Month: November 2014

November 5, 2014 Politics

Were You Looking for Midterm Election Thoughts?

Were you looking for midterm election thoughts on Opus Publicum? I hope not, because I really don’t have any. As should be pretty clear by now, I am not a “political junkie” even though I consider myself to be generally informed about state- and national-level political trends. Moreover, to paraphrase a “Tweet” I read last night, U.S. elections come down to deciding which flavor of liberalism will prevail; there is no serious opposition going on. Still, I confess that I spent an inordinate (roughly three hours) amount of time listening to/watching election coverage, including the free online streams of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. What did I learn from doing that? Only that Jon Stewart has a very difficult time in front of a live camera. Though I almost never watch his show, I can’t imagine that the regular taped editions feature anywhere near the amount of verbal fumbling I heard last night. It was almost painful.

Beyond that there isn’t much to report. The Republican Party increased its majority in the House while taking control of the Senate. That’s a recipe for further congressional deadlock, which isn’t the worst thing in the world considering the players involved. So, since nothing will get done in Washington, we now we have two years (yes two years) of 2016 campaigning to look forward to. A few pundits have speculated that 2016 may see the rise of more third-party candidates, but my hunch is that probably won’t be true for any major national election. There’s too much at stake. Others believe that 2016 will just be more of the same old, same old; even if the Democrats take back control of the Senate, they may very well lose the Presidency. What this seems to mean is the steady reemergence of what I will call “federalism by gridlock.” As lawmakers in D.C. regularly fail to pass meaningful legislation (e.g., minimum wage increases), state lawmakers and voter referendums will have to continue stepping in to fill the void left by federal inaction. This is, in fact, already happening across the country. For those who like to champion states’ rights, this probably seems like a victory. However, given the mixed quality state legislative bodies and the general lack of media monitoring of their behavior, there are good reasons to worry about this trend.

November 4, 2014 Politics

Wolf Hunting in Michigan

Very few people who read this web-log care about Michigan politics and even less care about the politics of hunting wolves in the “Mitten State.” Let me try and assure you that this entry, freewheeling though it may be, is not intended to be as parochial as the title indicates. Anyway, on with the post.

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November 4, 2014 Philosophy, Politics

A Few Comments on Straussianism

Over the past year I have written very little on Leo Strauss, “Straussianism,” and related matters. That’s quite a departure from the way things “used to be.” I was once accused of never writing about anything other than Strauss, with an occasional interruption to discuss Eric Voegelin, Carl Schmitt, or the latest article I had read on Russian Orthodox “Old Believers.” Times have changed and so has my thinking. Though I would not cast my distancing from Strauss in as dramatic or stark terms as my distancing from libertarianism, I have started to realize how seldom I think in what might be called “Straussian Categories” these days. For instance, the so-called “historical sense” bothers me very little, and I am neither suspicious of, nor hostile toward, attempts to examine the genealogy of ideas and texts as interpretive aides. And while I was never a strong adherent to Strauss’s rightly controversial “exoteric/esoteric” thesis, I am now deeply incredulous toward the notion that the history of philosophy is really just the history of an ambiguous conversation about the existence of God (or gods) that was carried out across the Western world by a half-dozen intellectual giants. Sure, there is a lot more to Straussianism than all of that, but not as much as some people seem to think.

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November 3, 2014 Spirituality

All Souls Day

If someone were to ask me to briefly summarize one of the most unsettling problems in the Catholic Church today, I might be inclined to point to this day, the Feast of All Souls, and note three things: (1) That All Souls Day can be, and this year was, widely celebrated on a Sunday; (2) That priests are neither expected nor encouraged to trinate on the feast (i.e., celebrate three Masses); and (3) The disappearance of the privileged altar. The Ecclesia Militans has abandoned the Ecclesia Penitens. This makes quite a bit of sense in a day and age when we’re told to “dare to hope” about the final destination of all souls, including those who have departed and/or wage war against Christ’s Holy Church.

Let me be clear: The holy souls in Purgatory need our help now more than ever. If we do not abandon them, they will not abandon us when they gain their reward in Heaven. For the remainder of this week, consider dedicating yourself spiritually to gaining a plenary indulgence for a soul still suffering. Consider, too, remembering the most forgotten souls in Purgatory when reciting the Rosary and offer your intention at Mass for their speedy delivery into the arms of our Holy Mother. And if you can, make time to recite the Officium Defunctorum as well. All of these acts, plus the innumerable prayers and petitions given to us by Holy Mother Church, are powerful aids to the holy souls and to ourselves as well.