1. I want a psychology centered on depravity
That is to say, when people look at the human psyche, I want the first thing they recognize to be that it’s broken and destructive. Inversely, when people think about depravity, I want them to recognize that it’s most apparent in the human psyche — our bodies in themselves don’t immediately evoke depravity; what goes on inside our heads that makes us do the things we do with our bodies does. Somewhat tangentially, I also want the church as a whole to find some way to interface its categories of mind, body, and spirit with psychological categories. I want to know how the soul relates to the superego.
John Ahern scribbles deliriously,
Some storm-tossed sailors have just landed on some coast outside Africa. They’ve just been saved from a gale sent by Juno, who has a thing with these Trojans. Venus, who has a different thing with these Trojans (Aeneas happens to be her son), comes whining to Zeus, calling him out for not keeping his promises to the poor, destitute Trojans. Not particularly worried about pandering to the special interests of lobbyists—he is a somewhat partisan figure himself—Jove consoles Venus, telling her that, in fact, the Trojans’ luck will turn. They’ll settle in Latium and someday have an empire. Bigger than anybody else’s. An imperium sine fine.
Ella’s assignment for economics class was to read Thomas L. Friedman’s The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century and summarise the 488-page book in one page. This is the slightly longer version, with added commentary; but it does still fit on one page in ten-point.
In the back of the van, I scribbled down four words in my notebook: “The world is flat.” As soon as I wrote them, I realized that this was the underlying message of everything that I had seen and heard…. The global competitive playing field was being leveled. The world was being flattened. (8)
I have written the following essay as both a Christian and an observer of politics in the Middle East. The political and the religious in this article, therefore, are tied together in the persona of this author. Inasmuch as my belief in the truth of Christianity colors my observations of the world, politics and religion are inseparable for me. However, when contemplating political actions or policy, I make observations and recommendations that I consider discrete to each arena. Some observations apply only to the Church – they should not form a political movement, designed to change the way humans are governed. Some recommendations apply only to the political fields – they involve religion only insofar as I believe they must be in accordance with Biblical values and Christian conscience. The concrescence of the two goes this far. Faith cannot be separated from political actors who hold to it; the actions of the state should, however, not mirror the actions of the Church.
If we are preaching the gospel faithfully, we will clash with the various, proliferating religions of the “postmodern” world — with Mormons, Hare Krishna, Moonies, and Scientologists. But, we will also be clashing with other “competitors”. The Church’s competitors are nation-states and international political bodies like the United Nations. The Church’s ethos and culture are not just a challenge to other “religions,” but to the ethos of Americanism and the culture of globalization, insofar as such an ethos and culture exist. (Against Chrsitianity, Peter J. Leithart, pg. 34)
Samuel Harrison writes,
In the streets of Paris, it is not uncommon to see a large fluorescent-green truck driving slowly down an avenue, with a powerful pressure-hose sweeping dust, graffiti, and debris off surfaces and into the gutters. These trucks are produced by the German manufacturer Alfred Kärcher GmbH & Co., the motto of which is “simply clean.” “Kärcher” has entered French vocabulary as a colloquialism to describe any type of high pressure street-sweepers. However, as the French Presidential elections draw nearer, the word has found new significance.
It is June, 2005, and Nicolas Sarkozy, Minister of the Interior, is questioned on an incident in which an eleven year old boy was killed by a stray gunshot in a suburb populated largely by Muslim immigrants. Sarkozy, using the well-known image of the pressure-cleaners, responds that the area should “cleaned out with a Kärcher.” He has since done just that, in a tough-on-crime stance previously rare in France’s domestic policy. Though immigration control and more stringent anti-criminal policy are hardly his cornerstone policies, his ideology has now been deemed “Karcherism”, his actions “Karcherizing”, and his supporters “Karcherists.”
Sarkozy, or Sarko as he has recently been nicknamed, a devout Roman Catholic of Graeco-Hungarian immigrant ancestry, could well be described as a pressure hose pointed at an otherwise “stale” French political world. His aggressive campaigning as Minister of the Interior and Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry over the past five years have served a resounding wake-up call to democratic-socialists, who had anticipated an easy victory in 2007. In his manifesto “Testimony: France in the 21st Century”, he sets out his sweeping reform schemes calling for a fairer taxation system, the need to “dynamite” France’s sclerotic welfare system, a lowering of the ludicrously high minimum wage, an end of France’s leather-bound adherence to the Revolution-born law of laïcité?—?separation of Church and State?—?, greater cooperation with the US and UK, a “full-throttle” French military mission to Iraq, and a strict control of immigration.
These bold and so-called iconoclastic policies have marshaled strong support for Sarko?—?support soon to be put to the test in the French primaries. Out of twelve runners, only four are considered to have very substantial support from voters. As the leading right-wing candidate, Sarko’s main competition for conservative votes will come from François Bayrou, a more moderate politician whose campaign platform remains murky, and Jean-Marie Le Pen, an extremely radical right-wing leader who has been fined and imprisoned for assault and battery of EU dignitaries and “minimizing the Holocaust”, and described by detractors as a neo-Nazi. On the left, a Hilary-esque Ségolène Royal represents the Socialist Party, who poled second at 22%, coming in just after Sarko’s 28%.
In the French system, all twelve candidates will be on the ballot for April 22nd. If no candidate accrues more than 50% of the votes?—?and, if the fractured poles are any indication, they will not?—?then the two highest-scoring candidates will face off in a secondary election. Based on poles by Ipsos, experts predict a close race in the primaries, with Sarkozy and Royal, who has managed to largely unite the left, coming out on top. In the secondary election, predictions hold that Sarkozy will be able to count on the defeated Le Pen’s 13% supporters and at least half of Bayrou’s 20%, while the 16.5% who made up the remaining voters will be largely divided between the two.
Kärcher reports a rise in sales by 13% since Sarko’s remarks. Sarkozy hopes to guide his country to a “brave, new vision for France as it engages the world of the twenty-first century.” In a country whose modern order and policies were born in misguided Revolution, some new vision is long overdue. Perhaps Paris’ streets, long stained with blood from the guillotine, will be washed clean with the none-too-gentle blasts of a Kärcher.
