An' da winna is....
"Americans love a winner...." Didn't some "big guy general" state this once? Well, I'm an American, even though I had some Hun bastards for ancestors, and every time I read a blog comment box, I look for a winning comment. It could be one that is particularly funny or insightful, but in any event it seems to scatter the other comments like pigeons in the park. So I declare who, me? the "winna" of the combox for this post. Here's his/her post:
Please forgive me for not being able to read the whole disagreeable comment thread.
Speaking as someone who considered professional involvement in this field of environmental psychology, and in whose bay-windowed parlor a tattered volume of "The Timeless Way of Building" holds pride of place:
Horse-puckery.
This stuff strikes a nostalgic blind spot in so many educated, relatively-well-off, feeling-types whose longing for "something" translates as high-toned Disney country, that some of you want to baptize it, and thus require it (at least morally) of your fellow man.
Bad idea. It's a narrow line to walk, but putting aesthetics over simplicity and practicality is like Gaia worship with a little more historical intelligence.
IMO "the mingling of children and adults throughout the city, including in places of work" reflects one of the covert dissolvers of civility, the loss of boundary between public and private, between the adult world and an infantilized playground for children (who, I might add, with their parents in European cafes are not the conversational center, as they are in the US). Yet another solution to make the problem worse. Yeah, I'll settle down next to Rob's desk with my loud brood...
Beauty has always served holiness. But keep the priorities straight. One's confessor is a good starting point.
I agree heartily with this post, except I think the person meant "horse puckey" rather than puckery.
I think they meant horse puckery.
ReplyDeletei guess this is the perfect opportunity to re-post the comment dreher stated was "perfectly appropriate" until he found out it was MEEEE, MEEEE I TELL YOU, AND MY HOUNDS OF HELLLLLLL, who posted it. what a *total* nimrod.
ReplyDelete(and now i shall call benedict "nim". or maybe "rod of the nim")
anyway, ahem, as i was saying, that comment is as fine a summation of crunchy conservatism as i've seen, especially
"This stuff strikes a nostalgic blind spot in so many educated, relatively-well-off, feeling-types whose longing for "something" translates as high-toned Disney country, that some of you want to baptize, and thus require it (at least morally) of your fellow man."
I agree with it and disagree with it.
ReplyDeleteThe assessment rings very true, but I'll admit it is a broad-brush summary. I wouldn't stain everybody possessing the "crunchy sensibility" with it, least of all C. Mystic; many deserve it, however IMO. I think that it's all well and good to desire small shops rather than big malls, or whatever, but it shouldn't be absolutized, and that seems to be a powerful tendency, esp. among some of the angry revolutionary crunchies.
ReplyDeleteCubeland, go ahead and clarify what you mean by agree/disagree.
Kathleen, do you really think Rod is a "mighty hunter"?
yeah if he's hunting for a good wine merchant or parmigiano reggiano.
ReplyDeleteI agree that nostalgia is bad. It is patently absurd to think that somehow the quality of life was better a hundred years ago. The moral codification of these sensibilities invites trouble and is wrong. It’s better to just leave harmless people alone and let them do what they want as long as it is harmless. If Ccism would ever pick up steam, and some real zealots were in control of the movement there would be a counter insurgency. When you see it stepping over the boundary from theology to theocracy it becomes problematic.
ReplyDeleteI disagree because IMO there is a problem with the way we lay out cities (at least in the west) and there is little that is on human scale. It’s all cars, tract homes, and strip malls. It’s ugly. My friend moved out to this development 30 miles from here, and it’s all these huge houses stuck on these little tiny lots all crammed together. Frankly it looks stupid seeing 3500+ sqft homes on these postage stamp lots. Everything looks the same. He’s got a big house and they drive constantly to do anything. I have to be honest I am so bored with our popular culture that there is nothing in it that interests me anymore. If anyone of you can answer the question “What do you want to do tonight?” I would appreciate it, because I am burnt out on it.
Generally speaking, there are two different manifestations of Christian spirituality. There is Martha spirituality and there is Mary spiritually. You guys seem to be a pack of Marthas. Except that Pauli is a Nancy. I was a Martha but now I am turning into a Mary. I think most crunchy types are Marys. They have to be adoring something. Marthas have to be doing something. It’s a generalization, but there is some truth in it. I think this is why you clash with Rod. He’s a Mary, and he can’t understand why you don’t just get it. And you guys are Marthas thinking the same thing except citing a bunch of logic. This last exchange with Bubba, was a real good example of the clash. Why did he insert his bad Martha self into a Mary conversation? The same goes for the CC’s why do they insert their limp wristed Mary selves into discussions about politics, economics, and foreign policy. If you are a Mary and can handle one of these, then you can talk about the more masculine issues with authority.
Sorry for the long comment, but have some time this week. I’ll close now before you ban me. If I were given a choice to live in Rodlandia or Bubbylvania, I would probably pick Bubbylvania for a primary residence and do my banking. However I would have a summer home in Rodlandia, plus spend my weekends and holidays there during the winter.
Hmmh. Road apples?
ReplyDeleteAssuming we're talking about Wholesome Crunchiness here, well, I can only mention the conclusion I've come to after reading Mr. Dreher's Crunchy Con for some time now:
It's more like a meringue pie, except it has no filling beneath the meringue.
Crunchy-Conism is like a big dollop of intellectual meringue: it's sweet, it looks like it keeps some kind of form, but it ends up melting into a puddle of goo when stirred up a bit.
I have nothing against meringue. It's okay in its place.
i think the difference between you and (nim)rod, cube, is that nimrod would bulldoze bubbylvania if he were dictator. or if not bulldoze it, cast aspersions on its residents, look down his nose at it, and otherwise separate himself from it to cultivate his own sense of snobbery and moral superiority. (as he has done, repeatedly)
ReplyDeletethe most integrated among us -- like yourself -- have both a martha and mary aspect, and cultivate both for their different strengths.
Excellent post, Cube. Very insightful.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if calling Cardinal Mahony a "big fat liar" is a Martha thing or a Mary thing.
Reflecting further, I'm not sure the Mary/Martha split fits. A question I'd ask is "are crunchy people pursuing the 'one thing necessary' or do they have a multitude of concerns?" I think pondering this question might put even Bubba on the "Mary" side of Rod.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest that this entire discussion is taking place in the district of "Martha". If Mary/Martha is analogous to internal/external or contemplative/active, that is.
Pauli
ReplyDeleteSorry you guys cannot be marys in this context. You all logificate too much.
I see liturgical cities as a means to an end, not the end. Maybe a lot of crunchies do, I don't. Also, I make that choice intuitively. I say that this place should be beautiful to help the virtuous and the not so virtuous convert deeply. To build that more intense relationship with God, or if they are not believers to foster a deeper sense of inner peace. I think that is what the beauty does, and I think that is why it can be, in some cases, a sacramental. For that reason I will try to find or create beauty whenever I can.
My intuition tells me this, and I cannot point to any justificatory evidence.