nothing of note...

     So, am I like the only person in the Western World who knows nothing about The Smiths? I see this Morrissey guy mentioned everywhere, people make memes out of his lines, and yet I have never felt the need to listen to anything by or about him. 
     O, and I note that according to Facetube, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is trending, but I can't find anything on CNN. Weird.

gratuitous Chesteron-bashing...

     It is likely wrong to ban books, much less burn 'em, so all I can think of for Chesterton's is a $500 surcharge (that's a tax) on every new one sold in America. All used bookstores will have to report their stock, and will collect a $250 surcharge for every volume by Chesterton that they sell. Those who fail to pay these charges will be subject to fines of up to $10k, and sixty days in jail. There's little we can do to stop the private circulation of the books through friendly loans (though what friend would do that to another?). Perhaps we can set up collection centers where people can turn in all things Chesterton, no questions asked, and receive cash payments. 
     I think his childish books would be out of circulation in no time. Of course, we would need a place to store the resulting stockpile of bad books. I suggest we keep 'em at the Yucca Mountain facility, but I'm open to other options. 

let's all form a hermeneutic circle...

     We may have foolishly turned capitalism into a faux religion - the way we do with everything really - and we certainly tend to confuse capitalism with mercantilism, but to have a bunch of leftists with multiple degrees and all the cultural and economic power tell us how to make do with less in the name of 'justice' seems awfully suspicious. 

     Yes, as a class you now have all the capital; you have your private jets and your cars; you determine who gets to move up and who stays put. So, it's now time for me to learn that Leisure Is The Basis Of Culture, and I really should have a driverless car, and I really shouldn't worry about making money, o that's icky. Besides, now that you're in charge of my life you'll see to all my needs. You'll even make sure we only have to pay 10% of our income for the next few decades to service our student loans. To my ear you seem awfully determined that I keep to my station. I love it especially when you praise those who 'play by the rules,' rules that you have rigged in your favor.

     (And tell me more about how you're all 'change-agents' who seek justice. So you know,anyone who defines themselves as a 'seeker of justice' is a self-absorbed, lying ass.)

     Anyway, I'm just a little suspicious about y'all. I learned it from Marx by the bye - thanks for that at least.

noodling about secularism and suchlike...

     We're told that our culture is rotten with individualistic hedonism - or is it hedonistic individualism? - both held within a radically secular mentality. What if that simply isn't true? What if instead the dominant culture in the Post-Christian West is utilitarian, totalitarian, collectivist, and inherently religious? There are after all so many gods to choose from that one hardly knows where to start. It's likely this return to sacrifice and the sacred is what you get as Christianity recedes from view.

a poem...

Adieu

It was in a stand of old linden

   dappled with shadow and sunlight

      that I first found myself

         lost, alone, seized by mourning

as branches creaked in the wind.

   Later I climbed a high dune where

      no one ever strayed -

         once at the top I lay staring

into what seemed the Empyrean;

   suspended it shimmered beyond 

      all our labor, every loss
         borne in those chill days of Spring.

iraq mon amour...

     We seem to think that 'chaos' has erupted in Iraq. No my friends, an iconoclast, intelligently managed, and brutal revolutionary state is forming in the Fertile Crescent. ISIS is flush with cash and stolen weapons, hardened from fighting in Libya and Syria, disciplined by a purist ideology that gives ultimate purpose to every act. Re-education centers are up and running all over their new territories. They have a considerable network of social services, even as they set up a genocidal campaign against Shi'ites and Christians across the region. All of that, apart from their sheer skill and daring, makes them the most formidable force we've yet seen in that part of the world. In short, this is a revolution, not an 'outbreak' of wildling violence. To my mind, the most apt comparison is with the Khmer Rouge.

a poem, reprised...

Yet Another Fall



Of a sudden shadows lengthen,
leaves strain to fall just as swimmers
long to spring from their boards:
it’s all at once a new fall.
I’m working on a stranger’s roof,
the air tastes of asphalt and rain –
I’m up here on account of my fear.

The wood behind the house is dark;
time for me to go down, time
yet again to go home for the night.
Nothing’s diminished:  we’ll live,
if we live, through another
fall that comes to us unbidden,
so let’s stay among the falling leaves.