Friday, October 18, 2013
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
you.gotta.be.kidding.
Really, what are we supposed to do with this?
And the problem is that our belief in our own prowess and abilities--that we can fix and do anything--leads to questions like "How is combat like my video game?" And notice the question's order. The foundational reality is...the game. We've thus exchanged the real reality we live for a reality we've made--and can bloodlessly and repetitively remake. But real life, as SO many of know, isn't remakeable. It happens. People do good and people sin. And St. Augustine reminds us that we often prefer the latter over the former because, well, we like it. That doesn't make it right.
And the problem is that our belief in our own prowess and abilities--that we can fix and do anything--leads to questions like "How is combat like my video game?" And notice the question's order. The foundational reality is...the game. We've thus exchanged the real reality we live for a reality we've made--and can bloodlessly and repetitively remake. But real life, as SO many of know, isn't remakeable. It happens. People do good and people sin. And St. Augustine reminds us that we often prefer the latter over the former because, well, we like it. That doesn't make it right.
Friday, September 20, 2013
exploding 12-6 curveball
So yesterday I burned through an hour playing blogging catch-up. Among others I posted this about Pope Francis.
Then, literally 15 minutes later, America magazine posts a lengthy interview with Pope Francis. And thus I'm again playing catch-up. At times I feel like the political scientist who specialized in the military reliability of Warsaw Pact nations and finished a definitive study in early 1989. Then just a couple months later...ka-blooey.
To start, as attempted yesterday Pope Francis' first six months have surprised many. Yesterday Aggie Catholic posted seven good reminders about the new pontificate. (And, while they don't say it, there's an implication reminding all of us that Pope Francis is still new. It's only been six months. Relax.) Maybe it's Bill Placher or Karl Barth, maybe it's Dorothy Day or Walker Percy or Thomas Merton, but #6 particularly speaks to me: Pope Francis reminds 'us the being a Christian isn't "safe".' Yep, that pretty much nails it. The trad crowd needs to shed its nostalgia while the lefties shed their hatred of the past, and then everybody should scroll back through the pontificate of Benedict XVI. Is this infinite, qualitative difference?
Uh, no--and to give the usual suspects a rest, I'll abstain from hurling links from Elizabeth Scalia and George Weigel.
Picking up yesterday's pitching meme, Francis' different pontifical style (something else Aggie Catholic and others duly note) leaves many a knee buckled. Again, it's the thirst and underlying hunger that generates and sustains the spiritually diabetic condition....and those reacting to the Pope's words--without fully recognizing context and nuance--certainly suffer here. It's their knees, so to speak, that are buckling. #throwingbabyoutwithbathwater #legalizeeverything #hopesandfears The right fears Francis will undo the Johano-Pauline-Benedictine era, and the left hopes he'll do the same.
How much you want to be Pope Francis does neither? He's Argentinian & thus the first pope from the Americas, a Jesuit, has extensive pastoral experience, he's the first religious order pope since Gregory XVI, and it's only been six months. I hope we have several more innings--to continue the metaphor--to learn from and understand Pope Francis.
Meanwhile, Fran Szpylczyn, one of the Capital District's real and really Catholic bloggers, offers her take at There Will Be Bread. Fran, apparently channeling Cardinal Dolan, starts with a very good point. The Francis interview is a wake-up call. Furthermore, she deftly recalls one of the more important parts of the interview which the mainstream media seems to have utterly ignored: the pastoral and Ignatian context. Francis spends far more time talking about his prayer life and the Church's pastoral needs. Thus I think Fran really hits a chord with TBTG AMDG. My own few years of Jesuit education seem justified now. They all brought me to this: the task of understanding our new Jesuit pope.
Meanwhile, to link to popular culture if I may, as I read over the interview I listened to The Gaslight Anthem, a band worthy of several blog posts all their own. One song, "Too Much Blood," from their recent CD Handwritten includes the following:
Long story short: Brian Fallon, TGA's lead singer, is quite a lyricist (and, I should add, a fervent evangelical Christian). Here he sings about the all too real problems of communication, selflessness, and self-centeredness in relationships. The song grasps one of the knots we face with papal interviews: the papacy is such a focus and media-attractant and yet we all apparently read such interviews with our own sets of rose-colored glasses. We see what we want to see. Or, if you prefer, it's another Procrustean bed: we will either stretch or hack whatever the Pope says to fit our own standards. And, riffing on Fallon, are we worried what we'll find in the Pope's words? The telling feature with this particular interview of Pope Francis is that both sides--left and right--fall right into this, each in their own way.
Thus the reactions tell us more about those reacting than anything about Pope Francis himself. For that we each need to read the article for ourselves. Yet another slow-and-steady, diet-and-exercise approach. It's not fast, it's not sexy, but eventually it works.
Then, literally 15 minutes later, America magazine posts a lengthy interview with Pope Francis. And thus I'm again playing catch-up. At times I feel like the political scientist who specialized in the military reliability of Warsaw Pact nations and finished a definitive study in early 1989. Then just a couple months later...ka-blooey.
To start, as attempted yesterday Pope Francis' first six months have surprised many. Yesterday Aggie Catholic posted seven good reminders about the new pontificate. (And, while they don't say it, there's an implication reminding all of us that Pope Francis is still new. It's only been six months. Relax.) Maybe it's Bill Placher or Karl Barth, maybe it's Dorothy Day or Walker Percy or Thomas Merton, but #6 particularly speaks to me: Pope Francis reminds 'us the being a Christian isn't "safe".' Yep, that pretty much nails it. The trad crowd needs to shed its nostalgia while the lefties shed their hatred of the past, and then everybody should scroll back through the pontificate of Benedict XVI. Is this infinite, qualitative difference?
Uh, no--and to give the usual suspects a rest, I'll abstain from hurling links from Elizabeth Scalia and George Weigel.
Picking up yesterday's pitching meme, Francis' different pontifical style (something else Aggie Catholic and others duly note) leaves many a knee buckled. Again, it's the thirst and underlying hunger that generates and sustains the spiritually diabetic condition....and those reacting to the Pope's words--without fully recognizing context and nuance--certainly suffer here. It's their knees, so to speak, that are buckling. #throwingbabyoutwithbathwater #legalizeeverything #hopesandfears The right fears Francis will undo the Johano-Pauline-Benedictine era, and the left hopes he'll do the same.
How much you want to be Pope Francis does neither? He's Argentinian & thus the first pope from the Americas, a Jesuit, has extensive pastoral experience, he's the first religious order pope since Gregory XVI, and it's only been six months. I hope we have several more innings--to continue the metaphor--to learn from and understand Pope Francis.
Meanwhile, Fran Szpylczyn, one of the Capital District's real and really Catholic bloggers, offers her take at There Will Be Bread. Fran, apparently channeling Cardinal Dolan, starts with a very good point. The Francis interview is a wake-up call. Furthermore, she deftly recalls one of the more important parts of the interview which the mainstream media seems to have utterly ignored: the pastoral and Ignatian context. Francis spends far more time talking about his prayer life and the Church's pastoral needs. Thus I think Fran really hits a chord with TBTG AMDG. My own few years of Jesuit education seem justified now. They all brought me to this: the task of understanding our new Jesuit pope.
Meanwhile, to link to popular culture if I may, as I read over the interview I listened to The Gaslight Anthem, a band worthy of several blog posts all their own. One song, "Too Much Blood," from their recent CD Handwritten includes the following:
if I just tell you the truth are there only lies left for you
If I put too much blood on the page
Now as my ear turn witness to the pride and the shame
If I put too much blood on the page
Now as my ear turn witness to the pride and the shame
are you worried I'll say too much
are you scared to take me away
Now I am no devil but I've got things on my mind
Now I am no devil but I've got things on my mind
and they're gonna come out and they're gonna come up time to time
What can I keep for myself if i tell you my hell
what'll be let to take to my grave
What can I keep for myself if i tell you my hell
what'll be let to take to my grave
Long story short: Brian Fallon, TGA's lead singer, is quite a lyricist (and, I should add, a fervent evangelical Christian). Here he sings about the all too real problems of communication, selflessness, and self-centeredness in relationships. The song grasps one of the knots we face with papal interviews: the papacy is such a focus and media-attractant and yet we all apparently read such interviews with our own sets of rose-colored glasses. We see what we want to see. Or, if you prefer, it's another Procrustean bed: we will either stretch or hack whatever the Pope says to fit our own standards. And, riffing on Fallon, are we worried what we'll find in the Pope's words? The telling feature with this particular interview of Pope Francis is that both sides--left and right--fall right into this, each in their own way.
Thus the reactions tell us more about those reacting than anything about Pope Francis himself. For that we each need to read the article for ourselves. Yet another slow-and-steady, diet-and-exercise approach. It's not fast, it's not sexy, but eventually it works.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
ever wondered...
...if things are really going down the tubes--like the prophets of doom always insist?
Well, take a look at this and tell me they're not right. And if that isn't enough, Liz "The Anchoress" Scalia this week posted on Facebook a reaction to something that boggles the mind.
I know--that last one really threw me, too.
I'll admit, a couple decades ago, in the flush and rage of the twentysomethings I had little patience for the wiser, more patient, "joy and hope" theme pervading theological studies (or at least the circles in which I moved then). Now, though, I think I might be getting at least some of it. Humanity can create products like those mentioned above--and all to avoid confrontation with the realities of life. Given that, surely there's some good in humanity, try as we might to hide it from each other and ourselves. "Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts." (GS 1)
But look again at products like that...and wow, I can see where the pessimists get their fuel.
Well, take a look at this and tell me they're not right. And if that isn't enough, Liz "The Anchoress" Scalia this week posted on Facebook a reaction to something that boggles the mind.
I know--that last one really threw me, too.
I'll admit, a couple decades ago, in the flush and rage of the twentysomethings I had little patience for the wiser, more patient, "joy and hope" theme pervading theological studies (or at least the circles in which I moved then). Now, though, I think I might be getting at least some of it. Humanity can create products like those mentioned above--and all to avoid confrontation with the realities of life. Given that, surely there's some good in humanity, try as we might to hide it from each other and ourselves. "Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts." (GS 1)
But look again at products like that...and wow, I can see where the pessimists get their fuel.
violent bear it away
Rod Dreher raises a great point about escalating violent realism of American's video games, the games' culture, and their business success.
My students quickly grow sick of my banging on this drum, but I think Dreher is right on the money about this. Our hand-wringing over public shootings like Newtown CT and the Washington Navy Yard extent far beyond gun control legislation. If that were it alone, transforming our common life would be easy.
But as the ancient Greek phrase--kalepa ta kala--run, "naught without labor" or, perhaps a bit more literally "good things are difficult." They're also complex. And the gut-punch truth is this: some adults go on and on about gun control, but a huge chunk of America's vibrant youth--women as well as men--spend their free time recreating experiences of sexual violence, torture, and death.
This is why my students get sick of all this: Aristotle warned us about friendship and the habituation of virtue long ago. Basically the common excuse "he's a good person who just bad choices" is a non-answer. We habituate the virtues we want to live. So, surround yourself with a fantasy world wherein you can kidnap young women, rape them at will, and take pleasure from their sobs (as Dreher's blogpost records), then don't be surprised when somebody actually goes and does it.
And, to put a cherry atop the sundae by infuriating as many as I can in one blog post, this passive video-gaming violent habituation obfuscates questions concerning the very real use of violence...and the arguments and reasoning behind the possible use of violence (just and restrained, but violent nonetheless) to stop greater injustice. Yes, that means Syria. My Augustinian side says intervention in Syria is a bad idea and won't end well. That being said, that same Augustinianism tells me that we need to reserve the need to intervene--even preemptively so--when justice requires it and totalitarian powers indicate, as totalitarian powers are apt to do, they won't heed humanitarian concerns. A "just war," though, is a different sort of violence than the repetitive, play-time, hyper-sexed, consequence-free violence our video game culture entices us to embrace. And because our appetites drive us toward the one, we now have difficulties perceiving the circumstances in which we might need the other.
My students quickly grow sick of my banging on this drum, but I think Dreher is right on the money about this. Our hand-wringing over public shootings like Newtown CT and the Washington Navy Yard extent far beyond gun control legislation. If that were it alone, transforming our common life would be easy.
But as the ancient Greek phrase--kalepa ta kala--run, "naught without labor" or, perhaps a bit more literally "good things are difficult." They're also complex. And the gut-punch truth is this: some adults go on and on about gun control, but a huge chunk of America's vibrant youth--women as well as men--spend their free time recreating experiences of sexual violence, torture, and death.
This is why my students get sick of all this: Aristotle warned us about friendship and the habituation of virtue long ago. Basically the common excuse "he's a good person who just bad choices" is a non-answer. We habituate the virtues we want to live. So, surround yourself with a fantasy world wherein you can kidnap young women, rape them at will, and take pleasure from their sobs (as Dreher's blogpost records), then don't be surprised when somebody actually goes and does it.
And, to put a cherry atop the sundae by infuriating as many as I can in one blog post, this passive video-gaming violent habituation obfuscates questions concerning the very real use of violence...and the arguments and reasoning behind the possible use of violence (just and restrained, but violent nonetheless) to stop greater injustice. Yes, that means Syria. My Augustinian side says intervention in Syria is a bad idea and won't end well. That being said, that same Augustinianism tells me that we need to reserve the need to intervene--even preemptively so--when justice requires it and totalitarian powers indicate, as totalitarian powers are apt to do, they won't heed humanitarian concerns. A "just war," though, is a different sort of violence than the repetitive, play-time, hyper-sexed, consequence-free violence our video game culture entices us to embrace. And because our appetites drive us toward the one, we now have difficulties perceiving the circumstances in which we might need the other.
covert operations
Academics will write papers and articles and blogs about problems, slicing and dicing the problem myriad different ways, using impressive language as they go. Let's "problematize" this, let's "read sex" (and/or empire) in that, let's deconstruct, instantiate, etc.
And then somebody else recognizes deft humor works just as well.
And then somebody else recognizes deft humor works just as well.
zen quack quack
A big duck comes ashore in Taiwan.
Hey, that's pretty cool.
Almost cool as the best tv commercial ever. woo-woo!
Hey, that's pretty cool.
Almost cool as the best tv commercial ever. woo-woo!
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