Austin Hall Library

A Cat Comes to the Farm

I have never liked cats--then, she appeared recently out of nowhere, a scrawny, crying, clinging, pitiable cat-infant. I am advised that she is a Calico cat, which I am also advised is not a breed of cat, but a description of the coat color--a mixture of tortoiseshell fur (black and orange) and white fur.

What was I to do? So young, and so undernourished, she would not have lasted long on her own. She seemed to know it, and she seemed desperately to want me to know it. I could have tolerated her suffering on the theory that she has no soul, but such a theory could not mean that she felt no pain. If, on the other hand, it only means that, as a lower animal, she has no moral responsibilities or immortality, then it seemed to make my tolerating her suffering even harder to justify than human suffering. Unlike humans, she couldn't deserve her suffering, profit morally from the discipline suffering induces, or be compensated with happiness in the next life. Pain and suffering without guilt or fruit is severe, desperately frightening, and ultimately unbearable, whether one is a lower or a higher animal.

In the end, I decided not to get too carried away with the state of a kitten's immaterial self (if it has one). As C.S. Lewis thought, God may yet do something for such innocents in the new heaven and new earth to come. Rather, I decided that whether I tolerated a helpless kitten's suffering or not, when it was within my power to alleviate it, said too much about my own immaterial self for me to conveniently ignore. So, she adopted me. Her name is Bella.

A Few Changes

It has been several months since I posted anything on the Austin Hall site. I have simply been too focused on other matters--so much so that my elective reading has significantly suffered. Hopefully, I will be able to regather momentum by altering the site design and expanding the topics discussed. Those who visit the site with some regularity will notice that the blog has expanded to address "Reflections on faith, culture, books and ideas found in books." Additionally, there are new lists and links for review in the column on the left. As before, posts will touch on matters related to books and the ideas found therein, but will also specifically reference matters of faith and culture. And, perhaps anything that comes to mind of interest. If you are a regular visitor, or just happen upon the site, feel free to suggest links, topics, books, or ideas to discuss or reflect upon. 

Economics for the Rest of Us

In my previous post, I mentioned Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse. She has a website where more can be learned of her and her work here. There are also testimonials on the website regarding her fascinating book, Love & Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village. It is a book about why strong families are vital to society presented in the context of free-market economics and limited-government political philosophy, with a touch of the natural law thrown in. It is an approach to economics that makes sense, and for that reason it might take a little getting used to. There aren't many books on economics these days that actually make sense.

But, I have mentioned before E.F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. If you find economics boring, irrelevant, and impractical, this is the book for you. Written in the 1970s, Small appears a bit outdated, but its insights are timeless. I wish I had grown up reflecting on Schumacher's ideas. His practical and humanistic approach to economics would perhaps have been an antidote to the modern economic orthodoxy of infinite growth and prosperity. Given the recent events in the American economy, Schumacher appears to have been a prophet.

Sarah Palin and the Law of the Gift

Sarah Palin left an impression on me the first time I heard of her for a reason having nothing to do with politics. Diagnosed prenatally, she gave birth to a Down syndrome son last April and pronounced him "beautiful," "perfect," and "a gift." Of the cases of Down syndrome diagnosed by pre-natal testing each year, approximately ninety percent are terminated by abortion. The first quote I read by Palin was this unusual idea that her special needs child was "a gift."

A significant segment of American society presumes that a person's ability to contribute economically is the primary measure of his value. Perhaps even larger numbers presume (or, also presume) that a person's ability to think, make decisions, and make rational choices are at the heart of what it means to be a person of value, or, perhaps even human. Once we decide that a person is not useful, that uselessness is the measure of the legal rights our society affords him. Similarly, once it is decided that a person is not economically productive or able to think at a pre-determined level, it is easy to see him as not completely human. It is a sobering and frightening thought that a core value of our society has become that the "usefulness" of a person may be in conflict with the basic dignity of each individual.

The current Sarah Palin/special needs discussion reminds me of a book and, particularly, a chapter of a book titled, "The Law of the Gift." The book is authored by a highly qualified academic and economist, Jennifer Roback Morse, and carries the provocative title, Smart Sex: Finding Life-Long Love in a Hook-Up World. It is a fascinating, well-written, and practical book about love, sex, marriage, and the well-being of children. It should be required reading for every college student. Chapter seven ("The Law of the Gift") is practical common sense radicalism. It is radically counter-cultural and likely sounds foreign to most Americans these days. Although it is optimistic and insightful, to read the book is to feel a bit sad about its truth and the prospects for the future of our American society.

Back Again

Regretfully, I have failed to post anything on this site for a couple of months, due in significant part to my day job. As a result of increased time constraints, my reading has suffered most of the summer--a problem I hope to correct.

I am prompted to post today by a notice that one of the excellent sites on the Austin Hall Library blogroll--Classical Bookworm--has moved its site here. It is an delightful blog about reading and learning. Take some time to enjoy the posts, but also look closely at the Sidebar Menu. My favorites are About the Great Books and Latin.

The Relativity of Life Before Death

I recently ran across the following journal entry. No doubt prompted by reading something, as are virtually all my journal entries, but I do not now recall what I was reading. In any event, the sentiment expressed seems wholly appropriate in this season of waiting.

"It is not that all that passes before is of no value, but it is at death that life really matters. Until then, the life of a man is unsettled, and of relative importance, because prior to death man may at any moment fall into ruin and disgrace before men and before God. One moment he may be deemed worthy of admiration and praise; the next moment he may be despised or disregarded altogether. One moment he may be the center of attention and the next moment he may go unnoticed in the world. But, at death, the relative, the qualified, the comparative, becomes settled and absolute. Man is then left to be for all eternity what he was at the moment of his passing. What he was is of importance insofar only as it prepared him for that moment."

From the Local Newspaper

I have been very busy in the great State of Texas lately. Unfortunately, however, I have had little time to read anything in recent days, except the local newspaper. But, boring the local paper is not!

This picture of four local college students with their trophy made the front page yesterday. The monster in the photo weighed eight-hundred, eighty (880) pounds, and was almost fourteen feet long. The bold young men caught the big guy in a nearby river and had to get a tractor to drag it from the water. Then the guys went dove hunting to celebrate.

Only in Texas.

No Need for More "Girly Men"

If you are a man who has somehow lost his way in this understandably confused postmodern era, then you should make your day by reading Harvey C. Mansfield's Manliness. Written by a Harvard University Government professor, this book is hardly right-wing misogynist propaganda. While not in the Great Books of Western Civilization category, Manliness is insightful reading based on sound scholarship.

More could have been written on this topic, and, perhaps much could have been written differently. But, there is one thing for certain. It takes a real man to write a book like this while teaching at Harvard.   

Syntax Matters

Seen on the way to a meeting in San Diego. This is why one should stay in school and learn one's grammar and syntax (if still taught there). Otherwise, it is quite possible to communicate something unintended. Or, perhaps, the syntax is correct. While I have no first-hand knowledge or experience to support my conclusion, I suspect it is easier for the live dancers to draw a crowd. 

More on the "Unadjusted Man"

Peter Viereck points out, in The Unadjusted Man (see the post below), that no Shakespeares and no Leonardos come from a depersonalized world in which "adjustment" exists as an end in itself. The abnormal desire for normalcy, as an end, not means, leads to an "unheroic abdication of resistance" and the abandonment of moral choice.

To be "unadjusted" in Viereck's sense is to be ridiculed by the overadjusted as maladjusted. The  unadjusted man is vulnerable--always ready to take a wound. But, since he is substantially vulnerable, he can be courageous. As Josef Pieper notes, there is no possibility of courage without vulnerability ("An angel cannot be courageous because it is not vulnerable").

This unadjusted man is not willing, however, to sustain a wound for its own sake. His selective unadjustedness rejects "superficial norms not for rejection's sake but to serve valid ones." (Viereck) It is adjustment to the ages and non-adjustment to the age.

Is it possible that modern culture has unwittingly embraced adjustment for the sake of adjustment, so that only the left in politics, and only the avant-garde in literature are heralded as nonconformists? Have all others come to be seen as maladjusted? Perhaps Viereck is right. In such a world, unadjustedness may be the only personal heroism left.