Sunday, June 25, 2006
Done.
I think I'm done blogging. It is a sign of my co-bloggers' decency that they have not accused me of stopping long ago.
I'm tired of reading the news and getting angry. Angry about our president's assault on the rights of Englishmen. Angry about judges establishing rights to ejaculate in or around whomever the ejaculat-or pleases. Angry about the American worship of our soldiers, who murder people. (Of course, not all American soldiers murder people. But I have not been convinced that the percentage of virtuous 19-year old soldiers is greater than the percentage of virtuous 19-year old non-soldiers -- a very small number, indeed.) Angry about Mexicans, and Mexican-Americans, and having to push a number on the telefono so the person on the other end knows I want to speak in English. Angry about the existence of the nation-state of "Israel". Angry about an administration that has deluded people into thinking it is family-friendly when the wife of the VP is a pornographer and the daughter of the VP is a lesbian.
As an undergraduate I sat in on a graduate class taught by Msgr. Sokolowski at CUA. It wasn't much of a graduate course -- far too large for that. (And far too much adulation of the professor, about whom there is much to criticize (and much to praise).) But one thing I took away was the good Msgr's lesson about reading the news. Informed by and embodying the ethical lessons begun by Aristotle, the good Msgr was critical of people who chattered about news developments they had no control over. Deliberation was the process, to be perfected over a well-lived life, of determining the means that would reach a particular end. The vast majority of people have no effect whatsoever on bombings in Bali, shellings in Serbia, or what-not, and should not waste their energies deliberating over such things. Instead, they should practice deliberation so that in their own lives they would be prepared to respond: knowing the true, doing the good, and delighting in both.
So I think I'm done blogging. The only event that would possibly stand in my way is if the path I have guessed will resign my membership in this blog doesn' t work. We shall see...
I'm tired of reading the news and getting angry. Angry about our president's assault on the rights of Englishmen. Angry about judges establishing rights to ejaculate in or around whomever the ejaculat-or pleases. Angry about the American worship of our soldiers, who murder people. (Of course, not all American soldiers murder people. But I have not been convinced that the percentage of virtuous 19-year old soldiers is greater than the percentage of virtuous 19-year old non-soldiers -- a very small number, indeed.) Angry about Mexicans, and Mexican-Americans, and having to push a number on the telefono so the person on the other end knows I want to speak in English. Angry about the existence of the nation-state of "Israel". Angry about an administration that has deluded people into thinking it is family-friendly when the wife of the VP is a pornographer and the daughter of the VP is a lesbian.
As an undergraduate I sat in on a graduate class taught by Msgr. Sokolowski at CUA. It wasn't much of a graduate course -- far too large for that. (And far too much adulation of the professor, about whom there is much to criticize (and much to praise).) But one thing I took away was the good Msgr's lesson about reading the news. Informed by and embodying the ethical lessons begun by Aristotle, the good Msgr was critical of people who chattered about news developments they had no control over. Deliberation was the process, to be perfected over a well-lived life, of determining the means that would reach a particular end. The vast majority of people have no effect whatsoever on bombings in Bali, shellings in Serbia, or what-not, and should not waste their energies deliberating over such things. Instead, they should practice deliberation so that in their own lives they would be prepared to respond: knowing the true, doing the good, and delighting in both.
So I think I'm done blogging. The only event that would possibly stand in my way is if the path I have guessed will resign my membership in this blog doesn' t work. We shall see...
# posted by Anonymous : 1:41 AM
