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.

Books Don’t Make Us Human: Julie Robison

Can books make us human or are we born human?

I would like to re-word the thesis of this symposium, and present my list of books that are known to make people humane, and thus be a catalyst to make the reader an enlightened, knowledgeable, and truth-seeking missile of a human being.

People are homo sapiens, even if they lack a proper understanding of the human condition. Joseph Stalin and Mother Teresa were both human; the difference between them, however, was not the question of their biological classification, but their choices. Stalin demeaned and killed humans and Blessed Teresa cared for and defended them. For at "the Day of Judgment, we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done; not how well we have spoken, but how holy we have lived,” wrote St. Thomas a Kempis in The Imitation of Christ.

I am thus providing ten books which I believe best encapsulate and understand what it means to be a humane human; that is, sympathetic to the whole person, have a foundation in God, and outwardly show an ability to love transcendentally (opposed to hiding their candle beneath a bushel).

Furthermore, I’ve resisted including books-I-like or books-everyone-should-read if they do not fit the prompt. Aquinas’ brilliant Summa Theologica is a perfect example of this; as are Evelyn Waugh’s The Loved One and Vile Bodies, and Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter (my three favorite books). They do address aspects of humanity, but not to the degree to which this symposium prompts me to choose.

I also did not comment on any of my book selections. This was intentional. For those who know me, I am quite chatty. For those who read me, I enjoy explaining and diving into ideas. For this symposium, however, I thought it much more apt to let the books and their authors speak for themselves. Too much commentary can set up unintentional expectations, and perhaps ruin the experience of diving into a new read. All of these books have profoundly affected my character, challenged my thinking, and have prompted me to act accordingly.

All books selected were written in the not-so-distant 20th century, and remind me of something Tom Bombadil said to the hobbits: "You've found yourselves again, out of the deep water. Clothes are but little loss, if you escape from drowning."

Children’s literature

1. The Little Prince by Anotoine De Saint-Exupery

“Whenever I encountered a grown-up who seemed to me at all enlightened, I would experiment on him with my drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I wanted to see if he really understood anything. But he would always kept. I wanted to see if he really understood anything. But he would always answer, “That’s a hat.” Then I wouldn’t talk about boa constrictors or jungles or stars. I would put myself on his level and talk about bridge and golf and politics and neckties. And my grown-up was glad to know such a reasonable person.”

“No,” said the little prince, “I’m looking for friends. What does tamed mean?”
“It’s something that been too often neglected. It means, ‘to create ties’… The only things you learn are the things you tame,” said the fox. “People don’t have time to learn anything. They buy things ready-made in stores. But since there are no stores where you can buy friends, people no longer have friends. If you want a friend, tame me!”

2. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Comics

3. Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Theologian of the Heart

by David G. Bonagura, Jr.

The Thought of Pope Benedict XVI: An Introduction to the Theology of Joseph Ratzinger, Second Edition
by Aidan Nichols.
Burns & Oates/Continuum (London)
284 pp., $24.95 Paper, 2007

Ratzinger’s Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI by Tracey Rowland.
Oxford University Press (Oxford/New York)
232 pp., $24.95 Hardback, 2008

When the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church elected Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, they chose a theologian who for fifty years had taught, lectured, and written continuously about the most pertinent theological questions of the twentieth century. He was a young professor of theology when invited to serve as peritus at the Second Vatican Council, the central event of twentieth-century Catholicism. Vatican II shaped his theological work for the rest of his career, even after he became archbishop of Munich-Freising in 1977 and later Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981. The latter position, one of the most prominent in the Church, placed him at the center of Catholic theological life and charged him with overseeing Catholic theology throughout the world. While occupying this post, it was a matter of some controversy that Ratzinger continued to lecture and write as a private theologian; that his private work included some candid criticisms of certain aspects of the post-conciliar Church was even more startling. Yet the cardinal-electors knew that they were selecting more than a cantankerous professional theologian: they chose instead a man whose theological work was both the source and expression of his profound love of Jesus Christ and of the Catholic Church.

In the weeks and months following the ascent of Pope Benedict XVI to the throne of Peter, countless articles appeared labeling him as conservative or hardliner through the use of epithets such as “God’s Rottweiler” or the “Panzer Cardinal.” Such labels, however, pertained more to his office as prefect, which was actually quite mild compared to his predecessors, than to Ratzinger himself and his theology. In fact, the depth of Ratzinger’s thought not only exceeds these scurrilous labels, but it also requires careful and measured analysis, more so now due to his elevation to the papacy. Meeting this need, the complementary books by Father Aidan Nichols, O.P., and Tracey Rowland offer both comprehensive explanations of Ratzinger’s work and an account of his theological vision, which fixates on God’s revelation through the person of Jesus Christ.

The Grotesque Iconography of Lady Gaga

by Julie Robison

This Sunday marks the fourth week of Advent; in a week, it will be the feast of the birth of our Lord. My mother has been blasting Christmas music. In between choir boys singing "Silent Night" and Bing Crosby, the radio DJ, told his audience that the number one performer of 2010 is Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga is more than a manufacturer of pop music and catchy tunes. She came into the music scene two years ago, infecting the senses and causing a strong urge to move it-move it with her first single, "Just Dance"-- closely followed by more hits: "Poker Face," "Paparazzi" and "Telephone" (with Beyonce). She has become, in the most secular use of the term, an icon. Her image is a mosaic: outrageous, loud, provocative, creative and unabashedly out there.

Just to get an idea of how culturally embedded Lady Gaga is, let's use the technology litmus test. Of her 21 uploaded videos on YouTube, the lowest viewed video has over 1 million clicks and her highest is over 319 million (the music video for "Bad Romance"). At present, the LadyGagaVevo channel has 342, 426 subscribers and over a billion total upload views. She has over 7 million followers on Twitter and almost 25 million people "like" her on Facebook.

Now let's compare Lady Gaga's popularity to, say, the Roman Catholic Church, who has over a billion members worldwide. The Vatican has its own channel on YouTube. It has 900 uploaded videos, mostly excerpts of speeches by Pope Benedict XVI, translated by a voice over. The most viewed video has over 105 thousand views; the lowest has a few hundred. The Vatican joined YouTube on November 21, 2005 but only has 26, 392 subscribers. On Twitter and Facebook, its fans and followers are collectively below 12,000.