tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-259125482024-03-13T21:27:58.389-05:00I miss WinterRaised in the Great White North and now languishing in floridaJohanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-67169027022444588692017-01-29T16:10:00.002-05:002017-01-29T16:14:04.989-05:00Against a Compassionate State<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
There are three great institutions in the world that God has
put here for our good: The Family, the State and the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They each have their job in the world, and
when confined to their job, make the world less than the hellhole it ought to
be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But two of these, the family and the
state, can only restrain evil, they can’t overcome it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family does this through discipline and
teaching and basically instilling Proverbs into their life together to form “good”
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The state does this by
threatening the sword against those inside that step outside the law inside the
state and protecting against those outside the state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is over simplified, but it is generally true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What neither of these two institutions can do
is save you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can’t overcome your
sin and remake you in the mold of Christ your Savior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The best they do is keep you from being as
bad as you can be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Church on the other hand can save you and remake you and
make you better than you are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reason
it can is because Christ lives in Her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She is His New Creation, His body and His Temple Building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the place where all His accomplished
work is applied to believers and the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He has promised to use His Church to bring His Compassion and Work to
the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has made no Promise like
that for the state.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The State isn’t built for compassion, because that isn’t how
God spreads it abroad in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
can try, and, all things being equal, I would like to live in one that tries
than one that doesn’t, but it is bad at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I read one post today about how compassionate the government workers
were, but then said that the poster had heard that things had improved since
computers had been brought in to help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How bad are you at compassioning, that a computer actually improves your
human compassion?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So many are confusing the job of Christians as voters with
Christians as soldiers of the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One article even goes so far as to proclaim the failure of American
Christianity because they voted for Trump, and Trump isn’t a compassionate
guy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(It ignores, needless to say
because we have already forgotten it, was that the option given to Christians
was a guy that was apathetic towards the church against a person who had shown
every indication of being hostile to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I don’t say this to justify their vote, I voted for neither because both
were grossly unqualified to head a government, but to remind you of the
choice).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The church hasn’t failed, there
are 100’s of millions of dollars spent by the Church in areas that have intense
human suffering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lack of Christian
help in Syria, it should be remembered, is because a large portion of the
Christian populations, missionaries and indigenous, have been slaughtered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there are still Christians that want to
and try to go there to help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is
their job, and the Church is the only entity that can actually accomplish what
needs to be done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Government can only bring the sword into play; it is its
only tool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While it is great for certain
jobs, it isn’t suited cutting bread and saving souls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of the compassion that governments can
bring to these people is to either bring them under its own sword here at home,
or destroy their enemies abroad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While
these can be good things, they aren’t compassion, and are poor counterfeits for
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you think that we as Christians have failed is because the
government acts in basically the same way without nice words, you are
wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Church is still at work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And for those that I know that are now criticizing
the Church for its votes, while not being part of the Church; if you criticize
Christians that promote biblical morality in their churches, for not forcing
others to recognize it through government action, while condemning those same
people for trying to do the on a different moral question, I don’t want to hear
your critiques, and you shouldn’t make them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That goes doubly if you ignore clear teaching of the scriptures in your
own life while foisting your idea of what the Bible esoterically teaches (or
not) on the Church.</div>
Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-91864663301278401932013-08-10T16:30:00.000-05:002013-08-10T16:30:23.777-05:00Millennials and Church<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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There have been a spate of articles telling us why Millennials
are leaving the church that have gone around lately, I just read two of them, and
I want to write about why I think they are leaving the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of what I say will overlap, but a good
portion is a perspective that I haven’t read, or even seen thought about. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The problem is generational.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That doesn’t mean what you might think; I’m not talking about a
generation gap, or the shiftiness of “cool”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What I mean is that for a century and a quarter we have been allowing
each generation define what is important about church.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the 1970’s Evangelicals made a choice to come together as
a super-denomination, and call themselves non-denominational.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As part of this coming together we jettisoned
a large amount of historic Christian theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well because you have
trouble when educated Presbyterians and educated Baptists come to the church
together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What they offered instead was the “experience of
Christ”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this was a success, as a
good portion of changes are, for the first generation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were actually able to have a fuller
Christian life I might even admit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
it was because they had both things: Theology (which they knew but generally
ignored) and Experience.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When they had children, my generation, we were raised on “Experience
of Christ” with little or no theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our church was the youth group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We were carefully put in an experienced based situation instead of
church, where all the boring stuff happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And as we grew up there, we made great friends and hung out a lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My generation suffered the beginning of the
cultural disintegration that began after the Cold War, and so we found solace in
our youth groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So when we came to
define church, since we didn’t have theology to bind us, we reject our parent’s
definition of church based on individual experience and went for a “communal
experience of Christ”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of us Gen X’ers should remember how the church changed
for us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our parents looked at church as
a place to go for teaching and feeding, assuming that they could still learn from
the Word, because they had a foundation of theology and an understanding that there
was something special in the preached word by a called servant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But for us, we were there for the communal
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We came together as a group
to experience something at the same time, something that would define us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it had to be an experience, loud, well
scripted, impactful and special.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we
made church based on preferred experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Anyone over 35, think back, there is a good chance you can remember this
sea change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So the good churches got very good at this “communal
experience”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they were able to put
on a good show every week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what
drove us together, the fracturing culture, drives them elsewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We needed church as a touchstone, but they
don’t, they have their groups outside of church, in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For any little interest, there is a group you
can find on reddit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don’t need
church for the communal experience. What you want is an “authentic experience”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Church that is slick doesn’t work, because
they see things slicker than church every time they grab their phone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Community doesn’t work because they have a
more specific one on the computer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What do they need the church for?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to them, they need it for
authenticity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ask what that means and
they have no idea, but it’s what they want.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Authenticity is defined negatively most of the time, here is
a stab at it from an article running around:</div>
<div style="margin-left: .5in;">
What millennials really want from the church is not
a change in style but a change in substance.</div>
<div style="margin-left: .5in;">
We want an end to the culture wars. We want a truce
between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what
we are against.</div>
<div style="margin-left: .5in;">
We want to ask questions that don’t have
predetermined answers.</div>
<div style="margin-left: .5in;">
We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to
the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single
nation.</div>
<div style="margin-left: .5in;">
We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in
our faith communities.</div>
<div style="margin-left: .5in;">
We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness,
not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring
for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care
and becoming peacemakers.</div>
<div style="margin-left: .5in;">
You can’t hand us a latte and then go about
business as usual and expect us to stick around. We’re not leaving the church
because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because
we don’t find Jesus there.</div>
<div style="margin-left: .5in;">
Like every generation before ours and every
generation after, deep down, we long for Jesus. (Rachel Held Evans “<a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/27/why-millennials-are-leaving-the-church/" target="_blank">WhyMillennials are Leaving the Church</a>”)</div>
<div style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
My favorite one, in a list of everything Millennials are against is “We want
to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against”, but that is logic,
not authenticity. The one that make me want to stab my eyes is “we’re leaving
the church because we don’t find Jesus there”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What do these all have in common?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are cultural hot buttons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
parents organized church around the Christian Experience, we organized it
around a Communal Experience, and our children want a Cultural experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
Does the Church teach about holy lives outside of sex?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every church I’ve been to has.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the culture attacks the church as sexually
repressive and obsessed, so our children believe it is true.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What about welcoming the LGBT?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well sure come on in, but recognize that you
are a sinner and you seem intent on defining yourself by your sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much in the same way as if a man cheating on
his wife required you welcome him to church and required that you look at his infidelity
and then if you mentioned the 7<sup>th</sup> commandment or any of the prophets
screamed that you hated him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Bible
is clear here, is there love for sinners?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yes, but for penitent sinners.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Most of the list would be fixed if a Millennial read
a single systematic theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they
would still run, because the culture is their theology and their experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Want to stop a Millennial exodus?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teach them that there is a reason for what we
do, and give them something to stand up to culture with.</span></div>
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<![endif]-->Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-72330949296208390852012-08-12T21:34:00.000-05:002012-08-12T21:34:05.549-05:00We Use Laws...or "Why I'm Not a Libertarian."
Wow this got long, sorry!
I have read Libertarian theory, I have read Libertarian economics, I have talked with Libertarians. I like the idea of Libertarianism, and for the most part it is very attractive to me. But there is a great amount of disconnect between the theory of Libertarianism and the people that would live under it.
First of all, most of those who call themselves libertarian, and can get past the drug haze to define it when asked, are good people. More than that, they are people with strong principles, and, often, well thought out views on ethics and morality. Giving them freedom would be great, because they are self-regulated people that do what they want anyway.
But the world isn’t made up of a majority of self-regulators, no matter how much Libertarians might extrapolate from themselves. Most people in the world are sheep, and they need direction. They have limited thoughts on morality, they can’t define right or wrong cogently in a given situation, and they are often confused. (And this isn’t elitism, I am a sheeple, I require and seek advice on almost everything from authority structures all around me. In no way take me as saying that I and a few like me are better than all of the Many Too Many. I admire the Libertarians that make their own ethics, knowing full well that I won’t and that I am far more like the rest of humanity than they are). Most people require short-cuts to help them find right and wrong, they don’t have time to research every option available to them to make a completely rational decision about what is right. The two biggest short-cuts available to people at large are their Law and their Culture.
So most people have a broad and indistinct idea of right and wrong that doesn’t come from themselves and this is what they use to muddle their way through their life. And it works for them because they are busy doing something else with their lives. (This brings up another observation, most of the hard-core libertarians I am acquainted with where students, academics or housewives. Nothing wrong with them, I have been one, would like to be another and am precluded by my ethics from becoming the third, but they all have more time on their hands for the research a true Libertarian life requires). So they rely on the framework of Law and Culture to make quick decisions that they don’t have time to look deeply into.
But Law and Culture tend to be inversely proportional, the more inclusive and strong the Culture, the fewer Laws are needed, the less inclusive and week the Culture, the more Laws that are needed. (Where the balance is, and when the laws become too numerous and invasive, that they become immoral is a discussion for a book not a post. I agree we are well past the line of necessary laws and are now into superfluous legislation. I don’t have space to talk about this subject). What has happened in the most populous places in America for the last 50 years has been an active attempt to undermine an inclusive American culture and build up niche cultures. This has made the need for new laws where culture once was sufficient. (The drug laws are a great example of this. As youth and youth culture have been strengthened since the ’60’s the external pressure on young idiots to listen to the wisdom of their elders has almost disappeared. One of the things that young people like is getting high, and so more and more the youth have assumed the normalcy and benignity of drug use. They also have no reason to listen to their elders’ advice, and so dangerous behavior becomes encouraged, not stigmatized. As an example of this: I teach at a very conservative Christian school, and the fact that I smoke tobacco and drink alcohol is more controversial than the fact that some of them smoke pot).
Culture is far better for these types of things, because it can be persuasive, rather than coercive (can be but often times isn’t) whereas government must be coercive by its nature. Be that as it may, where persuasion fails, coercion must be brought in, particularly when a sub-culture is perpetrating something the larger culture finds dangerous, but has been able to persuade the weakest from migrating to that behavior. I agree with Libertarians, that this is a failure, but it is a failure of humanity, not the systems, and the Law and Culture are there to try and ameliorate the crookedness of human timber. (Oops, I’m a Christian and I think Romans 13 and 1Timothy 2 prove that strong and coercive government is legitimate).
So finally the conclusion, I think the Law is important and necessary in human society. Most men are governed by outside forces, and a coercive government is legitimate in this. As a conservative, I like that government small at the federal level, and more specific as you get more and more local, but humanity needs government.Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-8989195674266108382011-11-24T16:21:00.001-05:002011-11-24T16:21:52.207-05:00The Christian Apologist’s Dilemma<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b>Science is a Christian pursuit. That is the truth of it, and the whole truth
of it. There is no other world view that
would allow for it to exist. The earliest
scientists were Christians. The most
influential scientists up to the 20<sup>th</sup> century were Christians. And even now Christians desire to be
scientists, and reject the secularist idea of science being anti-theistic. </div>
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<br /></div>
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But Christians now must fight against Science, and here is
the dilemma, must do so while upholding the validity of science. We must because when science is seen in the
right light, it gives us as much truth as humanity can gain (not very much by
the way), and it is a great tool that we Christians can use. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Thus we are hamstrung in ways that our opponents aren’t. They have no use for Christianity, and to
them, it is a lie that no one should even consider. And so they get to pull out all the
stops. There is no argument off limits
be they logical, philosophical or personal.
They get to use them against us and open up with both barrels. </div>
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<br /></div>
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This is the reason that in almost all arguments, Christians
seem over matched. We need to affirm
what is true about what our opponents believe and then try to attack it at the
same time. This leads to our usually
timidity in the arguments. And it leads
to the dilemma that we always meet in these fights, and our wishy-washy-ness. “It is true, but not true enough!”, we
protest, making us sound weak.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I propose we start looking at things from a holistic
stance. Here it is: If we argue against
the irrational, we attack their irrationality as fiercely as they attack the
Rational God. If they are rationalists,
we attack them as fiercely as they attack the incomprehensibility of God. If they are Scientists we attack science, and
we attack it like it isn’t true, like they attack our intangible God. If they are spiritualist, we attack their disembodied
Gnosticism the same way they attack the Physical Jesus.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We do this because what they believe isn’t true, that is the
trick. Science is only true when it is
brought into the right relationship with the Bible. When it is outside that right relationship,
it is a lie and smells of fire and brimstone.
So solve the dilemma, by denying that they have anything of worth to
say. Because they don’t.</div>Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-91984095997881861052011-07-08T17:34:00.000-05:002011-07-08T17:34:02.863-05:00Gaaaarrrrrrrrrrrr!Here is me being a bit angry.<br />
<br />
I just listened to a podcast in which a supposed "very smart" man spouted on for 45 minutes about elections and how people get elected. His basic thesis was that he had figured out how to elect people and no one else could understand it, and that way is to not be conservative in any real fashion, just be a RINO and you'll do fine. That was stupid and asinine and hard to listen to, but what really got my dander up was how he finished his screed. Basically he said that while he is a conservative, he is embarrassed by conservatives because they are anti-intellectual and rubes. His example: he has been in rooms where he, as a Darwinist, was in the minority and felt "uncomfortable" being there. Presumably the discomfort was came from the fact that he was smart, knew the truth but the idiots around him would lynch him and all his associates if they knew he ascribed to evolution.<br />
<br />
Now put aside the fact the worst he would have got was looks and shrugs from most of those there, and perhaps an explanation of creationism from the most zealous. The thing that has got me riled up, is that this man sat there for ¾ of an hour and spouted, uncritically, the conventional wisdom of “the smart class” verbatim. He gave me 45 minutes of proof of his arrogance and offered up as reason for his arrogance that he thinks the same way as all the good folk. <br />
<br />
What he is, in reality, is a smart man that has yet to show me he can think at all. I will put my arguments against anything science tells us up against his reasons for believing Darwin any time. Those reasons I suspect will boil down to this: at some time in the past someone he respected as smart made fun of creationists and so he decided evolution was the way to go. That is not smart, intellectual or even respectable, it is a sad man that is shaped by the fear of someone laughing at him. For this twit to make fun me and others like me for being dumb and anti-intellectual is beyond idiotic. <br />
<br />
So for him and all those out there, particularly any students in college that might read this, I give you a definition of smart: Despite what everyone will say, smart is not having a set of predetermined, acceptable beliefs that others approve of, that is programming. Smart is having beliefs that you hold deeply, based on your own research and work, and that will transcend the varying fashions of the echo chambers that decide the acceptable beliefs.Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-70964919519074414762011-06-14T13:35:00.001-05:002011-06-15T08:31:35.424-05:00There is No Gay 2+2=4One of the things that bothers me so much about the naked social engineering of the left it their blatant, Marxist skewing of history. We are told for example that before the 60’s women were poor miserable creatures in abject subjugation, only able to have freedom when their oppressors were passed out drunk after having beaten them and the poor children. That what we think of as a loving familial relationship today only existed in subversive households that fought against the norm.<br />
<br />
The norm, of course, must've been horrible, most men cared nothing for their wives, other than considering them servants that they could have babies with legally and with social acceptance. Any literature or movies or works of art or anything historical that challenged this, the portrayed pre-60s life much like the life that married people live now was adopted and redefined as subversive and proto-feminist. And what we have now is almost new men and new women, whose relationships bear no resemblance to the relationships that existed before third wave feminism.<br />
<br />
The reality of course is that nothing much has really changed inside marriage. You have to believe that men and women are completely different. That before feminism women couldn't make their husbands miserable, that they had no power in the relationship, and that all men were happy to dehumanize and objectify their wives and children. In fact you have to believe that human nature is clearly different now and changed almost overnight when the "Feminist Mystique" was written.<br />
<br />
This is all horse hockey, human nature hasn't changed; men have always been drawn to love their wives and society has always looked down on husbands that don't. Women have always had power, albeit hidden, over their men, even the Old Testament knew this: “It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman (Proverbs 21:19)”. Nothing has really changed, we just became arrogant, "chronologically arrogant" as C.S. Lewis called it, the idea that everyone that lived in a different time or situation than we do now must have been miserable and had no real chance at happiness. Pure stupidity!<br />
<br />
What has happened is that the 60s asinine belief that public life and private life must contain no dissimilarities or contradictions if there are, then there is self-evident hypocrisy. After this the 90s and their attempt to police thought enforce that all public opinions are the correct opinions by manipulating language and we end up in this idiotic social situation that we have today. Everything private must be open to the public, and we must all express the limited range of correct feelings about it.<br />
<br />
We believe that all groups that claim to be oppressed were always treated horribly in all situations and never had any sort of a normal life. The fact that maybe they had to hide their abnormality from the world in public meant that they were psychologically damaged. Or that someone might have made fun of them means that they never had a chance for happiness. The fact that some very funny things might've been said against their particular group meant that they can never have had friends. So all of these things must be regulated and stamped out and all unrelated things must be collapsed into this defining characteristic.<br />
<br />
Before the 60s there were gays, before the 60s people knew there were gays, before the 60s people knew other people who were gay and were fine with it. They understood that there were public things and private things, and it is possible to do a very wide range of public things that were unrelated to the societal abnormality. You could have a job as an accountant and be gay, those were separate things. You could be a good driver and be gay, those were separate things. <br />
<br />
Now however, they are all the same thing. Those with societal abnormalities (and we all have societal abnormalities) now wrap all of their lives around that abnormality. It used to be that an accountant was an accountant, and at home or outside of work you could be gay, hetero, metro, swinger or whatever. But now because we have no public/private divide, what you are at work is what you are at home and vice-versa (and your bosses know it and, so,invade deeper and deeper into your non-work time). So you used to be Jim the Accountant that worked in cubicle 8G. Now you are, and we are required to think of you as, Gay Jim the Gay Accountant that works in the gay cubicle 8G. Now I am Frank that works in cubicle 9G, and I am ambivalent about whom you have sex with. Use to be that was ok, but now I must think the right thoughts about you and they all have to be focused on your sexuality. I can’t say, “Good job on the TPS reports Jim.” It has to be, “Good gay job on the gay TPS reports Gay Jim (and that is great, gay means you’re edgier, and classier and richer and in all ways better than me. Gosh I wish I had enough money not spent on my kids to buy your expensive hair product).” But you want to know the difference between a gay TPS report and a non-gay TPS report? What about a gay job on them and just a job on them? Nothing, absolutely no fricking thing at all! What should be the difference between Jim and Gay Jim at the accounting office? Nothing!<br />
<br />
And so here is the point: I am sick and tired of being told that I have to care about something that shouldn’t affect me at all, I don’t care really if you are gay or black or oriental or red-neck or green. What does make me want to strangle cats is you telling me I have to care about your abnormality, and I have to care in the right way in our societies Orwellian language. So here is the deal you act like you belong in society when you are in society and I won’t give a crap about how you are in private.Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-66306030224674588082009-10-19T11:06:00.003-05:002009-10-19T11:21:33.216-05:00Language"John Podhoretz once remarked that all conservatives are bilingual: We speak both conservative and liberal. Liberals are monolingual, because they can afford to be."<br /><br />Just a quick note on this comment. I have been thinking out the language of politics for a while now (in fact I want to write and article on it someday) and one of the things that i have noticed is that conservatives always fight an uphill battle. Because we are a bit more realistic about the world and we believe that there are different solutions to the same problem that will work better for different people, we can't offer simple universal answers. So the liberal gets to say, "free health-care for all," and it sounds great. So great in fact that no argument is needed. they do this in all areas political. A job for every one. Perfect racial ratios in all jobs. Middle class lifestyles no matter how hard you work etc. etc. <br /><br />The conservative now has a rhetorical hole. Before he can argue that any of these are infeasible or explain how they might lead to the exact opposite of what is promised, he has to explain why he thinks it is bad to cover children who are dying of ingrown toenails because their parents don't have a good enough job. Who can dig themselves out of that hole? <br /><br />That is what the above quote means, when conservative hear the promises made by the liberal, he is able to translate them into tax increases, loss of freedom and governmental meddling in private life. When the liberal hears the conservative's response on the other hand he only hears how much the conservative hates the down-trodden. Who bears the weight of this responsibility? The Media who has coarsened discourse and stripped the political language of the compassion of non-governing.Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-76789758956901009042009-09-30T08:39:00.002-05:002009-09-30T09:40:29.281-05:00<blockquote>Anyway, this issue of the school year came up at that time — we were going to have to study longer to keep up with the Japanese. And Jack Germond said, “I think kids ought to have some fun. I think they ought to go out and play. I think they ought to have a summer.”<br /><br />I don’t hate education, believe me — but I agree. Totally. And, with the rise of the over-organized kid, the fine art of just hanging around and doing nothing — kicking a stone or whatever — seems to have been lost. Too bad.<br /><br />I’m sure it’s the bias of my upbringing, but I think school ought to be from about September 6 to about June 6 — and that anything else is perverse. - Jay Nordlinger</blockquote><br /><br />I don't know why this struck me but it did. Today on my drive into work I was contemplating the oddity of the last 200 + years in the west. All kinds of things have been bouncing around in my head for the past few days: the empire state building honoring a murderous regime that can only think of humanity in blocks of 100,000 and considers the individual a dangerous aberration, a book called We Are Doomed: Recovering Conservative Pessimism, a bumper sticker proclaiming it is the U.S.’s fault that Cuba is poverty-stricken, the idiocy that is the UN and our participation with it, the history of the Bill of Rights and its expansion beyond all rationality, etc.<br /><br />All of this gives me a wonderful pessimistic hope. Here we are at the tail end of one of the best moments in human history. Freedom has conquered the west and held it for close to a century, interrupted here and there sure but we have pushed back tyranny and held it from our shores. Allowing for all kinds of advance that never could have happened in any other circumstance. But I can see this all ending, we have given up the fight, and so soon we will lose. Of course it is possible that there might be a Renaissance, Reformation and Great Awakening again and preserve it a bit long but in the end Oppression will win.<br /><br />Now I am not in some Glenn Beck hyper-panic, and I hope I never am. I can see it ending but there is no reason to believe that humanity is finished and when America perishes, so does all joy and happiness. That is the silliest of all conceits (the one that the west is the most guilty of), believing that anyone that doesn’t live in my circumstances must be miserable. Humans will still have fun, families will still be the source of joy, works of art will still be made (better ones, I believe, on account of the cost that it will take to make them), laughter will still be heard and the world will still offer great beauty that all can enjoy for free. <br /><br />But there is a price to be paid for the blessing that we have enjoyed. We will be turned into the worst of me, Hallow Men, for a time. Well, not we that are reading this, but our children. They will be the over scheduled, hyper organized, super pampered generation. This is the generational toll. <br /><br />The great friend of Oppression and enemy of Freedom has always been security. Strong offer it to weak, governments to citizens, companies to consumers in exchange for a bit of freedom. Throughout history this is the great assistant to the tyrants. <br /><br />Now here is the greatest of all ironies: we don’t have any real security risks in our nation, nothing foreign, economic or military, can touch us, so we invent our risks. Pedophiles are everywhere! Five kids died last year because they weren’t in child seats until age 21! The Germans are better at Math! There are thieves! Etc.<br /><br />As a result of all these invented fears we kill our children’s freedoms and ours. The kids have to play only in the backyard unless we are there to closely supervise them. Gone are the days of eight years olds riding their bikes to the park and playing with whoever may be there. (A lot of people I know are actually shuddering at the suggestion that is even a possibility in my mind). We sap huge amounts of money and effort to tie the kids in. Gone is the freedom to even change seats during a drive. (I remember playing tag around and over the seats of a suburban my parents owned, I don’t even know if it had seatbelts for us kids). And yearly we hear calls for year-round schooling so our kids can “keep up”. (I will one day write a blog on America’s education). We have given up all of our kids’ freedom for fake security (playing in the backyard protects the kids from alien attacks!) and so they won’t expect any freedoms when they grow up. This is how we lost.<br /><br />But there is still happiness, kids still sneak out and meet friends from the neighborhood, they still sneak out of their restraints and they still have fun. In the end if we loose America, that will be sad, but fun will still exist perhaps it will exist in greater abundance.Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-2765532174574968632009-09-09T11:30:00.002-05:002009-09-09T12:16:24.858-05:00Managment By Walking AroundWhen I was in undergrad, I used to hang around with a diverse group of people in the union. One of the things that I remember from our discussions is the management style of MBWA (Management By Walking Around). I (not being a business major) have no idea if it is a real strategy, but my business major friend said it was so I will assume it exists. The most famous practitioner of this style is Bill Lumberg from <span style="font-style: italic;">Office Space </span><span>(the "Yeah..I'm going to need you to work this Saturday (sip form the coffee) if that's ok", guy). Walking around trying to keep people from goofing off and inspire them to work harder.<br /><br />Now there may be something to say for this but there is an obvious flaw here. If the boss is running around all day, the drones look at him and conclude that he is doing no work. He soon gets the reputation of a lazy man that only got his job because he kissed the right bum and now is surviving by stealing other peoples ides. This reputation only gets worse if, when asked about the work his division is doing the boss seems uninformed and equivocates until he can pass the ball to a subordinate. In the end the boss loses the confidence of those he manages and becomes a joke. <br /><br /><br />What is happening to President Obama and his presidency is that he uses MBWA. In the last few months during the healthcare debate, before that for the stimulus debate, and for everything else that he wants to manage, he loves to walk around. As far as I can tell in the first eight months of his presidency Obama has spent 5 whole days in D.C. and the Whitehouse. the rest of the time he is running around in Europe, Latin America, or some backwater in the U.S. Every day he gives a speech in these places and tries to inspire new confidence in every one that listens. <br /><br />When he lands back in D.C. at the end of his trip he goes out to meet his bosses (he got to where he is by kissing the media's bum after all) and answer their questions. But he is wretched in this aspect. He stumbles around, equivocates, tells horrible jokes and then passes the ball to an "expert" from congress. Even when something gets done, like the stimulus bill, he seems to have no idea what it is made up of and at a loss as to how it works.<br /><br />All of this gives our new President an aura of incompetence. But it is the worst type of incompetence: lazy incompetence. I don't know anyone that would argue that he isn't able to understand these things, or that he couldn't write a bill if he wanted. No, he can, we all know he can. But he seems to prefer his coffee and the freedom to fly around the world when ever he wants to doing real work. This, I think, explains his amazing drop in popularity and the fear the citizens have of his speechifying. Tonight we will hear his speech and a large number are afraid of hearing, "Um...yeah...i'm going to need you (sip of coffee) to give up everything that you think of as medicine...if that's ok...and ummmm...we're going to need you to work a few saturdays to pay for it."<br /></span>Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-5259958084989724752009-06-23T11:58:00.004-05:002009-06-23T12:10:43.480-05:00The Blue M&M<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VDj1G3M6it4/SkEKjNlZZTI/AAAAAAAAABc/v2utI7gGhLk/s1600-h/DSC00343.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VDj1G3M6it4/SkEKjNlZZTI/AAAAAAAAABc/v2utI7gGhLk/s320/DSC00343.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350569432351073586" /></a><br />A Remembrance<br /><br />My van went the way of all good machines yesterday, I donated it to charity because I didn’t want to go through the trouble of selling it…in reality I probably couldn’t have gone through with it. If I really had posted an ad I’m sure that I wouldn’t have ever called anyone back. So I called a donation service and it was gone 5 hours later. <br /><br />I cried a bit, posted a lament to the ol’ blue M&M (the Vanagon’s name) on my facebook, thinking that I might get some nice remembrances of him from friends. What I got instead were a number of people telling me that it is better that he is gone because now I can grow up. I think he deserves better so I will share my eulogy here.<br /><br />I got Blue M&M, my Vanagon, in 1997 after his predecessor died on the way to Fort Collins during a rugby trip. The predecessor, also a Vanagon, (I forget its name, the only outstanding characteristic it had was a sun roof the size of a backyard pool) wasn’t very good to me, it had spent a large amount of time broken down, and, since I was a poor college student, I had no good road trips with it. But I had fallen in love with driving the buses so I bought ol’ Blue the next month. <br /><br />He immediately burrowed his way into my heart by having air-conditioning and an engine that could hold 70 mph on most roads. His name, however, was hard to decide on, my friends and I have always named our cars but required a strong event or characteristic to give the name meaning. We called it Ugly, Blue Machine, V II and the Mystery Machine for a while. But none of these seemed right, he always shrugged them off. In 1998 we finally hit on the name that stuck. <br /><br />I was a member of a group in high school that was facetiously called the “Misogynists” for a while. The name was a joke to most people because the only thing against women we did was not to date. For most of us this was a favor to women but because of our separateness, it was assumed that we had something against women. In college I became the only remaining member of this group. Some had moved away and others fell to temptation and so I had this one remarkable thing that surrounded my otherwise unremarkable person. <br /><br />The vanagon was brought into this by its talent of breaking down in certain situations. The first time I had a problem with it was just after I had given a girl who was a friend a ride home. The throw-out bearing broke, a minor thing but she tied it directly to the ride I had given her, as a result she called it the Misogyny Mobile. The name became slightly modified shortly thereafter by other friends as blue M&M’s had just been introduced so he became the Blue Misogyny Mobile, the Blue M&M for short.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VDj1G3M6it4/SkELcRA6W2I/AAAAAAAAABk/IQJ4hTUxHuI/s1600-h/DSC00346.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VDj1G3M6it4/SkELcRA6W2I/AAAAAAAAABk/IQJ4hTUxHuI/s320/DSC00346.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350570412524329826" /></a><br /><br />From that time on he held his reputation as a confirmed woman hater, I had many road trips with the guy but only one made me want to punch his flat nose. I and my old group from high school all got on the same summer project with Campus Crusade in Myrtle Beach SC and I decided to drive out there rather than fly like so many other people did. To my delight there were two other people that wanted to share a ride out there from Colorado. So we all decided that I would pick them up and we would drive together. One of the ride sharers was a delightful young lady named Laurie. Needless to say M&M was not happy. He ran out of gas just outside of Colorado in Kansas. He destroyed his alternator outside of Kansas City. He threw three set of belts between the fixing of the alternator and the end of St. Louis. In the end he got us to SC, but he let us know his anger. At the end of the summer when it was just me and my brother going back he handled it like a champ.<br /><br />Like all great friends he required investment, but he invested in me back. I had to fix him quite a bit in the 11 years we knew each other, but on his part he never broke down when I couldn’t afford to fix him. It was amazing really. I would be eating my third straight month of macaroni and he would tool along fine. But when I had saved up enough for a bit of a splurge he would drop a clutch or break an exhaust pipe. All in all he was great, if I kept the women from him he would keep me rolling wherever I needed to go.<br /><br />Blue’s decline started last year. I got a car as a gift that got better gas mileage and so he was parked. We kept up the licenses and the insurance just in case I wanted a romp. I took him out here and there, but I could tell that he was feeling the neglect. His instrument panel started to break apart, and his age began to tell, the years weighing heavy on him. The telling blow came about a year and three months ago when some scoundrel threw a rock and destroyed a window in the rear. I couldn’t afford to repair it for the first time. I knew he understood but it hurt us both any way. <br /><br />Then the final blow. Added to the ignominy of having to suffer without a full complement of protection of the elements, I further insulted him by driving my wife around as a treat on HER birthday. He had enough and gave up the ghost in the worst possible place: on the 408 in the fast lane with barely any shoulder. This was his final act of spite against the female species, and more particularly the one that had stolen me from my devotion to him. Blue M&M was able in a moment to ruin her birthday and strand us, without cell phones mind you, in the prickliest of situations. <br /><br />My wife never had been reconciled to Blue and he never reconciled to her. I was stuck in the middle for two years of marriage but in the end he left me. I will not say that it was pure spite against my wife. Rather I know that it was his swan song. In one final effort, knowing he must lose me in the end to the greater pull of my wife, he ended his life in a way that typified and cemented his reputation for all time. He went out like he wanted to and that is a relief to me.<br /><br />I have kept Blue’s corpse outside my house for a year, lacking the means and will to revive him after his glorious exit and lacking the will to let him go. Yesterday he was towed. He is gone now and all I have are memories and a few pictures to show my children when I tell stories of his exploits, which I will as I have promised him I would going up steep mountain passes. None of them will ever know him in the metal but they will know his noble spirit.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VDj1G3M6it4/SkEMcQUH4QI/AAAAAAAAABs/ybcEkWXHHEQ/s1600-h/DSC00351.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VDj1G3M6it4/SkEMcQUH4QI/AAAAAAAAABs/ybcEkWXHHEQ/s320/DSC00351.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350571511848100098" /></a>Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-65795775317767598722008-09-22T12:10:00.002-05:002008-09-22T12:50:14.888-05:00I learn thingsi like to write and i like to read. it is what i do and it is actually, to a large extent who i am. i love reading older books for most of my adult life. in fact since about the age of 17 i had a self-conscious plan to read very few books that are less than 100 years old. of those that made the cut and got read while they are still young most of them were existential tomes. i was a philosophy major in college and one of the two foci i had was existentialism so i was required, and i wanted, to read most of the classics in that system of thought. <br /><br />what i wish to talk about is the blogosphere and how it has degraded our communication and has torn down the visible walls in our lives and creates the false veracity that existentialist hoped for. not only that but it has given us well written drivel that lies with its truth.<br /><br />when i read blogs i always find them startling in the nudity that the authors choose to give us. the best try to be psychologically naked and the better ones attain the appearance of it. but one thing about appearing naked draws the eyes from all that the writer doesn't want you to see. it bugs me that the slight of hand is the normal.<br /><br />one of the things that bug me about our society is that we (particularly in the Church) think that authenticity and community is everybody having the ability and mandate to emotionally vomit on everybody else. and the blog is this enmasse, now you don't have to do it individually, now you can just vomit once and let whoever wants to to dip in it when they want. <br /><br />in the end this degrades us into voyeurs and arrogants, both dehumanizing positions. the reader gets to see the thoughts that they expected to be there, and then to feel better that others are like them or worse. and the writer gets to hold out socially acceptable foibles and feel superior because they are "open" and at the same time see the degradation of others as they read a blog that is a simplistic smokescreen. in the end, "writing is both a mask and an unveiling."Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-17278580991837320872008-08-27T13:18:00.002-05:002008-08-27T13:24:30.804-05:00Long TimeSometimes i mention to my wife the possibility of moing back to a place with winter. (She has never lived aomeplace like that, but i have hence the "back".) Every time it comes up though she shoots it down because it would be too clod for her. As i think bout that it occurs to me that it is too hot here for me and cold is so much easier to escape from then heat. Heat is invasive, sapping strength, taking energy and constantly invading to safe havens (our air conditioning broke this week). But cold is easy to hold at bay, not only inside but outside. There are clothes that will allow people to survive Antarctica in comfort. Heat can't be kept out by clothes at all, in fact it is self-defeating to do that. I think that I will mention that next time it comes up.Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-59537139437944790142008-03-05T20:37:00.002-05:002008-03-05T20:40:16.479-05:00This winter has been the worst of my experience so far down here. Usually it tends toward Wyoming summers in December and January, but this year it has been hot with only small amounts of "normal" weather. This has been a hard year for me so far, i miss the mountains and the cold so much it hurts. I want to move homeJohanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-1148517897353409472006-05-24T19:29:00.000-05:002007-02-05T10:17:13.483-05:00Nothing to doas i like to tell my friends here; the biggest problem down here is that there is no time to stop and recharge. in the north we have stop for months and just try to survive. but it isn't just that we have to stop, but we have to prepare for the stopping. before every winter there is a time of hurry and furious activity. it is called the harvest. months have led up to getting to harvest, during the harvest, there is worry to get things done before the weather turns.<br /><br />and when it is done and all things are locked in the barn there is still work to be done. it isn't the flurry of work that was there before, but rather a spaced amount of work, we have time enough to do everything and more. so to keep busy and because we are human we make things beautiful. we don't just repair harness, we try to make it beautiful. the wooden objects that are needed for a house get carved and experimented on. walls that are needed to keep out the wind are given paintings because they kill the soul with out them. the pottery is made with just a bit more flourish then it needs to be. this is art and it is utilitarian, but the time needs to be filled so we fill it with beauty.Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-1144854057047358882006-04-12T07:58:00.000-05:002006-04-12T10:00:57.073-05:0080 in April<p class="MsoNormal">Here it is, April</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In a decent climate there is another month of winter.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">But here I am in <st1:state><st1:place>Florida</st1:place></st1:State> and it is 80 degrees today.<span style=""> </span>Since I got down here I have wondered at the lack of what I consider culture.<span style=""> </span>I assume that it is because it is April and 80.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Winter is where everything that I cherish comes in.<span style=""> </span>Friendships grow, and things that don’t need to be done are then done.<span style=""> </span>It is the forced inactivity.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Here if I don’t accomplish any thing all day it is because of laziness.<span style=""> </span>There it is because it is impossible.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Activity builds up in the mind there, leading to cabin fever, yes, but also to other things.<span style=""> </span>Discussions that don’t have to be had are, when you learn something about another.<span style=""> </span>Creating that doesn’t need done is, and you pour yourself into it.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This is how you get culture:<span style=""> </span>Give the people three hurried seasons to get everything they need to done.<span style=""> </span>Planting, fixing and harvest.<span style=""> </span>Then give them several months off with nothing that can be done unless it is absolutely necessary.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Energy must go somewhere and violence just leaves you lonely.</p>Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25912548.post-1144807372661748562006-04-11T20:24:00.000-05:002006-04-11T21:02:52.670-05:00I have Fears<p class="MsoNormal">I want to help you<br />But I don't know how<br />I want to soothe you<br />But I can't speak out<br /><br />I have many fears<br />About rejection<br />I have many memories<br />Of pain<br /><br />I have always been<br />A little shy<br /><br />So I'll turn and look<br />The other way<br />Other way<br />Other way<br /><br />I will turn and look<br />The other way<br /><br />I want to hold you<br />But I am afraid<br />I want to touch you<br />But I'm not that way<br /><br />I have many doubts<br />About my motives<br />I have many fears<br />About my greed<br /><br />I have always hurt<br />The one that I love<br /><br />So I'll turn and look<br />The other way<br />Other way<br />Other way<br /><br />I will turn and look<br />The other way<br /><br /><br />I'm tired, so tired<br />I'm tired of having sex<br />So tired<br />I'm spread so thin<br />I don't know who I am<br />Monday night I'm makin' Jen<br />Tuesday night I'm makin' Lyn<br />Wednesday night I'm makin' Catherine<br />Oh, why can't I be makin' Love come true?<br /><br />-Weezer<br /><br />Since Pinkerton came out I have been a bit sad that the Blue Album was so popular.<span style=""> </span>Weezer is such a great band and they are only made better by the fact that they aren’t rock stars.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">One of the best things that I like about most really good music is that it is inaccessible to the dabbler.<span style=""> </span>It is so complex, or so simple that those seeking cheep titillation pass it by for a strong back beat and explicit lyrics.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The best thing about these lyrics is that they eschew the normal mode.<span style=""> </span>They fight rebellion.<span style=""> </span>There is no violence against the women in the songs; what’s more there is no violence against society.<span style=""> </span>They see that the way toward happiness that we have all been taught by all other rock personalities lead to all other rock personalities.<span style=""> </span>I doubt I will ever hear of a member of their band dead from drowning in their own vomit or fifty years old acting like they’re 18 and happy</p>Johanns de Silenciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12398988558023864370noreply@blogger.com0