Apothegms and Observations XLII

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  1. Two things that are always contagious: hatred and fear. We need a strong immune system.
  2. I must confess that there are times that I have a vision of all the institutions and peoples of the world working together in dysfunction, accidentally perpetuating an endless cycle of fear, disgust, outrage, violence, selfishness, folly, narcissism, and vapid vanity, and I can feel no hope for peace and joy, only a black desire to be left alone.
  3. Is there a solution to prejudice? Perhaps Excellence is a solution, or at least the backbone of one.
  4. Phrases like “Women’s rights are human rights” and “Gay rights are human rights” are a movement from identity politics to universal politics.
  5. Good politics makes tribalism harder to enact. Bad politics makes tribalism psychologically inevitable.
  6. It seems to me that we humans tend to desire power more than we desire justice.
  7. Identity politics can accomplish and has accomplished great good by mobilizing and empowering an oppressed group. The problem is that oppressed groups are not the only ones who can practice identity politics.
  8. I have lately come to lament the ubiquity of “There is no in-between” jokes. They are a symbol of our politics, and remind me of polarization. But, I am probably making something of nothing.
  9. Nina Simone’s version must be the greatest and most poignant and heartache-filled break up song ever recorded. It simply must be.
  10. It is rather difficult for me to know what to do when someone I love informs me that they do not and will not vaccinate their children. Shall I attempt to persuade? Shall I weep for the human race? Shall I ask probing questions as to their reasoning? Shall I say nothing? Shall I rage endlessly?
  11. It is important to neglect neither the study of the Soviet Union nor the Third Reich.
  12. Of the blaming of others for past atrocities there is no end. In all of our veins flows the blood of both victims and perpetrators of genocide.
  13. The road towards peace is built from the dual bricks of justice and forgiveness.
  14. We were not given a fearful spirit. We were given the Spirit of the Lion of Judah!
  15. Who says otherwise? Women always have been and always will be strong.
  16. What does a libertarian do with the concept of population immunity and its dependence on ubiquitous compliance to vaccinations?
  17. It is far more human to be a contemporary pagan enacting knowingly meaningless moon festivals filled with vague, body-oriented spirituality than it is to be a physicist in the laboratory meticulously studying particle interactions that are as small as the universe is large.
  18. The wise Dr. Mark Van Swol once quipped, “Before penicillin, medicine had a net negative effect on the world’s health.”
  19. It was once literally true that laughter was the best medicine.
  20. From what I understand, the difficulty of Keynesian economics is that once governments begin spending money on a project, it is virtually impossible for them to stop.
  21. Humanity will continually develop new means of utterly destroying itself, and will either learn to not use these means, or be destroyed. It is a common observation. Last time, humanity avoided destroying itself by only the absolutely slimmest margins imaginable. Now, we are in the midst of another decision. And we can see a potential other on the horizon.
  22. It is always easier to talk than it is to do.
  23. Why in the world am I writing these silly apothegms instead of serving the poor?
  24. Wisdom is not at a loss when the truth is unclear. Wisdom is able to act within ambiguity.
  25. I praise you, Christ the King, that you did not found your religion on secret knowledge!
  26. There are two things for our politics always to defy: a tyrant and an evil.
  27. To tyrants we shall give defiance! And become not tyrants in the effort!
  28. What gives a thirst, an excitement for life, love, God, and Creation? Surely these things are good.
  29. It is very hard to form a just society. So hard, in fact, that it has never been done.
  30. Who ever said that their nation is sinless? Let that person’s ideas be scorned. Who ever said that patriotism is ignorance? Let that person’s opinion be cast out.
  31. It is hard to learn to love the sinful.

3 thoughts on “Apothegms and Observations XLII”

    1. I totally agree! It is absolutely a common good project, which we should all be contributing to. However these are the key differences between achieving population immunity and building a road that I was thinking of, just to round out the apothegm and engage with you on a good comment.

      1) An individual citizen has nothing to do with building the roads except for paying his taxes. For population immunity, the individual citizen has to go out and seek a clinic that does work on their body. Thus, to enforce the two projects would be vastly different levels of infringing on freedom. 2) Refusing to participate in building the roads is not a public health risk. So even though the building of the roads is enforced (because taxes are enforced), you could argue that the government has more right to enforce vaccines than roads. And 3) a road could be built if only some of the population decides to pay their taxes. On the contrary, to achieve population immunity, you need nearly everyone complying.

      So, we are left with a thing that is important because it is a health risk, but to enforce it would mean compelling every individual to undergo an injection. This is a difficult and real tension. The libertarian ethic is generally to allow people to do whatever they want, which is often a helpful perspective. But there are times where it should probably be qualified with, “Yes but you really should go out and get your stupid vaccination because if even just a few people are like you everyone suffers and BTW you might accidentally be causing infants to die by spreading the flu further, but yes you are right you are legally allowed to not get one, at least until everyone gets so fed up with your asinine behavior that they force you to get one, and then you will not be happy because you didn’t just do the right thing in first place like the rest of us instead of demanding to have your legal rights respected while ignoring your moral responsibility.”

      Then again, I always seem to forget to get my vaccine, so….

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