A negative assessment of Thatcher from the right, and more
- Rust in peace: the death of the "Iron Lady." I know she was roughly equivalent to our neocons (minuses and all?) and I thought the British didn't like her because she cut away traditional but inefficient social and business arrangements (such as certain jobs) in favor of economic efficiency, hence the snobbish swipes at Cockneys with cash. But this makes me think. Ian Smith is an unsung hero of the 20th century: Rhodesia wasn't South Africa.
- From Bob Wallace: "Why great husbands are being abandoned." Yuck. A man needs to be a man, and a woman needs to be a woman. Period. The Leif and "Conservative" Blogger Jenny Erikson story, or belonging to a conservative church won't stop your being eatpraydumped/frivorced, niceguy, at least in religious consumerist America. Manosphere 101, even if there's no such thing as alpha dogs. Don't listen to girls: watch what they do.
- When church is an accessory. The byzcath fiasco reminds me generally of the shortcomings of high churchianity, online and in person, beyond the usual stuff about churches being full of sinful people. (Nothing's changed on that board in nearly 15 years: you can be or become as Eastern as all get out but if you sound, yuck, conservative Catholic, they deny your commitment to the rite.) Sure, I'm still Catholic and high-church. But the lack of character I see in some quarters of that, West and East, reminds me of the difference between religious entertainment and religion. (What's wrong with Anglo-Catholicism, for example.) Partly why I didn't go downtown for High Mass at our cathedral on the feast of the Assumption, as good in itself as that was. At any parish, USA, Pope Benedict's English Novus Ordo contains all things necessary for salvation, and although I don't like the ceremonial, it's good sometimes if you want religion: to stay away from the culture vultures. Cut the crap and just walk to Mass, because it's good for your soul.
Update: A commenter has nailed what that lack of character is, the difference between real and fake religion. Fake religion is self-centered.
Catholic integralism is the true seamless garment.
Eatpraydumped: perfect phraseology.
ReplyDeleteIan Smith: Rhodesia wasn't South Africa but it wasn't a legal state committed to the rule of law and the respect of basic natural law, either; what has come afterward with Mugabe is worse, but that doesn't make the white regime in Salisbury worthy of praise.
Religious entertainment: it all gets down to the question "thy will be done or my will be done?"; the hallmark of fake religion is that it is all about me, me, me, the special little snowflake me, instead of about God, God, God, the awesome and wonderful God.
Thatcher: right to defend British rights in the Falklands, right to put the boot to the corrupt and thuggish trade unions in the UK, on the wrong side of the culture wars (she was pro-abortion), wrong also about the north of Ireland issue, spot on about the need to stand up to the Soviets. So, a mixed record.
I think Roissy coined "eatpraydumped" and that's where I picked it up.
DeleteReligious entertainment: it all gets down to the question "thy will be done or my will be done?"; the hallmark of fake religion is that it is all about me, me, me, the special little snowflake me, instead of about God, God, God, the awesome and wonderful God.
"By George, he's got it!"
I agree with you about Ian Smith. I am ashamed of the way Britain treated Rhodesia.
ReplyDeleteOn the mass, as somebody converting to Catholicism from Evangelicalism, I am bewildered by all the debate and discussion about one or another form of the mass. I find the Novus Ordo mass at my parish really uplifting, even if some of the English language used is a bit banal at times.
I understand that at the time many Britons sympathized with Ian Smith.
DeleteAs a regular reader you know I think the old Roman Missal is better than the new, but M.D. wrote exactly what I was trying to say in the original post. All sin has an apparent good as a goal, so the devil can take any good thing, such as that form of the Roman Rite, the unlatinized Byzantine Rite, high culture generally, or your tribe's culture, and make an idol of it. In a word, pride: if you are congratulating yourself more than you're worshipping God, your head's not on straight.
I knew an American mercenary who fought on the Ian Smith side and he told me they just mangled their opponents and would have easily won, but there was an embargo on them, mostly from the U.S. and they could barely get arms.
ReplyDelete