tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-980951139270141970.post5370199553213843916..comments2023-11-30T10:43:33.130-06:00Comments on Reading Freely: Out of the AshesStephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15097908023032528200noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-980951139270141970.post-44306885988054121902017-02-11T11:31:08.160-06:002017-02-11T11:31:08.160-06:00Participation is the key word, I think. Historical...Participation is the key word, I think. Historically, Christian Europe had plenty of adults who were not married -- yet they were still bound to a community, having joined monasteries (male and female) or the priesthood. In America, formed more by protestant cultures than a Catholic one, adults still participated in civic life through their occupation -- or vocation, rather. Think of the village schoolmaster. Intentionality is important: are we living the way we are to Do Good, to participate in the larger community we find ourselves in, to build it -- or are we simply living like atoms in the void, idly pursuing our jollies until we wink out? We don't necessarily have to have sworn oaths to participate in the common good, but I do think the purpose has to be ever in our mind. <br /><br /><br />The balance you speak of is one I personally struggle with -- I commented once in a journal of mine that I was a spiritual itinerant, sometimes wanting to live like a Viking and sometimes like a monk. I'm personally someone who would want a family, but having none I live more like a monk -- constantly studying and using my time to help others. I could easily switch occupations -- driving personnel vans for the railroad company, for instance -- but what would be the point of my existence then? Produce, consume, die? I prefer to contribute to something, beyond the psuedo-consumer activism of giving money and nothing more. Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15097908023032528200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-980951139270141970.post-52754136182431130272017-02-11T10:46:06.299-06:002017-02-11T10:46:06.299-06:00First off, fascinating review. This is a topic th...First off, fascinating review. This is a topic that has been coming up again and again in my own mind, due to current events. I had not heard of this book, but will be looking into it now. <br /><br />One of the difficult points for me is the concept of "a society based on marriage, family, and the home." As a Christian (and, in many ways, conservative), this idea seems philosophically appealing, one that is shared by many cultures. But as a voluntarily single female, with no intention of building a family, how would I participate in a such a society? Would I be accepted, pressured to change, or (worse yet) rejected as a "lesser" contributor, a "feminist" in the derogatory sense of the word? <br /><br />I do believe it's possible to achieve balance and commonality between different groups. In unique pockets of history, it has happened. The trouble is, how to get there, and how to prevent human nature from doing what it does best, swinging between different extremes...Marian Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14115916138435761469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-980951139270141970.post-43516545098509341782017-02-10T15:28:25.648-06:002017-02-10T15:28:25.648-06:00Culture is rather strange - hard to define, hard t...Culture is rather strange - hard to define, hard to pin down, hard to agree on.... Interesting to discuss though! I don't think we've figured out the best type of culture yet. Maybe we will one day, who knows.CyberKittenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06394155516712665665noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-980951139270141970.post-23995524619416901712017-02-10T13:40:01.911-06:002017-02-10T13:40:01.911-06:00i see your point; even so, i'm afraid that ci...i see your point; even so, i'm afraid that civil strife is inherent in human nature, given that men are the way they are: tribal and self-centered... a system of national laws seems imperative to prevent more civil disturbances and cultural wars... i sympathize with "working together", but i've never seen it happen very successfully... reading what i just wrote, it seems rather fascist, but i haven't thought about it nearly as much as you have, undoubtedly, so maybe i would think differently if i did...Mudpuddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17194891656971454279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-980951139270141970.post-27930612915204148782017-02-09T23:56:43.557-06:002017-02-09T23:56:43.557-06:00Culture isn't necessarily an ethnic or religio...Culture isn't necessarily an ethnic or religious thing. One can turn the philosophical conceits of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution into a political ideology that unites us, but these days precious few care for that. I don't even mean the libertarian purist view of the Constitution, but the broad things that everyone used to take for granted like the First Amendment. Now one can actually hear it described as a sacred cow. A big problem today I think is the contempt for any sort of assimilation: now everyone wants to play identity politics and fly their seperate flags, and you can't have a country where everyone is constantly fighting for their little gang. But the main problem, I think, is that we now try to solve everything politically, and not just through city and state governments but through D.C., so everyone is constantly fighting for attention. That's part of Esolen's argument: he's fighting for the recovery of civil culture, of people solving their problems by working together instead of using the power of coercion. <br />Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15097908023032528200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-980951139270141970.post-68753326083233956022017-02-09T22:35:21.639-06:002017-02-09T22:35:21.639-06:00powerful stuff... but what about the "poor, ...powerful stuff... but what about the "poor, huddled masses, yearning to be free"... like muslims, zoroastrians, hindus, zenners: et alia... America was supposed to be for all belief systems, a goal that kind of shatters the togetherness idea of culture, it seems to me...Mudpuddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17194891656971454279noreply@blogger.com