Holy Spime blocks! Today, Marc Barnes and Maria Brandell venture further into Illich's gendered domains, exploring an older world of gendered tools and spaces, and musing on how these worlds manifest (or don't) today.

Illich Part 3: Spime Blocks | The Politics of Gender

Laying the intellectual foundation necessary for building Christian societies free from the violent presuppositions of liberalism. 

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Marc Barnes and Alex Denley discuss the latest New Polity magazine, Issue 5.1. Articles include D. C. Schindler on totalitarianism and America, a debate on the stock market, Marc on the medieval practice of sanctuary, and more.

America and the Inversion of Tyranny | Magazine 5.1 Review

Marc and Maria discuss how the Third-Person perspective of pornography changes the way we view sexual difference.

Gender in a Pornographic World

Euthanasia is becoming legalized across the Western world. Pat McGeehan, Delegate of West Virginia, is fighting against it. Advocates employ slogans like “death with dignity,” and appeal to compassion; but, the actual results are much different. Already, a “suicide tourism” phenomenon has begun, with people flying to states like Oregon to get legal doctor-assisted suicide. Pat tells a story of one of his constituents who, tragically, was a victim of this. Likewise, Canada’s MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) program has resulted in the deaths of over 40,000 people since 2016; with legislation only being passed recently to curb the amount of suicide tourism. By legalizing euthanasia, the door is open for gross misuse: the elderly who feel they are a burden to their children could be pressured into an untimely death, people with treatable illnesses could elect to end their lives, hospitals and health insurance providers could increase euthanasia recommendations to patients to decrease costs. But, Pat is fighting for the dignity of his constituents in West Virginia. Euthanasia denies the dignity of the person; Pat is working to uphold that dignity by constitutionally banning euthanasia in the state of West Virginia.

Fighting Against Legalized Euthanasia | West Virginia Delegate Pat McGeehan

Marc and Maria continue their conversation on Humanae Vitae; specifically on the desire to control the body and its reproduction through abortion. They discuss how abortion not only plays the function of the killing of innocent children, but reshapes the experience of the body as such. 

This episode is part 2 of a conversation on the Control of the Body. 

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READINGS

Contraception, Abortion Episode (I-II)

Donum Vitae:
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html

(All hail the parchment background)

Humanae Vitae: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html

(All mourn the loss of the parchment background)

Abortion and the Control of the Body | Part 2

Maria and Marc read Humanae Vitae, the Catholic Church's decisive rejection of contraception, as a text which prophesies and makes sense out of the meaninglessness we ascribe to our male and female bodies today. 

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Illich Part 3: Spime Blocks | The Politics of Gender

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