Note to Liberal "Catholics"
I do not know personally any liberal Catholic who actually acknowledges subsidiarity as an element of Catholic social teaching, but I guess the surest way to ever convert a Liberal "Catholic" to Catholicism is to provide them with some knowledge. So, if one has ever asked why the Catholic Church teaches subsidiarity as an indispensible notion of social justice?
Here is one great answer:
"The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum . . . The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." - H.L. Mencken, 1920
I would have to say that we are living in the time that Mencken predicted. With Obama the White House has been adorned with a downright moron, not to mention one who is devious and mediocre.
I'm sorry, Confiteor, but I must disagree. We have not just reached that point. No, we reached that point with the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His economic policies, prior to entry into WWII, were justly called something like, "Waltz of the Dunces."
ReplyDeleteOf course, Herbert Hoover was nearly as bad.
Mencken was one of my great-grandfather's best friends; they began their careers together as cub reporters for the Baltimore Sun. HLM used to spend several weeks each summer with our family in Bay St. Louis, MS - a fun story about a particular escapade is on pg 159 in his memoir ("Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work" or some such title.)
ReplyDeleteNo particular reason for sharing that. I'm here in hopes of contacting Vir Spenuncae Catholicus regarding a recent incident involving him at InsideCatholic. He'll know what I'm referring to.
Yes, Tatum... you wanted to ask me something concerning what happened at "Inside Catholic"?
ReplyDeletePlease feel free.
Down ... right on !
ReplyDeleteI'm going to email you via the Wilmington Trad blog tomorrow. Briefly: Your libelous, militant-feminist-masquerading-as-a-conservative-Catholic attacker doesn't fight fair and I'm mad as hell. I jumped in the combox in your defense & was promptly banned. She has since publicly maligned other unabashedly male, orthodox Catholics (for whom I jumped in the combox, etc. etc.) and promises more of same. This nasty woman wouldn't bother me so much if she didn't have a forum on an allegedly conservative Catholic website that receives over 60,000 visits a month, yet doesn't allow a man to defend himself when one of their writers unfairly accuses him of being misogynistic, not really Catholic etc. It's sick. But I have an idea...
ReplyDeletebtw, I stumbled upon a clue that might account for the male-hatred of this scary, bitter, angry woman: go to your Polyester Princess entry for August 19 & morph the faces of Messrs. Joanie and Simone & there you have an approximate visage of your attacker. You think she'd be sugar and spice and everything nice to compensate, but no.
Tatum,
ReplyDeleteI THOUGHT your name looked familiar!! I even went to that forum, and looked for your name (I thought that's where I saw it). Lo and behold, any evidence of you has vanished!! LOL!!!
Anyhow, don't let this get under your skin. I appriciate your words more than you know, but those "individuals" simply aren't worth the aggrivation.
People like YOU are exactly why the Cavemen exist and make this blog worth spending time at!
Again, thanks for the kind words, and I look forward to hearing from you!
Kev
allegedly conservative Catholic website
ReplyDeleteMore like neo-con. Neo-cons do not care for traditionalists. And they tend toward Papalotry, i.e., the Pope can do no wrong and is always right--as in infallible--in everything he does or says. Mostly relates to JP-II.