Do Not Ignore the Parallels

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"The Beloved Leader" is a long-standing tradition. One that we honor at our peril.

Did you know that there is a Joint Resolution before the House that would repeal the 22nd Amendment which limits presidents to 2 terms? Here it is. It was introduced on Jan. 6. Here's a brief article about it.

HT: lutherpunk

Albert Jay Nock on the State

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The following was written in 1939.

"The weaker the State is, the less power it has to commit crime. Where in Europe today does the State have the best criminal record? Where it is weakest: in Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Sweden, Monaco, Andorra. Yet when the Dutch State, for instance, was strong, its criminality was appalling; in Java it massacred 9,000 persons in one morning which is considerably ahead of Hitler's record or Stalin's. It would not do the like today, for it could not; the Dutch people do not give it that much power, and would not stand for such conduct. When the Swedish State was a great empire, its record, say from 1660 to 1670, was fearful. What does all this mean but that if you do not want the State to act like a criminal, you must disarm it as you would a criminal; you must keep it weak. The State will always be criminal in proportion to its strength; a weak State will always be as criminal as it can be, or dare be, but if it is kept down to the proper limit of weakness – which, by the way, is a vast deal lower limit than people are led to believe – its criminality may be safely got on with.

"So it strikes me that instead of sweating blood over the iniquity of foreign States, my fellow-citizens would do a great deal better by themselves to make sure that the American State is not strong enough to carry out the like iniquities here. The stronger the American State is allowed to grow, the higher its record of criminality will grow, according to its opportunities and temptations. If, then, instead of devoting energy, time, and money to warding off wholly imaginary and fanciful dangers from criminals thousands of miles away, our people turn their patriotic fervor loose on the only source from which danger can proceed, they will be doing their full duty by their country."

- Albert Jay Nock "The Criminality of the State"

Read it all.

The Heart and the Mind Are One

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A person’s failure to recognize the beauty of the life of the mind, either by neglect, inability, prejudice or faulty instruction, does not justify that person denigrating or dismissing intellectual pursuit.

The heart and mind are not two things, but one. What moves our mind moves our heart. When our heart is moved without any clear perception by the mind, however simple that perception may be, our heart is often moved by the wrong things and in the wrong ways.

Listen to Flannery O'Connor

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You're in for a real treat.

Follow the following links to download one lecture by Flannery O'Connor and one file of her reading one of her stories.

"Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Literature"

"A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

HT: The Morning Oil by way of AEL by way of Faith and Theology.

Thanks to all for this wonderful material.