Stephen Roney's Blog, page 32

Why "Globalist" Governments Seem to be Acting Strangely

 

Aristotle notes that tyrannies establish themselves when a government suppresses all centres of power or authority in a society other than itself. This allows the ruler to dictate without opposition.

Aside from governments that directly suppress opposition movements, we should, therefore, beware a government that is opposed to private enterprise or the wealthy. We should fear a government that is unfriendly to organized religion. We should beware a government that seems to be deliberately impoverishing its own people, for this gives them less time or resources to form opposition movements.  We should fear governments bringing in large groups of foreigners. That reduces democratic controls and controls of social traditions and conventions on their actions. We should indeed fear any government hostile to local cultural traditions and conventions—these are checks on their power. We should suspect any government that begins to tinker with elections. We should beware a federal government that seeks to reduce or the powers of local authorities within a federation. We should beware a government that seems to want to control or suppress independent media.

And there you have the Trudeau Liberal platform; and that of the modern left generally.

Be aware; be afraid.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

Not With a Whimper but a Bang

 

The stock markets are crashing today. People are talking major recession. To follow Covid lockdowns, rampant inflation, and war in Europe. 

If they are right, this should be the final nail in the coffins of Kamala Harris and the Democrats in the US, and Justin Trudeau in Canada. They were set to lose anyway, but this could be historic, like RB Bennet or Herbert Hoover in their day. The left might be discredited for a generation. It may also be lucky for Farage in the UK and LePen in France that they were snookered, in part by political machinations, in the recent elections: that leaves the left holding this bag.

Meantime, in his most recent column, written before today’s news from the world’s stock markets, Xerxes the leftist columnist already comes out hard against “the system.” He quotes left-wing Anglo-Irish blogger Paul Kingsnorth: “We like to believe that we live in independent nation states run by leaders of our choosing, but this is a mirage designed to disguise the reality: The Machine is a giant, global, digitized web of commercial power and control, managed by transnational corporations and gatherings of elite powerbrokers, none of whom have very much interest in what ‘the people’ think.”

Strikingly, this is exactly what the right is saying. This is just what Trump and Farage and Poilievre have been saying. To be fair, it is not just the left that has shifted. A few years ago, the right would have resisted blaming transnational corporations. Not any more. Both left and right are now alarmed at elite powerbrokers and the trend to globalization. 

Of course, in the recent past, as soon as some leftist raises this alarm, he is declared by the left to be “far right”—see RFK, Jimmy Dore, Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Rogan. But even if this continues, if the shadowy elites sustain their control over the Democratic Party or the Liberals and NDP, the end result will be the same. The people are uniting against the powers that be.

Kingsworth and Xerxes think the problem is that things are getting more complicated due to technology, so that there is a greater distance between the elites and the common people. I think the exact opposite is happening: the new technology is levelling things, removing the need for an elite, and all its advantages. And making it easier for he people to seize control.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

Pride at the Paris Olympics

 

The online media have been lighting up about the blasphemous opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics, that featured what seemed to be a mockery of the Last Supper featuring a blue Dionysus as Christ, served up like the Eucharist, and a set of trans and obese apostles, one with his genitals dangling and visible.

Let us be clear about one thing: there is a war between LGBTQ ideology and the Catholic Church; and it is not the Catholic Church that started it. I first encountered it, to my shock, when I ran into a group of gay demonstrators dressed in mock nuns’ habits protesting near a Toronto community centre run by the Church. Until then, I, a practicing Catholic raised in catholic schools and educated at theological colleges, had thought we were all on the same side.

The Catholic catechism, it is true, says homosexual sex is sinful. It holds all sex not open to the conception of children disordered and sinful. This includes masturbation, sex outside marriage, and sex inside marriage if contraception is used. There is nothing special there about gay sex. To make an exception for gay sex and say it is okay would be allowing it some special privilege. Why?

Many prominent homosexuals in recent history have been Catholic, including converts. Oscar Wilde. Tennessee Williams. Milo Yiannopoulos. Andy Warhol. Pim Fortuyn. Evelyn Waugh. W.H. Auden (Anglo-Catholic). Nobody thought until recently this was somehow incompatible.

As for transvestitism: it has always been an accepted part of Filipino culture, and the Philippines is one of the most Catholic nations on Earth. The Catholic catechism has nothing to say about it. Why would that be a sin?

This is to be distinguished from the new doctrine of “transgenderism,” in which people go in for physical mutilation and insisting they are actually literally the opposite sex. Self-mutilation and denial of physical reality is of course sinful, in this as in any case.

So the supposed opposition of Catholicism to LGBTQetc. is an invention of the LGBTQ lobby, of the modern left. It is an invented premise, invented as an excuse to attack Catholicism. Not in the interests of gays either: in the interests of pride and lust.

Catholic morality sets a high bar, calling us to be “perfect, as your father in heaven is perfect.” Of course, none of us is. We cannot claim righteousness. To do so is the sin of pride, and an automatic ticket to the Other Place. 

It is just this that the rainbow brigade demands: a celebration of pride, and pride in lust.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

Cat Ladies

 

J.D. Vance, Trump’s VP pick, is being criticized in many quarters for a comment that the Democratic party is being run by “childless cat ladies who regret their life choices.” Some are demanding that Trump force him off the ticket as a result.

The reason everyone is so upset, of course, is the same reason they hate Trump. It is because he has hit the nail so squarely on the head. And the truth hurts.

I am sure everyone else knows, as I do, many older women without children who have begun to take in stray cats; whose lives seem to revolve around their furry children. It also seems self-evident that this is a compensation, that they would be happier with children of their own. A child is a much better companion than a cat.

Vance explicitly ruled out those who are childless through no choice of their own. But many women of recent generations, influenced by feminism, chose to put career over family, easy sex over commitment, and self over potential partner. They came to view men with suspicion, and repelled possible pairings. And now they are often alone, lacking purpose, and unfulfilled.

Having made such a bad fist of their own lives, should they be turned to for public leadership? Having displayed such selfishness in private life as not to put themselves out for partner or children, should they be entrusted with the public treasury? And shouldn’t we worry about Aesop’s principle of the fox who lost his tail? Misery loves company.

Of course the cat ladies shriek with anger. It is hurtful because it is true, and it forces them to admit they have destroyed their lives.

But there is a time to call out harmful delusions, for the sake of the next generations.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

Facts and Opinions

 

A measure of how materialist our society has become: every textbook I have had to use  that teaches critical thinking distinguishes only between fact and opinion, which they correlate to “objective” and “subjective.” as though this is the only issue. The message is that only facts are certainly true.

There are many truths that are subjective, not facts.

 The first obvious example:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ll men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Facts are provable truths, objective truths. These truths are not provable, but self-evident. We know they are true. 

Another truth, the most certain of all, is that God exist. This is not a fact, even if there are mathematical proofs; it is a truth. Indeed, none of the truths of mathematics are facts. Facts are only probvisionally true; the truths of mathematics are absolute.

Then there are moral truths. Murder is wrong. You should do unto others as you would have them do to you. Truth is better than lies. These are not facts; but they are certain.

Beauty is better than ugliness. Also unprovable, but self-evident. 

And then there is the universe of emotional truths: that I love my wife, or my kids or country. These are truths, not opinions, although they will commonly appear in the texts wrongly as opinions. I can know with certainty that I love my wife, or my country. 

Doesn’t this illustrate how limiting, how damaging, materialism is? It reduces us to lizards, zombies, or robots, without emotions, without conscience, and without meaning to our lives.

Welcome to hell.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

The Hellfire Club

 

I have heard both Vivek Ramaswamy and Jacob Rees-Mogg say recently that nobody is actually in control in Washington; there is nobody actually pulling the strings behind Joe Biden. Instead, it is a “mechanism,” according to Ramaswamy; Rees-Mogg says a “blob.” 

How does tis mechanism work, though? How does a blob coordinate the actions of many on many levels?

I think behind it, there must be something like a Hellfire Club; of which we actually heard in the Jeffrey Epstein revelations. We even know what they’re up to: the main lure is sex, especially sex with minors. Once someone has been compromised by participating, there is really no further need for coordination. The need to protect all other members, and the secrets of the club, becomes automatic, and dictates the necessary actions at all levels.

And this must be why they are so determined to stop Trump: he is not compromised. He is not a member of the club. In power, he might blow the lid off. It is not about political ideology. Trump is only a moderate Republican. They are similarly afraid of RFK Jr. on the left; or Tulsi Gabbard. 

I believe they killed Stanley Kubrick for obliquely revealing their existence in Eyes Wide Shut. Of course, they killed Jeffrey Epstein. They will try to kill any non0member who gets close to the highest levels of power, or anyone who, once a member, looks likely to reveal any secrets. 

Surely this will all come out soon. It is getting too obvious that this is going on.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

It Needs to Be Said: Women Are Beautiful but Crazy

 

Can we all agree that, on average, women are more beautiful than men/ 

Even the question seems absurd. Obviously, yes.

And that women have a stronger understanding and appreciation for beauty? 

And this is true even though some individual men can be strikingly handsome. This is true even though some individual male artists can produce unspeakable beauty in their works. 

Even when this is so—take a visit to your local art gallery. Whom do you see there, admiring this art? Mostly women.

Since this is uncontroverslal, that women are more beautiful than men, it should also be uncontroversial that men on average have a stronger grip than women on what is true. There are three transcendent values, the good, the true, and the beautiful. Women guide men on the beautiful, men guide women on the truth.

Note that women traditionally can become hysterical, delusional. Even the word is subtly gendered. Among societies that believe in spirit possession, the most common victim is a young woman. 

It has long been understood, and shown by proper scientific studies  that men are better at navigating than women. Men navigate by compass direction, by absolute distance, and by map. Women navigate by familiar landmarks, number of steps, or by asking directions. Their understanding is highly situational. 

I used to have fun in my classes by asking all the women, first, to point north. Almost none could. It looked random. Then I asked the men. Most could. 

This suggests a broader difference: men seek and are aware of the absolute truth directly. Women in general rely on men to know what it is.

This is what makes male-female companionship both possible and necessary. The woman brings beauty to the home; and the man brings directional guidance. This is why two women in the same home find it much harder to get along.

Two men have less problem, since they can be expected to both see the same truths. But the home will be a mess.

It also means that a woman without a man is likely to go off the rails. A woman needs a man not like a fish needs a bicycle, but like bicycle needs a steering mechanism. Left alone, women are like a runaway garden hose, thrashing around for meaning.

This means that female CEOs are usually a bad idea. There are magnificent exceptions; one thinks of Margaret Thatcher. But more often, they are easily distracted from the mission by matters like DEI or what colour drapes the office needs. They can fuss about trees and let the forest burn. They can worry about putting agents on a sloped roof, and leave the candidate unprotected.

This is surely why Saint Paul said women should not speak at services; why he said their path of virtue was to obey their husbands. This is surely why Jesus chose all male apostles.

 You think God did not know what he was doing?

Letting women take the lead is the first sin in the Book of Genesis; it led to all the catastrophes to follow. Contrast to Mary, who said instead, “behold the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” 

The same motif appears in Greek myth: the story of Pandora’s box. I have seen it in North American Indian lore. In gnostic legend. And a Chinese student, commenting on Lady MacBeth, reports it is in the Chinese tradition as well.

It is inconceivable folly to ignore here the wisdom of our ancestors.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

This Is Shocking. I Can't Say More than This

 

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

Quick Comments in Time of Turmoil

 

The news has been coming too fast for commentary.

I think J.D. Vance is a great pick. Trump has a sense of thepublic mood, and I think he has picked well. With Vance, he is getting outahead of the rapidly building white working class backlash against DEI. That isbecoming the next big thing. Picking Rubio or Scott or Gabbard or some of theother possibles would have been conforming to the DEI agenda, if inadvertently.Not the message for this time.

Vance emerges from the same social space as the Canadiantruckers and the Dutch farmers. It is their time to roar. They will roar. Andit is better for everybody if their spokesmen are peacefully elected togovernment, before matters must be settled in the streets and in the fields.

Vance is also an accomplished writer. Although few seem torealize it, artistic talent, especially talent as a communicator, a writer oractor, is an important qualification for political leadership. I point to Reagan,Disraeli, Churchill, Trump himself, John Paul II. Vance could eventually becomea historic president. As Trump already is.

On a different but related matter, it is generally goodadvice, as he saying goes, ot to ascribe to malice what can be adequately accountedfor by incompetence. However, given the lengths the other side has visibly gonealready to prevent the re-election of Donald Trump, we have every reason tobelieve either the assassination attempt on Trump a couple of days go was aninside job, or else the lax security, at least, was deliberate.

God help us all if they try again and succeed. Trump’ssurvival this time looks like a genuine miracle. I would not be the first tosay that God seems to have a special cordon of protection around children,drunks, and the USA. George Washington survived an eerily similar near miss atthe first battle of the French and Indian Wars.

Are Americans God’s chosen people? It seems to me plausibleenough, on the same grounds that the Israelites were and are. The US Declarationof Independence, and the principles it represents, are a light unto thenations.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.

Inductive and Deductive

 

Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc.

Friend Xerxes, as a gentleman of the left, may have put his finger on why our society is falling apart. He heralds the supposed good news that science has recently discredited the whole idea of “top-down” reasoning—that is, deduction. Without giving details, he thinks this is because of what quantum physics posits about subatomic particles. Actually, I think he has this backwards: quantum physics actually discredits the usual scientific “bottom-up” approach. Which means, drawing general conclusions from observation. Quamtum physics argues that observation does not work at this level.

Science has always been “bottom up”—that is, inductive. Philosophy, religion and mathematics are deductive, working from first principles down to the specific. Xerxes prefers science, apparently. I gather everyone on the left does. Math is racist, after all. 

One problem with inductive reasoning is that it can never arrive at truth. It can only draw provisional conclusions, which may be disproven in the next moment by some “black swan” event.

Another problem is that it cannot arrive at any concept of value, of what is good or bad. It cannot distinguish between right and wrong. 

This makes it a useful tool, but a terrible master.

And our modernist culture has elevated it to our religion.

No wonder, then, that we begin to doubt, with the postmodernists, whether there is any reality at all underlying mere opinion. No wonder there is a crisis of meaninglessness leading to drug addiction, mental illness, suicide, and despair. No wonder that we object to conventional morality and to being “judgemental,” and social morals are collapsing. No wonder modern psychiatry is left to define sanity as merely thinking the same way as everyone ese, making dissent madness—an obvious logical fallacy, but they have nowhere else to go for any standard of truth or right.

Xerxes has decided that because it is “top down,” moving from the general to the particular, deduction supports and leads to authoritarianism. He heralds accordingly the supposedly new inductive approach as leading to a new age of human liberation.

Yay. Now men can become women and if math is hard, you ignore it.

But this, that deductive reason leads to authoritarianism, is demonstrably the opposite of the truth. When you remove judgement, there is no way to peacefully resolve disagreements. Bullying and force are all there is. No wonder then that so much of modern thought, from feminism to intersectionality, is about “power relationships” and “power imbalances’ and power. Whoever has power simply uses it to impose their will and their interests; and that is taken as a given.

There is no way, then, of course, to end power imbalances. All you can do is put another group in power. Everyone fights to the death for the crest of the hill. And in the long run everyone loses and dies.

Those political philosophies that have built on an inductive, “scientific” approach have been the most authoritarian in history: Fascism, Nazism, and Marxism. Deductive regimes, even at the most authoritarian, like Iran, Spain under the Inquisition, or Saudi Arabia, are mild by comparison.

Liberal democratic principles, on the other hand, are entirely deductive. This is clearly expressed in the US Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness….”

The idolatry of science has our tail spinning into havoc and madness. Xerxes, unknowingly, suggests why.

'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.