I share it in the hope it will encourage others in the Resistance.
My reader writes:
Trump’s gone off the top. Ozymandias.
For those unfamiliar, he is referring to this poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley:
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
He continues:
Todd Starnes (journalist of Newsmax) posted a status quoting Trump, thus: “I think God is very proud of the job I’ve done.” – President Donald J. Trump
Please respond. I despair.
It’s my outrage and feeling of helplessness that I speak of.
I reply:
Trump will always be Trump, barring a miracle. So expecting him to change is a formula for despair. The key is, as Paul says, to
seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col 3:1–4)
This world has, says Paul, been subjected to frustration by God.
The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning with labor pains together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. (Ro 8:19–24)
Otherwise we would inevitably worship this world and hope to find our fulfilment in it. Our fulfillment is in Christ. We will get little tastes of heaven here, but only enough to call us onward to the real thing. There is no reason for despair. Christ has, indeed, already won. So we put one foot in front of the other and keep climbing. We will get there.
As to your feeling of helplessness: We are all small and weak. But we retain the power to do good in our sphere. Remember the widow’s mite. Our small acts of obedience send out ripples whose effects we cannot imagine.
My reader continues regarding the Starnes post:
It was posted around 5 p.m., nearly 1700 people liked this, 600+ loved it, and only 5 people, including myself, expressed anger. But I’m no cultist. I’ll try to make reparation.
Don’t be discouraged by the stats. The media ecosystem consists of bubbles and the inside of the Newsmax bubble is packed with orcs, not with sane people. However, other media has sane people. Go there and don’t beat your head against a wall. And keep making reparation. It helps us all. Christ is working through you.
To which he brightly replies:
Don’t defame Orcs!
…and adds:
I felt compelled to react to this–to keep a grip on my own sanity.
I conclude:
That’s fine. We all need to hear a sane voice now and then. Avoid the right wing media machine and you will have far fewer assaults on you spirit. They lie. They do nothing but lie.
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7 Responses
You need prays and the acceptance of the truths that are provided with evidence. There are many conservatives Catholics that you seem to disrespect. Those of us that love the traditional Church, but accept the Novus Ordo, those of us that see that all coming from the Vatican and many Prelates is very far from what our Besutuful Catholic Faith professes. Also, many of us did vote for Trump and would again. You have very little tolerance for conservative Republicans, it seems.
I have no problem with those who appreciate the Extraordinary form while respecting the OF and those who attend it. There is nothing coming from Rome that is opposed to the faith. There is a ton of stuff coming from conservative MAGA Catholics that is opposed to the Faith. So tell me, is it Trump’s rapes, felonies, frauds, kidnappings, denial of due process, deportations to torture prisons, protection of pedophiles, corruption, murders, mass destruction of human life through the destruction of USAID, or just his fantastic job at raising the abortion rate 30% that you most admire as being deeply and truly in line with what our Beautiful Catholic Faith professes? Instead of marinating in self-pity, why not try thinking about the millions of victims your evil antichrist MAGA cult is hurting and killing.
Republicans are not conservative. Not in any reasonable sense of the word, other than self-labeling to appeal to people who identify as conservatives.
Conservatism sees value in history because it had been lived and therefore it has valuable lessons for us.
Conservatism sees value in past customs because they had been tried and replacing them is always an unknown quality.
Conservatism sees value in incumbent institutions because they continually provide results.
Conservatism sees value in existing laws because they are known.
Conservatism sees value in legal, political and societal frameworks because they have stood the test of time.
If frameworks failed, we can identify where it happened and correct that specific place. Replacing them entirely introduces unknown variables that may be better, but if they are worse, they may be catastrophic.
If laws are unjust, we know where they are unjust and they can be amended. Replacing the laws only introduces more loopholes to be exploited.
If institutions are failing to provide results or if the cost of running them is too great, then repairing them where they fail will yield better results. Abolishing them without replacement or replacing them with completely new institutions could help, but is more likely to fail because they will still be run by people who won’t see value in them for their own sake, but will gladly use them to meet their own needs.
If past customs are no longer working and fail to meet the needs of people, then looking closely at them and weaving the new needs into them will again be far more productive than the alternative. Introducing new customs without any basis doesn’t encourage anyone to observe them, let alone to observe them correctly, or even in the same way.
If historically we had been wrong, we should seek to correct it instead of declaring that we will redo history and it will automatically be better.
Republicans are none of those things. They’re not even republican! They are nihilistic and authoritarian.
Going off on a Godwin, they resemble Nazis or Bolsheviks, only with a veneer of traditional institutions. But even that veneer is flaking.
They see no value in history because they would recognize where they are repeating the same patterns. Their fallacy is believing that they can repeat history and expect a different outcome because they think they know where the previous ones went wrong. In reality, it’s like they’re 60 moves into a chess game that they repeated by heart and now they’re 5 moves away from an inevitable checkmate, while the correct move was to recognize that they are walking into a trap 50 moves ago.
They see no value in customs because they hinder their ability to exploit people.
They see no value in institutions because they provide checks and balances to their drive for power.
They see no value in laws because they prevent or prohibit them from abusing power.
They see no value in any existing framework because their thirst and hunger for power doesn’t fit in them.
This is not conservatism. This is not republicanism. This is a self-serving appropriation of these labels for their own ends.
And to me it’s extremely dismal because if we have to have ideologies running our politics, to me, true conservatism and republicanism hold much more value than progressivism, libertarianism, individualism or collectivism.
Vote for Trump again? Take your medication.
As a non-Christian or Catholic, I will tell you that the issue most people have with you is not your choice of language for your own Mass.
It’s the gleeful embrace of Nazi ideology and sadism that doesn’t sit well on people’ stomachs.
If you could manage to lay that aside, go ahead and celebrate in Latin, or Klingon or the binary language of moisture evaporators if that suits you.
I’ve been thinking a lot about all of the people that I know that are MAGA. –Other than the small subset of foreigners that suffer from Stockholm Syndrome –Regular MAGA citizens are very different. But if there is one main trait that all of them seem to have in common, I’d say that it’s envy. It’s not a rational covetousness, but a vague idea that something has been illicitly taken from them. Because Trump himself has the same vague, all consuming need to get back what he believes is owed to him, his language of hostility and revenge thrills even the nice little grandmas who cultivate revenge in their hearts. He speaks to them. Even if Juan and Maria have been scrubbing their floors and cooking their meals, (or sitting behind them at mass) they can’t get rid of the deep seated suspicion that those collective Juan and Marias have been up to no good and somehow stealing from them all along. Their pile of marbles has been forcibly reduced.
Yes, wearing a precious feet pin is a much better look than admitting something that horrendous. What is saddest of all is that an old person stuck in this mindset will die in their sin, and never repent of it here–seeing the ugly reality when it’s too late.
Lord have mercy. Help us to see the garbage and the lies that our egos cling to. Help us to see our souls exactly as they really are.
Trump was able to harness the resentment of the white working class and ride it to the White House. Trump and MAGA are not conservative. They are right wing. Not the same. Mussolini was not a conservative. He was a right wing Fascist. Ditto MAGA.