Simple Gifts

George Orwell's 1984 is classic dystopian literature, but it is also psychologically astute and prescient concerning the totalitarian tendencies of the 20th century's ideologies. With the rise of 21st century Wokism currently in vogue, its message is a clarion call for the present, too. Let us beware of embracing rather than opposing the lies that are being forced upon us, lest we find ourselves, too, living in a world in which we must guard our very thoughts, lest they betray us. Hold fast to the truth, no matter the consequences!

Enjoy ... and be vigilant!

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Rene Descartes' classic philosophical work, Meditations on First Philosophy, is a participative exercise in thinking. Join one of history's great philosophical minds in considering the nature of the world and how we think about it.

In Meditation IV, titled "Of Truth and Error," Descartes begins by recalling what we can know with certainty, our own existence and the existence of God. And it is the latter, God's existence, that suggests a path out of subjectivity into objective knowledge:

"And now I seem to discover a path that will conduct us from the contemplation of the true God, in whom are contained all the treasures of science and wisdom, to the knowledge of the other things in the universe."

If God exists, and God is no deceiver, then we have good reason to rely on our God-given capacities, when rightly used, to discover Truth. It is the notion of being "rightly used" that takes up most of Descartes' attention in this Meditation.

We are, by nature, finite, and yet our freedom of judgment is for all practical purposes infinite, so we must restrain that freedom in proportion to our grasp of reality.

"Whence, then, spring my errors? They arise from this cause alone, that I do not restrain the will, which is of much wider range than the understanding, within the same limits, but extend it even to things I do not understand, and as the will is of itself indifferent to such, it readily falls into error and sin by choosing the false in room of the true, and evil instead of good."

When we fail to so restrain our judgment, we fall into error. Descartes, then, takes his position alongside Socrates in the plea to always keep our own ignorance in view.

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On June 16, 1941 Winston Churchill took to the airwaves to thank America's University of Rochester granting him an honorary doctoral degree. He took the occasion to remind the US of its own stake in the war, using that soaring rhetoric for which he is so justly famous:

"... what is the explanation of the enslavement of Europe by the German Nazi regime? How did they do it? It is but a few years ago since one united gesture by the peoples, great and small, who are now broken in the dust, would have warded off from mankind the fearful ordeal it has had to undergo. But there was no unity. There was no vision.... And now the old lion with her lion cubs at her side stands alone against hunters who are armed with deadly weapons and impelled by desperate and destructive rage. Is the tragedy to repeat itself once more? All no! This is not the end of the tale. The stars in their courses proclaim the deliverance of mankind. Not so easily shall the onward progress of the peoples be barred. Not so easily shall the lights of freedom die. But time is short. Every month that passes adds to the length and to the perils of the journey that will have to be made. United we stand. Divided we fall. Divided, the dark age returns. United, we can save and guide the world!"

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What Lewis means by subjectivism is "... the fatal superstition that men can create values, that a community can choose its 'ideology' as men choose their clothes."

"Until modern times no thinker of the first rank ever doubted that our judgments of value were rational judgments or that they discovered what was objective."

What is under attack here is the social constructivism that has since Lewis's time become even more pervasive and pernicious, beginning in our educational system but radiating like a cancer throughout our body politic. This doctrine of subjectivism lies at the heart of Wokism, of postmodernism, of post-Hegelian thinking, and its influence reaches into the heart of every institution in our contemporary world, including all sectors of the Church.

The entire program of the broad socialist tradition which is inundating us can be summarized as the "attempt to jettison traditional values as something subjective and to substitute a new scheme of values for them." To this Lewis declares:

"Let us get two propositions written into our minds with indelible ink.

1) The human mind has no more power of inventing a new value than of planting a new sun in the sky or a new primary colour in the spectrum.

2) Every attempt to do so  consists in arbitrarily selecting some one maxim of traditional morality, isolating it from the rest, and erecting it into an unum necessarium."

Lewis concludes, "Unless we return to the crude and nursery-like belief in objective values, we perish. If we do, we may live."

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In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure dome decree

Where Alph the sacred river ran

Through caverns measureless to man

     Down to a sunless sea

These were some of the first lines of poetry I ever memorized, and they so captivated me that I think it required no effort on my part. The poem is subtitled "a vision in a dream. A fragment." This subtitle is perfectly apropos, as the poem is almost pure poetry, painting with words a picture in vivid colors. Any message or meaning seems almost an after-thought. Enjoy this vision, this fragment which 'we have shored against our ruin,' one of the truly great purposes of poetry.

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George Orwell's 1984 is classic dystopian literature, but it is also psychologically astute and prescient concerning the totalitarian tendencies of the 20th century's ideologies. With the rise of 21st century Wokism currently in vogue, its message is a clarion call for the present, too. Let us beware of embracing rather than opposing the lies that are being forced upon us, lest we find ourselves, too, living in a world in which we must guard our very thoughts, lest they betray us. Hold fast to the truth, no matter the consequences!

Enjoy ... and be vigilant!

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Rene Descartes' classic philosophical work, Meditations on First Philosophy, is a participative exercise in thinking. Join one of history's great philosophical minds in considering the nature of the world and how we think about it.

Meditation 3, "Of God: That He Exists," is an extended argument that God necessarily exists. His argument, a version of Anselm's ontological argument, was later powerfully critiqued by Immanuel Kant. The ontological argument rises and falls in popularity. Whether or not the argument "works" for you, it is worthwhile to enter into Descartes' participative reasoning process, to "feel" the power of the logic as it unfolds. I encourage all my listeners to participate with one of history's great minds as he seeks to "prove" God's existence. 

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In February 1941, the Prime Minister took to the airwaves to address the nation, updating them on the war effort:

"We stood our ground and faced the two dictators... and we have shown ourselves capable, so far, of standing up against them alone.... Herr Hitler did not dare attempt the invasion of this Island.... he sought to break the spirit of the British nation by the bombing, first of London, and afterwards of our great cities. It has now been proved ... that this form of blackmail by murder and terrorism, so far from weakening the spirit of the British nation, has only roused it to a more intense and universal flame."

"In order to win the war Hitler must destroy Great Britain. He may carry havoc into the Balkan States; he may tear great provinces out of Russia, he may march to the Caspian; he may march to the gates of India. All this will avail him nothing.... And all the time, masters of the sea and air, the British Empire—nay, in a certain sense, the whole English-speaking world—will be on his track, bearing with them the swords of justice.

The other day, President Roosevelt gave his opponent in the late Presidential Election a letter of introduction to me, and in it he wrote out a verse, in his own handwriting, from Longfellow, which he said, "applies to you people as it does to us." Here is the verse:

...Sail on, O Ship of State!

What is the answer that I shall give, in your name, to this great man, the thrice-chosen head of a nation of a hundred and thirty millions? Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt: Put your confidence in us. Give us your faith and your blessing, and, under Providence, all will be well.

We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job."

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What Lewis means by subjectivism is "... the fatal superstition that men can create values, that a community can choose its 'ideology' as men choose their clothes."

"Until modern times no thinker of the first rank ever doubted that our judgments of value were rational judgments or that they discovered what was objective."

What is under attack here is the social constructivism that has since Lewis's time become even more pervasive and pernicious, beginning in our educational system but radiating like a cancer throughout our body politic. This doctrine of subjectivism lies at the heart of Wokism, of postmodernism, of post-Hegelian thinking, and its influence reaches into the heart of every institution in our contemporary world, including all sectors of the Church.

The entire program of the broad socialist tradition which is inundating us can be summarized as the "attempt to jettison traditional values as something subjective and to substitute a new scheme of values for them." To this Lewis declares:

"Let us get two propositions written into our minds with indelible ink.

1) The human mind has no more power of inventing a new value than of planting a new sun in the sky or a new primary colour in the spectrum.

2) Every attempt to do so  consists in arbitrarily selecting some one maxim of traditional morality, isolating it from the rest, and erecting it into an unum necessarium."

Lewis concludes, "Unless we return to the crude and nursery-like belief in objective values, we perish. If we do, we may live."

If you’d like to support us, donate through Paypal at [email protected]

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured

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https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com

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One of the English language's great poems. It captured me as a high school student, helping to make me a lifelong devotee of poetry.

Water, water, everywhere,

and all the boards did shrink

Water, water, everywhere,

nor any drop to drink

Enjoy!

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-text-of-1834

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