Election Reflection

We voted early. Now I don't have to listen to all that (from either side).

I think the 6-year elections are unique, because they provide an opportunity for shaking out the old mistakes, reevaluating and planning for the real decisions in two more years. Both Republicans and Democrats should learn something, in theory, from what the voters decide and from the campaign and its issues. If the lessons aren't learned, there will be new dangers all around. I do trust the people as a whole. I think it was part of the Founders' vision to allow for "the people" to be the teachers to the politicians, that some sort of practical political wisdom would come out of a more reciprocal and equal relationship between the governed and those who govern. In our system, "the mob" has been replaced by the voting public. The office-holders and candidates are presumed to either win the respect of the people or to be humbled by them.

Einstein's advice

At least, I've seen this attributed to him:

"Insanity is making the same choice repeatedly, expecting a different result."

Moral thinking IS objective and experiential.

Thinker in Trouble

See here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-2385684,00.html

Whatever support can be given to this teacher should be given. There's simply not an excuse for saying that he ought to have shown more restraint, etc. The debate should be open: Is what he says truthful? When Islam as a whole begins to deal with its historical self--as the other great traditions have--these radical elements can be seen for what they are.

Reading List for Grownups

Hal asked what to read. There's not a simple answer to how to get at truth nowadays. A few things to rely on:

• Read the papers, but read carefully--be sure you read what is given in reply to accusations made by the press and by partisan hacks on both sides; I try as time allows to check the news in the local paper, Time Magazine, the web news on Drudge and Lucianne, who is partisan but often finds stuff no one else has.
• Victor Davis Hansen is a wonderful scholar, applying lessons from antiquity, especially military history of the Classical period to today's events. You can find his columns at several locations, including his own website.
• If you haven't, read the 9/11 Report.

I'll add a bigger job that will take you a longer time--check out the reading list for the liberal arts program at the University of Dallas. I believe it's still posted at their website--http://www.udallas.edu/academicprograms/core2.cfm.

I'll add more specifics about what I've read lately, later.

Spectacle of Stupid

Hugo and Muhammad. Can you believe it? If your eyes didn't roll at that completely clueless display, then you must have thought the General Assembly session the Democrat convention for '08.

These are not statesmen, but self-caricaturing buffoons. Unfortunately, they are dangerous ones, who will be used by the world's manipulators to achieve dreadful ends. Neither has the good sense and intelligence to avoid a path that will lead to self-destruction and tragedy for their nations, in the long run.

And one more point....

One of the reasons that Pope Benedict's address has gotten so much attention is that his idiom is that of crystal clear Roman philosophical legalism--in the very finest sense of that word. We average laypersons--including, apparently the press--can at least get a sniff of the significance of his words, even though we are likely without some context and scholarly background to distort it to our own venal purposes. The press did figure out that something was up within that Regensburg lecture. They never did get the first clue about Pope John Paul's meanings unless some authority came out and explained it like they were six year-olds, and so missed a lot of the good stuff. Benedict trumps the press-canonized interpreters and speaks directly to the generally cultivated mind. Figure it out, folks, or you--not the Pope--and you motives will be exposed.

And speaking of gentlemen...

The Pope has apologized--for being right. Why won't moderate Muslims step up and say that the apology was NOT necessary, that the violent and ignorant reactions of their co-religionists were what was wrong.

Those who fear Reason the most will exhibit the most vile responses to rational discourse. Dialogue is what they DON'T want.

Eventually, the world will be forced to discern who the "they" are. Better the Muslim community, the Ummah, should accomplish this first, and do so publicly, and deal with it.

Watching "The Elephant Man"

Merrick recites the 23rd Psalm, to the astonishment of Treves and the hospital administrator. Treves asks, "Why didn't you tell me you could read?" Merrick replies, "I was afraid to....I'm sorry." Did he need to apologize? Why didn't he ask, "Why did you, Treves, assume that I couldn't?"

For one thing, he truly is a gentleman--taking the weaker part, even though he has the stronger moral position.

Benedict's words

Why do the jihadists ALWAYS insist on misreading words and events in the non-muslim world? Now, this misreading has led to bloodshed, the murder by "Islamic radicals" of a nun in Africa. Any person who took a little while to read Pope Benedict's address to the academics at Regensburg would know perfectly well that the point was to critique the weakness of western society, in view of its having lost the priority on Reason--of the broad sort, which includes the view of the whole found in theological and philosophical studies.

I'll add a thought: There is a message to Muslims here. Put down the bombs; come prepared to dialogue. As Ibn Rushd advocates in a famous and widely read passage, all should use the mind given to us by God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Memorial Day

I watched the ceremony and the speeches at Arlington National Ceremony. General Pace, Chair of the Joint Chiefs, spoke with sobriety and realism about the soldier's life. He commented that all soldiers feel real human fear in situations of danger. He also discussed another kind of fear that influences our forces: the fear of dishonoring the ethos to which he and his fellow soldiers and sailors have committed themselves.

The choir sang "The Mansions of the Lord"--a hymn of incredible power.

The Commander in Chief spoke of being "in the presence of greatness," in the place "where valor sleeps." He urged honor for those "who saw a dark shadow on the horizon and went to meet it." Shades of Lord of the Rings, but the right sentiment, I think. And, it's objective. The world does face the dark shadow of the terrorist fanatics, not because they are Islamists, as they happen to be today, but because the 20th century loosed a dishonorable hatred of life, peace and freedom into the world in the form of militant ideologies. These perverse warriors may well take on other guises when "Islamism" either runs its course or is defeated. As the President promised a long time ago, the war on terrorism will be a long one. We fool ourselves to think that it's only about Islam and Jihad and to focus support or anger about the conduct of this conflict simply on that.