Has Rod Dreher dumped his Apple products yet? Why not?
In a recent Washington Post editorial, Apple CEO Tim Cook claimed Indiana's recent RFRA law says
"...individuals can cite their personal religious beliefs to refuse service to a customer or resist a state nondiscrimination law..."
False. A lie. But a high profile lie then used to inflict painful and costly boycotts on Indiana individuals and businesses.
Make no mistake, Rod Dreher is shaking the collection tambourine to high Heaven outside the seal tent, trying make a fast buck on Indiana's troubles here, here, here, and here, troubles massively compounded and accelerated by Tim Cook's high profile lies.
And maybe Dreher is also suffering along with Indiana by working up to seven hours a day blogging, the brutal Victorian labor burden that finally did in his role model, Andrew Sullivan.
Except, of course, when that mono and other stress Dante didn't save him from kicks back in - see, Dante saved him from that other mono and stress, not this current mono and stress - and all he can manage is maybe a couple hours a day between naps and delicious meals.
Even so, though, if Dreher has any genuine interest in anybody's religious freedom, why is Dreher still buying and using lying homosexual Tim Cook's expensive Apple products, products whose purchase drove Apple not long ago to replace AT&T on the Dow and will shortly make it the first trillion dollar company in history?
Dreher's laptop. His wife's laptop. Their kids' laptops. Their Apple TV streaming service. Their iPhones. Their kids' iPhones. Their Apple Store service. Any of it. All of it.
Because the religious freedom problems of Indiana and everyone else are for them to suffer and for Dreher to make money from without the slightest inconvenience to his own swinish material or moral sloth.
It will not surprise readers here to learn that I (do not impute this to other writers here) find the following quote a useful, if not strictly Christian parable:
Malone: You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.
When Tim Cook pulls a knife, though, does Dreher even just pull an equivalent knife and inconvenience himself by boycotting Cook's pricy products and depriving Cook of their revenue? Nope.
Does he pull a gun? Heavens, nope.
Does he pull out a recipe and whip up a fabulous chocolate mousse cheesecake for Cook? Nopey-nope.
Well, what, then, does he pull?
Well... here's a hint.
Because surely at the bottom of all this inconvenience and loss Indiana and others must suffer from Tim Cook for Dreher's religious freedom there will be another, heart-rending book to be written. About Rod Dreher's suffering.
[Update: I edited this a tad. -Pauli]
What a wonderful, insightful, and humble essay! Now I am even more excited to read your forthcoming book!
ReplyDeleteWait. I was supposed to post this on Rod's blog.
Alison, you made me laugh.
DeleteOn cue, he says he plans to start work on the BO book before it's too late. No doubt it will be written using a Mac, as you point out. Wonder if any of his fanbase will call him on it?
ReplyDeleteIf Rod Dreher were not such a consistent textbook of the many different ways to exploit religion for personal gain he would obviously not be the perennially useful teaching tool he is. One of the fundamental lessons is that he doesn't really have to have any personal interest in Christianity or the interests of its believers himself in order to convert it into a writer's subject matter, he needs only to remain "embedded" with it, so to speak, or, in earlier newspaper slang, to stick to the religious "beat".
DeleteThat there will always be a dependable number of people unwilling to engage with their religion and its issues directly but who instead have a psychological need for an intermediating religious "helper friend" - not a priest or a pastor but a psychological prosthesis - goes a long way toward explaining why Dreher ditched politics with its uncomfortable gauntlet of reasoned arguments to take up the religious beat instead, where he could become some sort of celebrity amalgam of Moses, Jesus and the needy follower's favorite rock star, but in a way that left the needy follower with the impression they were engaged in something spiritual rather than merely engaging the services of the spiritually dressed prostitute, a creature for attention-hire who will tart up for the client's need of the moment whatever it happens to be, this anxiety of the day, that RFRA outrage, etc.
Obviously the Indiana RFRA incident struck him tantalizingly as H-Hour for the Benedict Option book, hence the Napoleanic syntax
It is time to write the Benedict Option book, so orthodox Christians and other religious dissenters will have a framework for thinking about how to live in post-Christian America. I am putting together a proposal now.
as he stands with one foot elevated for photographers, hand inside waistcoat, preparing to invade Russia. Best of luck, little dude.
Here's what I don't get. Dante cured Rod's mono, right? And Rod writes a book, saying that Dante could cure your mono, too, or whatever else ails ya.
ReplyDeleteOkay. Fine.
But Rod is basically holding himself up as the proof of what Dante (or the Benedict Option, or exploiting a dead sister, etc.) can do for you. He's basically saying "look what Dante did for me - he can do the same for you! You can be like me!"
Here's my question - would anyone, ANYONE on the face of the planet, living or dead, animal, vegetable or mineral, say to themselves "I want to be like Rod Dreher!" After all the bitterness, the manipulation, the hysteria, the spite, the everything... who would possible look at that and say "yeah, I want some of what he's having"?
This!!
DeleteAnon, you sure write well. Do you blog, perchance?
If you're willing to compromise universal constitutional liberties in exchange for the hope that somewhere, someone might take care of you so you don't have to do it yourself...you might be Rod Dreher.
DeleteKeith. Nice editing! The only thing I would change is having him read Das Kapital or The Little Red Book. Jonathan Carpenter
ReplyDeleteSorry, I can't take any credit for the editing. Pauli finessed it.
Delete