The essayist Caryl Johnston recently gave a lecture in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania on the works of Robert Pirsig, author of the bestselling book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Pirsig’s philosophical novel, which is not really about Zen Buddhism or motorcycles, was an enormous hit in the 70s, selling five million copies after initially being rejected by more than 100 publishers. Johnston argues that Pirsig’s “Metaphysics of Quality” offers a satisfying remedy to the moral and intellectual decline caused by modern rationalism. Johnston is author of several books, including Consecrated Venom: The Serpent and the Tree of Knowledge and From Boston to Birmingham. Her entire talk is posted below. 

IN SEARCH OF QUALITY

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for coming to this talk about the works of Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974)  and Lila, An Inquiry into Morals (1991).

I believe these books have something important to say to us today. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was immensely popular and sold millions of copies in 23 languages. Yet its message did not penetrate intellectual or elite opinion to any measurable degree.

I think this is unfortunate.  Pirsig’s philosophy provides real insight into some of our persistent problems. We forget how the capacity to act effectively depends upon the ability to think. Without clarity of thought no action is possible.  And in the long run, “no action” in the end means a loss of the good. Pirsig’s search for values reminds us of the purpose of thinking — which is to help us lead a better life.  

In my view, our deteriorating national situation is ultimately owing to the decline of thinking, or rather to confusion about how we think about values. To pull ourselves together as a nation and affirm a common future will depend upon our decision to develop our thinking capacity and to demand a better quality of thinking in our public life.  Read More »

I highly recommend Diana West’s latest column on Libya. She writes:

I’ll admit, there is an argument – a thin, riddled, web of an argument – that it was U.S. interests that drove military interventions gone wrong in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t buy the argument: As it morphed into a nation-building fantasy, it became disastrously, tragically and recklessly mistaken. But I can see at least that tarnished glimmer of national interest flash in the sludge before sinking from sight.

Nothing like this is to be found in the sands of Libya. Read More »

REGARDING the atheist’s prayer, Peter S. writes:

One recalls the prayer attributed to the 19th century French atheist philosopher and historian Ernest Renan in a fit of hopeful agnosticism: “Oh God, if there is a God, save my soul, if I have a soul.”

AT HER BLOG Generational Womanhood, Jill Farris posts a letter written by her son to his grandmother, who years ago objected to Jill and her husband having such a large family.The notes in parentheses are by Jill. Here it is:

Dear Grandmother,

How are you? I am fine. How is the weather down there? It has been very warm and sunny this past week but today it is very dark and cloudy.

We are having Phillip and his girlfriend (our eldest son who is engaged to be married) come up for the weekend so our house should be pretty crowded. Lorna and Ayla (our eldest daughter and her friend) will come and my friend who is spending the week here. Dad is home now and the rest of the family so, all in all, about thirteen people will be here (not including friends that will be dropping by).

These are the times to remember because everything is so hectic that it’s fun because nobody is sleeping in their own room and everyone is sharing a room with three other people. Read More »

ON THE face of it, it seems logically inconsistent for an atheist to pray.  The truth is, it is logically inconsistent for an atheist never to pray.

It cannot be established with certainty that God does not exist. If you stood on one side of a locked door and wanted to know if someone was on the other side, what would you do? You would knock or call out to see if someone was there. You would listen.

Every honest, intelligent atheist should speak to God and see if there is any response or illumination. He should test his propositions in that way. The effort would have to be sincere and without pretense or it wouldn’t qualify as a true calling out. Here is a suggested prayer:

God, there is no knowledge that frightens me, even knowledge of you. For this passing moment, I suspend my disbelief, without bias or prejudice. I am uncertain, without proof. Please deign to speak to me. Read More »

THE SUBJECT of household dirt can be interesting, as is demonstrated by the discussions here on whether guests should take off their shoes. However, a new exhibit at the scientific Wellcome Center in London apparently approaches the topic with the sort of postmodern confusion and glorification of ugliness that make visiting contemporary art exhibits the metaphysical equivalent of root canal. 

“Dirt: The Filthy Reality of Everday Life” includes an installation (what is “installation” but a term for grotesque and stupid conceptual art?) by artist Santiago Sierra made of human excrement and a sculpture comprised of a window so dirty one cannot see the glass. These are suppposed to spark thrilling meditations, thoughts that could easily be inspired by a few hours of normal housecleaning. The exhibit appears to be big on the idea of our “ambivalence” toward dirt, as if the centuries of innovation in cleanliness represent a neurotic, Freudian flirtation with disorder. Read More »

THE NEWS that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Hillary Clinton believe Operation Odyssey Delusion may last until next year is too depressing to absorb. You can read about it here. Gates calls this not a war but a “complex undertaking.” 

When asked whether this military campaign is in our national interest, Gates said on “This Week” on ABC, “No, I don’t think it’s a vital interest for the United States, but we clearly have interests there, and it’s a part of a region which is a vital interest for the United States.”

Let’s highlight once again the remarkable irony of Hillary Clinton, who has always presented herself as a beacon of feminist enlightenment, in the position of warmonger advocating military intervention without congressional approval. Feminists promised world peace. They give us self-annihilation.

FEW DISCUSSIONS here have engendered more partisan passion here than this one over whether guests should remove their shoes when they enter a friend’s home. This issue is apparently important, but I can’t figure out why. It seems the Asian custom of shoelessness indoors is catching on. Some readers adamantly defend it on the ground of cleanliness and others as adamantly reject it.

Here are a few points of my own: Read More »

THE FAITH AND HERITAGE website has responded to my recent criticism of an article recommending that Christians not do business with Jews because “the temptation to cheat is almost impossible for them to overcome.” I have not had the opportunity to read the response in its entirety yet.

WHEN CIVILITY and common purpose reign in a society, there is little it can’t withstand with dignity. Modern life need not be rude, chaotic and ugly. Michael Wines writes in The New York Times on daily conditions in the shelters for those made homeless by the Japanese tsunami:

Just two weeks after this nation’s greatest catastrophe in decades, the citizens at Takada Junior High School No. 1, this town’s largest evacuee center, have managed to fashion a microcosm of the spotlessly organized and efficient Japan they so recently knew.

Theirs is a city where a hand sanitizer sits on every table; where face masks, which Japanese wear the way other people wear sunglasses, are dispensed by the box. It is a place where you do not just trade your muddy shoes for slippers at the front door, but also shed the slippers at the gymnasium door lest you carry a mote of dust from the hallways into the living areas….

… Drying remains a problem. “We have to dry the ladies’ underwear where people can’t see it. So we put it in two classrooms on the second floor, and then we lock the doors,” said Mr. Nakai, the evacuee center manager. Classes at the school have been suspended since the disaster.  Read More »

KRISTOR writes at VFR:

People forget how society naturally organized itself before the statists began their insults to the natural order. People forget that before about 1900, municipalities had nothing to do with creating marriages; there were no marriage licenses. Churches performed marriages. No one else had the authority to do it.

No one knows that in 1850, banks issued their own currencies, that competed with the currency of the Bank of the United States. We have so much forgotten the idea of private bank notes, that we cannot even understand why Hamilton had to fight to get the U.S. to own its own bank, and issue its own currency. If we had competing currencies today, we would not have inflation. We’d have boomlets and bustlets, rather than the enormous run-ups and crashes we now get.

People forget that there were once no public schools, no public universities. Read More »

 JESSE POWELL writes:

As you probably know, the 2010 Census numbers on the racial composition of the United States have been released.  I would lke to present them with slight changes to the government system of classification. The Census results are organized according to “ethnic heritage;” meaning Hispanic or Non-Hispanic; and race divided into six different categories: White, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaskan Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and Some Other Race.  In addition, a person may be a combination of races or multi-racial.  It should be kept in mind, though, that Hispanic is not a race according to the 2010 Census.  Read More »

General Post Office, New York City, 1955

AT THE website Tradition in Action, Elaine M. Jordan compares the demeanour and attire of yesterday’s mailmen with today’s “mail carriers.” She writes:

The stability and seriousness of the past has been replaced by a pseudo-juvenile and precarious spirit. Replacing the air of commitment and efficiency is one of sloppy and lackadaisical ineffectiveness. The mentality of the profession has clearly changed. Before mailmen were committed to serve society; now they seem to be turned almost exclusively toward their own comfort, rights and salaries.

The general impression is of disorder, lack of discipline and egalitarianism. The ridiculous is not absent from the picture [below] when one considers men who look more like boys in shorts rather than a professional cadre of trained workers. Immorality and the grotesque respectively appear when the carriers – male and female – show their legs.

Read More »

JESSE POWELL writes:

 It is sad to learn that divorce and illegitimacy have come to Sioux County, Iowa. I didn’t know that rural white areas had much lower rates of divorce and illegitimacy than the nation as a whole not so long ago. 

Reading the comments from the peanut gallery, however, the mood is much more triumphant. Read More »

Karen I. writes:

I thought you might find this interesting. I saw it on a website called Dollar Stretcher, which is a good site for a housewife to visit now and then. I was shocked to see this. It is important for housewives to have a credit history of their own in case of the death of their spouse, and other emergency situations. This new law could make establishing credit much harder for housewives. Our government seems intent on making things as difficult as possible for us. Read More »

THIS article on the staggering increase in divorce and illegitimacy in one county in Iowa indicates that feminism and the economic autonomy of women are major factors. The writers don’t come right out and say it but it’s clear: most of the divorces are filed by women.

The piece by Sabrina Tavernese and Robert Gebeloff only indirectly points to another factor: contemporary Christianity. Sioux County is overwhelmingly Christian, with about 80 percent of the residents belonging to a major denomination. Since 1980, the number of married people for every divorced person has declined by more than 60 percent, from 52 to 18.

The one Christian preacher quoted suggests he is uncomfortable with the idea of pointing fingers when it comes to divorce.

“There’s a perception here that you need to be perfect,” said the Rev. John Lee, a young pastor who has tried to encourage change in Sioux County by taking on taboo topics like divorce and mental illness in his sermons.

“Cars are washed, lawns are mowed in patterns and children are smiling,” Mr. Lee added. “When you admit weakness, you invite shame.”

The opposite is apparently true. There is a perception that you don’t need to be perfect at all, especially when it comes to marital vows made in a church.

Let’s face it. Feel-good Christianity hasn’t just stood by and watched the divorce rate soar. It has actively encouraged it. Christians now overwhelmingly accept the idea that the purpose of marriage is self-fulfillment and reciprocal love.

There is an enormous banner outside a local Evangelical church near my home that invites one and all in huge letters to “Fresh Start: a Divorce Recovery Seminar.” This redefinition of Christian marriage is one more example of something even more disturbing and profoundly telling: the closing of the Christian mind. Christians can no longer think their way out of a paper bag. Principle eludes them. They are truly Christians of the Heart-land, oblivious to the fact that God created their minds too. Their preachers and priests feed them sentimentalities, not truth, or ignore the whirlwind of marital disruption like babies sleeping through a storm.

The purpose of Christian marriage is not love and mutual understanding. It is to give life to and responsibly raise the next generation. Love and mutual understanding are entirely secondary. But the Christian of today is too much in awe of his or her heartbeats to perceive or think of anything higher.  

Read More »