My fifth to last lecture for the Fall 2018 course, Western Heritage. A look at the changes wrought by Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. So long Aristotle and Ptolemy!
The title for the lecture comes from the book of the same name by C.S. Lewis.
All posts by bradbirzer
On the nature and destiny of Man–Christopher Dawson
If there’s something the mighty Christopher Dawson (1889-1970) wrote that I have failed to love and appreciate, I have yet to come across it.
The following quotes are my favorite from his 1920 essay, “On the Nature and Destiny of Man,” a quasi apology for his conversion to Catholicism.
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Batman at His Gritty and Virtuous Best | The American Conservative
Conceived by Bruce Timm, Eric Radomski, and Mitch Brian, Batman: The Animated Series (B:TAS) brought something radically and profoundly new to the character. Unlike previous incarnations, this Batman was moody, brooding, violent, conflicted, driven, and heroic from his opening moments. He did not carry shark spray, dance with go-go girls, crack one-liners, dress down Robin in moral tones, drive the Batmobile through the express window at the local fast food joint, or hire artists formerly known as Prince to write theme music.
— Read on www.theamericanconservative.com/birzer/batman-at-his-gritty-and-virtuous-best/
The Counter reformation (audio)
The Counter Reformation in all its wonders. Enjoy.
Aldous Huxley on TIME
Time, as we know it, is a very recent invention. The modern time-sense is hardly older than the United States. It is a by-product of industrialism–a sort of psychological analogue of synthetic perfumes and aniline dyes.
Time is our tyrant. We are chronically aware of the moving minute hand, even of the moving second hand. We have to be. There are trains to be caught, clocks to be punched, tasks to be done in specified periods, records to be broken by fractions of a second, machines that set the pace and have to be kept up with. Our consciousness of the smallest units of time is now acute. To us, for example, the moment 8:17 A.M. means something—something very important, if it happens to be the starting time of our daily train. To our ancestors, such an odd eccentric instant was without significance–did not even exist. In inventing the locomotive, Watt and Stevenson were part inventors of time. [Please go to page 2]
Propaganda as Mechanization
“What caused the disturbances in people’s minds [in the 1920s and 1930s] was that we were all subjected to propaganda of a kind the human race had never before experienced; we were subject to two deliberate scientifically-organised lie-machines, the Nazi one and the Soviet one, operated in the interests of two tyrants who were also demagogues.
What made things unique is the they told opposite lies.
It was like having two anti-Christs contradicting one another.
The machines plunged on whatever anyone said, however young or unauthoratative that person might be.”
—Bernard Wall, Headlong into Change (London: Harvill Press, 1969), 79.
The Vatican obfuscates even while preparing for February meeting on abuse – Catholic World Report
As I read more and more about the abuse scandals of and within large segments of the Catholic Church, I am often struck (in a humbled way) by how little people understand about the nature of sexual abuse.
Abusers almost ALWAYS work in packs. They are predators, and they exchange information with one another. One of the main goals of their abuse is to bring new members into the pack. They are, essentially, grooming.
Please don’t forget this: all abusers are predators. Individuals in terms of lust, yet, part of a tine-mind when hunting.
Thus, it’s hyper critical that even the well-intentioned do NOT cover for these abusers, even out of a) ignorance and b) lack of diabolical imagination.
I believe the current pope is innocent of any direct wrong doing, but he is, nevertheless, encouraging abusers by his very ignorance and lack of diabolical imagination.
Thus, today’s news is even more shocking for those of us who want so desperately to love our Church.–Brad
The Vatican obfuscates even while preparing for February meeting on abuse – Catholic World Report
— Read on www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/11/23/the-vatican-obfuscates-even-while-preparing-for-february-meeting-on-abuse/
Four invincible libertarian geniuses — do you know them?
For questions pertaining to the U.S. Constitution, I ask Kevin Gutzman (author of James Madison and the Making of America and The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution) or Brion McClanahan (author of The Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution).
On economics I ask Jeff Herbener (I’ve asked him probably hundreds of questions over the years) of Grove City College, and Bob Murphy, author of many books. On anarcho-capitalism, again I ask Bob. (He wrote a very creative book on the subject called Chaos Theory.)
— Read on mailchi.mp/tomwoods/two-sentences-318861
And, of course, add Tom Woods and Jason Jewell. Six amazing scholars.
Christopher Tolkien and the legacy of his father J.R.R. Tolkien: The Steward of Middle-earth
Now, after more than 40 years, at the age of 94, Christopher Tolkien has laid down his editor’s pen, having completed a great labor of quiet, scholastic commitment to his father’s vision. It is the concluding public act of a gentleman and scholar, the last member of a club that became a pivotal part of 20th-century literature: the Inklings. It is the end of an era.
— Read on www.weeklystandard.com/hannah-long/christopher-tolkien-and-the-legacy-of-his-father-j-r-r-tolkien-the-steward-of-middle-earth
An excellent review by Hannah Long. Enjoy. And, God bless, the Tolkiens!
The Catholic Worker on Leviathan
“People go to Washington asking the Federal Government to solve their economics problems. But the Federal Government was never meant to solve men’s economic problems. Thomas Jefferson says, ‘The less government there is the better it is.’ If the less government there is the better it is, the best kind of government is self-government. If the best kind of government is self-government, then the best kind of organization is self-organization. When the organizers try to organize the unorganized, they often do it for the benefit of the organizers.”
—The Catholic Worker (Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin) Quoted in Maisie Ward, Unfinished Business (Sheed and Ward, 1964), 176,
Spirit of Cecilia 
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