Recent Posts
Do you recall Desiderata ? As a child I used to take this seriously, although I did wonder what a unitarian might be - an American nun who ate wholegrains perhaps. It was, of course, all a sham and pretense - a child of the sixties rather than the universe. You have to ask, though, "In what does the corruption of language truly consist?" Willy-nilly dropping of the accusative case or insensitivity to pendant prepositions - as truly evil as these be - are only the beginning.
An opinion article in todays Australian by Baden Eunson , a Monash academic, suggests that Kevin Rudd engages in systematic obfuscation as a form of discourse - or more precisely, instead of discourse. Eunson seems to make the mistake of thinking that politicians, like Rudd, are trying to communicate and failing because of a lack proper linguistic technique. They speak too posh for the unlettered to understand.
No, the problem is that their utterrances are designed NOT to communicate. They are a code, an encryption.They fulfil expertly the purpose for which they were designed. It is a problem that goes back to Plato - the Phaedrus has a few hints. Essentially it is a form of deception. I'm pretending to give you information about the world and my reaction to it, but what I'm intending to communicate is that you don't belong to the inner circle, to the exclusive "we" who are making the decisions. That's the purpose of gratuitous jargon - it defines a world to which others do not belong. Language, or increasing it's absence, is power.
There is nothing wrong with this in some contexts. Being proficient in latin and greek I understand the wierd dialect of the medical classes - it sometimes makes them uncomfortable. There is at least a peceived benefit in keeping the patient in the dark, using short hand and invoking a chain of cascading medical concepts by using pig latin and canine greek. There is a lot of power maintenance going on, but some ideas are so closely attached to specific, technical words that you need to use. You communicate information and ideas.
The corruption of language begins when you seek to communicate something different from what you are apparently communicating. To take a mundane example - signs on railways platforms and in carriages. If the average Joe Blow can't read a phone book, he'd have no idea of what Railcorp was trying to tell him. As an exercise, just try translating them into anglo-saxon.
Shared on
Greg Sheridan has an interesting post on his blog in today's Australian. The interesting part for me was his information that John McCarthy QC had been considered for the job of Australian Ambassador to the Holy See, indeed that the upgrading of the position to a permanently resident one might have had him in mind.
It's difficult to know how to unpack this. The first thing to note is history. McCarthy and Sheridan go back a long way - they are not unknown to each other. Sheridan famously had a significant connection with Queensbury Street. McCarthy was from the same tribe but further north and in the ALP.
In the 1960s and, more particularly, the 1970s, the lay reaction to the excesses of Vatican II promoted the formation of a number of intellectual Catholic think tanks of the ecclesiastical, though not necessarily political, right. There are many confluences here.
McCarthy has been, some would say - though not me - notoriously, active in the recognition of aboriginal land rights. He worked closely with others, notably the SDA Senator Harradine and the not so SDA Jesuit, Frank Brennan.
You could point to McCarthy's well-known connection with the now Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney, as a reason that people might find him less than suitable for the post descibed by Sheridan. The cardinal doesn't need another man in Rome, Kevin very well might. After all his sort of Anglican is a disappearing breed.
The Chifley view is that McCarthy is angling to be the first lay Cardinal for many a year and would like to be put in charge of the Congregation for Bishops. Australian Ambassador to the Holy See is not necessarily in his sights. You never know - Benedict is a Baroque kind of traditionalist! The expertise of the right wing of the ALP could well be brought to bear on the selection of Catholic bishops - if it isn't already.
Shared on
I really enjoy my weekly dose of New Scientist. You can learn about genes which are HIV specific, MRI differences in brain sex, the ins-and-outs of circumcision, the elusive Higgs boson and, of course, Global Warming. It is a pity that this - otherwise wonderful -magazine has an editorial line on What the Majority of Scientists Think about anthropogenic global warming and its relationship to the proportion of CO2 in the atmosphere. I'm undecided - and being an angelologist (I could probably get a job as particle physicist - in neither profession do you need physical evidence) rather than meterologist by trade - I like to hear or read clearly reasoned arguments.
I recently read an economist with a practical view who compared planning for carbon warming with taking out insurance. I kind of like that. It fits in my view of things. I don't know -no one seems to. I dislike hype - hence my being at home today.
Let's also take out insurance against the possibility that there is no global warming and it's all an invention of the puritan left - the successors of Cromwell and his Model Army.
I've never had much time for Penny Wong. I recall on one occasion she was an official for an ALP pre-selection that was held midway between two churches to which I had to minister - in lower Prospect. I was wearing my religious habit - as I did back then on a Sunday morning - and she asked me as I registered for my ballot whether I was wearing drag. I hope she isn't invited to welcome the Dalai Lama, or indeed a delegation from the Scots Parliament. Doesn't sound to me like she really understands cultural diversity.
Shared on
If you have a strong stomach you can watch a video of ABC's Q & A. It demonstrates that the arrival of the Pope has generated relevance deprivation on the part of the Australian Left's Cultural Elites. They can froth at the mouth and drop their pants at the Pope and the Cardinal all they like, but no one is listening or watching them, let alone the Catholic Youth they would like to convince to hate the Pope. The boys and girls are too busy having fun singing hymns, praying, drinking, waving banners, dancing and meeting young people like them from all over the world. For a few days Sydney is the centre of the world and they're young and at its very heart. I don't think the ABC/SMH axis of evil can compete with that and they're really pissed off about it. We knew this was going to happen. We knew there would be "revelations" of clerical impropriety and criminality, well -choreographed grieving parents, demands for apologies and huge financial payouts for victims. We knew they'd be targetting the Cardinal and Bishop Fisher. It is all so predictable. (Predictable too that they both provided ammunition for their enemies! Ignatius of Antioch praised the silence of the bishop as something more to be feared than his speech. He never had the opportunity to visit Sydney.)
When Compass used to on TV late on a Sunday morning back in the dark ages, my mother forbad me to watch it. I'd arrive at table for Sunday lunch in such a terrible mood that I wouldn't be much company, and she feared I'd throw something damaging at her TV. Last night's Q & A was clearly the worst panel discussion on religion I have ever seen - it was like a Theology 101 tutorial conducted in the deepest circle of Hell. The panel, God bless them, were smarmy, self-centred, incoherent, inarticulate, irrational and badly educated in the matters on which they offered unformed and ill-conceived opinion. Hearing Alexander Downer explain the respective areas of competence of a bishop and a politician was downright painful. He should have just said, "Look, if you want advice on shoes you don't go to Cardinal Pell (or Archbishop Jensen) you go to Imelda Marcos (or Monsignor Ganswein)!" Alexander is off to Cyprus. I hope he reads a little history beforehand - it could save him being flayed alive by the Turks. John Julian Norwich's chapter in his History of Venice would be a good start
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
I recently heard a barely credible rumour confirmed, though, by reportage in The Daily Telegraph - well-known for its accuracy (the Cardinal writes for The Tele after all - Oh My God, was he the source of the leak?) that the zealous numeraries at Kenthurst had provided the papal accommodation with a cat of the same breed and markings and with the same name (Bella) as the papal cat in Rome. Do you think they could have cloned it? I mean we all know that Opus Dei has access to secret technology as part of their plot making mechanism.
Another question is the name. Do you think it might be code for Mary Magdalene
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
The current injustice of condemning clergy by secret process has come back to bite the bishops very hard. The Cardinal is the current victim, but his episcopal detractors ought to shift a little uneasily on their own thronelets. Not only is it unfair to those accused of crimes, but also to their alleged vicims.
There is a wonderful scene in A Man for All Seasons where Sir Thomas More illustrates his adherence to the rule of law as a principle. When you've knocked down every law and the devil comes for you, where will you hide? Due processs is like that. When you have played fast and loose with rules of evidence, where the distinction between internal and external fora is eroded (Why else would Fr Goodall "confess" to a plethora of other crimes - where was his lawyer, if they gave him one?), where the decision is made before the process is even begun on the basis of prior and undisclosed considerations, you can expect to reap the whirlwind
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
Does Ross Garnaut really know what he's talking about? I merely ask the question, I have no reason to think otherwise. I've spent enough time in academic and political circles, though, to know that the most appalling tripe can be passed off as mature, state-of-the-art deep thought. (I leave aside my exposure to religious discussion - that's a whole nother thing). All those who stand against it are condemned as out of touch with New Thinking. They need to be brought into the twenty-first century. When the New Thinking is revealed to be deep lunacy, it's as though it never even existed. It is as one with body-shirts, wide ties, afros and bell-bottom trousers. Unmentionable. Unthinkable.
I don't believe I've met Prof. Garnaut (that is no guarantee I haven't, especially if he drinks at the Wenty Hotel) and have no reason to doubt his bona fides or academic credentials. It's just that the changes he calls for are so sweeping and so life-altering for all Australians that acting on mere academic fad could be an expensive catastrophe for those least able to afford it. Is he a wise prognosticator or merely Toad of Toad Hall with a silken bonnet? What Prof Garnaut is advocating is a bigger risk than floating the dollar, levying the GST and initiating the Superannuation system all rolled into one. It is yet to be proved beyond the level of doubt required that we need to do it
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
Sorry about Clerico-Fascism Part II. I had to delete it - I was sick of the horse heads in the bed. Poor old Boxer!
A terrible thought assailed me in the watches of the night while I was negotiating my equine visitors - there is no plot, or if there is a Catholic plot, the Church has lost it. Perhaps the onerous regulations concerning WYD are just the Constable-Plod-Knee-Jerk, "Hello, Hello, What's all this then? Take off that T-shirt, son!" response to ecclesiastical crowd control
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
The unnecessary fascist regulations in Sydney concerning the Pope and WYD are only partly to protect His Holiness and his entourage from indecency and licentious, indeed ribald, comment from the forces of organised naturalism. I think the real target is Low Church Anglicans and other levellers. Morris and Co (whoever the co. might include now - I suppose he's looking for friends wherever he can find them) are afraid not so much of "Oxford Street Welcomes Catholic Youth with Open Arms - Business as Usual" tees or Pope shaped prophylatics, as placards with recondite references to the Apocalypse or St Paul's more opaque writings. As any magistrate, police man or theologically literate fireman would know, calling the Pope the Anti-Christ is much more offensive to Catholics than pubescent Pope jokes. What I can't work out is how Catholic Sedevacantists fit into the picture. Is declaring allegance to Pope Pius XIII, John Gregory XVII or the Vacant Throne itself to be considered offensively anti-Catholic? Would a reasonable man, if such a being can be currently discovered in Sydney, find a Latin (what other language?) placard saying, for example, "Sedes Vacat! Ratzinger non est Papa!" anti-Catholic? Would it have to be decided in the Court of Appeals?
The evident farce inherent in this whole legal debacle leads one to suspect that the tin ear of politically naive clergy has been listening to the siren song of senior Catholic laymen flattering priestly ambition and its attendant insecurities. I find it difficult to believe that such heavy handed measures were taken without, at the very least, the foreknowledge of the episcopal classes. One is reminded of the exasperated rhetorical question that led to the murder of Thomas a Beckett. While it is undoubtedly true that the Cardinal did not request these regulations - he said say so, I believe him - someone must have. That someone would not have proceeded without canvassing the matter at least indirectly (perhaps even in a Sir Humphrey Appleby kind of way that entailed plausible deniability) with those in charge of the event
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
Janet Albrechtsen has an interesting article on Government spending. It is unlikely to attract the attention it deserves because fiancial issues only exercise people's minds when there isn't enough money to go around. The accumulation of savings is a less entertaining prospect that fixing injustices or helping the environment - though not it seems Orangoutangs - by initiating big community building projects.The idea of a large surplus sitting around doing nothing in particular must be burning a hole in the figurative pockets of some in the Rudd Government.The apprehension that it is "our money" is a powerful political force in favour of spending up on favourite projects.
With the ability to control disbursement of enormous amounts of money comes power - and lots of it. This is something the union movement has always known, as Albrechtsen points out. Pesistent allegations, and frequently proof, of corrupt practises in the ALP point to a culture that justifies the use of money in furthering an individual's or a group's power base and ideological agenda
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
|
|
|
Comments (1)
Add Comments
Read More
Comment by Ephraem
on Peter Roebuck
God and Caesar