Musings Of An Indie Writer| « | Some light reading for Fran while on vacation. |
»
|
|
Sunday, August 29, 2010
The Prices Of Vision: A Screed-Rumination “Twofer”
Yes, yes, I know I said I wouldn't be posting much this weekend, but you have to "go with the flow," no?
Man's widest-bandwidth sense is the sense of vision. It conveys more information per unit time, in absolute terms, than any of the other five. (Yes, there are five others; look it up.) Indeed, the consensus among anthropologists is that the brain expanded from its simian dimension of approximately 800 cubic centimeters to its sapient 1300 cc largely in response to our descent from the treetops to the plains -- to where sharp, focusable, reliable vision is the paramount survival necessity.
That tells you at once about one of the prices of vision: it requires massive processing power to make sense of the images. However, there are other prices, quite hefty ones, that we neglect at our peril.
Strictly speaking, vision is not a sense, but rather the consequence of the use of a sense. The eye reports to us continuously; whether we make use of its data stream is another matter. To see, you must look. You must be willing to look, and you must know how to look, and you must be ready to accept and interpret what you see.
There's another price of vision: you must choose to employ it and trust what it says to you. No sense whose reports are discarded with prejudice can reasonably be called an asset.
We guard our eyes rather carefully. We buttress their abilities with all manner of sophisticated devices. We speak of being struck blind as a terrible tragedy, one of the worst that can afflict a whole and healthy man. But many among us choose not to see what's before our eyes, for any of a number of reasons.
When you look at America, what do you see?
Do you see a nation in which men prosper best by coercion? Or do you see our abundance, generosity, and happiness as the fruits of cooperation and voluntary exchange? Do you see a nation whose commitment to individual liberty and responsibility has made it into the greatest force for good since Christ? Or do you see a nation filled with "bitter clingers" who have to be mastered and controlled for their own good? Do you see a nation in which ordinary men cannot be trusted with the means of self-defense? Or do you see a nation in which the ethic of personal responsibility burns so strongly that to deny a law abiding man the right to own weapons is an intolerable affront?
Do you see a people whose devotion to the Christian faith has been its principal strength through two and a half centuries, sixteen wars, and innumerable turmoils of every sort? Or do you see millions upon millions of superstitious ignoramuses who really ought to buy, read, and accept unquestioningly the antitheistic tracts of Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens, and forget all this "Son of God" and "Savior of Mankind" nonsense?
And whatever you see, what are you willing to bet on the soundness of your vision?
The next price of vision is the willingness to defend it. For there are few perceptions, however plain and unimpeachable they might seem, that have no adversaries.
If you have seen the system of voluntary cooperation and exchange we call capitalism as the fountainhead of our prosperity, and have pronounced your blessing upon it and its issue, in what fora and to what extent are you willing to stand by your vision? For he who refuses to defend the conclusions he's drawn from his vision will inevitably be led to disbelieve the vision itself. One cannot long sustain one's confidence in a mass of evidence if he recoils from defending its clear implications. He will find reasons to believe he's been misled, deceived, subjected to a mirage or a hallucination. If the vision persists despite his desire to wish it away, he will close his eyes, literally refusing to see.
Similarly, if you have seen, in whatever fashion, the truth and beauty of the Christian Covenant, proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth and attested to by His Passion and Resurrection, but give way before the sneers of pseudo-sophisticates, for how long can you expect your Christianity to endure? Christ Himself told His Apostles, "If any man among you hath no sword, let him sell his cloak and buy one." He expected the assaults on His people, and knew they would be both severe and unceasing. He knew that a man unwilling to fight, and possibly die, in defense of his faith had no true claim to faith at all -- that in time, such a coward would deny Him and His dispensation as the price of an easier life among the scoffers.
This is one of the greatest of all prices of vision, for a sense deliberately stifled is a sense that will soon cease to operate at all.
Vision, though not interchangeable with visions, nevertheless is related to such phenomena. Many have been the visionaries of Western Civilization. Many have been the visionaries of Christendom. More often than not, the two were the same people.
Adam Smith was a cleric. John Locke was a devout Christian, who believed that the laws of nature, dictated by God at Creation, would infallibly punish a ruler who thought he could disregard them. Many of the Founders of this nation were deeply religious, even though they accepted the necessity of keeping men's consciences free of State intrusion.
Throughout American history, our greatest leaders have been devout Christians, who leaned visibly upon the Cross during their times of severest test. Measure the current president against that standard, if you dare.
Yesterday, there was a huge rally at the National Mall, organized and hosted by commentator Glenn Beck. Beck startled the huge crowd, now estimated to have been around 300,000 persons, by making an explicitly religious pitch to them. Without any hesitation or ambiguity, his speech to the throng was a call back to God.
There are those who disdain Glenn Beck for his emotionalism, which is unusual for a public figure in our time. Say what you will, the man lacks neither vision, nor strength of conviction, nor courage in the face of opposition. He proved it yesterday, and moved many thousands of Americans in the process.
Glenn Beck has paid the price of vision. He has looked, has seen, and has found within himself the fortitude to speak unflinchingly of what he's seen, despite the derision and condemnation of an adverse media and an implacable cultural foe. Of those who oppose his Constitutionalism and his exhortations to restoring its full meaning, it's unnecessary to speak. Yet even many who agree with his political positions have cringed before his unabashed Christianity and his willingness to proclaim it. But before a man with the courage of his convictions, no opposition, however large, is of any moment.
I am proud to stand with Glenn Beck, despite our stylistic divergences. I, too, have looked, and have seen. I have reached the same conclusions as he. And I will pay the price: I will put my back to his, for what it's worth, though all the rest of the world rage against us.
If we who love freedom really mean to take this country back from those busily sawing through its sinews, then to the sneering statists who strive for our subjugation, the cultural pseudosophisticates who seek to submerge us in the "little deaths," and the antitheists eager to strip us of the bastion of Christian faith, we can make no other response. There can be no other candid, sincere response.
May God bless and keep you all.
Comments
Amen, now and forever. Bless you for standing up! Not ever easy to do….Jess
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/29/2010 at 02:55 PM“I am proud to stand with Glenn Beck, despite our stylistic divergences. I, too, have looked, and have seen. I have reached the same conclusions as he. And I will pay the price: I will put my back to his, for what it’s worth, though all the rest of the world rage against us.
If we who love freedom really mean to take this country back from those busily sawing through its sinews, then to the sneering statists who strive for our subjugation, the cultural pseudosophisticates who seek to submerge us in the “little deaths,” and the antitheists eager to strip us of the bastion of Christian faith, we can make no other response. There can be no other candid, sincere response.
May God bless and keep you all.”
“Amen, now and forever. Bless you for standing up!”
Hear the words. Live their truth.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/29/2010 at 07:22 PMI didn’t go to Beck’s rally, despite being less than an hour from it and having been to several tea party rallies. And having seen part of it on TV, I’m glad I didn’t. As a non-Christian, I would have felt, well, unsettled, unwanted, unneeded. I want limited government, and I’m fine with people individually reaffirming their faith, but I don’t want the two to get mixed up with each other. If the tea party morphs towards a “religion Right” movement, it’ll lose not just my support, but that of every secular libertarian type that currently supports it. Which will then get us right back to where we were under W: with the Republicans mouthing both religious and small-government platitudes while buying off the special interests.
Posted by Jeff Medcalf on 08/29/2010 at 11:30 PMbeck is a mormon. there is only one way to the father… through the son. i am certain you know this already. i don’t see too many people taking a stand for jesus. that’s a shame.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/30/2010 at 02:27 AMJeff, the old saw about “when you’re up to your arse in alligators, remember that your first objective was to drain the swamp” applies here. There’s a swamp that needs draining in the White House, right now. Suit up; the rest can wait. I’m with Glenn Beck all the way.
(ps: I’m an atheist)
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/30/2010 at 03:25 AMJeff, “unwanted and unneeded” are the furthest things from what you would have been, so why would you have felt that way?
Beck has tapped into a critical vein of energy: the Christian ethos. That set of rules has sustained this nation through its trials for two centuries and more, yet public figures on the Right have been irrationally reluctant to engage it. In this regard, Beck has proved that he’s far smarter than many of his detractors, especially those on the Left who routinely denigrate Christians and the Christian message—and they’re about to learn that on their own hides.
In short, put your irrational feelings of exclusion to the side and get into the flow. Be the Jeff Medcalf we all admire, damn it!
Posted by Francis W. Porretto on 08/30/2010 at 06:04 AM“Suit up; the rest can wait”
Precisely. And that’s what we on the right need to keep front and center, instead of concentrating on the differences and rifts which the left will surely exploit.
I’ll take any ally in this fight, even atheists such as Wakey.
Posted by KG on 08/30/2010 at 06:04 AMThank you Fran; it is tough enough for us who are preparing for the fight to keep our spirits high, Glenn Beck has helped with the historical truth we have been denied. Say what you want, his intentions are worthwhile. The ones we need to pray for are the many clueless, for they are humans too who have not realized where they have lost their way through no fault of their own. For those of us IIIs who are ready to pick up a sword and deal with those that seek our bondage, we need to be cognizant of those who will need our help. We will all need strength and guidance from Jesus Christ as we praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
VETTOM III
we are everywherePosted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/30/2010 at 08:10 AMI am of two minds on Glenn Beck. I know he started off as an infotainer and morphed into a reasonably-astute commentator.
I like his call to return to God, the Constitution and rule of law, to balance budgets, maintain political civility. He makes many other good points.
Yet whenever we find a politician who also embraces that view Beck savages them.
He did that to Ron Paul and he totally derailed Debra Medina’s campaign for Texas Governor through a series of vicious and puerile ad hominem attacks to both of these good people.
It is for those two defamations that I have stopped listening to him.
For if he is wrong on Ron Paul, what else is he wrong about?
Interestingly, after Ron Paul’s campaign Beck has had him on the show several times asking his opinion and generally agreeing with Paul’s views.
Too late, Glenn, you already did the damage.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/30/2010 at 12:16 PMThe Democrats do not have my support, but the Republicans have not yet earned it. Several years of Republican control, when their message was basically “we’re just like the Democrats, but cheaper, and did we mention God?” didn’t exactly endear me to them. On balance, yes, the Republicans are less destructive. That’s not good enough. The reality is that I believe in free minds and free markets, and Beck’s brand of public religion as motive political force threatens the former, as surely as anything the Democrats do threatens the latter. Better motivations don’t help to change the outcome. And that is why Beck makes me uncomfortable. Palin’s position, which is one of private faith inseparable from anything else she does, but as a force in her own life rather than a motive force for policy, is fine. I want the tea parties to remain focused on limited government, to the exclusion of all else. Once the government’s power is essentially neutered, then I’ll feel less ... itchy ... when Beck makes the kind of statements he does.
Posted by Jeff Medcalf on 08/30/2010 at 05:28 PM“The Democrats do not have my support, but the Republicans have not yet earned it.”
Perfectly put, Jeff, couldn’t agree more.
—————————-
“...a critical vein of energy: the Christian ethos.”Dern tootin’ Francis: America’s achievement in creating a nation that is the living embodiment of the Judeo-Christian ethic (which is the only one that works and is humane at the same time) is the legacy that we’re ALL fighting for.
————————-
“even atheists like Wakey” Cheers KG————————-
Yep folks, we’re all in the same foxhole here. Keep yer powder dry, there’s a tipping point coming.(ps - and I’m not an American. Jeff, being that close to history, you shoulda gone, if only to represent those of us who couldn’t. Never mind. Onward.)
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/30/2010 at 06:30 PMObama’s attempt to incinerate the ideals on which this nation were founded has blown back in his face, igniting a spark of patriotic nationalism that is about to sweep the country. Those who still cling to their political correctness are about to become politically extinct. America is readying a tremendous right cross that’s going to knock the voices of hatred for American values into next week. If Beck’s call to religion makes any uncomfortable, they can go to hell. We’re going to start by sentencing the Victory Mosque to a slow and painful death. Obama tried to transform America. America is about to transform him.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/30/2010 at 09:28 PMIf Beck’s call to religion makes any uncomfortable, they can go to hell.
Well, Rachel, I assure you that if Christians are correct in their more, um, acerbic teachings, I will. Otherwise, well, I suppose we’ll all find out when we’re dead.
Posted by Jeff Medcalf on 08/30/2010 at 09:52 PM“We should hang together or we will surely hang separately” - where did I hear that?
I’m a functioning pantheist and yet somehow I don’t have a problem with Glen Beck’s Mormonism or Francis’ Catholicism. Or even Billy Beck’s radical whatever. I’ve got your Six and I trust you’ve got my back.Posted by Hunt Johnsen on 08/30/2010 at 10:40 PMJeff, somehow I doubt any person of goodwill and integrity will need to get measured for an asbestos suit.
Just a hunch—I’m no theologian.Posted by KG on 08/31/2010 at 01:29 AM
Comment Form
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
