From our vantage-point toward the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, Lionel Trilling can be seen as a conservative—an opponent of the Progressive trend of his, and our, day. Micheal Knox Beran makes the case in an article I find profoundly moving, as I consider what education can help our new grandson be part of a restoration and enlargement of the cultural inheritance:
Per Beran, per Trilling: ‘…In their “vulgar and facile progressivism,” America’s thought leaders favored doctrinaire books “that praise us for taking progressive attitudes” and wallowed in a “literature of piety” with “neither imagination nor mind.”’
Wow. We resemble that remark.
Beran points out that both Arnold and Trilling thought that the elites of their society were failing to address deep parts of the human soul. Is our continuing failure to do so is due to cowardice, or, perhaps, perpetual deferment of a spiritual duty?
(Hat tip, Powerline.)
I don’t read music so I understood very little of that, but still fun to try. I don’t need any convincing that Bach was a genius. I’ve always thought Toccata and Fugue in D minor to be very underrated – yes, everyone knows the opening lines, but few know the rest and it often gets left out of lists of his “great works”.
I came across this recently – an arrangement for piano – that I thought was particularly fun. I’ve always been intrigued by the part of the fugue that starts around the 4:10 mark. I never get tired of listening to it.
Professor Codevilla observed that the most outrageous part of the farcical hearings on Kavanaugh was the fact that we were forced to pretend that blatantly obvious falsehoods had to be treated as if true.
The forceful farce continues. Everywhere we look the insistence that we believe lies has only gotten worse. Covid, climate, gender, BLM, border, elections, FBI, Jan 6, Hunter Biden, Trump, Ukraine, Inflation, Supply chain, gun control, twitter files — it’s all lies, all the time.
The Kavanaugh hearings were only a few years ago.
The biggest impediment to saving America has to be those who join in pushing the lies and the destructive narrative. The conservatives and establishment Republicans who treat the elections as honest, treat the Jan 6 committee as if it is legit, treat the science and healthcare establishments as if they weren’t dishonest, incompetent and corrupt, treat universities and K-12 education as if they weren’t primarily interested in propaganda. And of course, those who still treat the news media and the FBI/DOJ/CIA and the rest of the bureaucracy as if they were honest.
I expect Democrat voters to be stupid and dishonest. It’s the supposed friends and allies who are sabotaging any chance of standing up to the fascism that engulfs us.
Wow Jim Melcher, that is one hell of an essay, that I otherwise would have missed. Thanks for posting!
Re: Lionel Trilling
Jim Melcher:
I’ve never had a handle on Trilling beyond he was a Big Think Lit Guy from the 50s whose quotes always left me in the dust. I found the “City Journal” article you linked enticing, but unclear as well. I lack much of the context.
So I went down a Trilling rabbit-hole on the net. I can make out more of the outlines of what you and CJ claim. I did run into this great Trilling quote, remarkable for its lack of ambiguity:
____________________________________
I think of my intellectual life as a struggle, not energetic enough, against all the blindnesses and malign obfuscations of the Stalinoid mind of our time…
What revolts and disgusts me [about the left’s yes-but defenses of Stalinism]. . . is the hideous involvement of ideals, feelings, social indignations, exhibitions of martyrdom, self-pity. I expect a quantum of injustice in any imperium, expect contradictions as the price of order—what brings me to the puking-point is the fine feelings. And what brings me to the fighting-point is the increasingly sure sense that Stalinist power aims at the annihilation of anything that does not contribute to power. There has never been a power-ideology that so wished to destroy every human quality that did not add to itself.
Leftism — too vague.
Progressivism — who is against progress?
Marxism — more of a counter economic theory to capitalism.
Socialism — today most governments have socialist features.
Liberalism — today’s conservatives are in large measure classic liberals.
But Stalinism really brings out the totalitarian aspects front and center.
Huxley, perhaps a couple more conventional names for the opposition might be “historicism”, on the one hand, and “positivism” on the other? Anyhow, look and see whether these are fitting?
For many years now, I have designated Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #3 as my “desert island music”–the choice if one could only have a single piece of music to listen to interminably. There might be something about the number “3” as Handel’s Water Music #3 is also a huge favorite.
Whoopi Goldberg, the talk show host, has been claiming falsely, that the World War 2 Holocaust, was not done “as a form of racism”, against Jewish people.
I wish she’d stop making this statement. I don’t see how these claims could possibly be helpful to people.
From what history I’ve read, many Jewish people state that the Jewish people can be both 1) a people of the Jewish religion, and 2) some Jewish people claim that the Jewish people can be both a race of people, and/or people who have Judaism as their religion.
I think it would be better if she dropped this debate, a debate that she has started.
I really think her best option would be for her to apologize for these remarks, and then move on to other topics.
(The above topic(s) is a very sensitive one. I apologize if my above remarks have offended anyone.)
Hitler compared them to rats vermin she is just too stupid to be in on the air
TR:
Actually, the Jewish people are a religion and a people and not a race in the biological sense, because they can be joined by conversion and a convert is a Jew. However, that’s irrelevant to what happened in the Holocaust, which is that the Nazis had a full-fledged racial hierarchy and Jews were the lowest and most supposedly evil race on it and therefore had to be destroyed. What matters is not whether Jews considered themselves a race or actually are a race, what matters is that the Nazis considered them a race and a race that was necessary to be eliminated from the face of the earth.
Thank you for your reply.
I totally agree with the things you’ve said about these issues.
Stan:
I guess conservatives are — predictably — choosing to take the high road. It has occurred to me perhaps we ought to try the low road for a while. Specifically, to find some clever neologisms similar in intent to the “don’t say gay” trope, and to popularize them.
I propose “Biden’s Burden” to describe the horrendous policies he has set this country upon, and that are so dysfunctional. The southern border, energy policy, inflation, the redesign of the American military to pay more attention to political correctness than military readiness — these are all examples of Biden’s Burden.
I’m open to other suggestions. The point is to find a shorthand manner to highlight the burden Americans have to carry because of Biden’s incompetence, and ultimately the burden Biden carries into history.
But that prompts the question: what is race?
It is, I daresay, is a trick question. The answer is not as simple as it may immediately seem.
Huxley, perhaps a couple more conventional names for the opposition might be “historicism”, on the one hand, and “positivism” on the other?
sdferr:
I imagine some conservatives see historicism or positivism as slippery slopes to totalitarianism. That's not so obvious to me.
It's the Stalinist aspects of the left which trouble me (and Trilling).
In addition to Neo’s comments about how the Nazis looked at Jews, another very warped part of Whoopi’s view is that she says this was a “white on white” crime. For her, as for others who consciously or unconsciously accept critical race theory, the only real “racism” in the world is the nefarious evil “white” people against black people. In this view, Jews were “white” and therefore their murders were awful, but not racist. Armenians can take comfort, in this view, that their cousins were not victims of a racial genocide because Turks were “white.” Even Tutsis slaughtered by Hutus in Rwanda can be glad to know that “racism” had nothing to do with it. People, like Whoopi, with these ideas, completely ignore, or are completely ignorant of, the atrocities committed in every part of the world in every era of human history against tribes and nations who were not “us” to some other group.
And, of course, such people are ignorant of, or ignore, the history spanning two millennia of mistreatment of Jews.
While I freely recognize Bach’s genius, his music has never resonated with me. Part of it is probably the extensive use of the Harpsicord, not quite ‘chalk on a chalkboard’ but grating nevertheless. I much prefer the other greats and not so greats.
After reflecting upon it a bit more, I think Bach’s music is for me, too much of the head and not enough of the heart. Perhaps that reflects a failure upon my part but there it is.
huxley,
The Trotskyists always give way to the Stalinists, as collectivist ideologies are not sustainable without coercion.
the nuremberg laws were explicitly race not religion based, this homicidal impulse seemed to common not only among the nazis who might have seemed like the reincarnation of the canaanites, but adjunct factions from the vichy milice, to the golden square of iraq,
had trotsky have been prevailed over the stalin, one wonders, for the argument was largely as I recall over pursuing one country, at a time, rather than all at once around the world, that doctrine on a pin, was the reason why the stalinists in the spanish republic pursued the trotskyites and the anarchists like poum over the loyalists, who prevailed, why trotsky got the axe in mexico city, some trotskyites like burnham moved to the right, and kristol and company, moved to center left, and eventually somewhat adjunct to the gop, all the while they understood that military force was the last tool in state policy, not the last
The Trotskyists always give way to the Stalinists, as collectivist ideologies are not sustainable without coercion.
Geoffrey Britain:
Always?
Christopher Hitchens was a Trotskyite. I don’t recall he gave way to Stalinism.
Most governments have collectivist aspects. I am not persuaded by conservative arguments that collectivism inevitably leads to Stalinism of some sort.
Lionel Trilling and George Orwell remained on the Left, though both became adamant anti-Stalinists.
Harpsichord? Pipe organ if you want something hearty.
Wiki provides a definition of Stalinism which IMO is quite good and historically accurate.
Fortunately, Stalinism has not become overused to the point it has become purely a term of abuse like “fascist” and “neoconservative.”
________________________
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory of socialism in one country, collectivization of agriculture, intensification of class conflict, a cult of personality,[1][2] and subordination of the interests of foreign communist parties to those of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, deemed by Stalinism to be the leading vanguard party of communist revolution at the time.
With the bonus of genocide and Gulags; features not bugs?
Putin speaks fondly of Old Uncle Joe.
om:
Genocide and gulags strike me as likely, if not inevitable, outcomes for a “one-party totalitarian state.”
It occurs to me “Stalinism” as “one-party totalitarian police state” might work better when conservatives make the argument to non-conservatives that Communism and Nazism were essentially the same and not at opposite ends of the left-right political spectrum.
Geoffrey Britain– Bach’s music has plenty of heart, particularly his choral works. Granted, I grew up in a liturgical tradition in which Bach’s music is foundational– but even people from different religious backgrounds find works like the Mass in B Minor intensely spiritual.
Since we’re in the Christmas season, I’ll include here the concluding chorale of Cantata VI (for the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6) from the Weihnachtsoratorium: the trumpets, kettledrums, and oboe give the chorale melody a festive, even regal, sound to accompany the text written by Bach’s librettist (Christoph Friedrich Henrici):
Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen
An eurer Feinde Schar,
Denn Christus hat zerbrochen,
Was euch zuwider war.
Tod, Teufel, Sünd und Hölle
Sind ganz und gar geschwächt;
Bei Gott hat seine Stelle
Das menschliche Geschlecht.
A rough English translation:
Now are you well avenged
On the entire troop of your enemies,
Because Christ has shattered
All that stood against you.
Death, the Devil, Sin, and Hell
Are utterly devastated.
Humankind now has its place
At God’s side.
Now– and here is where Bach’s heart is present as well as his head– the chorale tune sung at the conclusion of the entire oratorio is more familiar to most Western Christians as the Passion Chorale–the hymn tune used on Good Friday for the hymn “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.” It is Bach’s way of reminding his hearers that Christ’s death was foreshadowed from His birth, and that this is what brings humans close to God’s own heart:
And to thank Neo for the many dance videos she posts for all of us over the course of the year, here is Kathryn Morgan’s ballet improvisation set to the Adagio from Bach’s Concerto in D Minor:
it really was striking as he preached from the book of isiah, and described exactly what his fate would be, referencing what had happened to the prophets of old,
huxley:
I agree regarding the l totalitarian left/right falsity. The left really exploded when TIK posted “Hitler Was A Socislist” albeit a totalitarian one. When he posted quotes from him the wailing, denial, and wholescale reinvention of words began. Ends and means. Power as an end.
Lot of flooding in western Washington today. For first time since I have owned this place the waves came over my bulkhead (+16 ft). Flooded out one of my cameras. The Ordinary High Water mark is +10.5 here.
“ SEATTLE – Get ready for an active evening of weather across Western Washington! We’re tracking strong, widespread and prolonged winds. Rain will be heavy, increasing the risk for flooding and landslides.
Coastal communities are facing a flooding threat today as high tides combine with low pressure in the atmosphere. Later tonight, mountain snow could be quite intense.
The strongest winds will likely happen between 4-7 p.m. Tuesday, but gusts are already picking up across Western Washington. Many communities from Seattle through Bellingham will see gusts to 50 mph. Gusts to 55 to 60 mph are in the forecast for Olympia and southward. While we can’t rule out Seattle from seeing gusts to 60 mph, it’s more likely to the south. Gusts in excess of 65 mph are possible for the Central and North Coast. The South Washington Coast could see winds of 60 to 80 mph!”
Chases:
Maybe some of those high winds will clean out Washington’s homeless tent cities.
Leave a Reply
HTML tags allowed in your
comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
From our vantage-point toward the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, Lionel Trilling can be seen as a conservative—an opponent of the Progressive trend of his, and our, day. Micheal Knox Beran makes the case in an article I find profoundly moving, as I consider what education can help our new grandson be part of a restoration and enlargement of the cultural inheritance:
https://www.city-journal.org/liberal-humanisms-lost-world
Per Beran, per Trilling: ‘…In their “vulgar and facile progressivism,” America’s thought leaders favored doctrinaire books “that praise us for taking progressive attitudes” and wallowed in a “literature of piety” with “neither imagination nor mind.”’
Wow. We resemble that remark.
Beran points out that both Arnold and Trilling thought that the elites of their society were failing to address deep parts of the human soul. Is our continuing failure to do so is due to cowardice, or, perhaps, perpetual deferment of a spiritual duty?
(Hat tip, Powerline.)
I don’t read music so I understood very little of that, but still fun to try. I don’t need any convincing that Bach was a genius. I’ve always thought Toccata and Fugue in D minor to be very underrated – yes, everyone knows the opening lines, but few know the rest and it often gets left out of lists of his “great works”.
I came across this recently – an arrangement for piano – that I thought was particularly fun. I’ve always been intrigued by the part of the fugue that starts around the 4:10 mark. I never get tired of listening to it.
https://youtu.be/o3aI7Oo3GMo
Professor Codevilla observed that the most outrageous part of the farcical hearings on Kavanaugh was the fact that we were forced to pretend that blatantly obvious falsehoods had to be treated as if true.
The forceful farce continues. Everywhere we look the insistence that we believe lies has only gotten worse. Covid, climate, gender, BLM, border, elections, FBI, Jan 6, Hunter Biden, Trump, Ukraine, Inflation, Supply chain, gun control, twitter files — it’s all lies, all the time.
The Kavanaugh hearings were only a few years ago.
The biggest impediment to saving America has to be those who join in pushing the lies and the destructive narrative. The conservatives and establishment Republicans who treat the elections as honest, treat the Jan 6 committee as if it is legit, treat the science and healthcare establishments as if they weren’t dishonest, incompetent and corrupt, treat universities and K-12 education as if they weren’t primarily interested in propaganda. And of course, those who still treat the news media and the FBI/DOJ/CIA and the rest of the bureaucracy as if they were honest.
I expect Democrat voters to be stupid and dishonest. It’s the supposed friends and allies who are sabotaging any chance of standing up to the fascism that engulfs us.
Wow Jim Melcher, that is one hell of an essay, that I otherwise would have missed. Thanks for posting!
Re: Lionel Trilling
Jim Melcher:
I’ve never had a handle on Trilling beyond he was a Big Think Lit Guy from the 50s whose quotes always left me in the dust. I found the “City Journal” article you linked enticing, but unclear as well. I lack much of the context.
So I went down a Trilling rabbit-hole on the net. I can make out more of the outlines of what you and CJ claim. I did run into this great Trilling quote, remarkable for its lack of ambiguity:
____________________________________
I think of my intellectual life as a struggle, not energetic enough, against all the blindnesses and malign obfuscations of the Stalinoid mind of our time…
What revolts and disgusts me [about the left’s yes-but defenses of Stalinism]. . . is the hideous involvement of ideals, feelings, social indignations, exhibitions of martyrdom, self-pity. I expect a quantum of injustice in any imperium, expect contradictions as the price of order—what brings me to the puking-point is the fine feelings. And what brings me to the fighting-point is the increasingly sure sense that Stalinist power aims at the annihilation of anything that does not contribute to power. There has never been a power-ideology that so wished to destroy every human quality that did not add to itself.
–Lionel Trilling, correspondence with Eric Bentley (1946)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/09/29/regrets-only-louis-menand
____________________________________
Wow. I’ll have to give Trilling more thought.
Perhaps Stalinism is the best name for The Enemy.
I’ve never been satisfied with the usual terms.
Leftism — too vague.
Progressivism — who is against progress?
Marxism — more of a counter economic theory to capitalism.
Socialism — today most governments have socialist features.
Liberalism — today’s conservatives are in large measure classic liberals.
But Stalinism really brings out the totalitarian aspects front and center.
Huxley, perhaps a couple more conventional names for the opposition might be “historicism”, on the one hand, and “positivism” on the other? Anyhow, look and see whether these are fitting?
For many years now, I have designated Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #3 as my “desert island music”–the choice if one could only have a single piece of music to listen to interminably. There might be something about the number “3” as Handel’s Water Music #3 is also a huge favorite.
Whoopi Goldberg, the talk show host, has been claiming falsely, that the World War 2 Holocaust, was not done “as a form of racism”, against Jewish people.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whoopi-goldberg-reiterates-false-claim-that-holocaust-wasnt-originally-about-race/
I wish she’d stop making this statement. I don’t see how these claims could possibly be helpful to people.
From what history I’ve read, many Jewish people state that the Jewish people can be both 1) a people of the Jewish religion, and 2) some Jewish people claim that the Jewish people can be both a race of people, and/or people who have Judaism as their religion.
I think it would be better if she dropped this debate, a debate that she has started.
I really think her best option would be for her to apologize for these remarks, and then move on to other topics.
(The above topic(s) is a very sensitive one. I apologize if my above remarks have offended anyone.)
Hitler compared them to rats vermin she is just too stupid to be in on the air
TR:
Actually, the Jewish people are a religion and a people and not a race in the biological sense, because they can be joined by conversion and a convert is a Jew. However, that’s irrelevant to what happened in the Holocaust, which is that the Nazis had a full-fledged racial hierarchy and Jews were the lowest and most supposedly evil race on it and therefore had to be destroyed. What matters is not whether Jews considered themselves a race or actually are a race, what matters is that the Nazis considered them a race and a race that was necessary to be eliminated from the face of the earth.
Surprise
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/12/27/the-rich-just-keep-getting-richer-thanks-to-government-disaster-aid-n520156
Hi neo,
Thank you for your reply.
I totally agree with the things you’ve said about these issues.
Stan:
I guess conservatives are — predictably — choosing to take the high road. It has occurred to me perhaps we ought to try the low road for a while. Specifically, to find some clever neologisms similar in intent to the “don’t say gay” trope, and to popularize them.
I propose “Biden’s Burden” to describe the horrendous policies he has set this country upon, and that are so dysfunctional. The southern border, energy policy, inflation, the redesign of the American military to pay more attention to political correctness than military readiness — these are all examples of Biden’s Burden.
I’m open to other suggestions. The point is to find a shorthand manner to highlight the burden Americans have to carry because of Biden’s incompetence, and ultimately the burden Biden carries into history.
But that prompts the question: what is race?
It is, I daresay, is a trick question. The answer is not as simple as it may immediately seem.
Huxley, perhaps a couple more conventional names for the opposition might be “historicism”, on the one hand, and “positivism” on the other?
sdferr:
I imagine some conservatives see historicism or positivism as slippery slopes to totalitarianism. That's not so obvious to me.
It's the Stalinist aspects of the left which trouble me (and Trilling).
In addition to Neo’s comments about how the Nazis looked at Jews, another very warped part of Whoopi’s view is that she says this was a “white on white” crime. For her, as for others who consciously or unconsciously accept critical race theory, the only real “racism” in the world is the nefarious evil “white” people against black people. In this view, Jews were “white” and therefore their murders were awful, but not racist. Armenians can take comfort, in this view, that their cousins were not victims of a racial genocide because Turks were “white.” Even Tutsis slaughtered by Hutus in Rwanda can be glad to know that “racism” had nothing to do with it. People, like Whoopi, with these ideas, completely ignore, or are completely ignorant of, the atrocities committed in every part of the world in every era of human history against tribes and nations who were not “us” to some other group.
And, of course, such people are ignorant of, or ignore, the history spanning two millennia of mistreatment of Jews.
While I freely recognize Bach’s genius, his music has never resonated with me. Part of it is probably the extensive use of the Harpsicord, not quite ‘chalk on a chalkboard’ but grating nevertheless. I much prefer the other greats and not so greats.
After reflecting upon it a bit more, I think Bach’s music is for me, too much of the head and not enough of the heart. Perhaps that reflects a failure upon my part but there it is.
huxley,
The Trotskyists always give way to the Stalinists, as collectivist ideologies are not sustainable without coercion.
the nuremberg laws were explicitly race not religion based, this homicidal impulse seemed to common not only among the nazis who might have seemed like the reincarnation of the canaanites, but adjunct factions from the vichy milice, to the golden square of iraq,
had trotsky have been prevailed over the stalin, one wonders, for the argument was largely as I recall over pursuing one country, at a time, rather than all at once around the world, that doctrine on a pin, was the reason why the stalinists in the spanish republic pursued the trotskyites and the anarchists like poum over the loyalists, who prevailed, why trotsky got the axe in mexico city, some trotskyites like burnham moved to the right, and kristol and company, moved to center left, and eventually somewhat adjunct to the gop, all the while they understood that military force was the last tool in state policy, not the last
The Trotskyists always give way to the Stalinists, as collectivist ideologies are not sustainable without coercion.
Geoffrey Britain:
Always?
Christopher Hitchens was a Trotskyite. I don’t recall he gave way to Stalinism.
Most governments have collectivist aspects. I am not persuaded by conservative arguments that collectivism inevitably leads to Stalinism of some sort.
Lionel Trilling and George Orwell remained on the Left, though both became adamant anti-Stalinists.
Harpsichord? Pipe organ if you want something hearty.
Wiki provides a definition of Stalinism which IMO is quite good and historically accurate.
Fortunately, Stalinism has not become overused to the point it has become purely a term of abuse like “fascist” and “neoconservative.”
________________________
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory of socialism in one country, collectivization of agriculture, intensification of class conflict, a cult of personality,[1][2] and subordination of the interests of foreign communist parties to those of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, deemed by Stalinism to be the leading vanguard party of communist revolution at the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalinism
________________________
Minus the specifics of Joseph Stalin and the years he was head of the USSR, it is a workable definition for a pathological leftist state.
I like that the definition leads with “one-party totalitarian police state.” That’s a key distinction for me.
heh
https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2022/12/make-george-santos-speaker.html#more
huxley:
With the bonus of genocide and Gulags; features not bugs?
Putin speaks fondly of Old Uncle Joe.
om:
Genocide and gulags strike me as likely, if not inevitable, outcomes for a “one-party totalitarian state.”
It occurs to me “Stalinism” as “one-party totalitarian police state” might work better when conservatives make the argument to non-conservatives that Communism and Nazism were essentially the same and not at opposite ends of the left-right political spectrum.
Geoffrey Britain– Bach’s music has plenty of heart, particularly his choral works. Granted, I grew up in a liturgical tradition in which Bach’s music is foundational– but even people from different religious backgrounds find works like the Mass in B Minor intensely spiritual.
Since we’re in the Christmas season, I’ll include here the concluding chorale of Cantata VI (for the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6) from the Weihnachtsoratorium: the trumpets, kettledrums, and oboe give the chorale melody a festive, even regal, sound to accompany the text written by Bach’s librettist (Christoph Friedrich Henrici):
Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen
An eurer Feinde Schar,
Denn Christus hat zerbrochen,
Was euch zuwider war.
Tod, Teufel, Sünd und Hölle
Sind ganz und gar geschwächt;
Bei Gott hat seine Stelle
Das menschliche Geschlecht.
A rough English translation:
Now are you well avenged
On the entire troop of your enemies,
Because Christ has shattered
All that stood against you.
Death, the Devil, Sin, and Hell
Are utterly devastated.
Humankind now has its place
At God’s side.
Now– and here is where Bach’s heart is present as well as his head– the chorale tune sung at the conclusion of the entire oratorio is more familiar to most Western Christians as the Passion Chorale–the hymn tune used on Good Friday for the hymn “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.” It is Bach’s way of reminding his hearers that Christ’s death was foreshadowed from His birth, and that this is what brings humans close to God’s own heart:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lULC5uyVb70&ab_channel=JohnBeake
And to thank Neo for the many dance videos she posts for all of us over the course of the year, here is Kathryn Morgan’s ballet improvisation set to the Adagio from Bach’s Concerto in D Minor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmE-bmv_CB0&ab_channel=KathrynMorgan
it really was striking as he preached from the book of isiah, and described exactly what his fate would be, referencing what had happened to the prophets of old,
huxley:
I agree regarding the l totalitarian left/right falsity. The left really exploded when TIK posted “Hitler Was A Socislist” albeit a totalitarian one. When he posted quotes from him the wailing, denial, and wholescale reinvention of words began. Ends and means. Power as an end.
Lot of flooding in western Washington today. For first time since I have owned this place the waves came over my bulkhead (+16 ft). Flooded out one of my cameras. The Ordinary High Water mark is +10.5 here.
“ SEATTLE – Get ready for an active evening of weather across Western Washington! We’re tracking strong, widespread and prolonged winds. Rain will be heavy, increasing the risk for flooding and landslides.
Coastal communities are facing a flooding threat today as high tides combine with low pressure in the atmosphere. Later tonight, mountain snow could be quite intense.
The strongest winds will likely happen between 4-7 p.m. Tuesday, but gusts are already picking up across Western Washington. Many communities from Seattle through Bellingham will see gusts to 50 mph. Gusts to 55 to 60 mph are in the forecast for Olympia and southward. While we can’t rule out Seattle from seeing gusts to 60 mph, it’s more likely to the south. Gusts in excess of 65 mph are possible for the Central and North Coast. The South Washington Coast could see winds of 60 to 80 mph!”
Chases:
Maybe some of those high winds will clean out Washington’s homeless tent cities.