REDACTED Culture Cast

Talk Back to Me

When I joined the Army, I distinctly remember one man in basic training say that he had enlisted so that he could be a part of the biggest gang in America. "Why wear red or blue," he said, "when you could wear green."
Admittedly the scene felt a little stereotypical, and it didn't help that each of us was undergoing the culture shift from our hometowns to the Army.

But Gang life draws more mysticism from the unknowing and uninitiated than it does from those who have seen the inside, and left of their own accord. Angel Cortes, a fellow Ranger, community leader, and selfless kidney donor joins the REDACTED Culture Cast to talk about not only how his life has changed over the past decades, but what he came to understand about violence during that time.

The REDACTED Culture Cast is dedicated to add value to how we think about violence, be it in the form of ethical structures, or diligent discipline. And Angel Cortes has plenty to offer, if only we will listen.

Follow Angel Cortes on Instagram at @the_og_pumpkin
His Shop: www.ogpumpkin.com
And train with Defense Strategies Group at www.defensestrategies.us

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Talk Back to Me

Have you ever heard someone go about explaining the two sides to an argument, only to later discover they're involved in one side of the controversy? While a situation like that isn't exactly the view-from-above fallacy, it closely resembles the rhetorical strategy of one. Not directly a logical fallacy, the speaker presents themselves as an objective observer looking down on the battlefield between two subjective parties. While doing so, they make normative claims about the environment as if they had no impact or binding influence over his ability to observe. 

Gun Culture is regularly faced with this type of rhetoric, and we dive into both a recent article published by Relevant Magazine, as well as the worthwhile read "On Killing" by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman as this fallacy is sometimes referred to as the Psychologist's Fallacy. 

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Talk Back to Me

Those of us millennials who grew up in the American church will likely find this sentiment familiar: we read of the faithlessness of the Israelites, shuddering at their unbelief in the presence of God, and then turn the page to apologetics which argues for the rationality of creationism over a naturalist origin story for the cosmos. It is not all too unfamiliar to confuse belief with faith in this sense, or at least see them as near synonyms. The consequences play out in our own lives as we struggle to do what is right, even when we know the right thing to do. And it rises to the level of our Western Culture with never-ending identity crises which take the public form in the shape Transgenderism and the decline of masculinity in the church. In order to solve this, within our own selves or in our culture, we must understand the relationship between faith, identity, and belief. 

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Talk Back to Me

Telos, Teleology, and the question of what is the end goal? In addition to the existential crisis, which turns out to be the contemporary edition of such, we engage with the long lasting effects of what we believe to be right and true and good. The mid life crisis perfectly encapsulates the identity of the 80's husband. Only, we live decades later and have our own problems to bear. 

Teleology remains the application of logic to what is to come. 

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Talk Back to Me

Both Politics and Theology place a heavy weight on the concept of sovereignty. Just like the idea of Human Rights, there's a difference between when these ideas began to see common use in history, and what we ground them in. It's one thing to claim that God is Sovereign, but it is another, entirely, to act accordingly. 

The same goes with politics. In philosophy, we must distinguish between the story of how a concept or word came into use, and what that concept is grounded in. What is it that makes it real, as opposed to who discovered it. 

And these ideas remain well below the trivial surface.

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Talk Back to Me

"How Can you Be a Christian in the Military?"

What kind of answer are you looking for? Are you looking for a worldview or a set of moral imperatives. Are you asking if it is possible for a man to be a Christian while they are in the Military, as if there were some inherent contradiction, or are you asking the question of "How then shall we live?" Because they are not the same.

Just War Theory deals with both of these premises. Whether you are looking for the Jus Ad Bellum answer or the Jus In Bellow one, just let us know. 

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Talk Back to Me

So as not to be mistaken for a trap, Betteridge's Law applies here. 

There's a difference between materialism and accusing someone or some culture of being too materialistic. What we understand as Materialism is more akin to Naturalism, where as being Materialistic, is the placing of too much emphasis of objects as one's identity. A serious look at what it is typically portrayed as an unserious matter. 

And if so, then what? 

What drives Gun Culture? Is it the acquisition of possessions? The development of skill? Being prepared for some potential future? Is it the pursuit of virtue?

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Talk Back to Me

We stand on the shoulders of Giants, who have gone before us, as men, just like us, to try to understand what it true and what it means for a thing to be true. For Descartes, his Meditations on First Philosophy includes the line that divides the mind from the body. Since it is possible that our senses to be tricked, it is possible that all of our senses can be tricked at the same time. If that is true, how can we even know that we exist. And from this we get the line, "I think, therefore I am."

But this isn't the first time mankind has concerned itself with the mind-body distinction. Plato and his influence also depends on there being a difference between the idea of a thing, and the physical thing we interact with. 

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Talk Back to Me

The question asked by Socrates gets to the heart of how we think about who or what God is. Many of the arguments regarding God falter over childish descriptions, evoking imaginary characters, judgemental shirtless men, and an abundance of the word "empathy." So when Socrates asks about the relationship between the gods and goodness or holiness or piety, he forces the reader to sort out whether their idea of God is bound by some other force, and the consequences of such ideas. 

And how we think about God impacts how we think about goodness, and in turn, morality, which, when it comes to potentially taking life, is something to take very seriously. 

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Talk Back to Me

The singularity will change, the world will remain the same. 

REDACTED is a strange conglomeration of those who know, and those who suspect. 

As a result, the REDACTED Culture Cast is going to change. 

The long form conversations will remain. In addition, there will be something of value for you to consider in your day-to-day. Philosophy exists in tension between the halls of academia and a sense of isolation from all of human life.

We will manage the expectations going forward. 

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