England’s Assisted-Suicide Vote
Crux Now’s Editor-in-Chief Charles Collins speaks with National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez about how legal assisted suicide in England will lead to “disaster.”
Tag: Nihilism
John Paul II on the Only Name Under Heaven
“Only the God of Jesus Christ is the living God [Jn. 14:16]. As has also been stated in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum (no. 3), the first God mentioned above—the God of the philosophers—is the fruit of human thought, of human speculation, and capable of saying something valid about God . In… Read More John Paul II on the Only Name Under Heaven
John Lennon and The Seductions of Beautiful Nothing
“Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream”—John Lennon Photo by Yoko Ono. Updated. Perhaps it is one of those curious fearful symmetries(1) that the words of John Lennon quoted above are found in the Beatles’ album titled ‘Revolver’…and that he was finally gunned down, shot multiple times in the back by a “fan”.… Read More John Lennon and The Seductions of Beautiful Nothing
Consider Mary Daly: The Witch of Boston College
Note: Mary Daly died in January 2010. It is good to be tolerant, even of incoherent things, we are told today. The devil himself ought to be given a seat at the table. So the courts have ruled. But that can’t stop us from noticing that Mary Daly represents the meltdown of the dissident transgressive… Read More Consider Mary Daly: The Witch of Boston College
Consider Michel Foucault
Or, where the Left would take us. by Roger Kimball.The New Criterion. On The Passion of Michel Foucault by James Miller. Michel Foucault’s personal perversions involved him in private tragedy. The celebration of his intellectual perversions by academics continues to be a public scandal. The career of this “representative man” of the twentieth century really represents one of… Read More Consider Michel Foucault
The Scholars and the Goddess
by Charlotte Allen, 2001 | WICCA, sometimes known as the Goddess movement, Goddess spirituality, or the Craft, appears to be the fastest-growing religion in America. Thirty years ago only a handful of Wiccans existed. One scholar has estimated that there are now more than 200,000 adherents of Wicca and related “neopagan” faiths in the United… Read More The Scholars and the Goddess
The Hard Saying: Matthew 10:36-39
Jesus warned, “And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household.” Herod and Pilate became friends on the same day that Jesus was sent to Herod, as they had previously been enemies. This alliance was politically motivated, as both rulers sought to maintain their positions and avoid conflict during a tumultuous time. —… Read More The Hard Saying: Matthew 10:36-39
John Paul II on Faith, Reason and Nihilism
John E. Fagan “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart the desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come… Read More John Paul II on Faith, Reason and Nihilism
Lenin, the Ape and the Skull
“The Russian intelligentsia produced a faith based upon a strange syllogism: ‘Man is descended from the apes, therefore we must love one another.’” — Vladimir Solovyev. On Lenin’s desk in the Kremlin there stood, for most of the years he worked there, a strange bronze statue of an ape gazing with an expression of profound… Read More Lenin, the Ape and the Skull
Someone has said
Considering the untold numbers of fearful kinds of evils which have been unleashed into the world in our time and which we try to ignore, or at least not worry too much about — with doubtless many more evils to come — if we are not yet living in the age of the eschatological Antichrist*… Read More Someone has said
Benedict XVI: The Church Links Pedophilia to the Error of Proportion-alism in Ethics.
BXVI: “We have to reflect on what was insufficient in our education, in our teaching in recent decades. There was, in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, the idea of proportionalism in ethics: It held that nothing is bad in itself, but only in proportion to others. With proportionalism, it was possible to think for some… Read More Benedict XVI: The Church Links Pedophilia to the Error of Proportion-alism in Ethics.
Reject Them *
We have been forewarned about the neo-nazis and neo-socialists infiltrating a weakened, wayward Church. Only the eschaton will cleanse us decisively, according to His promise. Meanwhile we take only the meat to nourish us and leave the bones. ________ * Ideologies, not persons In 1984 I attended the Medal of Freedom awards ceremony presided over… Read More Reject Them *
Avoiding the Crash. Plato’s Chariot & the Passions
6/2021. Plato paints the picture of a Charioteer (Greek: ἡνίοχος) driving a chariot pulled by two winged horses: “First the charioteer of the human soul drives the pair. “The Charioteer represents intellect, reason, or the part of the soul that must guide the soul to truth; one horse represents the rational or moral impulse, the… Read More Avoiding the Crash. Plato’s Chariot & the Passions
The Great Liberal Death Wish. Malcolm Muggeridge.
Note / SH: Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and Harold Laski were prominent members of the Fabian Society, which aimed to promote socialism, abortion and euthanasia through gradual reform rather than revolution. They were influential intellectuals in the early 20th century, contributing significantly to political and cultural discussions of their time. Their legacy impacts us… Read More The Great Liberal Death Wish. Malcolm Muggeridge.
The Beat Generation… cultural catastrophe. By Roger Kimball
“We’ll get you through your children.” —Allen Ginsberg, 1958. The core of the heresy of the Free Spirit lay in the adept’s attitude towards himself: he believed that he had attained a perfection so absolute that he was incapable of sin. Disclaiming book-learning and theological subtleties, they rejoiced in direct knowledge of God- indeed, they… Read More The Beat Generation… cultural catastrophe. By Roger Kimball
Modernism & ‘Science’s’ One-way Street.
“…the rejection of the transcendent, [is] a one-way street to Dachau”. Samuel T. Francis+ wrote, “… [M]odernism denies or ignores God and concentrates on secular knowledge and action. Human knowledge then can be only empirical; moral statements can be only relative or factual, there being a dichotomy between fact and value; and human action cannot… Read More Modernism & ‘Science’s’ One-way Street.
Of UFOs, Apostasy, and Death
Apostasy is cruel. Not only does it walk “the broad way which leads to eternal destruction” (Matthew 7:13), but increasingly, in an age of bewilderment and despair, it leads straightway to temporal destruction as well, whether from AIDS, Fentanyl, euthanasia, or death by one’s own hand. Apostasy is cruel because, as St. Paul says, when… Read More Of UFOs, Apostasy, and Death
The Catholic Faith Is Not a Noble Lie
by Thomas Storck. What is needed is a real debate on religious questions providing a rational public apologetic for the faith. “For we were not following fictitious tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his grandeur.” – 2 Peter 1:16 The… Read More The Catholic Faith Is Not a Noble Lie
American Idol: On Nietzsche in America
American Idol: On Nietzsche in America. The Nation. Why early twentieth-century Americans—from anarchists to crazed Baptist ministers—fell for the Do It Thyself philosophy of Nietzsche. [Note: What follows here I think is a true enough interpretation of what is, in no small part, the general American philosophical context, which explains our interminable evolution of so-called… Read More American Idol: On Nietzsche in America
A Devout Meditation in Memory of Adolf Eichmann
By Thomas Merton. ONE of the most disturbing facts that came out in the Eichmann trial was that a psychiatrist examined him and pronounced him perfectly sane. I do not doubt it at all, and that is precisely why I find it disturbing. If all the Nazis had been psychotics, as some of their leaders… Read More A Devout Meditation in Memory of Adolf Eichmann
The Falls of Albert Camus
I’ve always loved Camus. But his shadow side must be faced. In his novella, The Fall, the Algerian-French philosopher and novelist Albert Camus stops lamenting social injustice for a moment as well as the “meaninglessness” and “absurdity” of an empty Nietzschean universe in general, and turns instead to biography, specifically to his own cruelty. Camus was a… Read More The Falls of Albert Camus
“You can see God by sniffing the gas in a cotton.” — Allen Ginsberg
Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation. The phenomenon of Allen Ginsberg by Bruce Bawer, The New Criterion On Allen Ginsberg’s poetry, 1985. I’m so lucky to be nutty.—Allen Ginsberg, “Bop Lyrics” (1949) The very first poem in Allen Ginsberg’s Collected Poems 1947-1980 [1] seems, in a way, to prophesy Ginsberg’s entire career. It is titled “In Society,” and it dates… Read More “You can see God by sniffing the gas in a cotton.” — Allen Ginsberg
Encyclical Letter ‘Faith and Reason’. Pope John Paul II.
“Without wonder, men and women would lapse into deadening routine and little by little would become incapable of a life which is genuinely personal”—Pope John Paul II Fides et Ratio,” meaning “Faith and Reason,” is an encyclical by Pope John Paul II published on September 14, 1998. It emphasizes the essential relationship between faith and… Read More Encyclical Letter ‘Faith and Reason’. Pope John Paul II.
Susan Sontag: a Prediction by Roger Kimball. 2004
When a friend called me this morning with the news that Susan Sontag had died at the age 71, just about the first thing I thought was, “well, we’ll have a huge, hagiographical, front-page obituary tomorrow in The New York Times.” Check to see if I am correct. In the meantime, as you prepare yourself… Read More Susan Sontag: a Prediction by Roger Kimball. 2004
Life Among the [Moral] Ruins
By Solange Hertz. The world is showing all the signs normally associated with old age. If it appears to be going mad, there is every reason to believe its madness is the senile dementia of the superannuated rather than the crazed exuberance of youth. Compared with the children of adamic times and the patriarchal progeny… Read More Life Among the [Moral] Ruins
Hans Kung and Benedict XVI
When the heretic Hans Kung met with Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, Kung said it was a deeply personal conversation. Benedict said he “respected” Kung’s “path” (without agreeing with it all). He urged Kung to teach students in regard to world religions and in other areas; and so, again, an ominous pluralism was seen to… Read More Hans Kung and Benedict XVI
John Paul II’s Battle Against Nihilism
“I appeal also to philosophers, and to all teachers of philosophy, asking them to have the courage to recover, in the flow of an enduringly valid philosophical tradition, the range of authentic wisdom and truth — metaphysical truth included — which is proper to philosophical inquiry — John Paul II, Fides et Ratio # 106… Read More John Paul II’s Battle Against Nihilism
“Straying, as through infinite nothingness”: The Collapse of Nietzsche
“God is dead but given the way of men there may be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. And we will have to vanquish his shadow, too.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, # 109 At the very dawn of the 20th century, on 25 August in the year… Read More “Straying, as through infinite nothingness”: The Collapse of Nietzsche
Socialism, Communism, Nihilism: Encyclical Letter. Leo XIII. 1878.
Pope Leo XIII Apostolici Muneris, December 28, 1878. As the nature of Our Apostolic office required of Us, We have not omitted, from the very outset of Our Pontificate, addressing you, Venerable Brothers, in Encyclical Letters, in order to advert to the deadly plague which is tainting society to its very core and bringing it… Read More Socialism, Communism, Nihilism: Encyclical Letter. Leo XIII. 1878.
Being and Bunk.
Apropos of everything: Because Martin Heidegger forsook his early roots in Thomistic [objective] Christian philosophy, the unapologetic Nazi who enjoyed philosophy was forced to create a new and eccentric philosophical superstructure [undecipherable and irrelevant to most human beings] to dodge the consequent existential void. It was necessary because his system toppled the Holy Trinity in… Read More Being and Bunk.
The Persistence of the Ideological Totalitarian Lie
The Totalitarian Impulse Then and Now “The Ideological Lie, as Solzhenitsyn calls it, was born when modern revolutionaries replaced the age-old distinction between good and evil with the illusory distinction between progress and reaction. In the name of progress, evil was called goodness, and goodness in the form of wise restraint was labeled evil, backward, racist,… Read More The Persistence of the Ideological Totalitarian Lie
Eugenics Isn’t Dead—It’s Thriving in Tech
A new book takes on the throughline from the rise of 20th-century eugenics to Silicon Valley. JULIA MÉTRAUX, Mother Jones. “Elon Musk’s calls for a so-called “efficient” US government—including wanting to end the already endangered right to work from home, a disability accommodation for many—are less surprising when you view him as a techno-eugenicist. The eugenicists of the early 20th… Read More Eugenics Isn’t Dead—It’s Thriving in Tech
Elon Musk’s 13 Babies. Monogamy in Crisis.
The imaginative evolutionary narrative of history that takes us back to the moral jungle. Elon Musk’s version of MAGA. Also, Musk’s DOGE Holds First Hearing on Government Waste. Opens everyone’s books (good) except his own (not good). This weekend, a MAGA influencer, Ashley St. Clair, 26, alleged on X that: ‘Five months ago I welcomed… Read More Elon Musk’s 13 Babies. Monogamy in Crisis.
When the State is Ultimate
So-called ‘Liberals’ have a philosophical problem in this country and beyond. On the one hand they heartily indulge and enjoy the sexual anarchy granted by the succeeding regimes since the 1950’s and 1960’s; on the other hand they tend to deplore the lawlessness of American foreign policy / imperialism / warmaking. They do not see… Read More When the State is Ultimate
Disappearing Into the Collective
Romano Guardini on “The End of the Modern World“. “This frightful destruction did not drop down from heaven; in truth it rose up out of hell!” —Romano Guardini. Mark Malvasi writes, “…absorbed by technology, [Romano] Guardini anticipated the emergence of a new type of human being that was defined by regimentation and conformity. This “man… Read More Disappearing Into the Collective
Repentance and / or the American Dialectic
What Fulton J. Sheen saw so clearly that others seek to forget: We are only sojourners here in a strange and foreign land. “Our whole life ought to be one continued penance“. — Frs. Francis Spirago, Richard F. Clarke on Penance. Joel 2:12-13 “Yet even now,” says the Lord, “return to me with all of your heart,with… Read More Repentance and / or the American Dialectic
April is the cruellest month
David Starkey tracks the history and influence of the Dada movement of art and its influence in modern culture and life through his experiences with the Royal Academy. BBC: December 3, 2004. An autographed gentleman’s urinal has been named the most influential modern art work of all time. “Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, which shocked the… Read More April is the cruellest month
Technological Giants, Moral Psychopaths
+ Where they would take us. Ingenious in ephemeral things and foolish in Eternal things. By Msgr. Charles Pope. We live in times of great ingenuity. We have a lot of clever smarts. We have been to the moon and back. Our computers never cease to amaze, as we make them smaller and more powerful.… Read More Technological Giants, Moral Psychopaths
Biden to Deny African Nation $480 Million in Aid if It Doesn’t Legalize Abortion
LifeNews: The Biden administration is pressuring Sierra Leone to pass an unpopular pro-abortion bill before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a former senior U.S. government official who has worked in the West African region told The Daily Signal. It is common knowledge among nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, in Sierra Leone that a U.S. foreign aid agency… Read More Biden to Deny African Nation $480 Million in Aid if It Doesn’t Legalize Abortion
The Deranged Robert Oppenheimer
Sam Kean examines the dark, restless side of the father of the atomic bomb in The Real Tragedy of Robert Oppenheimer In March 1926, four students from Cambridge University took a vacation in Corsica, an island off France. For ten days, they biked around and hiked the craggy hills and stuffed themselves with seafood in… Read More The Deranged Robert Oppenheimer
