sisu

"The darker view of human evolution is gaining clout"

Max Ernst's "L'Ange du Foyeur ou le Triomphe du Surréalisme" is our image of choice when it comes to what David Brooks calls, all aflutter at the novelty of it, "The darker view of human evolution." We've lived there forever, of course. Welcome aboard, Mr. Brooks. Check out locations of the flotation jackets and lifeboats, and then join us in the dining room for a hearty meal. (1937. Oil on canvas. Private collection)

"Most people today share what Thomas Sowell calls the Constrained Vision, what Pinker calls the Tragic Vision and what E.O. Wilson calls Existential Conservatism," writes NYT token conservative David Brooks in "The darker view of human evolution is gaining clout" [via Maggie's Farm]. Gaining clout? We'd love to think so, but unless Mr. Brooks and his friends have been channeling this blog, we doubt it's gaining clout amongst the cognoscenti just yet. If it does, we may have to hang up our blogging gloves and find an honest job. As we wrote in the comments at Maggie's this morning:

"Most people today share" the tragic view of human nature? As a constant railer against the willful persistence, against all evidence, of the utopian view, I think not.

"When you rail, what are your key points and where do we fail in our goals, etc?" asked Maggie's Farm commenter Habu, prompting us to google our own ur-theme, the tragic view of human nature vs. the utopian. Some pretty good stuff out there, if we do say so ourselves, and as we've said before, we are happy to report that after all these years, we still agree with ourselves. If you're interested -- you're not? -- check out the links here. The bottom line:

We believe deeply that the denial of "life's dark side in ourselves" is the key to what's wrong with the utopianist world view . . .

Both Benedetto [Pope Benedict XVI] and the Sheik [Ahmadinejad] understand the power of the press, and each would exploit it for his own vision of the good. One preaches hate, the other, love. One would violently crush all dissent, the other would engage all of humanity in a cosmic conversation. As we blogged last year:

"And we do think we know the answer to Fallaci's 'some human truth here that is beyond religion.' It's the tragic view of human nature -- vs. the left's utopian, blank-slate, noble-savage one that denies any such thing as human nature -- that acknowledges the dark side in all of us and tries to design political institutions -- the U.S. Constitution comes to mind -- that channel our potentially destructive human nature into productive self-fulfillment (can you say invisible hand?) that redounds to the good of the larger community."

Then there are those like Hillary & Company who know better than we do what's good for "the larger community." A frightening reminder in the latest entries to a new series, “Revolutions,” published by Verso, "a well-known British firm specializing in radical leftist gobbledygook," reviewed by John Kekes in City Journal:

Instead of their predecessors’ venality, Robespierre and Mao sought ideological purity, and they had a cold impersonal hatred of those whom they suspected of not sharing their crazed theories.

Head on over and read the whole thing and contemplate the resurfacing of that "cold impersonal hatred" of dissenters just yesterday amongst the nutroots crowd calling -- literally -- for Dick Cheney's head. Then, on a related note, check out Dr. Sanity's latest on the shocking, shocking report that today's kids, the product of the heedlessly pc curricula of the last couple of decades, are self-centered narcissists:

Our cultural focus on enhancing "self-esteem" has resulted in the near-worship of emotions and feelings at the expense of reason and thought; on emphasizing "root causes" and victimhood, instead of demanding that behavior be civilized and that individuals exert self-discipline and self-control -- no matter what they are "feeling."

As we said last year in our post  "There is no honor," referencing Kekes's "Why Robespierre Chose Terror":

When will the dregs of Rousseau's Utopianists finally realize that -- as the French say -- tout est relative, and it's all about "The importance of being noticed" by your chosen peers? Not to mention Adam Smith's "invisible hand." As we've blogged a zillion times, there is no honor -- and no really feeling good -- in being handed something you didn't earn.

The totalitarian impulse runs deep and dark, but our better angels beckon us to be all that we can be.

"Well, I always try to be provocative in my headlines"

Checking in on our Site Meter stats this afternoon -- for the eleventy-second time today -- we noticed mid afternoon that suddenly, instead of the typical 10-30 visitors in the last hour, there were 703 visitors eyeballing the site at that very moment. Ah, yes. An Instalanche, but not for the post we'd most recently sent to the Professor -- "Was blind but now I see" -- but for our homage to Dick Cheney of a couple of days back, with Tiny herself in the frontispiece.

"Well, I always try to be provocative in my headlines," I offered Tuck as we watched in awe the growing Instaspike for "Don't mess with my Dick":

We: Are you embarassed?
He: Not at all. Congratulations.

Talk about messing with our Dick. Here's the latest screenshot of our Instaspike c. 5:15 p.m. As we always say, girls just wanna have fun. Update at 6:51 p.m. as we're preparing to sign off: 1081 visitors in the last hour and 4711 so far today.

Pretty timely given the unpleasantness in Bagram this morning. When the news broke in the wee hours on CNN International of a deadly suicide truck bombing at the periphery of the air base where Dick Cheney was staying in Afghanistan during a "secret" visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan, a knife of adrenaline shot through our gut. Once we knew the VPOTUS was unharmed, we wanted to know how come "the" Taliban knew that Cheney was in town. It was only much later in the day that we learned of a possible explanation:

A suicide attack at an Afghan air base where US vice-president Dick Cheney was staying shows that the Taliban and al-Qaeda have penetrated local intelligence agencies, analysts and officials said.

"Penetrated local intelligence agencies"? As Stephen Dedalus delved and Molly spanned:

I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."

Same old same old.

"Was blind, but now I see"

William Hogarth's "Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism, A Medley" satirized George Whitefield, a leader of Britain's Methodist movement "famous for his preaching in America, which was a significant part of the First Great Awakening movement of Christian revivals. He has been called by some historians 'the first modern celebrity,'" according to Wikipedia, which asserts that "Whitefield's legacy is still felt in America, where he is remembered as one of the first to preach to the enslaved." Fun local fact: "The Old South Presbyterian Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts -- that's where our sis and bro live . . . gotta go check it out next time we're up there -- was built for the evangelist's use, and before dying Whitefield requested to be buried under the pulpit of this church, where his tomb remains to this day." (Hogarth etching and engraving, 1796).

"It's not a political issue, it's a moral issue," said Al Gore with a straight face last night re his Oscar-winning science fiction movie documentary film, "An Inconvenient Truth." We didn't watch live, of course, but caught a few highlights during news coverage throughout the day and were struck by the evengelical hysteria of the crowd, glowing with religious fervor and nodding their heads in devout agreement as the Goracle spoke the Word.

Audience swoons as Al Gore takes the microphone at last night's Academy Awards to proclaim cooling in our time a Methodist minister takes the podium at "a camp meeting, or religious revival in America, from a sketch taken on the spot" c. 1839 during America's Second Great Awakening. (Watercolor by J. Maze Burbank, Old Dartmouth Historical Society-New Bedford Whaling Museum)

Now enter stage right Walden Media's -- the folks who brought us Narnia -- latest History-Channeloid film (movie?), "Amazing Grace," which we'd first heard of last week via an email from our dear friends at the Humane Society of America:

"Amazing Grace," a film biography of William WIlberforce, anti-slavery crusader and co-founder of the world's oldest anti-cruelty society, captures Wilberforce's deep devotion to animals and his determination to end the cruelty and suffering imposed upon them in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The film comes out exactly 200 years after Wilberforce's 20-year fight to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire ended, with the passage of the Foreign Slave Trade Act in 1807.  As the filmmakers point out, however, many of the social problems Wilberforce sought to address, including cruelty to animals, are still with us.

We were the first on our block to view it, catching the very first showing just after noon on Friday at the Revere Showcase Cinema. Our first response was underwhelmed -- we were, perhaps unfairly, comparing what we thought was a certain perfunctoriness of the script to Robert Bolt's work on "Lawrence of Arabia" -- but we loved "Amazing Grace" for its superb British production values, cast, direction and such. The dramatized Parliamentary debates were -- as any afficionado/a of "Prime Minister's Questions" on C-Span well knows -- to die for. 'Wanted to be able to view it at our leisure at home on the History Channel. Then came some excellent reviews, our favorites from Betsy of Betsy's Page and then from S.T. Karnick at National Review:

1. Betsy: If you like an intelligent movie that teaches you something about history that you may not have known, this is the movie for you. The movie tells the story of William Wilberforce's long battle to get a bill though Parliament to ban the slave trade. While the movie gives us an education about the nobility of Wilberforce's character and his determination to end this terrible commerce in human souls, it is also a great film about politics. You'll see how the coalition that Wilberforce led had to fight to muster public opinion against a trade that was, in many ways, the backbone of 18th century England's economy. This is great political drama.

2. Karnick: Adding further interest is the film’s intelligent and comprehensible depiction of the politics of the time -- and its implications for other eras. The conservatives of the time, of course, are those who will not even consider any alteration to the institution of slavery. Their concern (one that seemed valid then but was proven entirely illusory immediately after abolition) is that such a basic change will bring vast social disorder, poverty, and catastrophic defeat in an imminent war with the French.

The radicals, represented by Clarkson, are too impatient to accept gradual change. They want an immediate transformation of English society such that the entire aristocracy will be thrown out immediately, as is happening in France.

The liberals, Wilberforce, and his allies, want change but recognize that they must find a way to do it such that both liberty and order will be maximized. A more perfect illustration of the essence of classical liberalism would be difficult to imagine. In an important and impassioned scene, Clarkson argues with Wilberforce about the need for immediate, radical change on the order of the French Revolution. Wilberforce points out that prudence and justice require that things be done in an orderly way. Ultimately, both the radicals and the conservatives come to see things Wilberforce’s way — or at least give in to it.

Then we started to worry. If Al Gore and his Oscars audience may be fairly compared to Whitefield and his parishioners as satirized by Hogarth (image top of post) -- and the Methodists, Quakers and others who followed him and carried the torch to victory in ending the slave trade and slavery itself in the British Empire -- may Al Gore be on to something? We don't think so, as his sermons, unlike Whitefield's, are based upon willful lies and half truths. But you never know.

Don't mess with my Dick

Tiny emerges from the little house into the early morning light reflected back from one of the windows of the big house.

"Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama ridiculed Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday for saying Britain's decision to pull troops from Iraq is a good sign that fits with the strategy for stabilizing the country," reports AP:

"In fact, Dick Cheney said this is all part of the plan (and) it was a good thing that Tony Blair was withdrawing, even as the administration is preparing to put 20,000 more of our young men and women in.

"Now, keep in mind, this is the same guy that said we'd be greeted as liberators, the same guy that said that we're in the last throes. I'm sure he forecast sun today," Obama said to laughter from supporters holding campaign signs over their heads to keep dry. "When Dick Cheney says it's a good thing, you know that you've probably got some big problems."

We guess Obama and Company are either unaware or uninterested in the NYTs embedded John Burns's I-was-there assessment of the nation's -- not just Dick Cheney's -- "greeted as liberators" take on the early days post OIF. We ourselves blogged our own take the other day. Oh, and one more thing, Mr. Hollywood Idol: A gentleman and a scholar and a mighty warrior would never dream of referring to any Vice President, let alone the magnificent human being who now holds that title as a "guy." That is red meat to folks like us. Nevertheless, we couldn't have been more delighted than we now are to see Hollywood bigshots eat their own. Hillary, we hardly knew ye . . . NOT. As Ann Coulter said on one of the Fox shows last night, it's nice to see former Clinton supporter David Geffen givin' the Clintons the finger she herself gave them years ago. We ourselves knew from day one -- that toe-curling "60 Minutes" moment when Bill and Hill said they'd made "mistakes" in their marriage and got their daughter to say she was glad she was their daughter -- that these folks were born to lie.

Now comes "an exclusive interview today" where "ABC's Jonathan Karl asked Vice President Dick Cheney about the topic of global warming, a subject Mr. Cheney has rarely addressed in the past":

The vice president agreed that the earth is warming but, like President Bush, maintained there is debate over whether humans or natural cycles are the cause -- a position that puts the administration at odds with the vast majority of climate scientists.

Idiocy rules. Fear societies heavy and lite define human nature. And yes, you utopianists, there IS such a thing as human nature.

Update I: Instalanche! Thank you, Professor Reynolds.

Update II: "Back in 2007, Sissy Willis warned, 'Don’t mess with my Dick!' Um, OK, fair enough," blogs Ed Driscoll two years older and wiser later. LOVE the guy!

Pillow talk

Tiny, above, demonstrates the proper use of Nepeta cataria. See "Substance abuse, then and now" for where we stand on catnip addiction. Thanks again to our precious niece Sarah and cutie-pie human companion AJ for the fab catnip pillows they brought as hostess gifts just after Christmas. The gift that keeps on giving.

Update:  Lots of cutie-pie animal companions now boarding Modulator's Friday Ark #125.

Our twoops are some vewy, vewy, vewy fine twoops

The Baby Cakes meatloafs on the kitchen counter in the early morning light between breakfast and mid-morning snacks.

Most fascinating local news story of the day. We traveled 20 or so miles north to Peabody to have our hair cut by the magnificent Italian/American scissorhands Maurizio. For sport we asked the Divine M. whether he had had many requests for a Britney Spears cut of late. It turned out that neither he nor any of his staff knew what on earth we were talking about. How can this be? If these good folk don't know about Britney's pate, what DO they know about? Once we revealed the state of Britney's cranium, they were totally fascinated, and Maurizio himself was in stitches at our observation that now the outer part of her head matched the inner part: Nobody home.

Tired of waiting for snacks to descend, he heads off to regroup and reconnoiter.

Lots of good stuff out in the blogosphere today. Start with Laura Lee and follow the links:

The Democrats and White Flag Republicans may eschew the word victory but the American people don’t . . .

Adventures, Trials and Tribulations in Iraq . . .

Acute Politics’ Teflon Don is the kind of young man every mother and father would be proud to claim as their own but as a mother, reading his account of a day in Iraq makes me grab for my heart because it simply takes my breath away.

Our Wounded Troops Deserve Better.

We woke up in the wee hours -- as ever with the TV on -- to hear the pre-fabricated narrative of the MSM re Great Britain's long-planned withdrawal of their "twoops" [Our twoops are some vewy, vewy, vewy fine twoops] from Iraq. If you didn't happen to catch Tony Blair making the case on C-Span later in the day, you would never realize the withdrawal was, as Dick Cheney said, a sign of progress. And, of course, were you tuned into any of the cable stations, you never would have caught anything but the mind-numbingly dull LIVE trials and tribulations re the disposition of Anna Nicole's rapidly dehydrating body. May she rest in peace.

Update: Our fellow species are some very, very, very fine species. Check them out at Modulator's Friday Ark #126 and the 152nd Carnival of the Cats at Pet's Garden.

"A capacity to cherish and nurture"

"I’d like to thank the ice storm that covered New England today, giving me a chance to stay home and make this blasphemous graphic" (above), wrote S. Weasel of Weasel Times & Stoat Intelligencer, who dropped into our comments yesterday with some excellent insights about parents and their children, furry and otherwise. His illustration of "Damien Weasel, Cat Scientist," which you must click over to see, is an aiilurophile's delight.

"You've hit a good nerve with this one," writes our imail correspondent re our previous post, "'The scraggy old chicken-necked women' strike back," which elicited a flood of wise and witty comments from our faithful readers plus one amusing and talented newcomer (see illustration and caption above). A sampler:

"A different species [human beings], but none the less an animal." -- Goomp

"Pff! People who spawn are always so insufferably pleased with themselves. Can their poxy shaved-monkey people-larvae run 'round and 'round on a toilet seat, chasing a flush? No. No, they cannot." -- S. Weasel of Weasel Times & Stout Intelligencer

"I hope I have not offended you in any way . . . It is those people who love animals only because they don't like people that I find objectionable." -- Dr. Helen

"My love for my cats is different than the love I feel for my kids but does that make it less real?" -- Tara

"As if people haven't had pets since the beginning of time to share their lives with, children or no." -- Pam of Pamibe

"Considering the PEOPLE I have known in my 64 years on Planet Earth and the animals I have known in the same amount of time -- there ARE times when I would really rather spend my time with my animals . . . when it comes to loving unconditionally, we need to look to the animals for guidance." -- Gayle Miller of And you thought YOU were cranky

"We, along with many sentient beings, have a capacity to cherish and nurture as well as a drive to compete. The ability to do so across species boundaries is not unique to our own, nor is it limited to our own flesh and blood. I am unaware that the condition of 'loving animals because you don't like people' . . . has reached epidemic proportions (PETA notwithstanding)." -- Greenman Tim of Walking the Berkshires

"In Dr. Helen's defense . . . she was critical of those pet owners who are really over the top. I more strongly object to Steyn's characterization of the "scraggy-old-chicken-necked" women who now desperately want children. There are a good number of women (including myself) who were misled by feminists in the 70's and 80's, told we should delay marriage and child rearing, set up our careers, etc. Too bad we ended up unable to have kids in our 40's, after setting up those important careers." -- Miss Kelly

Our pets fill a niche that could never be filled by another human . . . so to try and "make" them human is to be completely insulting to them and their abilities . . . The real problem Mark was searching to illuminate is the problem of women waiting until the last possible second before finally having a baby. It was never a truly viable option before the advent of "the pill." Then women are mortified to learn they've waited too long and now they can't have that baby they insist they long for . . . Well, that's life. Biology rules. -- Teresa of Technicalities

Thanks, you wonderful, thoughtful, loving people, for honoring us with such an enlightened discussion. We are in awe.

Update: In the comments to this post, Goomp has the last word:

To me it all comes down to what one believes. I believe that if God made man as his crowning achievement he hasn't much to brag about. I believe that man made God in the image of what man would like to be. All powerful and able to put others in their place. My kitties do their best to rule me. Not by force but by guile. It is only animal nature.

"Hope it isn't too blunt," emails Goomp. "Not at all," we email back.

"The scraggy old chicken-necked women" strike back

"Did he who made the lamb make thee?" asked William Blake rhetorically in "The Tyger." Meanwhile, utopianist deniers of human nature asked mindlessly, "Why can't we all just get along." ("The Peaceable Kingdom" by Edward Hicks [American, 1780–1849]. Oil on Canvas. Brooklyn Museum)

"But this is a bit like arguing over which came first, the chicken or the egg -- or, in this case, which came first, the lack of eggs or the scraggy old chicken-necked women desperate for one designer baby at the age of 48," wrote Mark Steyn re declining birthrates amongst EU leftist elites two years back. Being of the scraggy-old-chicken-necked persuasion ourselves even then, we had decided to hide our tears and just keep our blogging mouth shut. Fear societies heavy and lite rule. We may have agreed for the most part with Steyn's argument, but his gratuitous dismissal of the heartbreak of losing your looks at un certain age caught us up short. "Wait until your beautiful young bride starts looking scraggy beneath the chin," we thought churlishly. Now comes the estimable Ed Driscoll in a commentary on Dr. Helen's and Glenn Reynolds's discussion of "fur children" -- "what you and I normally refer to as pets." We had read the good doctor's commentary earlier in the day, started writing something in the comments and then -- again feeling immobilized by the well of emotion that overwhelmed us as a person whose love of animals is a huge part of who we are -- decided to keep our blogging mouth shut. Here's the essence of Dr. Helen's take:

So maybe one can let the Baby Boomers off the hook if they have already had children and now because of an empty nest are looking to their fur children to lavish their attention on, although I have to ask, what happened to spending time with the real, live human grandkids? And if people are having fur children instead of real children, what will happen to the human race? And what about retirement, long after your fur children are dead, will you end up in the doghouse because you blew a wad of cash on a dog instead of planning for retirement etc. Just a few questions for those who can't tell the difference between an animal and a human being.

Dr. Helen's suggestion that one might be let "off the hook" if one had had children and only now turned to animals as child substitutes called to mind Barbara Boxer's recent chastisement of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for deigning to weigh in on the deployment of the military -- other people's children -- when she had never had children of her own. As we blogged at the time:

But all that aside, what's really wrong with Barbara Boxer's clueless attack on Dr. Rice is the nerve to suggest that a gal -- especially one like Condi, who lost a childhood friend to a white supremacist bomb in the Sixties -- who hasn't given birth to a child cannot possibly understand human suffering. Like so many Democrat demagogues, Boxer is not a serious person.

Until you've walked in my shoes?

Playboy as Marxist, social engineering vehicle?

"The monthly magazine Playboy . . . is generally considered to be as American as apple pie and . . . is never regarded as a socialist, let alone Marxist, social engineering vehicle," wrote Paul Belien of The Brussels Journal last April, adding provocatively that "Nevertheless, in its editorial articles (which, I know, are not what the magazine was bought for) Playboy always clearly stated that its primary objective was to change traditional culture and morality." Above, the late Anna Nicole Smith in her heyday as Playboy's 1993 "Playmate of the Year."

"Nonetheless, what we lack are the American reserves in national energy and self-confidence, primitiveness and generosity, wealth and potential of every kind," wrote anti-Communist German sociologist Arnold Gehlen thirty years back, quoted by Paul Gottfried in The Strange Death of Marx, reviewed by Paul Belien in The Brussels Journal last spring:

The reason why America was not infected to the same devastating degree by what I would call the Playboy philosophy and what is basically the Frankfurt School ideology, is also answered in this book, though less explicitly. It has to do with what Arnold Gehlen in the quote above called “the American reserves.” America’s “conservative reserves” are far stronger than Europe’s, because America, unlike secular Europe, has remained rooted to a larger extent in traditional Christian values . . . The disappearance of Christianity in Europe has left a religious vacuum, which has been filled by Islam on the one hand and by what Gottfried calls “the post-Marxist Left as a political religion” on the other hand.

Just ask Papa Ratzi and Oriana Fallaci, the pope and the atheist "who think the same things" or Linda Kimball, whose "Cultural Marxism" at The American Thinker has the historical time line. Discussing the Playboy angle with our imail correspondent this afternoon, she admonishes

I think everybody gives Playboy too much credit, or the opposite of credit. I think Playboy was simply Hugh Heffner's sex dream.

Probably true, but we're nevertheless intrigued with the idea of Heffner's being an unwitting fellow traveler of the Gramscian infiltration. Two related items:

1. "All men are like the Taliban," reports Fjordman, tongue in cheek, in "How Feminism Leads to the Oppression of Women" at The Brussels Journal:

Swedish Marxist politician Gudrun Schyman has suggested a bill that would collectively tax Swedish men for violence against women. In a 2002 speech, the same Schyman famously posited that Swedish men were just like the Islamic Taliban regime in Afghanistan. A male columnist in national newspaper Aftonbladet responded by saying that Schyman was right: All men are like the Taliban.

Misandry, the hatred of men, isn’t necessarily less prevalent than misogyny, the hatred of women. The difference is that the former is much more socially acceptable.

But, of course, it depends upon where you're at. In Malaysia, the jury is still out as to which is more socially acceptable:

2. On Friday "A respected Malaysian Muslim religious advisor has suggested that women wear chastity belts to thwart 'sex maniacs' who rape and commit incest." Next day the religious advisor was pulling a John Kerry, suggesting it was a botched joke:

A prominent Malaysian cleric said his comments that women should wear chastity belts to prevent rape and incest was a joke gone wrong, as rights groups and a top government minister blasted his remarks in news reports on Saturday.

It's his/her fault is as old as the sandbox. Ironic that Marxist feminism and Islamicist anti-feminism have come to the same point of impotent rage. It's HIS fault. It's HER fault. Can we talk?

Proof the terrorists haven't won

Tiny initiates a game of pluckball by the dawn's early light.

Murtha unbound at All Things Beautiful. We'd say Nancy Pelosi should be cited for elder abuse.

She draws a bead on one of her superballs as it bounces off the counter, stage left.

As long as Britney can shave her head, the terrorists haven't won.

All cats all the time. The perfect combination of cute and cunning.

Fascinating that megalomaniacal old men like Murtha and megalomaniacal young women like Spears are metaphysical equals in the nation's marketplace of "ideas." Eat your megalomaniacal heart out, Osama & Company.