David Davis
I am groping at the Problem of Evil.
“Los 33” have been rescued, flawlessly, in less time than estimated, from deeper than ever before. Not even a GramscoStaliNazi (or at least I hope not? Although I view these people slightly less orgasmically-charitably than Sean Gabb does) could grudge the thanks that first of all must be due to heroic and un-named scientists and engineers.
OK OK OK…I admit it….I’m a Catholic. It’s a fair cop and you’ve got me bang to rights, honest, guv, officer. I’ll come quietly.
But I also know with every fibre of my being that God never intended us to be barred from learning how to know, and then knowing, What Is In His Mind. Adam may be “fallen”, but as a scientist I am quite sure that God never meant to hide what He has Indicated to us, (“order”) through Science and Englineering, the things and stuff which might be available in the Universe, and which we could use on our orienteering-challenge to discover Him and understand His Mind.
Yeah-but-no-but…I mean…What else can there be for a sentient being to aspire to? X-factor? (I thought that was a 70s-USA-cosmetics firm, until I discovered other people’s interests…)
The things and stuff we could use? Like copper and silver and gold in the Atacama Desert. Who’d have thought, a mere 5,400 years ago, that you could do such stuff as we do, with stuff from the funny little molten streams of red-hot-thingy that flow from smelted rocks, eh, when you get the guys to jump up and down hard enough on their bellows? You could make axe-heads that would last a few hours rather than seconds, and…then you could remelt and reforge them when they went blunt! I think it’s marvellous, and worth every penny, and we’ll get to the Stars using it, some day.
Nobody’s thanked the mining-engineers yet, but I hope someone will. And the Germans who sent the steel cable: ought not someone to thank them too? The Chilean President, who seems like a good sort of bloke with whom one could have a drink in a pub (non-smoking, as is allowed under the present terms of discourse), might set the ball rolling – after all, he can’t fail to profit politically right now, can he.
Man may be tiny and insignificant as an animal. But his mind is a giant structure, entirely capable of demolishing anything that GramscoStalinism, and its wimpish and stealthily-gradualist little handmaiddroid GramscoFabiaNazism can put in our way. I do not know if all these nasty little post-renaissance socialist “isms”, which serve no purpose but to hold individual people back singly and in droves, are accidental artefacts of the Universe, or whether there is a Devil. As far as The Devil goes, I am an agnostic. It may be that the Vector Sum of all interactions of all kinds in the Universe is zero over its lifetime, and that it is “neutral”, and that therefore “evil” minus “good” means that its angular momentum turns out to be zero.
But I hope that the P/L account, on the Last Day, shows a credit balance in favour of Order. Liberty is its mother, you know.
A lot of prayer went into that rescue. And the President seemed so much more human than the criminals running the EU.
As for art in history – 5400 BC hmmmm
Exodus 31
Bezalel and Oholiab
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts- 4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. 6 Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you: 7 the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony with the atonement cover on it, and all the other furnishings of the tent- 8 the table and its articles, the pure gold lampstand and all its accessories, the altar of incense, 9 the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, the basin with its stand- 10 and also the woven garments, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests, 11 and the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place. They are to make them just as I commanded you.
The problem is, our Enemy are grappling with the problem of Evil too, and have been for nigh 200 years; and their solution to the problem of Evil is to nationalise the Forces Of Goodness and vanquish Evil by passing a law, or in fact several thousand laws, against it.
This is where my analysis differs from the Cultural Marxism Hypothesis. I believe that historians (if there are any in the future) will record that, rather than the CMs using a cunning plan of infiltration to inaugurate Communism, Gramscianisation actually was a process in which the forces of Moral Goodness overwhelmed and eradicated Marxists; the entryism was in reverse.
The process currently underway is a moral revival of a kind; religious fervour sans (sometimes) God. Its missionaries lie awake at night worrying about Evil, and how to vanquish it. And they have concluded that Nature is Good, and that “progress” is deviation from Nature, so that is Bad. David, they oppose progress, science and technology because they want Eden back and they are selflessly prepared to sacrifice as many other people as it takes to get it.
This is the Second Age Of The Do-Gooders, and like all their kind they are prepared to do any amount of Evil in order to Do what little Good they can achieve.
“And they have concluded that Nature is Good, and that “progress” is deviation from Nature, so that is Bad. David, they oppose progress, science and technology because they want Eden back…”
I’m all for a high-tech Arcadia.
Tony
“Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product … if we should judge America by that – counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”
Bobby Kennedy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, March 18, 1968
Tony