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December 31, 1999 Well, as suspected, the world did not
end. There have been some minor Y2K glitches such as credit card
verifications having to be done by telephone, putting us where we were 8
years ago, but that's so far the worst I have heard.
And yet.
Last days. I said over in Intellectual Capital that I believe the
defection of the intellectuals from what used to be the basis of Western
Civilization, without any new basis for a Civilization -- if we do not
exist to do God's will, what is the purpose of life? If it is pure
hedonism, what is the attraction of altruism, or the value of mercy and
compassion? Because an "ethicist" says so? On what authority
does HE speak other than that he has persuaded some to pay him money to
tell us about the morality of partial birth abortion? The Age of Faith
ended when Acquinas tried to reconcile Reason and Faith, and said
explicitly that if reason and revelation are in irreconcilable conflict
there is something wrong with our understanding of the revelation. That
brought us to this century.
Now all revelation is rejected as unreasonable. There can be no
evidence of miracles because by decree we live in a universe in which
miracles do not happen, and therefore what appears to be miraculous must
have a scientific explanation. No one who has thought it through has ever
claimed that the miraculous is subject to scientific law; it can't be, by
definition. If miracles happen they are in fact explicit exceptions to
scientific law. Perhaps so, and perhaps they don't happen at all;
certainly they are not subject to repeatable experiment. So, our age says,
we are justified in rejecting the evidence on the grounds that that which
cannot be repeated is not science and that which is not science does not
exist. Perhaps so; but it is surely important for the age that we have no
purpose for existence outside ourselves; no connection with our fellow
creatures than our "selfish genes"; and the age of Mr. Bentham's
Utilitarianism is upon us. Except, of course, there is no logical reason
why my selfish genes should give one hoot about "the greatest good
for the greatest number" if that is in conflict with maximizing the
number of my descendents.
It makes for a new world. Justice, we once thought, consists of giving
each that which is his by nature; but why give a hoot for nature?
Injustice consists of treating equal things unequally, and unequal things
equally. That latter is the practice of the age; equalitarianism rules;
yet why? If there is no fountain of justice, who shall say that justice is
not that which benefits me?
In a word, we live on our, not intellectual, but moral capital, and if
it is being renewed it is not being renewed in our universities and
intellectual centers. And that, for good or ill, for truth or falsehood is
the key event of the age. Our nation was founded with confidence in and
gratitude to a Divine Providence that officially no longer exists. God
help us all.
That was, I think, the most important happening of the century. From it
grew an event.
I think in the US the most significant event of the decade was Waco:
not that it happened, but that there was never an inquest, and the
commanders at the scene were promoted. One promotes success. Presumably
the desired result, including the burning of all evidence, the
"loss" of the doors which might have indicated who fired first,
and the bulldozing of the site, was obtained: one promotes people who
obtain the desired results, not those who command a disaster. A nation
with faith in Divine Providence could never have promoted those people:
the event itself cried injustice. But only if one believes there is a
source of justice not subject to spin and manipulation. With enough spin,
justice was served at Waco, or at worst is was "a terrible
accident".
When the US entered the Philippine war, a poem appeared. I forgot who
wrote it, and I can't find it on the internet, but it's about a US soldier
chasing a Philippine insurgent, and it ends:
"never did he dream that his bullet's scream,
went far, far, wide of the mark.
And lodged in the heart of his native land
as she stumbled and sinned in the dark."
When we got that in high school I didn't understand. Who could resist
US instruction, US culture, and why would anyone want to? Why would it be
a bad idea to extend the benefits of US rule to people far away? Why would
it have been a good idea for Dewey to weigh anchor and sail away?
Over the years I have come to doubt that we did more good in the
Philippines -- we certainly did a lot of good -- than we did harm to the
US Republic. But I think that poem applies as much to Waco as ever it did
to our first Imperial Adventure; and while one can argue that much good
came from the US adventures in the Philippines, it is hard to argue that
any good at all came from Waco.
Technology has given us all great power. The least among us has access
to all the knowledge of the ages. My prophecy of 1980, that by the year
2000 every person in Western Civilization would be able to find the answer
to any question that has an answer, has been fulfilled. I said at the time
that the was not all to the good: questions about health and safety,
history and art, yes, but also questions such as "how do I make nerve
agents from household chemicals", and "how can I make
nitroglycerine?" Knowledge and power without moral reasons for
restraint: this will be the next Century. God help us.
"In those days there was no King in Israel: every man did that
which was right in his own eyes."
And having spread a few gloomy thoughts, we can rejoice, because for
most of us these are the best of times. We have our teeth into old age. We
are healthier than any people in history, and our major complaint is that
we have too much to eat. The very fact that you can read this says volumes
about our times and capabilities. And, for most of us, in this day and
age, there IS enough intellectual and moral capital to sustain us for
years to come. Most of us have not accepted the clear implications of our
own conclusions. Like the Parliament in the time of James I, there is a
"stop in the mind" when we contemplate a world in which there is
no fountain of justice. And perhaps that too is a blessing, undeserved,
for which we have no One to thank...
With Thanks to Rick at CJ for finding this:
http://www.bartleby.com/104/40.html
William Vaughn Moody. 1869–1910
On a Soldier Fallen in the Philippines
- Streets of the roaring town,
- Hush for him, hus, be still!
- He comes, who was stricken down
- Doing the word of our will.
- Hush! Let him have his state,
- Give him his soldier's crown.
- The grists of trade can wait
- Their grinding at the mill,
- But he cannot wait for his honor, now the trumpet has been blown.
- Wreathe pride now for his granite brow, lay love on his breast of
stone.
- Toll! Let the great bells toll
- Till the clashing air is dim.
- Did we wrong this parted soul?
- We will make it up to him.
- Toll! Let him never guess
- What work we set him to.
- Laurel, laurel, yes;
- He did what we bade him do.
- Praise, and never a whispered hint but the fight he fought was good;
- Never a word that the blood on his sword was his country's own
heart's-blood.
- A flag for the soldier's bier
- Who dies that his land may live;
- O, banners, banners here,
- That he doubt not nor misgive !
- That he heed not from the tomb
- The evil days draw near
- When the nation, robed in gloom,
- With its faithless past shall strive.
- Let him never dream that his bullet's scream went wide of its island
mark,
- Home to the heart of his darling land where she stumbled and sinned
in the dark.
Clearly I misremembered the poem; it has been, after all, more than 50
years since I was in high school. But I recall the class discussion, led
by Brother Fidelis who had been a missionary in the Philippines and was
later, as I understand it, to be killed on another mission in Africa. This
was during or just after the Pacific War, which we probably would not have
been in had we not been in the Philippines, and a time when no one
questioned that we had no choice but to be in that war, and to win it by
whatever means required. At the time none of us supposed that we had done
anything but good by going into the Philippines, and that nothing but good
came of it; the poem was nonetheless assigned because there was a
different view of the purpose of education in those days, at least at
Christian Brothers in Memphis, Tennessee...
And having said all that, perhaps it is temperament, but I tend to
optimism. Most of the people of the United States remain good people, with
good instincts, and as we find more and better means to talk to each other
without the intermediation of media and professorate, perhaps it only
shows that the "best and brightest" have made themselves
irrelevant.
John Garfield proclaimed from the steps of the Capitol, in a dark hour
to announce Lincoln's death, "My Fellow Americans! God reigns, and
the government at Washington still lives."
And indeed it does. Happy New Year.
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