The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization (Politically Incorrect Guides) (57 page)
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Chapter Eight
The Nineteenth Century: Man Is a God; Man Is a Beast
1
See the mild feminism of Chapter 12, “Concerning the Arrangement of Life.”
See the mild feminism of Chapter 12, “Concerning the Arrangement of Life.”
2
Wister,
The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains
(1902). Wister dedicated it to Theodore Roosevelt, who would also have appreciated its elegiac regrets for a past heroic age.
Wister,
The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains
(1902). Wister dedicated it to Theodore Roosevelt, who would also have appreciated its elegiac regrets for a past heroic age.
3
Byron died on April 19, 1824, of a fever he caught while preparing for an attack on the Turkish-held fortress of Lepanto.
Byron died on April 19, 1824, of a fever he caught while preparing for an attack on the Turkish-held fortress of Lepanto.
4
“Though often possessing well-developed body and arms, the Papuan has very small legs; thus reminding us of the man-like apes, in which there is no great contrast in size between the hind and fore limbs.” Spencer, in
First Principles of a New System of Philosophy
(1862), ch. 15, par. 121.
“Though often possessing well-developed body and arms, the Papuan has very small legs; thus reminding us of the man-like apes, in which there is no great contrast in size between the hind and fore limbs.” Spencer, in
First Principles of a New System of Philosophy
(1862), ch. 15, par. 121.
5
See, for example, the darling of the 1960s, Herbert Marcuse,
Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1966).
See, for example, the darling of the 1960s, Herbert Marcuse,
Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1966).
6
For instance, the free-love community begun by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848, in Oneida, New York.
For instance, the free-love community begun by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848, in Oneida, New York.
7
That is a paraphrase of the rhetorical cry that ends Marx’s and Engel’s
Communist Manifesto
.
That is a paraphrase of the rhetorical cry that ends Marx’s and Engel’s
Communist Manifesto
.
8
That is the elegiac thrust of Freud’s
Civilization and Its Discontents
(1929).
That is the elegiac thrust of Freud’s
Civilization and Its Discontents
(1929).
9
For the notion of “touchstones,” see
Essays in Criticism, Second Series,
“The Study of Poetry” (1880); for “sweetness and light,” see the Preface to
Culture and Anarchy
(1869).
For the notion of “touchstones,” see
Essays in Criticism, Second Series,
“The Study of Poetry” (1880); for “sweetness and light,” see the Preface to
Culture and Anarchy
(1869).
10
“This has to be said: by ceasing to take part in the official worship of God as it now is . . . thou hast one guilt the less, and that a great one: thou dost not take part in treating God as a fool.” From
This Has to Be Said; So Be It Now Said
(1855). See Kierkegaard,
Attack Upon ‘Christendom
’, tr. Walter Lowrie (Boston: Beacon Press, 1960), 60.
“This has to be said: by ceasing to take part in the official worship of God as it now is . . . thou hast one guilt the less, and that a great one: thou dost not take part in treating God as a fool.” From
This Has to Be Said; So Be It Now Said
(1855). See Kierkegaard,
Attack Upon ‘Christendom
’, tr. Walter Lowrie (Boston: Beacon Press, 1960), 60.
11
For Newman, the conscience is more than a policeman; it urges us on to the knowledge of God: “It is not wonderful that the notices, which He indirectly gives us through our conscience, of His own nature are such as to make us understand that He is like Himself and nothing else” (
An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent
, 1.5). It does not allow us to do as we please; it encourages us to do as God pleases.
For Newman, the conscience is more than a policeman; it urges us on to the knowledge of God: “It is not wonderful that the notices, which He indirectly gives us through our conscience, of His own nature are such as to make us understand that He is like Himself and nothing else” (
An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent
, 1.5). It does not allow us to do as we please; it encourages us to do as God pleases.
12
Witness Adams on the breadth of the Middle Ages, as compared against his own utilitarian time: “A Church which embraced, with equal sympathy, and within a hundred years, the Virgin, Saint Bernard, William of Champeaux and the School of Saint Victor . . . , Saint Thomas Aquinas, and Saint Bonaventure, was more liberal than any modern State can afford to be . . . Such elasticity long ago vanished from human thought.” From
Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres
(New York: Mentor, 1961), ch. 16, 351.
Witness Adams on the breadth of the Middle Ages, as compared against his own utilitarian time: “A Church which embraced, with equal sympathy, and within a hundred years, the Virgin, Saint Bernard, William of Champeaux and the School of Saint Victor . . . , Saint Thomas Aquinas, and Saint Bonaventure, was more liberal than any modern State can afford to be . . . Such elasticity long ago vanished from human thought.” From
Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres
(New York: Mentor, 1961), ch. 16, 351.
13
In
The Outline of Sanity
(New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1927), Chesterton called himself a capitalist, for the simple reason that he wanted everybody to enjoy capital. He distrusted both the capitalists who were constantly pleading that they could not pay higher wages because they were on the brink of bankruptcy, and the socialists whose answer to the inequality is a controlled state that everybody detests equally.
In
The Outline of Sanity
(New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1927), Chesterton called himself a capitalist, for the simple reason that he wanted everybody to enjoy capital. He distrusted both the capitalists who were constantly pleading that they could not pay higher wages because they were on the brink of bankruptcy, and the socialists whose answer to the inequality is a controlled state that everybody detests equally.
14
See Ruskin,
Unto This Last
(1860).
See Ruskin,
Unto This Last
(1860).
15
See, for example,
The Wedding Sermon,
in
Mystical Poems of Nuptial Love,
ed. Terence L. Connolly, S. J. (Boston: Bruce Humphries, 1938).
See, for example,
The Wedding Sermon,
in
Mystical Poems of Nuptial Love,
ed. Terence L. Connolly, S. J. (Boston: Bruce Humphries, 1938).
16
Dostoyevsky,
The Idiot
(1869), part 4, ch. 7.
Dostoyevsky,
The Idiot
(1869), part 4, ch. 7.
17
Dickens is a merciless critic of the Church in
A Child’s History of England;
his prejudices would remain with him to the end, in his incomplete novel of suppressed desire,
Edwin Drood,
set in a place called “Cloisterham.”
Dickens is a merciless critic of the Church in
A Child’s History of England;
his prejudices would remain with him to the end, in his incomplete novel of suppressed desire,
Edwin Drood,
set in a place called “Cloisterham.”
18
The Brothers Karamazov,
1.2.7.
The Brothers Karamazov,
1.2.7.
19
Ibid., 1.1.2.
Ibid., 1.1.2.
20
Ibid., 2.5.4.
Ibid., 2.5.4.
21
Ibid., 2.4.7.
Ibid., 2.4.7.
Chapter Nine
The Twentieth Century: A Century of Blood
1
See Tom Bethell’s account of Carson’s statistics-cooking, in
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science
(Washington, DC: Regnery, 2005).
See Tom Bethell’s account of Carson’s statistics-cooking, in
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science
(Washington, DC: Regnery, 2005).
2
See Anne Barbeau Gardiner’s devastating critique of Sanger’s blood-lust, in “Margaret Sanger’s Multifaceted Defense of Abortion and Infanticide,” in
Life and Learning XVI
(2006), 413–38.
See Anne Barbeau Gardiner’s devastating critique of Sanger’s blood-lust, in “Margaret Sanger’s Multifaceted Defense of Abortion and Infanticide,” in
Life and Learning XVI
(2006), 413–38.
3
Consider the bland self-satisfaction with which Dewey assumes that the school is a social controller, in place and time: “It is the business of the school environment to eliminate, so far as possible, the unworthy features of the existing environment from influence upon mental habitudes. It establishes a purified medium of action. Selection aims not only at simplifying but at weeding out what is undesirable. Every society gets encumbered with what is trivial, with dead wood from the past, and with what is positively perverse.” From
Democracy and Education
(New York: Macmillan, 1916), 2.4, “The School as a Special Environment.”
Consider the bland self-satisfaction with which Dewey assumes that the school is a social controller, in place and time: “It is the business of the school environment to eliminate, so far as possible, the unworthy features of the existing environment from influence upon mental habitudes. It establishes a purified medium of action. Selection aims not only at simplifying but at weeding out what is undesirable. Every society gets encumbered with what is trivial, with dead wood from the past, and with what is positively perverse.” From
Democracy and Education
(New York: Macmillan, 1916), 2.4, “The School as a Special Environment.”
4
The September 10, 1965, edition of
Life
foretold “superbabies with improved minds and bodies, and even a kind of immortality.”
The September 10, 1965, edition of
Life
foretold “superbabies with improved minds and bodies, and even a kind of immortality.”
5
Typical of the caution and moderation of most of the documents of Vatican II is the one that shook the Church most thoroughly,
Sacrosanctum Concilium
. So we read therein that Gregorian chant “should be given pride of place in liturgical services” (116). In D
ignitatis Humanae
, liberals say, the Church finally caught up with the idea of religious freedom. Actually, the Church was calling the world, especially the communist world, to return to sanity: “Every family . . . is a society with its own rights . . . The civil authority must therefore recognize the right of parents to choose with genuine freedom schools or other means of education” (1.5). See
Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents
, ed. Austin Flannery, O. P. (Northport, NY: Costello, 1975).
Typical of the caution and moderation of most of the documents of Vatican II is the one that shook the Church most thoroughly,
Sacrosanctum Concilium
. So we read therein that Gregorian chant “should be given pride of place in liturgical services” (116). In D
ignitatis Humanae
, liberals say, the Church finally caught up with the idea of religious freedom. Actually, the Church was calling the world, especially the communist world, to return to sanity: “Every family . . . is a society with its own rights . . . The civil authority must therefore recognize the right of parents to choose with genuine freedom schools or other means of education” (1.5). See
Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents
, ed. Austin Flannery, O. P. (Northport, NY: Costello, 1975).
6
Friedrich von Hayek,
The Road to Serfdom
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944).
Friedrich von Hayek,
The Road to Serfdom
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944).
7
Wendell Berry,
Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community: Eight Essays
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1993).
Wendell Berry,
Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community: Eight Essays
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1993).
8
The attribution of the saying to Lenin is ubiquitous. For its effects upon a real political thinker and a genuine human being, Vaclav Havel, see Robert Pirro, “Vaclav Havel and the Political Uses of Tragedy,” in
Political Theory
(April, 2002), 246.
The attribution of the saying to Lenin is ubiquitous. For its effects upon a real political thinker and a genuine human being, Vaclav Havel, see Robert Pirro, “Vaclav Havel and the Political Uses of Tragedy,” in
Political Theory
(April, 2002), 246.
9
See Sally J. Taylor,
Stalin’s Apologist: Walter Duranty: The New York Times’ Man in Moscow
(New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).
See Sally J. Taylor,
Stalin’s Apologist: Walter Duranty: The New York Times’ Man in Moscow
(New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).
10
See Michael J. Arlen,
Passage to Ararat
(New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1975).
See Michael J. Arlen,
Passage to Ararat
(New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1975).
11
Wilson’s preference for the parliamentary system can be seen, for example, in his essay
The English Constitution
(1890–1891). See
Woodrow Wilson: Essential Writings and Speeches of the Scholar-President,
ed. Mario R. DiNunzio (New York and London: New York University Press), 282–296.
Wilson’s preference for the parliamentary system can be seen, for example, in his essay
The English Constitution
(1890–1891). See
Woodrow Wilson: Essential Writings and Speeches of the Scholar-President,
ed. Mario R. DiNunzio (New York and London: New York University Press), 282–296.
12
For example: “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” (Margaret Sanger to Clarence Gamble, October 19, 1939, quoted in Linda Gordon,
Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: Birth Control in America
, 2nd edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1990), 332–33.
For example: “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” (Margaret Sanger to Clarence Gamble, October 19, 1939, quoted in Linda Gordon,
Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: Birth Control in America
, 2nd edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1990), 332–33.
13
For Kinsey as a combination of folk-hero and liberator, see the biography written by his old colleague, Wardell B. Pomeroy,
Dr. Kinsey and the Institute for Sex Research
(New York: Harper and Row, 1972).
For Kinsey as a combination of folk-hero and liberator, see the biography written by his old colleague, Wardell B. Pomeroy,
Dr. Kinsey and the Institute for Sex Research
(New York: Harper and Row, 1972).
14
The case was
Grove City College v. Bell
, 465 US (55), 1984.
The case was
Grove City College v. Bell
, 465 US (55), 1984.
15
See Eliot,
Notes Toward the Definition of a Culture
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949).
See Eliot,
Notes Toward the Definition of a Culture
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949).
16
Muggeridge,
Something Beautiful for God: Mother Teresa of Calcutta
(Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books, 1977).
Muggeridge,
Something Beautiful for God: Mother Teresa of Calcutta
(Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books, 1977).
17
The great exposé of Kinsey is Judith A. Reisman’s
Kinsey, Sex, and Fraud: The Indoctrination of a People
(Lafayette, LA: Lochinvar-Hunting-ton House, 1990).
The great exposé of Kinsey is Judith A. Reisman’s
Kinsey, Sex, and Fraud: The Indoctrination of a People
(Lafayette, LA: Lochinvar-Hunting-ton House, 1990).
18
Margaret Mead,
Coming of Age in Samoa
(New York: W. Morrow and Co., 1928).
Margaret Mead,
Coming of Age in Samoa
(New York: W. Morrow and Co., 1928).
19
For a brief account of Goedel’s religious views, see John W. Dawson, Jr.,
Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Goedel
(Wellesley, MA: AK Peters, 1997), 210–12. Goedel believed that the principles of his Incompleteness Theorem could be used to formalize the famous Ontological Argument of Saint Anselm, proving the existence of God.
For a brief account of Goedel’s religious views, see John W. Dawson, Jr.,
Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Goedel
(Wellesley, MA: AK Peters, 1997), 210–12. Goedel believed that the principles of his Incompleteness Theorem could be used to formalize the famous Ontological Argument of Saint Anselm, proving the existence of God.
20
The river had actually been plagued by fires since 1936. The notorious fire on June 22, 1969 may not even have been the worst.
The river had actually been plagued by fires since 1936. The notorious fire on June 22, 1969 may not even have been the worst.
21
Chesterton has some fun at the expense of the utopian visions of his friend Wells; see
Heretics
(Thirsk: House of Stratus, 2001), ch. 5, 26–35.
Chesterton has some fun at the expense of the utopian visions of his friend Wells; see
Heretics
(Thirsk: House of Stratus, 2001), ch. 5, 26–35.
22
A. J. Ayer,
Language, Truth, and Logic
(New York: Dover, 1952).
A. J. Ayer,
Language, Truth, and Logic
(New York: Dover, 1952).
23
The Pruitt-Igoe complex was heralded as a leap forward in urban renewal. Construction began in 1951; demolition began on March 16, 1972.
The Pruitt-Igoe complex was heralded as a leap forward in urban renewal. Construction began in 1951; demolition began on March 16, 1972.
24
See Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee,
Inherit the Wind
(New York: Bantam, 1955), 114
See Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee,
Inherit the Wind
(New York: Bantam, 1955), 114
25
Dave Kopel and Michael Tanner, “Welfare Reform: Next Steps for Colorado,” Independence Institute, January 14, 1997.
Dave Kopel and Michael Tanner, “Welfare Reform: Next Steps for Colorado,” Independence Institute, January 14, 1997.
26
See, for example, the “Allocution of Pope Pius XII to the Congress of the International Union of Catholic Women’s Leagues,” Rome, Italy, September 11, 1947.
See, for example, the “Allocution of Pope Pius XII to the Congress of the International Union of Catholic Women’s Leagues,” Rome, Italy, September 11, 1947.
27
See his essay, “The Home of a Man,” in
What’s Wrong With the World
(1910).
See his essay, “The Home of a Man,” in
What’s Wrong With the World
(1910).
28
See the work of Allan Carlson of the Howard Center, “The De-Institutionalization of Marriage: The Case of Sweden,” in
The Family in America,
vol. 20 (2–3), February–March, 2006.
See the work of Allan Carlson of the Howard Center, “The De-Institutionalization of Marriage: The Case of Sweden,” in
The Family in America,
vol. 20 (2–3), February–March, 2006.
29
E. F. Schumacher,
Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
(New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1975).
E. F. Schumacher,
Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
(New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1975).
30
Romano Guardini,
The End of the Modern World: A Search for Orientation,
tr. Joseph Theman and Herbert Burke; ed. Frederick Wilhelmsen (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1956).
Romano Guardini,
The End of the Modern World: A Search for Orientation,
tr. Joseph Theman and Herbert Burke; ed. Frederick Wilhelmsen (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1956).
31
Joseph Pieper,
Leisure: The Basis of Culture,
tr. Alexander Dru (New York: Pantheon, 1952).
Joseph Pieper,
Leisure: The Basis of Culture,
tr. Alexander Dru (New York: Pantheon, 1952).
32
See John Paul II,
The Theology of the Body according to John Paul II: Human Love in the Divine Plan
(Boston: Pauline Books, 1997).
See John Paul II,
The Theology of the Body according to John Paul II: Human Love in the Divine Plan
(Boston: Pauline Books, 1997).
INDEX
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