The present Open letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church goes a stage further in claiming that Pope Francis is guilty of the crime of heresy. This crime is committed when a Catholic knowingly and persistently denies something which he knows that the Church teaches to be revealed by God. Taken together, the words and actions of Pope Francis amount to a comprehensive rejection of Catholic teaching on marriage and sexual activity, on the moral law, and on grace and the forgiveness of sins.
— Read on www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/father-aidan-nichols-signs-open-letter-charging-pope-francis-with-heresy
Gilbert highet’s classical tradition
Not a Democracy ~ The Imaginative Conservative
How often has one read or watched the news, only to be told that America, as the leading democratic power, must do this or that because it is in the interest of all free peoples to promote democracy? Democracy has become so overused as to become a synonym for all that is good in the world, especially identified as rainbow-headed unicorns with the wings of a Pegasus, flying unhesitatingly from imagined world to imagined world, the latest one progressing ever more and more toward all that is holy. Democracy, it seems, is freedom, goodness, truth, dignity, and beauty.
This is the absurdity that now surrounds us. Honestly, the unicorns would be preferable. One only has to watch the tumultuous and tenebrous storms of emotion that brew and blow on Twitter to see how well the democratic impulse tends toward goodness.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/04/not-democracy-bradley-birzer.html
The Antidote to Mediocrity
What causes mediocrity in our lives? What is it that truly keeps us from reaching our full potential? Is there an antidote to a mediocre life?
Sometime before Christmas, I was home at my parents’ house for the weekend and attending their church. The pastor preached a fantastic sermon on this topic, and he pointed out that fear is ultimately what leads to mediocrity in any part of our lives. Primarily, I think we can boil that down to fear of two things: failure and rejection. Think about a mediocre situation in your life, and it is probably related to a fear of one of those things.
We fear not being good enough – not measuring up (which distills to a fear of failure). From the Christian perspective, this is complete nonsense. This is something I have long struggled with, and I have to pray about it specifically every day to keep that fear at bay. As humans, we are unique in God’s creation. God made us in His very image. Each one of us is inherently valuable because God created us. He knew us before our conception (Psalm 139:13-16), and for those of us that are in Christ, God looks upon us and smiles. He doesn’t see our sin and shame, for it was laid upon Christ’s shoulders at Calvary. The full wrath of God was directed at Jesus, the only man who ever lived a sinless life, in that moment so that we who have lived sinful lives might receive the very righteousness of God. With that truth, of what do we possibly have to be afraid?
Identity Crisis
I was on a ferry the other day, and ran into that quintessential Harley Davidson motorcyclist. On a bagger with half helmet, Harley Davidson boots, and Harley jacket with that round emblem on the back – slightly wider than Captain America’s shield. The unmistakable cross-country rider to Sturgis. Which is among the bigger motorcycle gatherings on the planet. Absolutely a cheerful guy to converse with, but then also signaling a clear identity.
Not just in motorcycling, adopting identities wholesale seems like a human trait. Whether it’s politics, art, culture, or even technology — we seek to belong. We signal identity not just through clothing, but through gadgets, accessories, and through expressed opinions. Especially in politics or economics, we tend to state beliefs primarily to signal who we are, not because we believe they are absolute truths.
Often, we become liberal, conservative, or libertarian not through expansive research, but through instincts. Research and study are expensive while ideological signaling is entertaining and cheap. So, it’s only human to pick where we want to belong and then adopt ideas wholesale. In fact, actual research would evolve our own thoughts, which makes it difficult to fit in. It also tends to make life lonelier.
Seems like it’s not the truth that we seek – but it’s that identity. It’s common for all political factions to have quite a bit of infighting as well. Internal tussles over who is the true torchbearer are well-known. Our instincts will simply not allow that group identity to get corrupted. It seems like identity is an essential driving force in all our pursuits.
Viewed through that lens, all contentious social convulsions are related to identity. Even the trivial ones. Recently came across this band Deafheaven — they trigger an identity crisis among black metal fans, especially the ones on Reddit. The band channeled all black metal influences without their aesthetics. Sounds like black metal but does not reflect the artistic roots. Essentially corrupting a pristine identity — wreaking havoc in a black metal-head’s otherwise serene existence.
Seems like the world is constantly in this disruptive state, plunging from one crisis of identity to another. Each such crisis spawns new groups and personas. Whether it’s ‘true Norwegian Black Metal’, or capital (L)ibertarian v/s small (l)ibertarian, or convolutions like democratic socialist liberal or MAGA conservative. Reasons for the fractious factions could be many – tribal instincts, cognitive affinity to ideologies, packaging by intellectuals and influencers, or a combination of them all. Eventually, an ecosystem that thrives on fragmentation will fuel the divisions. But like most things, there is also a flipside to this.
This identity crisis also serves a function — an essential pillar in Federalism. Madison eloquently stated — “the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority.” The gridlock and the quarrels prevent concentration of power, and concerted action at scale. In the long run, this becomes a favorable bias against transient emotions, prejudices, and fears of the masses from causing permanent damage to a republic. But the trade-off is — meaningful policy change at scale becomes harder.
Russell kirk lives
Did Political Parties Exist During the American Founding Era? ~ The Imaginative Conservative
Contrary to the vast majority of my fellow scholars of American history, I have never found the account of the creation of political parties in the Founding Era and Early Republic to be credible. I see very little evidence of anything that we would recognize as political parties before 1837… (essay by Bradley J. Birzer)
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/04/political-parties-american-founding-era-bradley-birzer.html
A SEVERE LACK OF CULTURAL LITERACY. cHRISTOPHER pLUMMER WHERE ARE YOU?
The Latest Edda: Bjorn Riis’s A Storm is Coming
Bjorn Riis’s A STORM IS COMING (Karisma, 2019).
The sheer amount of creativity that comes out of northern Europe never fails to astound or move me. From the moment the Scandinavians became Scandinavians, some 1,200 plus years ago, they seem to have existed to hunt, to farm, and to create. Even the very word “edda”—so properly associated with northern mythology—is not native to Norse, but is a word that seems to have sprung out of the moment rather than out a specific culture. We remember edda as a story, but it more properly means a divine outburst of creativity. From the creation of the AllThing (the world’s first congress) to Sigrid Undset, the Scandinavians keep shocking into life a western culture that wants to die but won’t. What is it? Is it the cold? The bleak winters? The harrowing landscapes? The daring raids? I don’t know, but I do know I thank the good Lord for their existence.
When a small package recently arrived from Norway—labeled Karisma—I was thrilled. Nothing I ever receive from that small but mighty label is unimportant. Indeed, it has to rank as one of the most important labels in the rock world, equal to Kscope, Insideout, and Sound Resources. That I found the new Bjorn Riis solo album in that package made the arrival even better. Frankly, it made it perfect. From the moment I first encountered Riis’s band, Airbag, roughly ten years ago—thanks to the recommendation of my English friend, Richard Thresh—I liked the band. Granted, their first album sounded like a sequel to Pink Floyd’s ANIMALS, but it was gorgeous, nonetheless, and it had the very James Marsh/Talk Talk-esque cover, of the eyeball crying blood. What a combination of excellent things. Since 2009, Riis has proven his genius time and time again through Airbag (IDENTITY; ALL RIGHTS REMOVED; GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH; and DISCONNECTED), each more lyrically existential and more musically creative than the last.
As much as I fell for Airbag, I fell even more in love with this solo work. LULLABIES IN A CAR CRASH; COMING HOME; and FOREVER COMES TO AN END. If you put Mark Hollis, Roger Waters, and Steven Wilson into the same room, you might come out with something close to Bjorn Riis, but still not quite there. Riis takes the best from each, but his music is very much his own.
Riis’s latest, A Storm is Coming, is more volatile and less longingly melodic than previous albums. It’s still brilliant, though. It can move from silence to a wall of sound and back to delicate piano line in a matter of moments. The title fits. The storm is coming, and Riis offers an album that looks not into the storm, but out from it. Let me revise what I just said a bit—there’s loving melody all over this album, but it feels less sustained (intentionally) than on previous albums. Honestly, I couldn’t really listen to track five, “This House,” without noting that it is melodic—in a David Gilmour fashion—to the nth degree.
I’m seeing several websites label this as an EP, but it’s 52 minutes long, so I can’t imagine what one of Riis’s LPs might look like. Yes, this is a full-fledged album. No doubt about it.
And, it’s a thing of eddaic glory. Enjoy.
Giancarlo Erra’s Adagio
Crazily enough, Apple’s iTunes gave me the choice to categorize Giancarlo Erra’s latest album, ENDS, as either “new age” or classical. I had no idea that “new age” was still a category or a genre or a label or anything less than a slur when still employed. The whole process of choosing this reminded me of how much I despise labels—for people or for music.
There’s really only one proper description for Erra’s album, ENDS: art. Best known for his rather ethereal and spacy art rock band (oh, those labels again!), Nosound, ENDS is Erra’s first solo album. Eight songs long, the album feels most like a wordless song-cycle, a meandering and a deepening and a widening of several achingly gorgeous melodies. There’s certainly nothing resembling rock—of any variety—on this album, but the various keyboards and deeper strings bring the listener very close to the music of the spheres, with elements of Henryk Gorecki and Mark Hollis informing but not shaping Erra’s creation.
Even the very titles of the eight songs–III, II, I, VII, V, IV, VI, Coda—seemingly offer us nothing in the way of personality.
And, yet, ENDS is nothing but personality, beautiful and wide and deep—we are shown the very soul the artist. Not in an egotistical way, but in a perfectly humane way.
Above, I mentioned Gorecki and Hollis, but the more I listen to this glorious album, I feel as though I’m dwelling one of Bach’s adagios.
Spirit of Cecilia 
You must be logged in to post a comment.