“Without justice, what is the state but a great band of robbers?”
St. Augustine, quoted by Fr. Raymond J. de Souza in National Post April 29, 2023
In Western Standard I present a review for the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy of Stephen Bown’s gripping Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada, from colourful characters to poisonous whiskey to the crucial role of dynamite in building this nation and the West generally in the 19th century.
“Just as I learned I was pregnant with my first son, I saw the film 1917, a brutal World War I drama. I was struck by a final scene: not the one where the protagonist sprints across a trench, but one showing hundreds of men having their limbs amputated. I must confess I watched 1917 a half dozen times before delivering my son. As morbid as it sounds, I needed to see suffering more extreme than what I would endure so when the time came for my own bravery, I’d remember it was once far, far worse. But... Left and right can’t seem to agree on anything these days, but on the subject of suffering there is near consensus: eradicating it in full is the common goal of government, technology, medicine, and science.... Technology, meanwhile, has waged its own war on suffering, striving to eradicate even the mildest forms of it. Whether by rewriting the rules of ‘harmful’ speech or erasing internet clowns, a handful of companies became the ultimate arbiters of what is deemed safe in our virtual world.... In a culture that has no reverence or tolerance for suffering of any kind, even the smallest forms of it can seem like oppression.... But eradicating suffering in this country—or at least striving to reach that utopian goal—has come with some unforeseen consequences. Among them: a loss for what to replace suffering with. And the results of the multi-decade war on suffering haven’t been all that impressive. Recent headlines show no one’s coping very well these days, with growing depression and hopelessness among teenage girls and the ‘crisis of men,’ who lag behind women in education and the workplace. Though we may not realize it, nearly all of our modern cultural debates and ailments stem from the contemporary belief that suffering is not a natural or essential part of the human condition. The war on suffering has not only robbed us of resilience; it has sold us a mirage that is making us miserable. It is not a coincidence that the modern campaign to eradicate suffering commenced just as religiosity in general and Christianity in particular began to decline at a rapid pace in America. There is no religion that doesn’t embrace suffering as integral to its teaching. Christianity deified it, with adherents wearing a symbol of torture as a symbol of their belief…. With so much focus on comfort and safety, why aren’t we. . . happier?... And resilience in our people, our institutions, and even the physical infrastructure of our cities is increasingly deemed the missing ingredient in all aspects of American life.... We have long been fully invested in eradicating the suffering we deem unconscionable, but more important are the simple questions that define a serious life: For whom will you sacrifice? What will you defend? For what will you choose to suffer?”
Katherine Boyle “Get Serious” on The Free Press March 4, 2023 [https://www.thefp.com/p/get-serious-about-suffering]
In my latest National Post column I lament widespread vicious persecution of Christians abroad, and the puzzling indifference to it here in Canada.
“I wish someone would explain to me why it isn’t necessary to show probable cause of fraud and get a warrant in order to audit a taxpayer.”
J. Budziszewski “The Underground Thomist” April 17, 2023
In my latest Epoch Times column I say the Prime Minister did the right thing, unlike various mayors and others, by attending a menorah ceremony, and in these divided times it’s especially important to acknowledge when people for whom you have low expectations act properly.
“Elsewhere Chesterton describes Progress as a rut, a false philosophy of fatalism and endless improvement. It is a promise of freedom, but the actual results are servitude – to the regulatory state, to the unforgiving corporation, to the latest fashionable idea, to the materialist mentality that is unwelcoming to and increasingly oppressive to the faith. But the answer is in faith, both immediately and ultimately. Instead of following the fashion and following the world, we are to follow Christ – and all that that entails. Chesterton says, ‘To take up the cross is not a servitude; it is something far more terrible and intimidating: a freedom.’”
“An Introduction to the writings of G.K. Chesterton” by Dale Ahlquist in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 25 #6 (July/August 2022)
In my latest Loonie Politics column I argue that the key to Kissinger’s diplomacy was the worldview behind it. And we’re not exactly racking up successes in such profusion that we can afford to ignore his insights.