Lack of Posts

My apologies, ladies and gents – I’ve been falling down on my posting promise.  As it turns out, it’s very difficult to get married, move, hold down a job, and hold a fourth of July cookout – who’d have thunk?  I do have some more things to say, just bear with me a bit.  I’m a little more than halfway though Grand New Party – Ware is on hold – and I plan on posting a review of it. Also, look forward to more about tsars and video games.  There may even be some thoughts on relationships and human society. For now, however, I need to prepare for a mattress hunting expedition.  Is it even worse than car shopping?  Time will tell…

God Save the Tsar

I am hereby (tentatively) endorsing a return to the Russian monarchy.  I know that’s basically crazy, but I think it may the best thing for Russia.  I still think this is a country without an identity, and returning to some kind of Imperial Russia may be the best way to go in providing political and cultural stability.  Ideally, this is a stop gap to an English system whereby the monarch is more of a figure head, but Russia and democracy have butted heads a bit so such progress may take a while.  Another reason to be leary of this is the affect it would have on the Orthodox Church.  I have a lot of problems with the history of church-state relations in that country, and I’m not longing to return to it.  Moreover, it’s reasonable to expect that religious freedom will be restricted (so much for evangelical missionaries), but such things have already been happening to some extent anyway. 

Basically, I don’t like the way things are headed and I’m looking for a way out.  This may be the best option at the moment.

 

A Different Sort of Christian Music

Yes, Pascha is over, but I couldn’t resist.  I wonder if this is what you get if you mix Slavic culture, with Eastern Orthodoxy, with an American music video aesthetic.  Really interesting anyway.  I think I like it better than the Protestant/Roman stuff though.  It’s more wholesome somehow.  Or I could just be crazy   If you go to the YouTube site you can find the words in English.

Discussion Follow-up

Last night I went to the book discussion at Borders and had quite a good time.  Indeed, coming out of it I have to say that I have not felt this encouraged about politics since my undergraduate years.  One never wants to get too crazy about these things, bit I did feel a tinge of regret that I was no longer part of the political scene. 

I got the chance to speak personally with both Reihan and Ross, and I can vouch for the coolness of both individuals.  It was so refreshing to listen to Republicans whoose message extended beyond the “tax cuts are from Jesus, let’s bomb more people, I hate welfare” line of reasoning.  That’s not to say there is nothing to that traditional point of view, but as Ross and Reihan pointed out, it’s message has largely either succeeded or simply exhausted itself.   

The moderator of the discussion was from The Nation, and I was impressed with him as well.  It was interesting to see a solid lefty interview these guys, and there was a palpable sense of respect in his approach.  You could tell he had his disagreements, but was generally impressed.  I think a decent amount of liberals are still really driven by their desire to help others, and the poor and working class especially.  I think he saw some kindred hearts in Ross and Reihan even if they disagreed on approaches.  I spoke with him afterwards and he commented on how much better the Republican Party would be if they were representaitive of it.

And that brings us to the final point.  Several folks were concerned that Ross and Reihan were more or less expounding a pipe dream: the Republican Party would never evolve as they envisioned.  Ross himself recognized how beholden the Republicans were to the “Wall Street Journal editorial page”.  The response was to essentially take the long view: political realignment takes time.  The other possibility, as mentioned by Reihan, is a crushing a electoral defeat – certainly a possibility with Obama.  My crystal ball is foggy on these things, but I am starting to feel more hope than Barack’s admitedly brilliant rehtoric has provided.

Public Service Announcement

Today (Wednesday) Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam will be at the D.C. Borders (18th and L) talking about their new book Grand New Party.  I’ve mentioned this book in an earlier post as a possible future for the Republican Party.  It should be an interesting discussion and I plan on attending.  Should any other Prancing Pony readers be there perhaps there will be time for general hob-nobbing and latte sipping.  The discussion starts at 6:30 for all who are interested.

To Play the Fool

The fool in Christ is likewise free, because he has “nothing to lose”: not that he has been robbed of everything, but he has renounced everything by his own choice.  Like Bobynin he has no possessions, no family, no position, and can speak the truth with a prophetic boldness.  He cannot be exploited, for he has no ambition; and he fears God alone.

I’m still making my way through Ware’s book (more than halfway) and I came across the above quote.  The book had slowed down for a bit, but is now back to form and quite engaging.  I’m finding the whole discussion surrounding the “holy fool” to be both incredibly encouraging and mildly off-putting.  Obviously, I’ve thought about holy fools before, but Ware discusses it in more depth and provides specific, historical examples which are thought provoking.

The above quote is pretty fantastic and captures a lot of what I believe characterizes a holy fool. It’s also encouraging for everyday life.  For example, for often do we fear the opinions of other people more than God?  How often does our own worldliness get in the way of our pursuit of holiness?  I think the holy fools have much to teach us in these, and other, areas.  Moreover, the very life of the holy fools is an inspiration as they literally cast everything aside in their pursuit of God and salvation.

I guess my issue is that sometimes this stuff gets too extreme for me.  People occasionally abandon their existing families (including a spouse) to become fools for Christ.  Sometimes love for life as a fool can lead to disdain for an “ordinary life”.  Moreover, such removal from society can lead to sometimes extreme opinions that much of the world finds pretty untenable. 

As admirable as the life of the fools is, there is also something to be said for not entirely losing touch with “earthly reality”.

This is too Cool

Somehow I missed this book. Rod Dreher, a Roman Catholic convert from the Methodists – and an Eastern Orthodox convert from the  Catholics – has a book out about “Crunchy Cons”.  I’ve copied a review below:

What do you call people who vote for Bush but shop at Whole Foods? Crunchy cons. And according to Dreher, an editor at the Dallas Morning News, they’re forming a thriving counterculture within the contemporary conservative movement. United by a “cultural sensibility, not an ideology,” crunchy conservatives, he says, have some habits and beliefs often identified with cultural liberals, like shopping at agriculture co-ops and rejecting suburban sprawl. Yet crunchy cons stand apart from both the Republican “Party of Greed” and the Democratic “Party of Lust,” he says, by focusing on living according to conservative values, what the author calls “sacramental” living. Dreher makes no secret of his own faith in Christianity, and his book will resonate most with fellow Christians. His conversations with other crunchy conservatives—e.g., the policy director of Republicans for Environmental Protection, a Manhattan home-schooler, the author’s wife—are illuminating, but the book fails to offer any empirical evidence to connect these individuals to a wider “movement.” Instead, it works best as an indictment of consumerism and the spiritual havoc it can wreak. While his complaints about consumer culture are similar to those advanced by liberals, Dreher frames his criticism of corporate America in explicitly conservative terms, painting rampant consumerism as antithetical to true conservatism.

I definitely hear some echos of Wendell Berry in the above.  I haven’t read the book, but next time I’m at Borders I’ll have to give it a perusal.  This just serves to buttress my whole thesis that though conservatism appears to be  wounded on its surface there are lots of interesting things going on underneath.  We’ll see where things go from here – always in motion is the future…