Stephen Roney's Blog, page 138
April 28, 2022
A Costly Hoax
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
April 24, 2022
Francis's Holy Week Procession
For perhaps too long, I tried to defend Pope Francis’s papacy. This Holy Week, he has shown himself to be morally depraved.
The procession featured, at one of the stations, a Ukrainian and a Russian woman carrying a candle together, and Francis then intoned the sentiment, “adversaries to shake hands so they can taste mutual forgiveness, to disarm the hand raised by a brother against a brother, so that concord can spring from where there is now hate."
The problem is that, in the current war in Ukraine, Russia is unambiguously the aggressor, Ukraine the victim, and Russia has not ceased their attack. Indeed, they are about to launch an offensive. Calling for reconciliation now is denying there is anything wrong with Russia’s action; the blame is on the Ukrainians, at least equally, for not accepting it and laying down their arms. It is like demanding a rape victim smile and embrace her assailant in the middle of a rape.
The worst of Francis’s crime is the attempt to assert that this position is virtuous, indeed, more virtuous than the Ukrainians are in their suffering. This is the sin of hypocrisy. This is not just making no distinction between right and wrong, but demanding that wrong be seen as right, for the sake of one’s own ego. This is the unforgivable sin, the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Sadly, Francis is worse than just a heretic.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
Amber See, Amber Do
Many are noticing that Amber Heard keeps mimicking Johnny Depp’s clothing choices in their current defamation trial. And many are wondering why. Is she playing some kind of mind game?
No; why would Depp care?
We owe a debt to Depp for bringing this to trial. He has exposed the fact that women abuse men. Our system is grotesquely biased against men, to the extent that it is actually a commonly held opinion that men are always abusers, and women always victims. An opinion that enables abuse. This public trial, along with recent and increasing revelations about Jada ad Will Smith, may help redress that balance.
Amber’s clothing choices are not hard to decipher if you know much about narcissists.
Depositions show that she used to commonly criticize Depp for lacking style.
If her own actions in mimicking him do not disprove this, any objective observer should see the absurdity of the charge. Nobody has more sartorial style than Depp.
Narcissists are motivated by envy. They must be the centre of everything; so nobody is allowed to be better than them at anything. Therefore they will criticize their victim for whatever in the latter is most admirable; they will want to deny it.
At the same time, they will mimic it, in hopes of appropriating thunder; of making themselves the centre of attention instead. People were looking at Depp; she wanted them to look at her.
Narcissists are not complicated. They are childishly simple in their thinking. A good rule is that whatever they say will be the opposite of the truth.
There is a special place in hell for those who, in the face of the evidence, still insist that, if Depp was not the abuser, at least it was a mutually abusive relationship. After all, Depp drank and took drugs. He opened and shut cabinet doors loudly in her presence. He tried to cut himself. He even wrote to a friend that he wanted to drown Amber, set her on fire, and have sex with the corpse.
None of that is abusive. It simply shows the depth of his pain; which he needed to vent or escape without harming her or anyone else. Anyone who does not see this, is a narcissist themselves. For they are apparently incapable of seeing another as human.
Will Smith’s slap at the Oscars is similar, although less admirable. Unable to defend against his narcissistic wife, in a fit of terror and confusion, he misdirected at what seemed a more acceptable target. If he could keep Jada in good humour, she might not lash out at him. In effect, he was taking it out on himself, attempting career suicide.
In the wider society, men are committing suicide in large numbers, and dying of drug overdoses.
It is time to end the persecution.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
April 22, 2022
The Real Reason Russia Cannot Take Ukraine?
The lesson we might take from the current war in Ukraine is not that the Russian military is suprisingly incompetent, or the Ukrainians suprisingly competent, but that current technology favours the defense. This happens from time to time. The English longbow gave the defense the advantage over cavalry in the Hundred Years War. The machine gun gave the defense the advantage in the First World War, until overcome by the tank.
Currently, it seems that small, smart missiles and drones, some shoulder-carried, can take out more expensive tanks, ships, and planes. And even a relatively low-tech economy like Turkey can turn out effective drones.
Bad news for America projecting power. Good news for Taiwan should China want to invade.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
The Moral Imperative
Edvard Munch, MelancholySeiko, a 45-year-old man living with depression and chronic anxiety, insists his parent are stupid, not evil. And how can it be their fault if they are evil?
Od’s response:
You puzzle over how you could blame your parents for being stupid. “I doubt if stupid people can make themselves less stupid.”
Those raised in a dysfunctional family will go to almost any lengths not to blame their parents. Accepting that your parents are at fault is the essence of the cure.
It is possible for people to be deliberately stupid, and many people choose to be stupid.
Here’s how.
Have you ever watched a movie? You know that what you saw was not really happening. It was just light playing on a screen. Even the story was all made up. You even knew that nothing bad would happen to the hero, because most movies have a happy ending. Yet you got engrossed in the story and kept watching, forgetting where you were and your real life, for an hour or two. You imagined it was all really happening.
This is what narcissists do all the time. They decide what they want to be true, and then simply choose to believe it. They live in a movie they are writing, directing, and starring in.
It follows that a commitment to truth no matter where it leads is the antidote to being raised by narcissists. It is necessary to break through a series of delusions and denials with which you have been raised. Especially about your parents.
So narcissists are not born stupid. They usually choose to be stupid, to turn away from truth, in early adolescence.
Seiko thinks the modern world and all its technology is too complicated for him. He yearns to live in the jungle, or like Canada’s First Nations.
Od:
I understand your concern, but I don’t think you have the real problem pinpointed. It is not with technology, but with society. Our society has its values wrong; most people are to some degree delusional, in denial. Your instincts are right to want to get away from it.
This is also a projection of the fact that the society in which you grew up, your family, had its values wrong. You need to get away from all society to think things through, and you know this by instinct. You need, not nature, but solitude.
The antidote to being raised with false values is a commitment to true values—to the good--wherever it leads.
I think it is unwise to jump quickly into some new “community,” even if one is available. You are vulnerable to being exploited by some new dysfunctional community or individual narcissist who spins you a comfortable new delusion. Without a grounding in reality, you are unable to detect this. This is how cults develop. You need first to establish a solid sense of what is true and false, right and wrong.
In the old Christian monasteries, when you joined, you were required to observe a period of enforced isolation and silence.
Cults do the opposite: they never want you to be alone. They fear independent thought.
Edvard Munch, AnxietySeiko persists in denying the existence of God, and, like all atheists, inconsistently also blaming him for all evil.
Od:
There is no need here to discuss the existence of God. I think this has become a distraction. What is important is to accept the existence of right and wrong. Whether or not God exists, surely you agree that it would be wrong to rape the next woman you meet? That it would be wrong to kill the next person who annoys you?
No?
Then would it be wrong for the next person you meet to kill you? Or to rape you? Perhaps if he is homosexual?
No objections?
Can you agree that the world should be better than it is?
Immediately, then, you are accepting the reality of right and wrong. That is all that matters: right is right and wrong is wrong, and people are capable of doing either.
I think you want to introduce God as a scapegoat. Then perhaps you can blame him, and avoid blaming your parents.
Forget God, then: your parents are fully responsible for their own actions.
But supposing, on the other hand, that God does exist. It does not follow that he is responsible for the actions of your parents, any more than a parent is responsible if he lets his son drive the car, and the son gets into an accident. Nor is the car manufacturer responsible. Humans have moral agency. We know this, because we know we do. We know we make conscious choices. Why that is so is irrelevant. We cannot blame God for our own choices; or those of our parents.
Why did God allow us to make choices? Because he does not see us as objects, mere toys to play with. Martin Buber speaks of an “I-thou” relationship, far more meaningful than an “I-it” relationship. No doubt you can understand that I love my wife in a different and more important sense than I might love a good meal, or a soft couch, or a gadget.
To suppose your parents themselves had no choice in how they raised you, that it was all God’s fault, or the fault of some genetic flaw they were born with, or the fault of their own upbringing, is to reduce them to robots, without moral agency. Is that respectful?
You ask, what purpose does hell serve? The answer is one word: justice.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
April 20, 2022
Let's Put All Those Evil Guns in Jail
Would a handgun ban have any such effect? Most mass shootings happen in gun-free zones. Switzerland and Israel require all able-bodied men to own guns; their rate of gun violence is lower than Canada’s.
Arguably, if there were fewer guns, there would be fewer guns in the hands of criminals. Equally arguably, if there were fewer guns, the criminals would still have them, and nobody else would.
There are other reasons why a gun ban is a bad idea.
Both the American Bill of Rights, and the English Bill of Rights, include the right to bear arms. Both say this is a basic human right. Why?
It follows from the right to self-defense. Not just against predatory wild animals, or predatory criminals, but against predatory government. The development of democracy in Britain has a lot to do with the fact that the English longbow could penetrate a suit of armour—a man’s home became his castle, because he could defend it against the nobility. Swiss democracy emerged because Swiss pikemen could do the same—hold off their armoured overlords. The continuing right to bear arms ensured and ensures this.
This being so, any attempt by any government to limit arms should be looked at with suspicion. Especially so soon after a peaceful protest was illegally suppressed in Ottawa.
There is yet another reason why gun control is a bad idea. Consider the current case of Ukraine. The government has passed out arms to every male citizen, and called on them to fight.
Consider the military advantage any country has in such a situation if its citizens generally know how to use a gun, and may have one in their basement.
It has been said that the many guns in private hands make the USA unconquerable. It has kept Switzerland out of two world wars. Canada’s relative familiarity with rifles made Canadians the shock troops and flying aces of the Allied forces in two world wars.
The cheapest and best way Canada could improve its own defense would actually be to give or even require firearms training for all adult citizens, and hand out free guns.
I wager violent crime would go down too.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
Let's Put All Those Evil Guns in Prision
Would a handgun ban have any such effect? Most mass shootings happen in gun-free zones. Switzerland and Israel require all able-bodied men to own guns; their rate of gun violence is lower than Canada’s.
Arguably, if there were fewer guns, there would be fewer guns in the hands of criminals. Equally arguably, if there were fewer guns, the criminals would still have them, and nobody else would.
There are other reasons why a gun ban is a bad idea.
Both the American Bill of Rights, and the English Bill of Rights, include the right to bear arms. Both say this is a basic human right. Why?
It follows from the right to self-defense. Not just against predatory wild animals, or predatory criminals, but against predatory government. The development of democracy in Britain has a lot to do with the fact that the English longbow could penetrate a suit of armour—a man’s home became his castle, because he could defend it against the nobility. Swiss democracy emerged because Swiss pikemen could do the same—hold off their armoured overlords. The continuing right to bear arms ensured and ensures this.
This being so, any attempt by any government to limit arms should be looked at with suspicion. Especially so soon after a peaceful protest was illegally suppressed in Ottawa.
There is yet another reason why gun control is a bad idea. Consider the current case of Ukraine. The government has passed out arms to every male citizen, and called on them to fight.
Consider the military advantage any country has in such a situation if its citizens generally know how to use a gun, and may have one in their basement.
It has been said that the many guns in private hands make the USA unconquerable. It has kept Switzerland out of two world wars. Canada’s relative familiarity with rifles made Canadians the shock troops and flying aces of the Allied forces in two world wars.
The cheapest and best way Canada could improve its own defense would actually be to give or even require firearms training for all adult citizens, and hand out free guns.
I wager violent crime would go down too.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
April 19, 2022
Deja Vu All Over Again
One of the biggest lies in world literature is Tolstoy’s opening line for Anna Karenina, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
This is the opposite of the truth. Dysfunctional families all follow roughly the same template.
You can also predict with great reliability that any truly outstanding artist, in whichever art, comes from one.
Johnny Depp rings the changes for us. Some of us will find much of what he says familiar.
It also explains his troubles with Amber Heard. Once you have been victimized by a narcissistic parent, you are primed perfectly to be victimized by a narcissistic lover.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
April 17, 2022
The End of Canadian Press Freedom
Telling It Like It Is
