Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Snow Kids & Colonial Wrath

Video Snow Walk Around the Farm February 10, 2009


Mallory (right) and Eric shot this promo-snow walk yesterday. The farm is looking beautiful these days, though you will need to prepare for your visit by wearing lots of layered clothing, thermal underwear, hats, parkas, sun-glasses, blankets, gloves, mitts, and walking boots. It's gorgeous, but it takes a little preparation. We recommend our directions, since we've heard that the approach to the farm from Cherry Valley/Beaumont is a bit less icy than coming in from the Yucaipa side.


Colonial Wrath







..In the 18th century, they didn't go easy on the outrage. When someone did something wrong, they said so--in the very boldest of terms...



We now have in our possession--just off the printing press--our facsimile edition of the December 23, 1768 New Hampshire Gazette. You can buy one for yourself here. (For those of you have subscribed, it's being mailed today.)


The very lead article begins with a jeremiad against gossip and falsehood--the practitioners of which are called, literally, the followers of Satan. The writer is so convinced of his cause that he uses the Valley of Tophet, an allusion I had to look up, to describe the practice of libeling and engaging in false detraction. (This "Tophet" is a valley near Jerusalem where ancient Molech-worshippers burned children alive and used drums to drown out their cries.)


In the 18th century, they didn't go easy on the outrage. When someone did something wrong, they said so--in the very boldest of terms. I've often wondered whether we've really learned anything in this age of "anger management," and "conflict-resolution." In the first place, the very people who might benefit from a "kinder, gentler" approach to problem solving, are the very ones likely to have the most contempt for "talking it out." In the second place, some moral truths don't benefit by give-and-take. There is no room for a dialogue between a Stalinist who keeps a political concentration camp and a victim of the camp itself. Does anyone seriously believe a devout jihadist, for example, would benefit from a counselor telling him, "you can't do anything about the person who ridicules Mohammed; you can only do something about your reaction to that ridicule?"


The reality of a false certainty fueling outrage doesn't necessarily detract from the social value of outrage itself. Just because PETA activists absurdly wear Klan sheets to protest a dog show doesn't mean that we shouldn't consider the value of anger turned righteously against an objective evil. You might even say that the PETAs and the Code Pinks and the Greenpeaces of the world give "shaming" a bad name.


Consider the monstrous cruelty of the 18th century allusion itself: Tophet--the valley where the screams of burning infants had to be muffled by the sound of drums. The 18th century writer was willing to compare public liars and detractors to the hideous Molech worshippers of old. Our generation, on the other hand, can't even decide whether any comparison to any evil is appropriate on any front. If anything, in fact, we have it backward in our age. We wax indignant about trans-fatty acids or insensitivity to nut allergies, and we ignore the slaughter of infants in the Planned Parenthood Clinics of America. We work up a sweat over polar bears hopping ice flows and we allow hideous murderers to languish, at state expense, in our prisons. We chide Judeo-Christians for allowing faith to influence legislation and we ignore jihadists who would destroy the state entirely, in favor of their version of faith. Within the broad context of the Christian faith, we divide over end-times minutia and happily take communion with idolaters and fornicators--in the name of being "seeker friendly." We pretend that "conflict resolution" can resolve what is unresolvable--and we rob ourselves of the best tools any family, any church, any society has for identifying and limiting objective evil: scorn, scolding, and ultimately shunning.


There was a time when you didn't need an expensive state bureaucracy to teach sex education. You just called loose girls bad names. There was a time when you didn't need massive prison systems, and hefty state payrolls to warehouse violent criminals. You just executed them on the town square--in front of young and old, as an example. There was a time when shoplifting and graft and stock fraud was not rampant, because you heaped Molech-level scorn on anyone who broke the rules.


Today, America faces a demographic nightmare as the society ages and not enough children are being born to care for the elderly--either directly or by contributing to the tax base. Something like forty-three million children have been aborted since the Roe V Wade decision made us the savage heirs of Molech as a nation. When a courageous Catholic priest sees a Teddy Kennedy or a Nancy Pelosi coming down the aisle for eucharist, and withholds it, there is a giant act of virtue taking place. On the surface, it might look like an act of intolerance, but it's the act of a loving shepherd who is tired of hearing the screams of the innocent and is brave enough to identify the wolf in the midst of the flock.


Can you imagine the different course America might have taken, and might still take, if we shamed the cheerleaders of death? In our churches? At our dinner-tables?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mayby You could express Your opinion about the "Colonial Williamsburg". During my sejourn in the USA I didn't have the oportunity to visit it. Considering Your interests You must know pretty much about it

Best Regards