SPOGBOLT   |   Location: Newfoundland, Canada

May 30, 2007

The Hellenic moment in ancient Christianity (1)

In a recent comment I cited a book which describes how Western Christianity absorbed a great deal of Germanic pagan culture following the collapse of the Roman Empire, and how what we now think of as traditional Christianity took on a Germanic martial tinge as a result. In that post I referred to the Christianity of the Empire as "primitive" Christianity, as distinguished from the later Germanized kind. Actually, this is much too simplistic, as is shown in Peter Brown's well-known and valuable (also, readable and not very long) work, The World of Late Antiquity (1971).

While Brown does not set out an explicit scheme, he seems to divide the history of Christianity in the Roman Empire into three phases, only the first of which can rightfully be called "primitive". This was Christianity in its first two centuries, until about 300 A.D. . . . . CONTINUE

May 26, 2007

Boys forced to wear dresses in Sweden

Well-known Norwegian blogger Fjordman reports that according to Swedish journalist Kurt Lundgren, some Swedish preschools are requiring boys to wear dresses during certain weeks, as part of a Swedish Teachers' Union initiative to promote equal regard for homosexuality, transsexuality, etc., among three- to six-year-olds. Lundgren considers this to be child abuse. You think it won't happen in North America? Just wait a few years. In the meantime, one might spare a few thoughts for the continuing state-sanctioned doping of several million North American children—mainly boys—with "kiddie cocaine" (Ritalin).

May 17, 2007

A popular check on the Commons (3)

(b) The direct-democratic check

A principle driving the encroachment on representative institutions by political parties seems to be that representative democracy breaks down when the voters want to make decisions directly, as they nowadays do in the case of the choice of one or other party to form the government . . . .

As suggested in the previous post, it is plausible that severing the electoral accountability of representatives, by limiting them to single terms of office, would produce a degree of independence from both parties and constituents on the part of the representatives . . . .

The other possible approach is not to elect representatives at all, but to embrace (in this branch of government) some form of direct democracy, resembling that of the ancient city-states. The popular will is ascertained either by a referendum in which the whole electorate can participate, or by establishing a randomly selected political jury as a representative body . . . . CONTINUE

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May 15, 2007

A popular check on the Commons (2)

The nature of the popular assembly

How might one establish an assembly whose members represented public opinion, as distinguished from the interests of political parties? The basic problem here is that the usual kind of election will almost certainly elicit candidates who run on a party label. If the assembly has the power to remove the government, those who support the government at the time of the assembly election will vote for candidates pledged to keep the government in power, while opponents of the government will vote for candidates pledged to remove the government whenever possible. If the winning candidates keep these pledges (which is guaranteed by party organizations), the assembly will be made up of members committed to support or oppose the government regardless of what it does. It will essentially be a redundant copy of the Commons . . . . CONTINUE

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May 10, 2007

Steven Hayward on global warming

Here from the Heritage Foundation (April 18) is a useful resource if your friends all think that Al Gore is "Seal of the Prophets" of Global Warming: the soundtrack of an engaging film by Steven Hayward, "An Inconvenient Truth . . . or Convenient Fiction", followed by questions from a live audience and responses by Dr. Hayward. (Direct link to MP3 (27 MB) here. Video version also available.) Hayward rapidly summarizes many of the scientific uncertainties while remaining fairly comprehensible. He seems more moderate on the issue than many in his conservative-thinktank audience, seeing some room for compromise with environmentalists in the form of a revenue-neutral carbon tax, which would not, he thinks, much hurt the economy even if it proved to be unnecessary from an environmental point of view, and which would also be a good way of reducing American dependence on foreign oil. A point he made that struck me was that Gore has apparently deliberately omitted mention of the nuclear approach to cutting greenhouse gases, yet at the same time trumpets global warming as a catastrophe. If Gore really meant this, Hayward delicately hints, he would not be so picky about the ways to head off that catastrophe. So it seems reasonable to conclude that Gore is trying to scare people with hyperbole he does not himself believe.

May 06, 2007

A popular check on the Commons (1)

(A tentative argument)


IN a recent post I claimed, referring to the Westminster constitutional model as a starting-point, that in order to restore popular representation it would be necessary to establish a popular assembly with the power, not only to block unpopular legislation, but to dismiss unpopular governments at relatively short notice; and that such an assembly would have to be constituted so as to remain more or less free of party control. This is not to argue against the existence of the familiar, party-dominated House of Commons, which seems as well suited to the role of government as might reasonably be expected (though I think it would be better suited if it had the power to choose the party leaders, as was traditionally the case). The point is, rather, that the Commons, made up of party loyalists rather than representatives of the popular interest, is now unfit to play its ancient role of a check on government . . . . CONTINUE

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May 03, 2007

Christianity, paganism, liberalism

Here is a comment I just posted at Conservative Swede, who has been doing a great deal of thinking about the connection between Christian ethics and the contemporary pathological form of liberalism.

I don't agree that the problem with Christianity/liberalism is that it is an ethical system shorn of its religious component. Primitive Christianity—the Christianity of the Roman Empire—certainly had a religious centre, but it was also other-worldly, concerned with individual salvation rather than the welfare of the political community, and anti-militarist. This point is made in a book published in 1994, The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity by James C. Russell, which is very pertinent to the subject you are discussing (and also contains pointers to a lot of relevant scholarship on the subject). Modern liberalism may in essence represent a return to primitive Christianity on the ethical level . . . . CONTINUE