May 29, 2007
A bit more on Memorial Day...
Penraker, good as always...
The media is trying to turn Memorial Day into Grieving Day.
It much more suits their downward look on life.
Last night I watched part of the National Memorial Day Concert from Washington, D.C. There was a long speech by two actors, reading excerpts from letters from soldiers. It ended with the woman crying.
Today the Post has an article about grieving parents.
Memorial day is not Grieving Day. It is a thankful remembrance of how great these guys were, not how pathetic their deaths were, and how bad we feel now that they are gone. It is not about us, it is about them, and the magnificence of their sacrifice.
Pathos is the highest form of human existence in the media's eyes. If it cries, it flies. If it bleeds it leads. If it inspires, it is forgotten.
The day should be inspirational, not a downer. There has been a subtle shift in the society. We love grieving. This is not healthy. Not healthy at all.
I don't watch TV, but I bet I can guess what "Grieving Day" lacks, that Memorial Day has. MEANING. We honor our dead heroes on Memorial Day, and solemnly affirm that their deaths had meaning, that they served a high and worthy purpose, that they helped to preserve our nation and constitution, a noble experiment that has transformed the earth for the better.
But the Leftizoids who are the press, and who infect all our public institutions, do not believe any of those things. They wish to portray our wars as pointless tragedies.
They did the same thing with 9/11, morphing it into a "tragedy," requiring grieving and "closure." (I think anyone who henceforth uses the word "closure" should be flogged.) Something like an earthquake or tsunami. Why? Because those things have no meaning. Whereas a brutal unprovoked attack on a great and good and peaceful nation does have meaning. Tons of it. And it demands a response. It demands we take its meaning seriously. And if you are a nihilist, like our fake-"Democrats" and fake Quakers and fake anti-war activists, that's existential trouble that must be avoided at all costs.
Memorial Day is NOT a time to grieve. It is a time for hearts to swell with pride and wonder at how lucky we are that heroes would give their all to preserve our way of life for future generations...
The funny -- well, not funny, but you know what I mean -- thing is, "tragedy" in the traditional definition can't be pointless. The whole point of a tragedy was to make a point -- that no matter how great a height a man rose to, he was powerless against fate, the gods, his own nature. It's fitting that tragedy was developed by the great pagan civilization of ancient Greece; despite their accomplishments the Greeks were pessimists who believed that men were powerless in a capricious and uncaring world. The world itself had a reason for existence, but not one that had anything to do with pleasing mankind.
The Christian viewpoint, as C.S. Lewis pointed out in one of his essays on the tragic hero, is that this is not a true vision of life -- Christ brought hope into the mix, and hope destroys tragedy. The modern leftist/progressive/whatever is a pagan -- he sees himself as being powerless against the "fates" (the environment, society, his mental problems) just as much as any ancient Greek. And these people are in charge of the media, so of course their world-view is what dominates. (I will add that they are old-style pagans like the Greeks and the Romans, not modern "pagans." Contemporary pagan thought, such as it is, is a lot sunnier, and can be boiled down to "Goddess is in nature and all's right with the world.")
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 29, 2007 06:04 PMHappy Memorial Day,
I noticed you installed soapstone countertop in your kitchen.
How does it compare to other materials price-wise? Granite, Marble etc.?
Thanks
It's cool that folks keep finding their way here from your one soapstone post over two years ago! Folks have commented on them on 10/02/2005, 01/02/2006, 04/14/2006, and now 05/29/2007...and I know I emailed you asking for an update on their wear, which you graciously provided (with fresh pictures, I believe!) - I can't imagine I'm the only one! Maybe you should add a soapstone subdirectory to your http://home.pacbell.net/weidners/ page to keep updates and answer questions - I'm sure a lot of folks would find it handy!
Andrea makes a good point. Tragedy has to have some higher meaning. If it doesn't then it isn't, well...tragic.
The word that comes to my mind when I see the media do their thing on Memorial Day is "pathos" - The quality of the transient or emotional, as opposed to the permanent or ideal.
Posted by: Mike Plaiss at May 30, 2007 06:19 AMActually, I think of maudlin sentimentality. "Pathos" is too dignified.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 30, 2007 05:12 PM
