tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post8056602984689809425..comments2024-03-26T14:20:38.103-04:00Comments on The Thought Criminal: "You've turned conservative" Answer To A Representative Tantrum Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-46242570088727160222013-08-22T21:45:26.630-04:002013-08-22T21:45:26.630-04:00No thoughts on Federalist 10. I'm not sure if...No thoughts on Federalist 10. I'm not sure if I've read it, I'd have to look. At the link I gave, I arranged the Darwin posts them in an order I thought made sense at the time. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-27506840442848146942013-08-22T18:45:20.805-04:002013-08-22T18:45:20.805-04:00Thanks! Any thoughts on Federalist 10? No big deal...Thanks! Any thoughts on Federalist 10? No big deal, if not.<br /><br />You mentioned in another post (to me) that you have updated your info on Darwin - where is the best place to start in our blog? I suppose I'd like a brief overview on your general views of Darwin and life origins...<br /><br />BTW: do you have a posts on your thoughts of the cold war and its end. I think you might have some interesting comments - again, no big if not.Tom Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05020816016509323155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-51328955711019831282013-08-22T16:18:46.716-04:002013-08-22T16:18:46.716-04:00People tend to be shelfish, which is a flaw. Peopl...People tend to be shelfish, which is a flaw. People can choose to not act selfishly, which is a virtue.<br /><br />In politics, in society, in life perfection isn't going to happen, in my experience and in anything I've read. That's a bad excuse to not try to make things even a bit closer to that goal. Democracy depends on that possibility, not on the perfect attainment of it, which may have occurred to the guys who said "In order to form a more perfect union...." Democracy is based in the faith that it is possible for people, alone and in groups to achieve an effectively beneficial result from reasonable and informed action informed by good will. For it to be effectively beneficial is sufficient to make it superior to all other forms of government. <br />The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-87277030037885979322013-08-22T14:13:36.391-04:002013-08-22T14:13:36.391-04:00OK. Is man flawed? I'm trying to understand yo...OK. Is man flawed? I'm trying to understand your views and what motivates them. I Don't want to argue about them.<br /><br />I don't think your agenda is possible - do you? Or do you merely want to move as far as possible towards it?Tom Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05020816016509323155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-55885284942226579902013-08-22T13:49:23.837-04:002013-08-22T13:49:23.837-04:00The basic nature of man? I wouldn't presume t...The basic nature of man? I wouldn't presume to say what that could be or even if there is one basic nature of man. I don't know though I'm pretty sure no one else could know that either. <br /><br />I am a universalist who believes what I said in this post. That is all. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-47767038061405410582013-08-22T11:04:45.005-04:002013-08-22T11:04:45.005-04:00Your bio says you're "a religious man.&qu...Your bio says you're "a religious man." Can you elaborate a little more than being a "lapsed Irish Catholic?"<br /><br />Now back to what brought me to your blog, what is your view of the basic nature of man?<br /><br />Thanks!Tom Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05020816016509323155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-76760947433168691862013-08-21T08:20:09.077-04:002013-08-21T08:20:09.077-04:00I think you're right and, as a lapsed Irish Ca...I think you're right and, as a lapsed Irish Catholic, I should be ashamed for not thinking of it too, Dorothy Day went from play leftism to real leftism. And it was hard and she did it the rest of her life. Comparing what she did with folks like Scott Nearing, John Reed and others in her pre-conversion melieu did, she was the real radical even as she was an entirely conventional Christian. Because she was a Christian, by her own writing. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-28294499070939995742013-08-20T14:06:47.195-04:002013-08-20T14:06:47.195-04:00In seminary I was told "They don't care h...In seminary I was told "They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." "They" being the congregation a pastor leads. And it was true. Idealism, what should be, how it should be, quickly proved useless; praxis, what could be, why it could be, was much more useful; and powerful.<br /><br />But praxis is hard. Praxis requires, as Dorothy Day said, admitting you are a stranger in a strange land, a visitor among the poor, a transient among the transients. You don't descend from on high to save the poor from poverty (that's what broke Chris Hedges, and he never put his Humpty-Dumpty together again); you stand alongside and serve.<br /><br />Dorothy Day did more for the world than any number of "concerned" leftists. And yet, we still have poverty. Which means, of course, we need more Dorothy Days.<br /><br />Not more theorists.Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.com