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Larry Sabato's America

Posted by Zentrist on Monday, April 20, 2009 7:52:03 PM
Sabato has been a classroom teacher for thirty-two years.  "So I have seen this thing develop over the years," he said tonight on Chris Matthews, talking about the New Majority in American politics (my term, not his).  This new (Democrat-voting) majority has already emerged in the election of Obama and will continue to grow in the next thirty years.  We no longer have "two parties," he said.  "We have one and a half, with the half being the Republicans."  The upshot of the discussion was that the Republicans are going to have to figure out a way to persuade this growing momentum to cease and desist.  Young people, blacks, Hispanics, Asians and "people with graduate degrees" (like me) are extremely turned off by the "culture wars" rhetoric.  Independents (like me) are voting against (like I did) mainstream Republicans.  Why?  Sabato did not say.  He just gave the numbers.  In his "objective" way, however, he seemed to be there as the "other side" to Republican Tony Blankley--who, by the way, was not near as convincing.  But then, I'm not "objective" either!
 
By the way, Dr. Sabato (politcal science, U. of Virginia) has a new book out, "The Obama Years," as I recall the title appearing on the screen.  I, for one, intend to check it out...
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On "The Sting, In Four Parts"

Posted by Zentrist on Sunday, April 19, 2009 8:58:12 PM
First, I want to compliment Charles Krauthammer on an article that is excellent, pure and simple.  However, having gotten my hopes up, I felt a little like the child-growing-up who has just been told in no uncertain terms that Santa Claus does not really exist.
 
Dr. K has succeeded in giving this writer's hopes and dreams a cold shower.  (At least, for this particular comment.) 
 
In AA, we say that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results."  Thus, the hard-core addict will sometimes say to himself, even after years of recovery, "maybe this time I can handle it."  Such is the human capacity for self-deception....I had to look up the word, "sting," and consult with my wife, the teacher.  Many things came to my mind.  (The singer, Sting; the asp that killed Cleopatra; Muhammed Ali of "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" wit.)  The dictionary, however, has a rather long set of definitions.  You can guess some of the synonyms or at least adjectives involved:  painful; irritating; poisonous.  But my wife the teacher reminded me that "sting" refers to a police operation for catching the crimimal(s)--an operation involving deliberate, calculating deception.  Krauthammer's article this time requires some interpretation, at least of its title, "The Sting, In Four Parts." 
 
President Obama, it would seem, is in a cold and calculating way attempting to "catch a criminal," the American citizenry.  One aspect of the operation is the "story-line" or "plot."  There is a literary aspect to this attempt to deceive us all.  It has "Four Parts."  Like a long treatise or novel.  The part I remember best is the Non-sequitur.  "It does not follow..."  The logic is all wrong; worse, it is a lie, a deceit and a deception. 
 
The question now becomes, Is Obama's New Foundation a Noble Lie?  In the old classic sense of the term?  Obama has gone way out on a limb.  But so has Charles.  Both actors are "on the record."  In a few months or years, we'll begin to see who was right and who was wrong.  I respect the courage of both players, whom I respect greatly, for daring to make a decision and stick with it.  This very same limelight will be very revealing when the time comes. 
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Freedom and Obedience

Posted by Zentrist on Sunday, April 19, 2009 7:46:58 PM
Pope Benedict's recent words in Africa are worth sharing today:  "Yet the word of God is a word of unbounded hope.  'God  loved the world so much that he gave his only Son...so that through him, the world might be saved' (Jn 3:16-17).  God does not give up on us!  He continues to lift our eyes to a future of hope, and he promises us the strength to accomplish it.  As Saint Paul tells us in today's second reading, God created us in Christ Jesus 'to live the good life', a life of good deeds, in accordance with his will ( cf. Eph 2:10).  He gave us his commandments, not as a burden, but as a source of freedom:  the freedom to become men and women of wisdom, teachers of peace and justice, people who believe in others and seek their authentic good.  God created us to live in the light, and to be light for the world around us!  This is what Jesus tells us in today's Gospel:  "The man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God' " (Jn 3:21). 
 
Luanda, Cimangola Square, Eucharistic Celebration with the Bishops of IMBISA.
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On Trinidad and Venezuela

Posted by Zentrist on Saturday, April 18, 2009 9:29:26 AM
President Obama continues to stir the pot with a photo, appropriately on a late Friday afternoon--not that it matters anymore--of his comrade-like handshake with Hugo Chavez.  While I have serious concerns about the Obama's "New Foundation," which he argued beautifully has been built "upon a Rock" (thus comparing it to the Church), and see Charles Krauthammer's scathing article...I'm nonetheless extremely proud of our new brave President and his way of shaking things up a bit.  Lord knows, things need to be shaken up a bit.  (See Paul Tillich's masterpiece, "The Shaking of the Foundations".)
 
This morning I had to get out my magnifying glass--let me confess--to find Trinidad on the globe that sits on our bar.  I wasn't sure exactly where Port of Spain actually is.  Sure enough, it sits right on top of Venezuela, unless my eyes are failing me.  Granada and Guyana are also in the neighborhood.
 
(It's embarrassing to admit just how bad this American's geography can be--but I'm willing to learn.)
 
--And so, What is your Point, Mr. Nowhere Man? 
 
I guess, this Saturday morning, the point is, President Barack Obama means what he says, and says what he means.  He said he wants to bring about some serious change in the way things are done.  From the looks of it, he meant what he said. 
 
In spite of everything--and part of me is very conservative, especially socially--I'd like to compliment our President, Barack Obama.  I'm extremely proud of him and proud to be a citizen and a human being alive at this world-historic time. 
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Simon Cowell and Edward Cowell

Posted by Zentrist on Saturday, April 18, 2009 9:09:26 AM
"At forty-two he published his first book, 'Euphranor,' a pseudo-classical colloquy, and resigned himself to placid obscurity.  A few years later he took up the study of Persian with a friend, Edward Cowell, and it was thus that he stumbled over the practically unknown remains of Omar Khayyam" (Louis Untermeyer, editor, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, trans. Edward Fitzgerald, First Edition,1859:  Random House, 1947).  The Cowells are apparently a very, very distinguished family.  And the apple does not fall far from the tree.  Speaking of which, Roman Catholic Susan Boyle of Idol and You-Tube and Larry King Live...fame...the Boyle Family, too, is one whose praises we might well sing.
 
But tonight we will have to settle for a soprano at the Bass Music Hall in Fort Worth.  If I didn't have to work today, uhg, uhg!, I'd settle down on the Lazy Boy to read Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the Persian Classic, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.  As noted above, a Cowell was involved in a roundabout way in bringing this talent to our attention.  As for the performance or event tonight, just What  is it all about? 
 
TRADITION AND THE INDIVIDUAL TALENT. 
 
I love the sounds of those words.  Philosophers have traditionally warned us to be wary of the arts and artists.  But not all artists are utterly decadent.  Many, many are--as they have been for thousands of years.  But we have to give them, with their unique burdens, some leeway, some space.  We also have to have some order in society and politics. 
 
I hope that people are willing to give Mr. Omar Khayyam, the author of the celebrated rhymes, some space.  He deserves it, I would think, even though I've yet to finish reading his masterpiece.  I would also hope and pray that "far away" civilizations would, each scholar in his or her own way, consider the roots of the Traditions.  Scholarship, like music and science, is an international thing, something that rises above the parochial and into the universal sphere.  This point brings me to the Iranian-born composer, Behzad Ranjbaran.  One of his inspirations is the set of rhymes immortalized by Omar, if I may.  And also, in English, by Fitzgerald (with a little help from his friend, Mr. Cowell). 
 
Be all that as it may, I'm wondering, Is Simon Cowell a descendent of the now more immortal Edward Cowell?  I said, immortal, not immoral:  read carefully.  
 
 
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On the Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam

Posted by Zentrist on Thursday, April 16, 2009 10:54:42 PM
This, from Tuesday's Dallas Morning News (article by Chris Shull):  "The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will perform two pieces by Behzad Ranjbaran in concerts Friday through Sunday at Bass Performance Hall.  "Awakening for Strings" is an intense reflection on war and peace.  "Songs of Eternity" for soprano and orchestra is a philosophical exploration of life, love and death using poetry from the Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam."
 
This ancient Persian text, or rather a translation of it, has long been in my library, collecting dust.  (A 1947 edition was bequeathed to me by my grandmother.)  A moment ago, I blew away some of that dust with the intention of leafing through a few pages.  Things Persian are on my mind.  The artist, Behzad Ranjbaran, was born in Tehran.  His work as described by Chris Shull reminds me especially of two other artists, T.S. Eliot and Bright Sheng (born in Shanghai).  What I'm getting at is Eliot's famous essay, "Tradition and the Individual Talent." 
 
In Ranjbaran's case, the Tradition is twofold, the Persian literary tradition and Persian folk music.  The Talent, obviously, is Behzad Ranjbaran.  It would be interesting to see what this Persian-American artist does, at Bass Hall, in the way of retrieving his culture--or should I say in retrieving our culture?
 
From school days I recall T.S. Eliot, especially his prophetic poem, "The Wasteland."  In this case, the "talent" uses his entire poetic-historical being and personality to create a minor classic for the previous century (1914 or so).   The essay, "Tradition and the Individual Talent" interested me for its dialogue with western poetry, yes.  But also for its powerful philosophical structure or dichotomy--on the one hand, tradition--something the conservative in me finds meaningful; and "talent," something the liberal in me aspires to.  Of course, Eliot was really writing, both in the poem and in the essay, about his own experience of his particular life in our particular time--partly that.  And partly something that transcends that "individuality."  Eliot knew a lot, from his doctoral dissertaion, about a certain philosopher who had been heavily, heavily influenced by some heavy-duty German philosophy.  What still interests me about THAT, in a word, is Pure Consciousness.  I mean, "meditation."  We might recall the Sanskrit that Eliot uses in "The Wasteland," "shanti, shanti, shanti."  The poem performs, if you will, a kind of meditation.
 
I'll resist the temptation to even mention, quite pretentiously, Eliot's masterpiece, "The Four Quartets," which apparently has been read for its "negative theology," that is, mysticism. 
 
Finally, the Shanghai-born, Chinese-American artist, Bright Sheng, whose work was performed some months ago in Dallas.  Here I want to praise the virtues of diversity and multi-culturalism, to this extent:  When such talent appropriates its native traditions in an American Context, a Western-symphonic context, magic and mysticism happens.  Moreover, when Sheng the composer walked onto the stage, one felt the power of his personal spirituality.  This alone was worth the price of admission. 
 
"Lyrical and limpid melodies...Shostakovich sense of breath in music phrases, a Bartokian sense of music propulsion, and dramatic and theatrical gestures."  And some of this with...a harp, of all things!  May God bless Bright Sheng and his ongoing retrieval of his Chinese roots in an American (Bernstein, an influence) and Western Tradtion. 
 
And may the Lord of the Psalms bless the glorious work of the Tehran-born Behzad Ranjbaran.  Journalist Chris Shull writes:  "The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra performed Songs of Eternity once before, at a gala concert in spring 2007 with Renee Fleming as soloist.  The concerts next weekend will be the second this season that feature Ranjbaran's music--selections from his tone poem The Blood of Seyavash were played at Bass Hall in November...As a teenage student-teacher at a conservatory in Tehran, Ranjbaran first explored the integration of Iranian folk music into the Western classical tradition...But Ranjbaran's symphonic music owes as much to the post-romantic works of Strauss and the tone poems of Rimsky-Korsakov as it does to Iranian music.  In Songs of Eternity, Ranjbaran ties ecstatic couplets by the 12th century poet Khayyam into an intensely beautiful exploration on the meaning of life" (The Dallas Morning News, April 14, 2009, 3E). 
 
 
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On Buchanan, Gay Rights and Natural Law

Posted by Zentrist on Thursday, April 16, 2009 8:52:37 PM
Tonight on Chris Matthews' Hardball Pat Buchanan took a stand for the Natural Law, that is, the Ten Commandments.  He specifically took issue with the idea, that is gaining momentum, that gays have the right to marry just as men and women do.  He went out of his way to opine that, for example, a gay couple should have certain civil privileges.  If an elderly gay is terminally ill in the hospital, of course his or her lifemate should have access, etc.  But marriage, according to nature, is between a man and a woman who, quite naturally, can procreate. 
 
Now, it's I talking, not Pat.  Five hundred years from now, or a thousand perhaps, things may have evolved to the point where the Church sort of changes its mind about homosexuality.  While I'm at it, the following sins may also be given another look:  euthanasia, abortion, contraception, masturbation, priests getting married.  (If human nature itself were to change, Church teachings might change...a big "if".)
 
But until that day comes when the Church's Magisterium actually changes its mind on these issues, sinners, whether straight or gay, married or single, consecrated or regular folk, should not go to Communion unless they are in perfect accord with Church teaching.  We all of us need to be in the state of grace prior to receiving the Sacrament.  This goes for priests, nuns, laymen, whoever is pope, all consecrated and lay persons including or especially members of special organizations.  For details on any issue whatsoever, see the Catechism.  (Full disclosure:  I myself have not been going to Communion lately; first, I need to go to Confession.)
 
****************************************************************************************************
Today is our Holy Father's 82nd birthday.  Here is a random quotation from a recent homily, this one delivered recently in Africa:  "Today's first reading has a particular resonance for God's people  in Angola.  It is a message of hope addressed to the Chosen People in the land of their Exile, a summons to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Lord's temple.  Its vivid description of the destruction and ruin caused by war echoes personal experience of so many people in this country amid the terrible ravages of the civil war.  How true it is that war can 'destroy everything of value' (cf. 2Chr 36:19):  families, whole communities, the fruit of men's labour, the hopes which guide and sustain their lives and work!  This experience is all too familiar to Africa as a whole:  the destructive power of civil strife, the descent into a maelstrom of hatred and revenge, the squandering of the efforts of generations of good people.  When God's word--a word meant to build up individuals, communities and the whole human family--is neglected, and when God's law is 'ridiculed, despised, laughed at' (ibid,v.16), the result can only be destruction and injustice:  the abasement of our common humanity and the betrayal of our vocation to be sons and daughters of a merciful Father, brothers and sisters of his beloved Son."
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On Barack and Berakha

Posted by Zentrist on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 6:31:04 PM
President Obama's first name, Barack, we are told, means "blessed."  Our Holy Father, fresh from his trip and mission to Africa, seems to have our President at least unconsciously on his mind in a recent homily.  I'm referring to the Holy Thursday, 9 April 2009 sermon.  The reader can decide for himself or herself--if there are any readers.
 
Pope Benedict, an avid student of philosophy almost as much as theology, shares his knowledge and enthusiasm for words.  Words matter.  Without giving a long-winded preface, let me just quote directly from the homily:
 
Please be patient.
 
Here is the quotation:  "As she prays at this central moment, the Church is fully in tune with the event that took place in the Upper Room, when Jesus' action is described in the words, "gratias agens benedixit--he gave you thanks and praise". In this expression, the Roman liturgy has made two words out of the one Hebrew word 'berakha,' which is rendered in the Greek with the two terms 'eucharistia' and 'eulogia.' "
 
Again, fresh from his trip to Africa, the Holy Father may, I repeat, MAY, have our much-beloved, world-historic leader on his mind or in the back of his mind.  The reason I speculate thus is because our pope is intensely in tune with the various possible meanings of words--in terms of suggestions, hints, plays-on-words (following all great poetry).  To put it better, Benedict reads very carefully in the original languages.  He is intimately familiar with Latin, Greek, Italian, French, English, Spanish, German...and possibly Hebrew as well.  Those who know him best say that our Holy Father has a "poetic imagination."  That is, he not only reads carefully in the original language, but brings to that reading a profound sense of metaphor.  Metaphor is all about the extraordinary power of suggestion.  "Love is a rose."  Such talk is a powerful suggestion to our affects, our intellect, our own poetic and historical imaginations.  Not to mention our own will-to-interpret with poetic and even political sensibilities.  Anyhow, let's see what else was on our Holy Father's mind on Holy Thursday, the day on which we commemorate the institution of Holy Communion:  "The Lord gives thanks.  When we thank, we acknowledge that a certain thing is a gift that comes from another.  The Lord gives thanks, and in doing so gives back to God the bread, "fruit of the earth and work of human hands", so as to receive it anew from him."
 
Now comes the good part.  Now comes the connection to the root meaning of Barack's name:  "Thanksgiving becomes blessing."  Again, Barack's name, the root meaning of "Barack," we are told by etymologists, is "blessing."  I don't know.  But isn't this interesting?  One thing I do know:  Our Holy Father is an authentic holy person.  If I'm right about that, the fact has implications for his powers of intellect, intuition, interpretation, poetic and spiritual imagination.  The infusion of the Holy Spirit at that level--truly enlightens a human being.  He or she is operating at a different level.  Just read, for example, The Story of a Soul, by Saint Therese of Lisieux, a spiritual masterpiece written by a bona fide Doctor of the Church when she was dying--in her early twenties!
 
For that matter, read the recent homilies of our Holy Father!  Read the Easter Vigil homily, with its poetry of the "gravitational pull" of love over against the forces of hatred.
 
Where on earth did that metaphor come from?  From quantum physics, which itself derives in part from Newton's classical physics.  In this homily the Bishop of Rome also speaks very deeply of the powers of cosmos, sanctified by the Incarnation, over against the divisions of chaos--an allusion to the Creation Story of Genesis.  The Easter Vigil Liturgy is all about the words of God as we have them in English from the Bible:  LET THERE BE LIGHT.
 
Finally, I want to just round out the passage I'm quoting, at present, from the Holy Thursday homily--and Benedict's homilies always reflect beautifully upon the liturgy of the day.
 
He is meditating upon the Institution of the Eucharist which occurred in the Upper Room at the Last Supper:  "The Lord gives thanks, and in so doing gives back to God the bread, "fruit of the earth and work of human hands", so as to receive it anew from him.  THANKSGIVING BECOMES BLESSING.  (my emphasis.)  The offering that we have placed in God's hands returns from him blessed and transformed.  The Roman liturgy rightly interprets, therefore, our praying at this sacred moment by means of the words:  'through him, we ask you to accept and bless these gifts we offer you in sacrifice'.  All this lies hidden within the word 'eucharistia'." 
 
Now, Christopher Hitchens, if you happen to be reading this, please do not jump to conclusions.  I am not suggesting that Barack is the real Second Coming!  Not that you would care, one way or another!  All I am suggesting--and isn't it interesting?--is that the Hebrew word, 'berakha,' sounds a lot like the word, Barack!
 
President Obama:  You can take it from there.  Our Holy Father may, I repeat, MAY, be suggesting, that, as you go about doing good and searching for a new Christian home, you might do well to consider RCIA,  the acronym used at parishes for the process of learning about becoming a Roman Catholic. 
*******************************************************************************************************
p.s.  I'd like to compliment Governor Bill Richardson for his work in making illegal the death penalty in the great neighboring state, the Land of Enchantment, New Mexico.  I note that the Holy Father allowed this non-pro-life governor...or am I wrong?...to be photographed with him.  Nancy Pelosi apparently was not allowed to be photographed with the Holy Father, even though she must have wanted it badly.  I trust that the Pope will indeed be meeting with Obama and that he will consent to be photographed with a man who is, at best, conflicted about the morality of abortion.  President Obama has said that he wants to create conditions in society in which abortions will become increasingly "rare."  Let us all pray--all who feel sincerely called--let us pray for the making rare of abortion.  More, let us pray for the cleansing of the sin of abortion and all related sins, including all types of illicit sex.  Let us pray especially for the zombie souls who indulge in porn. 
 
Yesterday, President Obama referred to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.  He then invited the students and staff and the entire "ecumene" to reflect on the parable of the House, one built on sand and the other on Rock.  He thereby argued strongly, and we hope soundly, that his five-point plan for recovery is built "upon the Rock."  He used this expression, "built upon a Rock," repeatedly. 
 
It was almost as if someone had brought to the President's attention the remarkable Holy Thursday sermon of Pope Benedict.  That very same homily in which our Holy Father seemed to suggest that, in our time especially, as we reflect with each other and with the Communion of Saints upon THE TIMES AND THE SEASONS...something is "in the air" vis-a-vis our President Barack Hussein Obama and the inhabited earth that is continuing to learn about the things in the world we have to be grateful for.  Barack and Berakha...The Blessings and the Holy Communion, the UNITY WE ALL SEEK.
 
 
 
 
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TO THE SHIPPING MAGNATES

Posted by Zentrist on Monday, April 13, 2009 10:19:27 PM
"If you pay ransoms to the Somali pirates, or any pirate, you cannot do business in the United States."  The quotation is from Ralph Peters, one of Hannity's guests tonight on Hannity's America.  I wanted to share this quotation for the wisdom it contains, knowledge, certain knowledge--not mere opinion--based on tough love.  People in recovery know for sure that you do not enable the addict, that is, you do not give things to the addict that make it easier for him or her to continue on in the self-destructive behavior.  This wisdom has been around forever.  Members and friends of AA and Al-Anon know it all too well.  Why can't our government learn what a bunch of formerly slobbering drunks and their families have learned so well--in AA and Al-Anon? 
 
Again, I want to compliment President Obama for his decisive action against piracy.  Now, about those ships or that ship that launched the little motorboat, 300 miles from shore, to attack our people...Thanks to Bob Beckel for his suggestion tonight, on Hannity's America, that we go after the mother ship.
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What Is Being Done About the Pirates' Base?

Posted by Zentrist on Monday, April 13, 2009 9:50:27 PM
What is being done about the mother ships from which these pirates raided our sailors' boat?  I've heard we know where these mother ships are.  Why are we not bringing them to justice?  The little boats from which the raiders attacked us were 300 miles off shore!  These little cruisers did not originate from land! 
 
I repeat, What is being done about the mother ship(s)?  Also, we should be able, with our technology, to track the Somalis who have threatened revenge.  On this matter, we should learn from the Israelis who know where the militants are--and kill them.  The threatening Somalies should be killed, and their homes destroyed.
 
By the way, Sean Hannity tonight is doing everything in his power to cut down our president who, instead of being cut down, should praised to the heights for taking decisive action against lawless, violent and greedy thugs.  Human beings?  Yes, they are.  Children of God?  Of course.  Nonetheless, in this particular arena, they should be shot--and thank God our military has the sharpshooters it has!
 
I also want to compliment Bernie Goldberg who performed extremely well tonight in his interview with Hannity.  An objective and fair man (unlike the obtuse, broken record, Sean Hannity), Goldberg gave credit where credit was obviously due--to the commander-in-chief who gave the go ahead to kill the bandits.  Shame on Hannity for his blind, fanatical partisanship.  What a fool. 
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Random Thoughts on Manliness

Posted by Zentrist on Monday, April 13, 2009 12:10:25 AM
     "Oh infinite virtue," Cleopatra addresses her man, Antony, in Shakespeare's immortal classic, "Antony and Cleopatra."  As literary critic par excellence Harold Bloom informs us in a lecture (available at Barnes and Noble), "virtue" here does not mean virtue in our sense, someone who is nice and kind and charitable.  Rather, Shakespeare's and Cleopatra's meaning is the "virility," the manliness, of the Roman soldier.  And Cleopatra knew what she was talking about, having been the lover of both Pompey and Caesar.  Marc Antony too was known for his courage in battle.  Unlike the "CEO" general, Octavius, Antony was much beloved by his men because he actually led them into battle, putting his own life at risk. 
 
     This old Roman virtue also seems to have meant, and still does mean, that a man may choose to commit suicide rather than undergo the humiliation of dishonor.  One thinks of Vince Foster, Bill Clinton's friend.  Other leaders in the Clinton Administration come to mind, one a navy man  who shot himself in his back yard. 
 
    But this is not the way of a Christian.  Hamlet notes the "canon" against "self-slaughter."  Rather, it was Claudius who notes this, if memory serves.  In any event, the issue obtains in the times of Christendom.  The question of manliness, too, has been the subject of a serious book of late--by none other than the famous (in certain conservative circles) professor at Harvard, Harvey Mansfield.  I would guess that Mansfield compares at least two versions of what it means to be a "real man."
 
     The Christian version of manliness ought to have been covered, if it wasn't.  This portrait would begin with Jesus of Nazareth, perhaps, and then end, maybe, with Pope John Paul the Great.  Over two thousand years later, in our time, manliness need not necessarily be played out on television as the Suffering Servant, John Paul, spent his final painful year(s).  Put otherwise, one does not have to be in the limelight, with the television camera capturing each and every tremor of one's fatal disease.  It is not impossible that this moving spectacle of the gradual decline and death of JPII is what inspired Mansfield, who writes occasionally for a partly Christian monthly, First Things.  (The founder and editor-in-chief of First Things was another "manly" Christian who happened to be close to John Paul and our Holy Father both:  Father Richard John Neuhaus of eternal memory.)
     The pagan-classical version of manliness is the one Cleopatra alludes to with her sublime description of Antony, "Oh infinite virtue."  This, in spite of the fact that Antony has botched up nearly everything he has set his hands upon--including his own attempt at suicide!
 
     Plutarch's Lives, Plato's Dialogues, Thucydides' Peloponnesian Wars, Herodotus' Histories, Xenophon's historical accounts--all these and more are replete with ancient-pagan descriptions of manliness. Let's not forget the heroes of Homer.  I don't know near enough, either, about Plutarh's Lives.  But I'm sure that much in those stories might usefully be appropriated by our hero-starved era.  If nothing else, the various ancient disciplines.  The athletic rigors, for example.  Athletes, both ancient and contemporary, remind us of an aspect of martial manliness.  Tom Brady, Lance Armstrong, Mohammed Ali in his day.  And Jack Johnson, in his. 
 
After Jesus Christ, though, and of course certain apostles and saints both male and female, I admire the "centered" way followed by Socrates.  Maybe we don't know that much about the historical Socrates.  We have to piece together a portrait from Xenophon, Aristophanes and Plato.  That may be enough.  We are told that Socrates was courageous in battle, holding his own in the Pelopennesian War.  In our own time, General Petraeus stands out as a brave paratrooper among other things--and an incisive scholar with a Ph.d on the subject of counter-insurgency.  Captain Phillips, of very recent times, has shown remarkable physical courage along with what looks like wily Odyssean prudence and cunning. 
 
The courageous ones who are closest to where I live, both in space and in time, are those dedicated to God who witness powerfully where they work.  Their "power" in professional life is not in giving speeches or "winning" at the game of closing the deal.  Rather, it is in becoming the burning coal, not the blazing fire, that nonetheless catches on fire whatever it encounters--by its natural and holy and winning, but not ostentatious, excellence.  This is not easy to pull off, for it may mean confronting others in a non-hostile way.  But a strong way that requires great wisdom, great finesse, and great courage. 
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On Being and Media-Time

Posted by Zentrist on Sunday, April 12, 2009 4:30:23 PM
Way back in the last century, a great German thinker and former altar boy named Martin Heidegger published a hastily written and incomplete masterpiece entitled, Sein und Zeit ("Being and Time").  By Being he did not mean what pious priests refer to as Being.  He meant Doing.
 
By Time Heidegger meant time--experience, decision-in-the-moment, and history.  Our own time, he knew, meant technology, bigtime. 
 
What then is the relation between Doing or Decisive Action in the context of a 24/7 internet and cable media-time? 
 
It has to do with individuals, well-know and not so well-known;  it has to do with all of us and the human condition.  Not the god-condition or the animal-condition, but the human condition.
 
It also has to do with courage and decision.  This is what we've seen in the recent rescue of the brave captain, Captain Phillips.  I'd like to compliment President Obama for taking strong, well-informed, correctly-reasoned yet very risky action here.  The decision to somehow free the courageous captain was fraught with great risk; it might not have succeeded. 
 
For philosophy nowadays, and for religion, too, decision means a kind of leap of faith and hope.  We have been put here within our respective traditions to "do the right thing."  Easier said than done.  President Obama is to be praised for leading other brave fighters to "do the right thing," at the risk of loss of a single human being's life. 
 
President Obama can now add another bullet to his example-to-history:  Proven Fighter.
 
And this would have been the case even if the strong captain had died.  In any event, let us celebrate this victory in one battle in the Cause.  And let each of us, in his or her own way, aspire to courage, wisdom and the audacity of hope. 
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Pat Buchanan's America

Posted by Zentrist on Saturday, April 11, 2009 12:20:31 AM
A conservative's conservative, Patrick J. Buchanan asks in his recentmost column--What would America do without its NATO obligations?  For without a great and noble cause, we Americans are in a state of an identity crisis.  We "cannot live without...a mission, a cause, a meaning to life."  This article needs to be read and studied from beginning to end; it needs to be unpacked, so to speak.  What have we stood for in the past, and what do we stand for now as we gaze at the horizon?  That horizon must have been momentarily obscured to the brave captain who dove into the sea to escape from the pirates.  In the dark of night, no less.
 
Conservatives and liberals disagree vehemently even about the issue of how to deal, right now, with the pirates holding our man.  Ralph Peters, a no non-sense military historian and national security analyst, argued strongly tonight that we should act quickly and boldly even if the risk is very great.  The risk to the life of  a single American.  A decision needs to be made--by President Obama--and a successful outcome needs to say to the world, no matter the life involved, that "this will not stand."  But the outcome will not be successful, by Congressman Joe Sestak's light, if Captain Phillips dies.  Only a win-win will do, I mean, a total win for us, especially in terms of saving Phillips.  For Peters, the bureaucracy should not be involved; for Sestak, it should be involved.  Or, am I wrong?
 
Unless I'm mistaken, Buchanan would say on this matter what he says on many issues:  America First!  Taken literally, that approach would mean that he agrees with Colonel Peters:  We should send a strong message, right now, to the world.  If the captain dies, he dies.
 
What is the message that Pat Buchanan would like to send to the world, the general message?  We can bet it is different from the message that is not hypothetical, that is, the message that Obama has just sent to the world...After all, Obama is a liberal and Buchanan is a conservative.  Obama's bow to the King, by the way, was not about the King.  It was all about his message to 1.5 billion Muslims:  "We are here to do business with you, not to in any way oppress you or insult you or threaten your way of life."  Obama asks from the Muslims "mutual respect."  Buchanan does not seem to be quite so other-oriented.  America First! is his mantra, a motto adopted by the McCain Campaign with its Country First!
 
Let's cut to the chase.  Buchanan's message is generally a message of relative isolation.  Not total, I presume, but relative.  He seems to imply that we seriously re-consider our various and sundry commitments to other nation-states. (Lest we be drawn into war.)  The standard or criterion should be the national interest.  Not our hemisphere's, not Israel's, not China's and not Poland's.  America's.
 
The alternative(s)?  These are playing out before our eyes.  Starting with what Peters calls the "humiliation" of America by four guys on a glorified row boat.  Our snipers should take them out, now, if they haven't already.  The pirates should be hung, on television. (I added the "on television.")  That might send the appropriate message.  Part of me likes this.  The other part of me wants to know what Obama would do in this situation.  What am I saying?  It is not hypothetical.  Obama is the POTUS, president of the United States. 
 
Now, as for the Buchanan article(s) in question, we know the moral of the story.  And I agree with the heart behind it.  Also the head:  America is over-extended and its very long term survival is at risk.  America First!
 
But the details of this knot are way too hard for me to untie.  I have to defer to those whose readings in, and experience of, the great political philosophies eventuate in political actions (or military actions) of courage, wisdom and strength.  Buchanan has read the texts, the  histories Athenian, Spartan, Roman, Russian, German, English and American.  But according to many, he has not read deeply enough into the histories of that Shining City on a Hill, Jerusalem.  So, my teachers are contradicting one another.  Pat says we should focus on the Ron Paul foreign policy of America First.  NATO as an idea was more or less useful but its time is over.  Our troops do not need to be in half the places they are in; indeed, our presence jeopardizes our security.  Buchanan mentions bin Laden's declaration of war against America, and the reasons for this declaration and this ongoing war.  (In history, enemies typically work out deals--or fight for a hundred years, a thousand years.  My emphasis, no, my point!)  
 
My more "theoretical" teachers, Strauss and his students and their students--well, they are "all over the map."  But one consensus, the so-called neo-conservative consensus, argues for a robust if not imperial foreign policy, policies that let the world know that we are going to defend our "principles." Agressively.  Come what may, we are going to fight for what we consider the "right course of action" for our nation.  For its ideals.  These are:  freedom and equality; the primacy of America and its allies; a "first things first" approach--a certain "continuity," a certain status quo--no "changing the world." (And no Pollyanna notions about security.)  Well, goodness...Bill Kristol is not talking that way anymore; neither, for that matter, is Charles Krauthammer.  Fred Barnes is the only remaining member of the Old Guard!
 
I haven't mentioned lately a book I read about a year ago, a polemical study that shares many perspectives with Pat Buchanan:  Michael Scheuer's "Marching Toward Hell."  The perspective here is one not shared in all respects by, say, the neo-conservatives a la Dick Morris and Company.  Strangely, Scheuer mentions help received by Mark Steyn and Tony Blankley.  This was a little puzzling.  Now, Newt, Blankley's friend and former boss, might have an ally in Scheuer, in certain respects.  Newt's words have to be studied carefully. 
 
Hannity's America includes his friend or at least aquaintance or at least, fellow conservative, Pat Buchanan.  But Sean and Pat do not agree on everything.  Nonetheless, Buchanan's America is in large part Hannity's America even though Pat is affiliated with MSLSD and Sean with Fox News.  Buchanan's America in many respects resembles Arriana's America:  Arriana, too, in important respects is America First!  And what about Tucker Carlson?  He had been or still is affiliated with MSLSD, the Weekly Standard, and whatever else this thoughtful gentleman is connected with.  Like Pat, he opposed our invasion of Iraq.  Robert Novak strongly opposed our invasion of Iraq.  The Vatican strongly opposed our invasion. 
 
It all gets a little confusing.  We've got so many competing visions of America.  My favorite "pundit" (he is more than that) is Charles Krauthammer.  His combination of...well, he is just a force of nature.  He is in the arena, as is Bill Kristol and Company.  But my favorite syndicated columnist is Pat Buchanan.  He is sooooooo unorthodox!  He makes you think outside the box. 
 
That's enough for this "working class hero." 
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Path to Greatness

Posted by Zentrist on Wednesday, April 08, 2009 11:50:54 PM
     For most of us, the path to real greatness in a civic and religious way lies not in the headlines, not in the limelight, but in our calling.  Once we realize that our childhood dream (say, of becoming a professional athlete) is not going to come true, we hit the wall of reality, of Decision:  What am I going to do? and How am I going to go about it?
     Then, one rainy morning in December, we wake up to the sound of the alarm.  We are now "trapped" in a job, a marriage, a family, a dreary future. 
     But it need not be so.  Not if we have been born again.  Not if we have been given the Gift of, so to speak, "a new pair of glasses." 
 
     This experience, this encounter with the Master, can change the way the job looks.  Instead of just, say, unloading trucks, I am now of service to many folks who rely on the things being transported.  (I use an example that goes back to my student days and, to some extent, my current "work of God.")  My relationships, both at home and at work--are everything.  Virtually all of my waking hours are spent in these quotidian domains.  Will I be bitter and impatient?  I have been.  Will I have the intestinal fortitude to keep going (in kindness) under extremely challenging circumstances?  I have failed frequently.
     And that's where the example of the workers comes in.  I mean, the fishermen.  Peter, for me, is the example par excellence, not because of his great strength and great success, but because of his weakness, his macho awkwardness and his constantly botching things up.  Of all people, he was chosen to take on the greatest and noblest of jobs.  He was a typical Jew in this regard.  Part of a "problematical" tribe, he--along with it--were chosen by God to play the roles "to die for."  His "calling," their "calling" and our calling, the humdrum vocation of the ordinary folks...has been suffused with the transcendent greatness of real glory, real nobility and authentic sanctity.  We are all of us called to be like Peter and Company.  Ordinary workers following the Master.  This "boring" job, in this Light, becomes the path to greatness.  On the path, of course, we stumble, we fall down (are you listening, Mr. President?).  But that is the Beauty of it.  No great story, no sublime novel or play or short story--was about someone who did not fall down and scrape himself or herself up.  Rather, for example, it has been the case that the most interesting movies (I don't know..."The Godfather," say) have been about very flawed human beings who at least show us how NOT to live, and by indirection how TO live. 
     The very great Italian saint, Padre Pio, who died in 1968 and whose live is a marvel to read about, urged us ordinary workers to do right by our families, our co-workers, our fellow drivers, our wives and all creatures great and small.  He also typically encouraged everyone on the Way--not to worry.  As Sean Hannity has been wisely saying of late, "Let not your heart be troubled."  I guess he borrowed that from the Psalms and the rest of the Bible.  Engraved inside my wedding ring is the motto of Pope John Paul the great:  Do Not Be Afraid.  Would that I could consistently follow this perennial wisdom! 
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First Nixon, Then Obama

Posted by Zentrist on Wednesday, April 08, 2009 12:31:49 PM
First Nixon embraces China (in a compromise of pure principle), then Obama and Company embrace Cuba (in a compromise of pure principle).  The moral of the story is:  politics invariably involves the art of compromise!  In the light of this development, President Nixon and President Obama are like two sides of the same coin. 
 
And it wasn't just Nixon who pragmatically "went to Red China."  President George Bush (number forty-one) also notably cultivated and nurtured China. Indeed, since President Nixon's visit, our country has "been in bed" with this extraordinarily "impure" regime.  One might go so far as to say our nation has had a "slobbering love affair" with Red China.  Let me hasten to say I'm really grateful I live in a country where I won't get shot for saying these things in this way.  (I might get demoted, but not tied up and shot.) 
 
The headlines of late report a new detente, so to speak, with Cuba.  My personal and admittedly ill-informed opinion has long been that the anti-Cuban lobby down there and everywhere has had way too much influence vis-a-vis the good of all parties concerned.  Decades and decades of the same-old, same-old--has not amounted to a hill of beans.  So, What in Sam Hill has been the meaning of our rigid policies regarding Cuba?  To me, it's just another of many examples of a small group of determined individuals exerting too much influence towards destruction, as opposed to development.  It is high time that our leadership met with Cuba and began to work out some deals--pragmatically, that will benefit "the most number."  (Yes, on this issue, I'm very utilitarian, and admittedly not very "pure," in my "principles.")
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