Dear visionaries, Steven, thanks for the interaction. I don’t have any problem agreeing with you that in looking for the motive forces for the colonialism of the British Empire, and now the emerging American Empire, one of the central things we should do is follow the money. My point was not that (for example) the …
Not So Simple
Visionaries, and Judith, Thanks for the interaction. Wouldn’t we all agree that some of the patronizing attitudes of the past (of the “white man’s burden” sort) could be motivated entirely by kindness, but that the person extending that kindness had the racist view that his own race was necessarily superior to the other? Thus, benevolent …
Racism Inflation
Dear visionaries, In our discussions, we have to beware of racism inflation. In contemporary public discourse, such charges are too readily leveled as the all-purpose trump card. Why don’t we agree to reserve it for those who believe and affirm that one race is (racially) superior to another? With this more precise definition, it would …
Audio Reading of Post
Ministerial Self-Defense
Morning, everybody. Tim Bartnick asks two reasonable questions. The first is that if folks locally can discount what Johnson says and does, then why do we need to defend ourselves against him? First, the answer is that we do not have to. The point was not to defend against Johnson’s charges, but rather to point …
Explaining the Joke
Dear visionaries, First, lest there be any more misunderstanding, I will do my level best to have this post be simple and straight, no goofing around. Humor works by means of startling incongruity (although there are mysteries beyond even this). Thus, when I and Christ Church were accused of racism, I undertook to defend our …
Green Jello
Morning, visionaries, We have to be careful lest a love-fest break out here, but I would like to thank Angie for coveting my tag line, and for saying publicly that in her view I am not an anti-Semite. She says also that if I were to display any of those tendencies she would hop on …
Curricular Development
Visionaries, Secular fundamentalists like Duane really crack me up. Evil? What’s that? And when Duane accused me of anti-Semitism, I confessed to you all earlier that I was nonplussed. I was like a congressman who had found a copy of the Constitution. I honestly did not know what he was talking about. But when I …
Poking Fun
Dear visionaries, My faults are many and grievous. But I am not guilty of all vices, and one of the places where I do just fine is in not taking offense when someone “pokes fun.” If you stick your head through the canvas in the booth at the county fair, you can’t act surprised when …
June Bugs Into Sea Lions
Dear visionaries, It really is good to hear from Susannah from time to time, because it inspires me to write. But she might want to remember the comment of P. G. Wodehouse concerning folks like me. Some minds are like the soup in a poor restaurant — better left unstirred. She says, for example, that …
Cruel, Not Cowardly
Visionaries, I am sure that part of this is an ethos problem. If I said it, it must be outlandish and subversive of the republic. But nobody in this quarter said anything about medals for bravery or heroism. I believe that men such as this are wicked, and those who do not die in their …