Soapbox: Putting Craig Smith to Sleep -- Er, Rest

Well, it's been fun going bareknuckeled successfully against the conservatives, and then having a nice crow and humble pie for dessert. What an exercise! No pounds shed, but I think eyes were opened at both corners of the ring (pardon the shoddy geometry).

 

My boxing coach, Spartacus, had one more email last night on the subject, responding to mine:

 

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 9:13 PM

 

Yes, I fully understand the need to take a stand--we can only keep mum and play nice for so long before something so egregious affronts us to the point where we MUST speak out, even at the risk of offending (of course, if we can do it without offending, our message is more likely to be heard, but sometimes that is a virtual impossibility).

 

I did not mean to imply that all dichotomies are fallacious, rather, my intention was to suggest that seeing these issues as dichotomous is a loser's game. We need to take a step back and try to find a third viewpoint, a viewpoint which looks beyond the superficial division of dichotomies and gets at the fundamental issues of what our culture is and how that defines what we think of as "human".

 

Why do we continue on a course which doesn't work, and which any open-minded inquiry by a sober human being will have to conclude has never worked? Why does virtually any human being on the face of this planet conclude during lucid moments that we are in deep trouble, yet he/she continues to propose the same sorry "solutions", which have been shown time after time to be ineffective at best, and counterproductive at worst?

 

Courage is needed, great courage, and heart, and understanding--an ability to look unflinchingly at the truth of the matter, the courage to see it for what it is, and a willingness to take the steps needed to get us on the right course before it is too late. The time for Left/Right, Liberal/Conservative, East/West, Christian/Muslim, Black/White, etc posturing is past--any sane person must conclude such debates have long outlived their usefulness--if indeed they ever did serve any useful purpose. We no longer have the luxury of wasting time on such meaningless superficiality.

 

***

 

So this evening I answered:

 

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 6:30 PM

 

That's it! You hit the nail with your head in that first paragraph; so you understand, obviously, why I had to send out my particularly heavy diatribe against that particularly nasty "Duh-Vinci Code". And you see, too, how in the case of our conservative cousins, I simply had to do a heavy Twisted Sister: "We're not gonna take it; No; we ain't gonna TAKE it!!"

 

Second verse, same as the first. I mean, paragraph: I’m put in mind of a great Garfield cartoon (back when the strip was funny): our fat cat is chasing birds and butterflies around the birdbath. He slams hard into the base of the bath, later trips and falls into the birdbath itself, etc. Sitting drenched and battered in the water, he ponders, "Why do we cats do these things?" A butterfly bumbles past. "Is it instinct or stupidity?" He makes an imbecilic grin and reaches out vainly for the butterfly, falls out of the birdbath and onto his nose. "Stupidity, I guess," he concludes firmly.

 

Okay, brother: you've done a great job sniffing out the smoke, and identifying the likely fire/inferno. What's the next step? How to we attack the destructive flames without getting hosed ourselves? Open to suggestion here. Regards, AgingChild

 

***

 

My reference above to the "Duh-Vinci Code" (term coined by Father Mitch Pacwa, SJ) concerns a long blast I fired against that piece of evil, third-rate anti-Christian slander officially released as a book and movie titled "The da Vinci Code", but in reality a horrid, hell-written attack against Christianity in general, and most particularly the Catholic Church. I sent my raving rant out far and wide, to friends, relatives, and select coworkers… which nearly got me fired. It went out on the same date the movie was released (and flopped!) in the US. I'll put it here at some point; right now I've got some butterflies to chase…