Piety and Death “It is difficult to fear death if one is very pious.” Alas, KL has made me take spiritual stock of myself again. I never used to fear death, and then I had children. I then came to fear death . . . for their sake. Of course. And I came to obsess [...]
The Robotic Soul “There is little doubt that atheism, agnosticism, and the denial of the other world are partially responsible for the rapid technological development which gave us, apart from exquisite instruments for mass destruction, various means to bridge time and space. . . Ortega y Gassets points out very adroitly the fact that the [...]
Cash for Souls “Facing the choice of cash or liberty human beings will always choose the former because it spells safety.” How else can you explain the popularity of Social Security and Medicare? I give up the liberty to dispose of my income (.765 7.65 cents of every dollar) money however I want, and in [...]
Authority “Ochlocrats who never tire of accusing conservatives and Catholics of superstition, illogical traditionalism, and ‘unscientific’ procedure make an act of faith in the inner illumination of the individual and the infallibility of numerical majorities.” I’m a firm believer that every man has an authority, a source of faith, which they accept as their guideposts [...]
Medieval Man “Medieval man (like every deeply religious man) was eschatologically static. To him time was a relative conception because his center–God–stood at the same distance to the year 1300 B.C. as to the year A.D. 1300.” The medieval man appeals to me, especially since I’ve learned that, contrary to popular perception, he was not [...]
Egalitarianism in the Hierarchy “The nonchalantly polite but nevertheless free interclass manners in the Catholic world are the natural consequence of a conventional (nonideological) egalitarianism, based on the profound knowledge that our final status–on the other side of the grave–will be basically different from our present one. Furthermore, because of the human fact that we [...]
The Reading Illiterate “A reading-writing education as such has benefited nobody, has elated nobody spiritually or culturally. There is no need to go to the other extreme and to believe that the knowledge of the three R’s is basically destructive, but nothing is more stupid or unrealistic than to judge the level of other countries [...]
Body and Soul “Bodies are mutually attracted by nearness, knowledge, and pleasure but souls by distance, mystery, and suffering.” Such thinking could trend into Cartesian dualism, which undermines the sacramental nature of existence, but it’s always important to reassert that the soul and body are not the same. They’re friends. They’re even allies . . [...]
The Herdist and the Romantic “Only the select can be closely confronted with the Absolute without taking flight. Only the saints, but not the ‘commonsensical’ herd, can and will surrender to the ‘Holy Folly of the Cross.’ For this reason we have such hatred on the part of the mediocre man, who hates any sort [...]
I took three of the seven to see Inception last night. It’s good, not great, even though it’s getting some of the best ratings in the history of IMDB. It’s a story about a guy who infiltrates other people’s dreams. It’s pretty cool, but the plot is too big to give the movie a chance [...]
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