Sam, you're a much-needed and much-appreciated voice in the wilderness. Apart from my son, who is currently finishing a PhD on rhetoric and propaganda in which Ellul features prominently, no-one else has gone to the trouble of expounding on this issue from the perspective, and at the depth, that you have. It is enlightening and edifying to an amazing extent, and a credit to your scholarship.
The scholarship here was all Ellul's. I'm just riffing / expanding on the work he did in order to try to get people with the patience to listen to and understand me to read and understand him. Seen "democratically", what I am doing is a waste of time. But I labour in the more traditional belief that a few good men are worth much more than an infinite number of worthless ones.
That resonated. I would agree in general with most of his points. Such is the discipline.
Edit: I don't agree with him on the point of love (his thought being that self-interest is antithetical to love). This position is connected to the idea of the virtue of suffering for its own sake which some stands of Christianity are so attached to (and which is a cultural landmark in the Orthodox country in which I live, Russia). Perhaps within a full and valid spiritual tradition this had meaning, but as a drone string on a broken guitar (which is all we have today), it sets people up to be abused by the (increasing numbers of) psychopaths which the speaker identifies. In such a deteriorated condition as today, the thinking of Ayn Rand makes more sense to me (although I do not agree with her essentially materialistic foundation) which is that — when correctly understood — self-interest and love naturally corollate. (Obviously, I am using the word "love" in the sense of affection and preference for, not as an expression of common lust.)
On the back of that link, I watched a full interview with him. A few minor points to do with doctrine notwithstanding, I agreed with his general theses and found that he gives voice and expands upon many things I have touched upon over the years. Additionally, his conclusions (at the end) are unassailable. A deep thinker and interesting man.
I'd also recommend his prolific videos on philosophy and theology (The Orthodox Nationalist) and current affairs on the "Radio Albion" channel on Odyssey and the essays on his website rusjournal.org
Sam, you're a much-needed and much-appreciated voice in the wilderness. Apart from my son, who is currently finishing a PhD on rhetoric and propaganda in which Ellul features prominently, no-one else has gone to the trouble of expounding on this issue from the perspective, and at the depth, that you have. It is enlightening and edifying to an amazing extent, and a credit to your scholarship.
The scholarship here was all Ellul's. I'm just riffing / expanding on the work he did in order to try to get people with the patience to listen to and understand me to read and understand him. Seen "democratically", what I am doing is a waste of time. But I labour in the more traditional belief that a few good men are worth much more than an infinite number of worthless ones.
Thank you, Sam! Good one! ❤️👍
I often come back to this bleak but excellent short video by Matthew Raphael Johnson. It makes more sense to me as time passes.
17 General Truths
https://youtu.be/7DH7Z62ltOo?si=I_qBGqFrEDwz2NfG
That resonated. I would agree in general with most of his points. Such is the discipline.
Edit: I don't agree with him on the point of love (his thought being that self-interest is antithetical to love). This position is connected to the idea of the virtue of suffering for its own sake which some stands of Christianity are so attached to (and which is a cultural landmark in the Orthodox country in which I live, Russia). Perhaps within a full and valid spiritual tradition this had meaning, but as a drone string on a broken guitar (which is all we have today), it sets people up to be abused by the (increasing numbers of) psychopaths which the speaker identifies. In such a deteriorated condition as today, the thinking of Ayn Rand makes more sense to me (although I do not agree with her essentially materialistic foundation) which is that — when correctly understood — self-interest and love naturally corollate. (Obviously, I am using the word "love" in the sense of affection and preference for, not as an expression of common lust.)
On the back of that link, I watched a full interview with him. A few minor points to do with doctrine notwithstanding, I agreed with his general theses and found that he gives voice and expands upon many things I have touched upon over the years. Additionally, his conclusions (at the end) are unassailable. A deep thinker and interesting man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viqpjOimCZw
I'd also recommend his prolific videos on philosophy and theology (The Orthodox Nationalist) and current affairs on the "Radio Albion" channel on Odyssey and the essays on his website rusjournal.org
And when a community among them said:
Why exhort you a people whom God will destroy or punish with a severe punishment?
They said: as justification before your Lord, and that they might be in prudent fear...
Quran chapter 7 verse 164
https://reader.quranite.com/verses/chapters?chapter=7&page=4&anchor=164#164
Just looked him up. Clearly, the people who funded him are not primarily interested in monkeys.