What I wish for Trumpist Catholic intellectuals in America today?

More moral simplicity. Less theory.
2/
Understand I write this as a theorist: they are over-theorized & captives to abstraction.

They lack the poverty of experience, the poverty of a willingness to be wrong, to be corrected, to listen to those who are not Christians.

Dostoevsky dubbed such possessions a "demon"
3/
Here is Dostoevsky describing one such ideological possession:
4/
In another passage Dostoevsky tries to explore how an abstract idea crushes someone like a “stone that has fallen on them” “sometimes forever” from another psychological direction:
5/
In a darkly funny passage one of the chief ideologists, Shigalyov confesses:

“I’ve become a lackey myself, just like you … Stepan Trofimovich was right to say that I’m lying under a stone crushed, but not crushed to death, I’m just writing!”
6/
What idea has crushed Prof Deneen?

In a word "liberalism." He is still somewhere underneath it. The person God made and loves is still there--a significantly better person than his ideas no doubt. But he's almost disappeared under this thing "liberalism." He's overawed by it
7/
In one of the most moving parts of the entire novel Shatov tries to break the spell of abstraction they are all under:
8/
Addendum:

While I wrote this thread the US Supreme Court & its conservative majority justices (with three picks by Trump) rejected the Texas suit to subvert the American election.

Will Prof Deneen recant & apologize publicly for advancing this destructive conspiracy theory?
You can follow @jasonwblakely.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled:

By continuing to use the site, you are consenting to the use of cookies as explained in our Cookie Policy to improve your experience.