Libertarian Transformers

For some reason people gasp when I mention the dominant Libertarian themes in Transformers 4 : Age of Extinction. Buried beneath inane comedy and not so sleek Budweiser advertisements are some stunning Hayekian/Misesian ideas. Contrasting to the first three Transformers movies, Age of Extrinction refuses to glamorize military. Instead of Marines fighting evil aliens in Middle-East, we have CIA black ops oppressing an innovative Texan inventor. From Cade Yeager (played by Mark Wahlberg) emphasizing to the black cloaked agents to get off his property, to ignorant bureaucrat Harold Attinger (played by Kelsey Grammer) destabilizing planet with his foreign policy, Michael Bay’s U-Turn on politics cannot be more evident.

Govt propping up bad guys in an alien war, or private firms profiting from war, or having an elected US President become subservient to career bureaucrats – this movie cuts close to reality in numerous subtle and different ways. How a private weapons manufacturer, Joshua Joyce (played by Stanley Tucci), changes his mind when confronted with reality. But, a bureaucrat constantly refusing to confront his own folly is worth noting. In this case Hollywood illustrating how private sector can get corrupted by govt incentives — quite uncommon! Not to mention, Kelsey Grammer comforting the US President by claiming the all-powerful alien bounty hunter as his “asset”, a genuine black comedy moment!

Essentially the whole movie is about an individualistic inventor trying to stabilize the world, while govt busy-bodies propping up chaos. Sounds like it appeals to all our civilized human instincts. Café intellectuals might disagree, but Hollywood is among the best Western institutions. They’re  more effective than any military in spreading liberal ideas across the globe. Niall Fergurson’s ‘The West and the Rest’ quite aptly sums up this sentiment through a quote from the French philosopher Régis Debray — “more power in blue jeans and rock and roll than the entire Red Army”.

Bjoern Kommerell [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Why Did Obama Import a Somali Congressional District for Ilhan Omar to Represent?

John Zmirak
So the Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to pass a resolution denouncing anti-Semitism. Until, that is, they’d diluted the resolution by including almost every other kind of prejudice, including the made-up, politicized crime of “Islamophobia.” It had just a few exceptions. White people, males, and Christians are not included among the groups that Congress forbids you to hate.

That exclusion is telling. It tells you that the ideology reigning today has no interest in fairness. Or even in fighting hate. It wants to direct that hate toward acceptable targets. Toward “out-groups” that once were “in-groups,” which are now legitimate scapegoats. This is precisely the worldview which philosopher Rene Girard described as Victimism. He also said that it was the ideology of Antichrist.
— Read on stream.org/why-did-obama-import-a-somali-congressional-district-for-ilhan-omar-to-represent/

A fascinating article.

Democrats Surrender to Ilhan Omar on Anti-Semitism | National Review

Many on the left believe that as a woman of color, a Muslim, and an immigrant, Omar cannot, by definition, be a purveyor of hate and prejudice. One way that identity politics manifests is that those who are considered oppressed receive immunity to do things that those considered more privileged cannot do. Hence many Democrats, particularly members of the Congressional Black Caucus, sought to defend Omar rather than to disavow her.
— Read on www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/democratic-surrender-on-anti-semitism/

How blind does one have to be? Racism is racism is racism.

On Loving the Tools of Writing ~ The Imaginative Conservative

I have written something close to 1,000,000 words for internet essays over the past eight or so years. Some of these have been historical vignettes; some have been album reviews; and some have been bizarre and personal musings. Students often ask me how I can write so much. By what motivation? To what purpose? Using what tools? Thinking of which topics? As a professor, of course, I spend a considerable amount of my professional time teaching writing. I will freely admit, if I do it well at all, I do it far more by example than by explaining mechanics.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/03/loving-tools-writing-bradley-birzer.html

Music Podcast Roundup

If you aren’t subscribed to Anthony Rowsick’s ProgWatch podcast, you should do it right now! He consistently has informative interviews with all kinds of artists in the progrock arena, as well as featuring the best songs from new and classic prog albums.

Tony’s latest episode is Part One of a two-part interview featuring Glass Hammer’s co-founder and bassist Steve Babb. There are lots of great Glass Hammer songs as well as interesting anecdotes from the early days of this seminal group. You can listen to it the entire show by clicking here.

Meanwhile, over at Roie Avin’s excellent Prog Report, the second part of his Neal Morse Band profile is up. It is an in-depth history of Neal Morse’s career, and definitely worth hearing if you are a fan of Spock’s Beard, Neal Morse, Transatlantic, and Flying Colors (Phew, Neal really gets around!). Click here to listen.

Finally, in case you missed it, the boys at Political Beats, Scott Bertram and Jeff Blehar, discuss the entire Electric Light Orchestra discography with guest Jack Butler in exhaustive detail. And when I say exhaustive detail, I mean 2 hours and 46 minutes’ worth. You can download the episode by clicking here.

I’m interested in hearing from our Spirit Of Cecilia readers if any of you listen to any other music-related podcasts, and how you access them. I still use an iPod nano with iTunes for a lot of my podcast listening, but I also use Castbox on my phone. Are there any podcasting apps that you are especially fond of, like Stitcher or Podbean? Let us know in comments. Happy listening!

 

On Loving Bookstores ~ The Imaginative Conservative

At Hyde Brothers Books in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the fall of 2001, I found a first American edition hardback of Christopher Dawson’s seminal 1942 book, The Judgment of Nations, published by Sheed and Ward. Hyde Brothers, to this very day, remains my all-time favorite used bookstore, and I can state with absolute certainly that the discovery of the Judgement of Nations—especially after conversations with Gleaves Whitney and Winston—changed my entire world and outlook upon it. I spent my Thanksgiving break that fall reading and contemplating every aspect of that book—from its sentence structures to its arguments to its implications for academic writing. I can also state with certainty that Sam Hyde, the owner of that glorious Fort Wayne bookstore, knows his stuff.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/03/on-loving-bookstores-bradley-birzer.html

C.S. Lewis Kindle Sale (50-75% off)

Reflections on the Psalms – Kindle edition by C. S. Lewis. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Reflections on the Psalms.
— Read on www.amazon.com/Reflections-Psalms-C-S-Lewis-ebook/dp/B01EFM8NOS/ref=sr_1_16

Though not advertised, a number of C.S. Lewis’s books on Kindle are incredibly cheap today. I just spent about $50 trying to complete my collection. Enjoy.

An Unflinching Theological Aesthetic | The Russell Kirk Center

When it comes to the saints, the power of their stories is rooted in their mysterious interiority. One of the most haunting poems in The Hanging God is “Some Will Remember You,” which is addressed to Edith Stein/St. Teresa Benedicta. Born to a German Jewish family, Stein was a brilliant philosopher who converted to Catholicism in 1922 and joined the Carmelites after reading St. Teresa of Avila’s autobiography: “The interior mountain beckoned you to climb, / The floors of the self-darkened room first creaked. / You wrote out what you saw and then sought stillness.” The Nazis later killed Stein at Auschwitz: “After the smoke, bones left forgotten, / Your jotted notes shut in a metal trunk, / As others bore reprisals and arrests, / Your thought lived in the study of a priest.” The second section of the poem begins: “In evil times and aftertimes, in times / When all the stubbled fields of action smolder, / Bowed heads can’t help but make their patient study / Of how the person worlds.” It goes on to depict a young Karol Wojtyła sitting in his wired room behind the Iron Curtain reading Stein’s words aloud “for all / The stashed and sensitive microphones to hear. / In those times, your words, carried on the quiet, / Fostered his own. Thought, act, and judging person, / The self in solitude revealing God, / Clicked like the murdered signal of your voice / Across a telegraph and moved his hand.” She becomes “A sainted sign / Named Edith Stein” whose mysterious love and fortitude nourished by the contemplative life contrasts sharply with the reductionist ideologies of the twentieth century.
— Read on kirkcenter.org/reviews/an-unflinching-theological-aesthetic/