner finish MY lights when my new neighbor puts lights up. Hmm...
So I go to the store and pick up another display thingie and put that outside.
The next day my neighbor lines his walkway with illuminated candy canes.
IT'S ON BUBBA!
I wrap solar lights alllll around a tree out front- the trunk, and branches! Think of a poor man's Tavern On The Green...
WELL! Buddy across the street lights up the tree in front of his house!
My inner Clark Griswold is incensed!
Back and forth for a week it goes- I put out illuminated wire reindeer, Bubba puts out illuminated wire presents! I put out a small Christmas tree, Bubba does his windows!
AAAaaaa!
On the 23rd, we got hit with a whopper of a snowstorm. I go out and blow out my driveway and see Bubba struggling w/ his snowblower. I can hear from the sounds it's making that there's an adjustment needed.
So I wander across the street and introduce myself to Sammy. We have a laugh over our light rivalry. He does it for his little kids (he's got 4). I explain what a choke does on a small engine and we fire his snowblower up right away. Now my nemises is my bud.
Get this: Sammy's Muslim. He puts up the lights 'because the kids like it and it's cool, y'know?' That's a quote.
Well, this April, Sammy's out front of his house, and he's stringing lights again. He hangs banners too. One says 'Ramaden' and the other says 'Mubarak'. Professor Google tells me what that means.
Hmmm...
So guess who BREAKS OUT HIS CHRISTMAS LIGHTS AGAIN!
And so on my street at night Sammy's home is illuminated with wishes of peace and joy, and across the street my home replies in kind.
Good holidays and peace and joy to all our homes.
Jim really appreciate you posting this story!
Matt, I love your insights...they often cause me to think. But this piece for some reason caused me to stop in my tracks and think. Thank you and Happy Whatever to you, too.
I lost my Christian faith (raised Methodist) during high school, when I began to think for myself. My wife and I never had our children baptized nor sent to Sunday school. But they are healthy adults now, of good character, so apparently everything turned out all right. However, the one thing I miss most about Easter is hiding Easter eggs at home, as the children spent an hour looking for them and never found them all.
Matt, thumbs up to you from a Jewish atheist. Shalom.
I once had dinner In Portland with the first director of the Holocaust Museum in D.C. I said I understood lots of Jews are atheists. He immediately said, "85%."
[So tell, me how can they be god's chosen children?]
God appreciates skepticism and maybe isn't the hard-assed authoritarian He's made out to be?
"Her"
"Xe"
You'll have to ask one of the 15%.
Really appreciate you, Matt. You are right, those are the things that matter in the end.