The have been accused in the comments box of ‘hating’ our new President. I don’t think I hate him as a person. Indeed, I’m proud that our country has elected a black man, and that so many of my countrymen have hope for the future, and are optimistic, and I hope he succeeds in making our country a better place. I don’t hate him. However, I do dislike a trait he evidences which is a symptom of the philosophy he holds, and that he (like most ideologues) is stubborn.
He may be a Messiah, but he is also a Minotaur. That is to say, he is bull headed. He is bull headed as are all ideologues. The ideologue is different from an idealist because the idealist has a belief and faith whereas the ideologue has dogma and certainty. The dogma he holds to is even more insidious because he does not believe in dogma, and his certainty is frightful because it brooks no opposition. The ideologues I most dislike and fear are the left wing ideologues. The socialist has accepted a social gospel. He believes his mission on earth is to change the world. He believes he has a kind of divine call to do so, and so do his devotees, he has seen the light, but it has blinded him.
This ideological Messianic minotaur (with his soaring rhetoric and inspiring vision for a brave new world) seems to be the most wonderful kind of politician, when in fact he is the worst kind of politician. He is the worst kind of politician because he believes himself to be the best kind of person. But he is the worst kind of person because he really believes he can do no wrong. He is so convinced of the rightness of his ideology that he will not hear reason from anyone, least of all from the fearless little matador who dons a tri-cornered hat and ridiculous tight trousers and tries to skewer the bull. Instead the minotaur charges on, regardless, even if it is to his ruin. He charges on because the ideological Messianic minotaur is convinced of his invincibility.
This is why I dislike and distrust and fear the Messianic Minotaurs: because they believe they can do no wrong. These are the political Pharisees, the ones who, history has shown us, slaughter millions to create a master race, or effect a more equitable redistribution of wealth to bring about a ‘just and fair’ revolution. These are the ones who self righteously accept the adulation of the crowds as their just due. These are the ones who are forever destined to repeat the mistakes of all the messianic minotaurs before them because they are blind to the faults that brought them down. Even when they are brought low they hold their heads high, indulge in self pity and imagine themselves to be martyrs for their noble cause.
The messianic minotaurs are also destined to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. They have hubris, they do not have humility. They do not have the faintest conception that their solutions may be wrong or that their assessment of the problem may be wrong. So they continue along their ideological path to repeat the same mistakes. Consider the situation in Britain where the messianic minotaurs have been in power for ten years: teen pregnancies and suicides and abortions continue to rise despite more and more money spent on ‘family planning’, ‘sex education for children’ ‘free contraceptives’ etc. So instead of going back to the drawing board and suggesting that they might have asked the wrong questions in the first place, and therefore got the wrong answers, the bull headed minotaurs simply say, “I guess we need more free condoms and sex education at an earlier age.”
So it is not the man himself who I dislike, but the self righteousness and the sense of mission that comes with his left wing ideology. The self righteousness, fueled by the sycophantic fawning of the main stream media and the adoring crowds (who have no other beliefs or inspiration than the bland platitudes of a false hope and a falser hype) gives me the chills, and makes me fear that a monster is being born–one who has the body of a man and the head of a beast.
Should I be proved wrong, I will be the first one to thank the Lord.
Excellent!
Absolutely, amen and amen.
“. . . fueled by the sycophantic fawning of the main stream media and the adoring crowds (who have no other beliefs or inspiration than the bland platitudes of a false hope and a falser hype) gives me the chills . . .”I have been disturbed to see so many self-professed Christians worshiping this golden calf.A sense of accomplishment (or relief) when “your candidate” wins is one thing. (Bill Clinton supporters were amusing, if not disturbing.) This is something completely different.Think we’re going to need a Damascus Road conversion on this one. Does our president ride a horse?
Well said Fr. I still have some hope (yes i said hope) that this Pres will do some good things whereas sometime you strike me as being much more angry and cynical about him.But I do see your point that the flaws in the foundations of the house he is building will have grave social consequences. Just when i think i understand what your time in the UK did to you I learn another extreme of your hatred for moral relativism which you seem to see a bit more strongly outlined under the dems than the reps.Unlike the UK, we do not have such an absolute parliamentary supremacy buttered by a thin layer of figurative monarchy. We have three branches of government that can and do check and balance one another. We are not so easily duped into 10 years or more of stupidity. Even if you’re disdainful of Bush as I am, he only had a couple of years with total GOP rule, and even then there were ‘mavericks’. Shortly thereafter the house of Reps on its 2 year cycle flipped and he began encountering opposition.In addition to your fears of Obama’s social ideology I am afraid of his FDR-esque lefty meddling. Thanks to that giant catholic-persecuting, abortion gulag in the east, China, we are all convinced that the free market has failed us and that the lessons of our ancestors are no longer relevant. We want to meddle like those smart Chinese oligarchs get to meddle, apparently. Just like ol FDR used to do. Of course I speak of ancestral lessons articulated by guys like Adam Smith. But thus far Obama has been more restrained than that fool GWB. GWB was so afraid of carrying the cross of Hoover and being branded short sighted and heartless that he raced to outspend the left when he should have been the one to offer some self restraint. So it goes.
I was hoping you would respond soundly to the “you hate Obama” charge, and you did so with reasoned authority. The accusation was so absurd–that particular accuser, of course, just loves to push your buttons (kind of like an adolescent justifying his own wrong choices: the best defense being the good offense).We don’t need to live in fear, but we must be very wise, focused, and unflinchingly resolute in calling evil behaviors what they are. Love the sinner, HATE the sin. It’s time for courage, not compromise. And it’s past time for Catholic Christians to understand the dangers in cooperating with evil. We have truly entered a new age. Where there is life, there is hope; pray for miracles, but be prepared for the battle on the horizon… Blessings, good priest
Fair enough, but do you suppose a left-wing idealogue is the only type of idealogue who “believes his mission is to change the world” and is “so convinced of the rightness of his ideology that he will not hear reason from anyone”? When I read that, the words “Iraq war” and “neocons” spring to mind. Indeed, it was because they were so fed up with that particular brand of pig-headed idealogue that your people gave the GOP the boot in November.
Party Soldier–this is where right wing and left wing differ. The right wing are transparently after power and control. Their platitudes about ‘freedom’ and ‘delivering Iraq from oppression’ were just a pretext and they knew it. The left wing ideologue really believes his own claptrap.
Father, you are right to attack the ideology and not them man. Men do not rate hate; only ideologies are so worthy. Christopher J., you have it right. This is different: It’s no longer the case of six blind men feeling different parts of the elephant–this is one blind man swinging the elephant by its tail.
Rogue,You told me in the other post that I had the formula right. So which is it for you? Is it OK to equate Obama with abortion and hate the man like you hate the act or isn’t it?Fr. L,I think it is OK to lean conservative or liberal from the current status quo (whatever it is). I myself lean quite conservative. I just think the GOP was so outrageous it had to go. I think Obama is in fact inspiring, charismatic, and an adept politician. You seem to think this is bad. I don’t, I think the world needs good politicians like it needs Churchills and Lincolns. You accuse Obama of being an empty shirt, a poster child without substance who will push the culture of death, nihilism, and relativism.I disagree. I think that the man has an inkling of the culture of life about him, he only errs in when the state should exact protection of life. For him it is after birth. As dissapointing and wrong as some of his (and the other dems) other convictions are we need to wrap our minds around the facts and not get emotional. Calling abortions Obortions and calling Obama an Obamination aren’t exactly going to win hearts and minds.”So it is not the man himself who I dislike, but the self righteousness and the sense of mission that comes with his left wing ideology.”I’m glad this is your position and I hope you continue to avoid demonizing the man over your differences in ideology.IMHO the important thing to do is to make it clear to our democrat leaders that they do not have a mandate on life issues. If they act as if they do because they have a brief moment to get away with it, it will be the same as Bush’s Iraq. They were elected to represent the people, not the base. That is why, incidentally, I did not like the Sarah Palin pick. It was a pick for the base and not for the people.I think Michael Steele would have been a possible pick. Someone who could have gone toe-to-toe with Bill Maher as he did many times. I guess we will never know if the election (and the supreme court with it) could have gone differently. We can’t rewrite history. But we can write our elected officials and let them know we’ll vote for them if they soften their stance on life issues. We can reach out to Obama supporters who are caring enough to be concerned about unjust war and African AIDS patients and try to convince them that embryos are important too, and why. We can, in short, try to win hearts and minds. Calling the first African American president, a man with great charisma and intelligence, an ‘Obamination’ or Herod-Incarnate is simply not going to win hearts and minds. It’s just not. It’s counter productive.People like Afro-seminarian and Roving Medievalist used to read this blog but you drove them away with your anti-obama rhetoric. Now you are surrounded by syncophants. Enjoy the syncophants because your preaching to the choir, not winning new hearts and minds.
Well, I liked it!I’ve linked to it at my (very new) blog, Fr., hope you don’t mind (Hobbit Sense at One Free Garden). I think you raise some great points about the adulation of public figures. I would generally agree, and have taken flak for suggesting that Obama-worship isn’t the best idea. I also feel like I detect a fellow reader of Chesterton in your wording, which was nuanced and excellent. An excellent post overall.
“He is the worst kind of politician because he believes himself to be the best kind of person. But he is the worst kind of person because he really believes he can do no wrong. He is so convinced of the rightness of his ideology that he will not hear reason from anyone, least of all from the fearless little matador who dons a tri-cornered hat and ridiculous tight trousers and tries to skewer the bull.” This reminds me of one of our own politicians – the great Margaret Thatcher – we had high hopes for her when she was elected in but in the end she became a type of minotaur and while admiring a great politician, some of the policies and privatisation that she put in place have taken ground can never be got back. Let’s hope that won’t be the same situation with Obama.