Stairway to Sacrilege

by Julie Robison

Ok Go, an alternative rock band known for catchy beats and viral YouTube videos, recently released a video in a Chevy commercial. The band drove a Chevy car through a two mile track of instruments, releasing their latest song, "Needing/Getting."

Their opening is, "I've been waiting for months, waiting for years, waiting for you to change./ Aw, but there ain't much that's dumber, there ain't much that's dumber/ Than pinning your hopes on a change in another./ And I, yeah, I still need you; but what good's that gonna do?/ Needing is one thing, and getting: getting's another."

This song, though about a girl, plays nicely into a recent NYT op-ed by psychologist Jonathan Haidt entitled, "Forget the Money, Follow the Sacredness." He writes to show the Right and Left's cultural narratives and their amazing ability to talk past each other on issues.

Serve to Conserve? Yes We Can!

by Julie Robison

Upon the prompting of Stephen Masty, I'd like to explore "what still really exists in America that is worth conserving and what may be, quite frankly, lost to all but memory."

Reid Buckley has declared that he cannot love our country because we are vile. Morally corrupt and bankrupt, we've even given Pat Buchanan license to doubt. "What is it now that conservatives must conserve?" he asked.

The Declaration of Independence offers a few good suggestions -- life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness -- and, if I may add onto the list: the preservation of the English language.

Life

Life, for one, seems a given right. Life is the highest good-- we all have life in common, though we may live out our own lives differently. Suicidal tendencies aside, most people would argue for the preservation of their life.

If a gun was placed against your head, would you pull the trigger or try to get out of harm's way? Now, what if the gun was placed against another person's head? A good person, who pays taxes and goes to Church; lives in the community and does good. Would you want to save that person? How about a bad person? A bad person is one who disregards other people's lives, has wrecked havoc upon their community and has no regards for good, unless it is good for them.

If you would only save the good person, you are a bad person too.

Some people need a gun at their head every second; do you?

It seems to me that Americans no longer know which way is up and which way is down. As a result, they are milling about life, thinking deeply on issues before growing tired and throwing up one's hands to accepted despair. Change is a farce. Our sacred cows are sinners. Republicans are pansies and Democrats are, well, Democrats. The more things change the more they stay the same, eh?

The value of human life is a constant. In the face of evil, we cannot make exceptions. The Declaration does not read that we have a right to a quality of life; it says we all have a right to life.

In one of my favorite defenses against abortion, the Humble Libertarian writes that "nothing is created at birth." That is, when people do not know whether or not a fetus is a person, remember that we're all developing. A toddler is not an adult. A child is not a teenager. A senior citizen is not less worthy of good healthcare because they are closing in on face time with the Lord.

Head Full Of Doubt / Road Full Of Promise

By Julie Robison

Driving by the woods on a fall evening, and I've got miles to go before I sleep. The trees are tall, and their leaves are brilliant shades of red, orange, yellow and brown. One can hardly remember the green leaves, who were there but two weeks ago. The highway is lined with them: hundreds, thousands. A standing army of oaks and hickory trees in the Shawnee Hills region of Kentucky.

Neuschwanstein Castle, for instance!

I am driving South again. I, like Brad, have been traveling a lot recently. This trip is to help my boyfriend move home after his month-long family medicine rotation in little Madisonville, Kentucky. I've traveled a lot this past year: North to Michigan, Illinois and Indiana; South to Georgia; East to South Korea and Japan; West to Germany and Austria. I've talked to a lot of people and marveled at the beauty of other people's homelands. It is in traveling where I am truly reminded of conservatism's place in the world, and our need for it.

Now, in October, I end my world travels in western Kentucky. It's coal-mining country, and the people-watching is humbling. A person can drive across town in five minutes and there are three separate train lines constantly being used. The court house is surrounded by statues remembering local men who served in their country's military in the Civil War (Confederacy) through the Vietnam War.

The community is small, so goodness freely given pervades and abuse of liberty cracks the cornerstones. I've been reading and mulling over the numerous pieces about conservatism and the culture, especially the latest by Claes on American intellectual conservatism. In light of the recent Republican debates, one would not know such an intellectualism exists in the public sphere!

Renewing America’s Soul: Part IV of Faith and Civil Society

By Barbara J. Elliott                              

         When did the conversation of conservatives in America shift predominantly to the realm of politics, to the exclusion of virtually everything else?  What was once a rich philosophy of ideas imbedded in imaginative literature, philosophy, history and theology has thinned out to a one-note samba played on a political tin drum. Both political parties have reduced their vision to the material realm, where the only disagreement is over whether the government should be vast and bankrupt now or large and bankrupt soon. The assumption is that the government must provide all significant solutions. Is politics really the main engine that drives history? 

        

Seeking Secular Salvation

        

Deep beneath this shift toward the political realm was a philosophical drift that began in an undercurrent early in the 13^th century.  Eric Voegelin, one of the most astute critics of modernity, argued that the modern age has been characterized by the emergence of politics as a secular means of salvation.  He traces the unraveling of order back to Joachim of Flora, a medieval mystic who depicted man’s history in three ascending ages, which would bring about the final age of perfection.  According to Voegelin, Fiore “and his successors replaced faith in God with faith in man’s ability to build heaven on earth.  The new earthly faith depended upon the fallacious notion that history itself has a purpose:  the achievement of human perfection.  Salvation was to be sought in this world, through the pursuit of temporal achievements aimed at making material the transcendent world of God.” [1]  Hobbes and Rousseau took the next steps, claiming that the political order could provide the means to rescue man from his fallen state and remake his image.