tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post3070128225835356359..comments2024-03-29T15:13:42.610+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: More on the reality of being in a minority of one as the modern conditionBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-46677556716559407232017-12-06T20:08:07.599+00:002017-12-06T20:08:07.599+00:00Well, she's a Catholic, and increasingly shril...Well, she's a Catholic, and increasingly shrill about it (inevitable during a period when the problems of Catholicism cease to be 'historical' and become entirely contemporary).<br /><br />I find her perspective invaluable, however. One of the great dangers is allowing ourselves to categorize people as "like us" (thus likable) and "unlike us" (thus unlikable). It is precisely this (very human and instinctive) tendency that makes it almost impossible to accept and pursue our own individuality while valuing the differences between ourselves and others.<br /><br />I want little contact with people I regard as being wrong on <i>every</i> point, they simply have nothing useful to say to me and I have no chance of learning anything from them. And while it would certainly be more felicitous to find a "kindred spirit", it also seems like there is a chance of <i>uncritical</i> acceptance of everything they say because it always reinforces our own predilections.<br /><br />For me (and, I think, for more of her audience than she realizes), Barnhardt serves to bridge that gap, to remind us that we may disagree entirely (and rightly) with a person on some points but also learn from them valid insights we should not come to ourselves otherwise. Ironically, this is not something she seems to value much herself, but then there is an inevitable problem with being someone that sparks a certain amount of controversy simply to "keep the audience on their toes", what one says for that purpose comes with a wink, innate signals that it is okay to question it.<br /><br />It is best for the critical faculty to exercise it without such props. We <i>need</i> people who passionately believe both things we need to accept and things that we need to reject, based on careful logical consideration. Otherwise we'll be tempted to rely too much on easier ways of distinguishing what is true from what is nonsense.<br /><br />And those easier ways are always less reliable in the end.Chiu ChunLinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03519192610708043962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-24809214582287444772017-12-06T10:39:19.054+00:002017-12-06T10:39:19.054+00:00@CCL - Sorry to hear you are irresistibly reminded...@CCL - Sorry to hear you are irresistibly reminded of AB! - since I find her unreadable and unlistenable-to and wrongly-motivated...Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-43488066277136753052017-12-06T10:38:01.973+00:002017-12-06T10:38:01.973+00:00Chiu ChunLing comments:
"I'm irresista...Chiu ChunLing comments: <br /> <br />"I'm irresistably reminded of Ann Barnhardt's recent post.<br /><br />"Leaving aside the overt theological implications, to be really and uncompromisingly oneself is to be distinct from others. It is a non-trivial observation because society proclaims just the opposite, that if we were "true to ourselves" we'd all be the same, and nothing is further from the truth.<br /><br />"Indeed, for those who really are true to themselves, there is a greater appreciation of the wonderful unique quality and character of everyone else who is true to themselves. "<br /><br />Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-16918380794666024412017-12-05T12:38:12.112+00:002017-12-05T12:38:12.112+00:00@Kirk - Thank you. Indeed, over the years I have h...@Kirk - Thank you. Indeed, over the years I have had quite a few notes (some as private e-mails) that are encouraging in the way that this comment of yours is - certainly enough to make it worthwhile to continue blogging.<br /><br />Of course I am sometimes spiritually 'loneley', but a major lesson of the past four-or-so years has been that this emotion does not implying going-back to a self-obliterating, communitarian (Original Participation) perspective... the isolation is meant to encourage us forwards to something higher, better, more sustaining and sustainable that does not *depend-on* persistence of the social-structures of an increasingly-corrupt, increasingly inverted world. <br /><br />To be honest, I do blog mostly for my own benefit - however! In the sense that it is a part of my main 'devotional' practice that involves a slow and focused meditative note-taking, reading, and this blogging - the outcome of which has been a satisfying clarification, focusing and strengthening. <br /><br />But, more importantly, the outcome has been an understanding which gets closer to the essence of what Life is supposed/ intended/ divinely-destined to be about - or rather, one of its main aims - and how this is supposed to be achieved. <br /><br />And this is the main theme of this blog, as it is of my best times of thinking and being.<br /><br />But, if the blogging has to stop, or is stopped (perhaps as a casualty of the totalitarian progression); then there are other possibilities that could take its place. The blogging is useful to me, but far from essential - and this is as it should be, I think. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-22267297281744201792017-12-05T11:17:54.951+00:002017-12-05T11:17:54.951+00:00Yes, yes, and yes, Dr.Charlton!
I was musing to m...Yes, yes, and yes, Dr.Charlton!<br /><br />I was musing to myself yesterday that I live my faith in exile, because it is a faith that no one else (of whom I am aware) shares, and that my isolation, my exile might end if I could blind myself to certain things and burn a pinch of incense for the sake of unity. But at this point, I cannot, and so I am very spiritually lonely.<br /><br />For the record, it grieves me to see you pour so much of yourself into what you publish on your blogs while learning that so few even read -- much less truly appreciate -- your work. For me, I simply don't have the intellectual muscles to grasp much of it; I am uneducated and at my age, it is progressively difficult to absorb new material quickly. <br /><br />But I do believe that sometimes a life can be changed by one thing a man writes. And if one person's life is changed because of something you post on one of your blogs....wouldn't that be marvelous?Kirk Forlatthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08928612665374945858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-87007902408691138672017-12-05T10:21:32.140+00:002017-12-05T10:21:32.140+00:00God is also a minority of one and, without soundin...God is also a minority of one and, without sounding blasphemous, that may be why we have to be if we would truly become candidates for eventual theosis.William Wildbloodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231219533755925897noreply@blogger.com