Category: Poetry
New Year’s Eve
Potpourri (if you happen not to be nappin’)
For the Time Being, 2014 part 2
A nearer Christmas. More (all the rest of what I’ll share) from this year’s reading of Auden’s For the Time Being.
THE THREE WISE MEN:
The weather has been awful,
The countryside is dreary,
Marsh, jungle, rock; and echoes mock,
Calling our hope unlawful;
But a silly song can help along
Yours ever and sincerely:
At least we know for certain that we are three old sinners,
That this journey is much too long, that we want our dinners,
And miss our wives, our books, our dogs,
But have only the vaguest idea why we are what we are.
To discover how to be human now
Is the reason we follow this star.
* * * * *
Instead of building temples, we build laboratories;
Instead of offering sacrifices, we perform experiments;
Instead of reciting prayers, we note pointer-readings;
Our lives are no longer erratic but efficient.
Great is Caesar: God must be with Him.…
Great is Caesar: He has conquered Seven Kingdoms.
The Fourth was the Kingdom of Credit Exchange:
Last night it was Tit-for-Tat, tonight it is C.O.D.;
When we have a surplus, we need not meet someone with a deficit;
When we have a deficit, we need not meet someone with a surplus;
Instead of heavy treasures, there are paper symbols of value;
Instead of Pay at Once, there is Pay when you can;
Instead of My Neighbour, there is Our Customers;
Instead of Country Fair, there is World Market
Great is Caesar: God must be with Him.
* * * * *
THE MEDITATION OF SIMEON
…
SIMEON: As long as there were any roads to amnesia and anaesthesia still to be explored, any rare wine or curiosity of cuisine as yet untested, any erotic variation as yet unimagined or unrealised, any method of torture as yet undevised, any style of conspicuous waste as yet unindulged, any eccentricity of mania or disease as yet unrepresented, there was still a hope that man had not been poisoned but transformed, that Paradise was not an eternal state from which he had been forever expelled, but a childish state which he had permanently outgrown, that the Fall had occurred by necessity.
…
SIMEON: By the event of this birth the true significance of all other events is defined, for of every other occasion it can be said that it could have been different, but of this birth it is the case that it could in no way be other than it is. And by the existence of this Child, the proper value of all other existences is given, for of every other creature it can be said that it has extrinsic importance but of this Child it is the case that He is in no sense a symbol.
* * * * *
Herod
…
Legislation is helpless against the wild prayer of longing that rises, day in, day out, from all these households under my protection: “O God, put away justice and truth for we cannot understand them and do not want them. Eternity would bore us dreadfully. Leave Thy heavens and come down to our earth of waterclocks and hedges. Become our uncle. Look after Baby, amuse Grandfather, escort Madam to the Opera, help Willy with his home-work, introduce Muriel to a handsome naval officer. Be interesting and weak like us, and we will love you as we love ourselves.”
…
Naturally this cannot be allowed to happen. Civilisation must be saved even if this means sending for the military, as I suppose it does. How dreary. Why is it that in the end civilisation always has to call in these professional tidiers to whom it is all one whether it be Pythagoras or a homicidal lunatic that they are instructed to exterminate. O dear. Why couldn’t this wretched infant be born somewhere else? Why can’t people be sensible? I don’t want to be horrid. Why can’t they see that the notion of a finite God is absurd? Because it is, And suppose, just for the sake of argument, that it isn’t, that this story is true, that this child is in some inexplicable manner both God and Man, that he grows up, lives, and dies, without committing a single sin? Would that make life any better? On the contrary it would make it far, far worse. For it could only mean this; that once having shown them how, God would expect every man, whatever his fortune, to lead a sinless life in the flesh and on earth. Then indeed would the human race be plunged into madness and despair. And for me personally at this moment it would mean that God had given me the power to destroy Himself. I refuse to be taken in. He could not play such a horrible practical joke. Why should He dislike me so? I’ve worked like a slave. Ask anyone you like. I read all official dispatches without skipping. I’ve taken elocution lessons. I’ve hardly ever taken bribes. How dare He allow me to decide? I’ve tried to be good. I brush my teeth every night. I haven’t had sex for a month. I object. I’m a liberal. I want everyone to be happy. I wish I had never been born.
* * * * *
Chorus
He is the Way.
Follow Him through the Land of Unlikeness;
You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures.He is the Truth.
Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;
You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.He is the Life.
Love Him in the World of the Flesh;
And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.
* * * * *
For the Time Being, 2014 part 1
It’s nearly Christmas. Time to break out Auden’s For the Time Being.
Sunday 8/17/14
Tuesday 8/12/14
Sunday, 8/3/14
Sunday, 7/6/14
Metrics and the Ineffable
I have said from time to time that I’ve lost faith, and thus have lost interest, in politics. I now have objective proof.
In the 2008 Presidential cycle, I “clipped and saved” (digitally speaking), categorizing by candidate even, 1168 articles or columns. In the 2012 Cycle, 40. Total.
Barack Obama alone had 378 in ’08. John McCain had another 105.
It’s not that I think politics is utterly incapable of doing anything I’d care a little about. It’s that I don’t trust our national elected officials to do it (no, I do not make an exception for my own “conservative” Congressman) and, in an observation or attitude that is increasing in my thought, politics in the end is weaker than and subservient to the culture.
Conservatives and religious traditionalists are losing The Culture Wars because we’re losing the culture. And we’re losing the culture in part because when we try to do culture, we tend to produce drek.
Brandon McGinley at Ethika Politika has a plausible theory on why the many issues of the gay rights side are not only winning, but routing the opposition: stories, not logic. Not even stories from which logic can fabricate a good case, but just stories that effectively silence and trump logic.
I’m haunted by the insight. And if it’s right, there’s no point in my explaining how you can’t logically get from an attempted murder of a gay man in Arizona 6 years to the moral imperative of gay marriage. Indeed, the insidiousness of the situation is that it would look positively reptilian to make the effort. (E.g., “What kind of soulless creep are you?!”)
In the same vein, Rod Dreher laments that conservatives are all left brain, and we need some judicious – very, very judicious – funding of the conservative right brain:
[A]rt and culture should not be approached from an instrumental point of view. This is why, for example, so much contemporary Christian filmmaking is so bad: it’s designed to culminate in an altar call. It’s about sending a message, not telling a story. I’m personally aware of a conservative donor and investor who poured millions into an independent film because he thought it was wholesome, and would improve the character of its viewers. I watched the movie in a private screening, and it was terrible. A total waste of money. My sense was that the investor had no idea what he was paying for, and in fact he wouldn’t have paid for a film that was anything other than moralistic propaganda.
That model is not what conservative artists and writers want or need. What would it mean for the conservative donor class to become authentic and effective patrons of conservative writers and artists? They would need to have reliable advisers from the arts and humanities who could help them identify worthy causes and artists — and then trust those advisers. For example, if I had $100 million dollars, I would contact a conservative humanities professor like Wilfred McClay and ask him where my donation could do the most good in nurturing conservative talent in the arts and humanities.
…
If I had a pile of money to donate, I would probably cut a check to the Dante Society of America , and earmark it for the development of outreach programs to teach Dante to high school students and ordinary people. Why? Not because this will result in electing more Republicans to office, but because I am convinced that there is deep wisdom and beauty in The Divine Comedy that American culture would benefit from rediscovering. I would hope for some tangible result from my donation, but in general, it’s hard to predict where and when the tree of knowledge that one patiently waters will blossom.
Indeed. One of the things I have come to realize is that if we can cultivate a wise younger generation, they may have a few things to tell me about where I’ve been foolish. I’d welcome that (when I got over the prideful grumbling reflex).
Dreher, by the way, was riffing off a much longer article at National Review.
So I’m again affirmed in abandoning the Culture Wars for culture – most of the time some of the time occasionally. That seems to be the long game, which if I succeed will ramify in ways I can’t imagine.
UPDATE: I plan to write a support check to Image later this week. Is it conservative? I don’t know. But it’s faith-connected and has unvarying artistic integrity.
* * * * *
“The remarks made in this essay do not represent scholarly research. They are intended as topical stimulations for conversation among intelligent and informed people.” (Gerhart Niemeyer)
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 