Random Commuter Observations

On the way home this evening, I spotted a bumpersticker that said (as far as I can recall in the wake of the Nats pulling one out in the bottom of the 9th):

Reality has a well-known liberal bias.

(The sticker also had a photo of somebody I did not recognize.)

My first reaction was, "Huh?"

So was my second reaction.

My third reaction was, "No, wait a minute. This is entirely bass-ackwards."

By "liberal", I gather that the sentiment of the sticker was not the Burkian definition of this term, i.e., the sentiment that the average person, if left to himself within a general framwork of laws regarding property and crime, will use his God-given talents to better his condition, thus benefiting both himself and all around him, and therefor contributing to a general rise in the overall condition of Mankind. No, I reckon it was something closer to the Orwellian modern meaning of "a cadre of enlightened intelligensia will take the reins of power in their hands to outlaw all bad things," with the ultimate paradigm that everything not outlawed will be mandatory.

Taking this, I believe the sentiments of said bumpersticker to be complete and utter horseshite.

"Reality" is that Nature is red in tooth and claw. "Reality" is that life is nasty, brutish and short. "Reality" is that every single human being since Adam lives in a fallen state, prey to terrible influences and temptations. And Reality is that no power on Earth can do away with this state of being. Thus, "Reality" -as far as policits goes - is, in fact, extremenly conservative. Not in the Darwinian "every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost" sense. Rayther, in the sense of realistic expectation: we do what we can to suppress, check or tame the more horrible aspects of existence, but we never, ever, believe that we can eradicate them altogether. God alone is the final arbiter.

This all brings back to mind a political conversation I had with my sister-in-law recently. She's a Wellesley grad and although clever, apparently buys into the notion that Mankind's ills (and all other conditions of Nature) can somehow be done away with solely by Mankind its own self. She was genuinely shocked when I said that this was impossible, that at best all we could hope for was some kind of amelioration, that all of us in the business of justice had to keep this in mind as we plodded along, and that in the end we had no choice but to trust in a Higher Power to ensure ultimate equity.

This also brought to mind an article I read this afternoon over at VirtueOnline by Geoffrey Kirk, in which he blasts the Episcopal Church and its Millenium Development Goals. In a way, this is something of a metaphore for why I've finally decided to abandon TEC once and for all and head for Rome. (Yes, the cat's out of the bag.) Here you have all the (granted, well-intentioned) folly of purely humanistic pursuit. I don't especially doubt the intention of the program (at least as far as individual contributors are concerned). However, given the outright hubris of design and execution, I don't for a minute doubt its ultimate failure. (Whether The Powers that Be within TEC fail to recognize this failure and will be surprized in their idealism, or whether they know exactly what is going on and reckon that they will, at least, gain the moral high ground with their flock, I leave to far more disinterested observers.)

Here's the ugly truth: In fact, Reality says, "Praise the Lord but keep your powder dry." Our job as Christians is to work within this dictum. As I recently remarked to Mom, if Mankind was perfectable by earthly means, Jesus would be out of a job.

UPDATE 9/12/07 - Welcome Stand Firm readers! And thankee to Greg for the kind words. What doesn't really come out in this post is that I've been feeling the call of Rome for quite some time now (years, really). The combination of the meltdown of TEC and some personal circumstances was simply the activating agent that finally decided me to follow the call and see what happens. But it's a pretty intense process of inquiry and reflection and at the end of it, who knows what will happen.