Excellent interview in Mere Orthodoxy. I think the length speaks to the depth of the resonance of what you are saying. The interviewer was truly sympathetic to your view on things. It is good that it is getting out there in various ways. This will only grow.
Also, I realized recently that the computer/cell phone/electronic reality was a superfluous add on, much less the coming artificial intelligence revolution. WW2, an immense feat of production, communication, design and planning among all involved with no computers. At age 16 in 1969 I watched the moon landing, in our farmhouse we had besides the TV, a phone capable of calling anywhere in the US and internationally, electric lights, thermostat controlled central heating, flush toilets, shower and a bath tub, a radio, record player, a nice home library with a range of books, mail delivery Monday through Saturday, refrigerator, electric mixer, electric can opener, ability to order a wide variety of things through mail order catalogs, weekly magazines, a daily newspaper,a dish washer, cloths washer and dryer just as effective as the ones we have now, a car and truck that worked as well as those of today, access to modern dentistry and medicine, a camera to take pictures, movie theatre and library in town. And jet travel just as fast as today, good highways, semi trucks, trains much the same - all products of pre-computer, pre - artificial intelligence human expertise and ingenuity except for a bit of computers for the moon landing - a useless stunt IMO. What needs to be done to heal the earth and society are methods and approaches again not needing tech wizardry.
well, here in Labrador, I was disturbed to notice that I had missed it last Wednesday..... the digital overlords must be working in my favour.... Wednesday it is!
Regarding your interview with Mere Orthodoxy, of which I enjoyed and agreed with most of, I have one question. If a I get rid of my smart phone how am I supposed to read your Substack essays and watch your Livestream lectures and interviews?
To the neuron, the thoughts of the mind are incomprehensible - inputs reach a threshold, then it fires out a signal, blind to its implications. Online society has turned us into the neurons of the hive mind. One could suppose that the thoughts of the hive mind are it’s memes, narratives, sub-cultures, ideologies. But I suspect it’s true thoughts cannot be comprehended fully at the level of the neuron.
If it was a coincidence.... then for how long can we expect the machine to allow you to go on with your subversive activities? It is still too clumsy to detect you but always improving.
Re Mere Orthodoxy interview and the poetry of David Jones, your writing has often made me think of two Jones poems in particular, The Tribune's Visitation and The Tutelar of the Place. The Tribune is the voice and embodiment of the Machine. More than that, he's a mystic of the Machine - a true believer, a psychopath, but oddly - for myself at any rate - quite a likeable and noble character. The Tutelar is the guardian and protectress of the local and the grounded, of everything precious and dear. It's a phenomenally beautiful poem - makes me cry, to be honest - and you can find both poems, one after the other in the slim volume called The Sleeping Lord ...
'... In all times of Gleichschaltung, in the days of the central economies, set up the hedges of illusion round some remnant of us, twine the wattles of mist, white-web a Gwydion-hedge
like fog on the bryniau
against the commissioners
and assessors bearing the writs of the Ram to square the world-floor and number the tribes and write down the secret things and take away the diversities by which we are, by which we call on your name, sweet Jill of the demarcations
Paul, the talk was amazing, thank you! I listened live, but was unable to post a comment on YouTube. So I'll try here. I listened to your talk while weeding carrot beds, your dire warnings in my plastic headphones drowning out the joyful song of a mockingbird. Yes, I'm a hypocrite and the irony is delicious and all that, but as a practical matter, how important and feasible do you think it is to create our own new networks? Is Substack enough of a parallel institution? Or should we have a goal of extricating ourselves from the digital world completely? It seems scary to do that without a replacement that has a global reach. My parents were a part of the counterculture of the 60's, and it seems like so much of that power (for good or ill) grew from the concerts, the protests, the communes... all of the organic, seething, non-rational interactions of flesh and blood humans. Do you see anything like that on our horizon?
An unsettling talk Paul, and I mean that as a compliment. Also, thank you for introducing me to Loab who, considering that I have frequently had the fear of a zombified woman emerging from the dark whenever I have been in a particularly isolated place at night, will now haunt my dreams forever.
Paul, an excellent talk, and I'll watch it again with the children. I need to read Francis Bacon again - I'd perhaps naively just read him as a Christian thinker. You prompted me to think of this passage from Isaiah 44 - and to wonder when we make and then worship an idol whether we tend to be worshipping ourselves. Yet Paul tells us that behind every idol there's something else entirely (1 Corinthians 10:19-20).
9 All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. ... 12 The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. 13 The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. 14 He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” 17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
18 They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. 19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
I can’t tune in live, unfortunately, but I’d love to listen to the recording of this later. I assume that will be available?
Yes, it is the Image of the Beast, Revelation 13:14 versus the Word of God, Revelation 19:13.
Excellent interview in Mere Orthodoxy. I think the length speaks to the depth of the resonance of what you are saying. The interviewer was truly sympathetic to your view on things. It is good that it is getting out there in various ways. This will only grow.
I just keep thinking of C.S. Lewis’ “That Hideous Strength”…
Also, I realized recently that the computer/cell phone/electronic reality was a superfluous add on, much less the coming artificial intelligence revolution. WW2, an immense feat of production, communication, design and planning among all involved with no computers. At age 16 in 1969 I watched the moon landing, in our farmhouse we had besides the TV, a phone capable of calling anywhere in the US and internationally, electric lights, thermostat controlled central heating, flush toilets, shower and a bath tub, a radio, record player, a nice home library with a range of books, mail delivery Monday through Saturday, refrigerator, electric mixer, electric can opener, ability to order a wide variety of things through mail order catalogs, weekly magazines, a daily newspaper,a dish washer, cloths washer and dryer just as effective as the ones we have now, a car and truck that worked as well as those of today, access to modern dentistry and medicine, a camera to take pictures, movie theatre and library in town. And jet travel just as fast as today, good highways, semi trucks, trains much the same - all products of pre-computer, pre - artificial intelligence human expertise and ingenuity except for a bit of computers for the moon landing - a useless stunt IMO. What needs to be done to heal the earth and society are methods and approaches again not needing tech wizardry.
well, here in Labrador, I was disturbed to notice that I had missed it last Wednesday..... the digital overlords must be working in my favour.... Wednesday it is!
My intuition says me: this is no coincidence
Af some crucial points in my life, this happened too
Too obvious
However, keep strong, our light Ana spirit is so much stronger
Rambling is beautiful
We’re all born with a right to roam :)
Regarding your interview with Mere Orthodoxy, of which I enjoyed and agreed with most of, I have one question. If a I get rid of my smart phone how am I supposed to read your Substack essays and watch your Livestream lectures and interviews?
To the neuron, the thoughts of the mind are incomprehensible - inputs reach a threshold, then it fires out a signal, blind to its implications. Online society has turned us into the neurons of the hive mind. One could suppose that the thoughts of the hive mind are it’s memes, narratives, sub-cultures, ideologies. But I suspect it’s true thoughts cannot be comprehended fully at the level of the neuron.
If it was a coincidence.... then for how long can we expect the machine to allow you to go on with your subversive activities? It is still too clumsy to detect you but always improving.
Re Mere Orthodoxy interview and the poetry of David Jones, your writing has often made me think of two Jones poems in particular, The Tribune's Visitation and The Tutelar of the Place. The Tribune is the voice and embodiment of the Machine. More than that, he's a mystic of the Machine - a true believer, a psychopath, but oddly - for myself at any rate - quite a likeable and noble character. The Tutelar is the guardian and protectress of the local and the grounded, of everything precious and dear. It's a phenomenally beautiful poem - makes me cry, to be honest - and you can find both poems, one after the other in the slim volume called The Sleeping Lord ...
'... In all times of Gleichschaltung, in the days of the central economies, set up the hedges of illusion round some remnant of us, twine the wattles of mist, white-web a Gwydion-hedge
like fog on the bryniau
against the commissioners
and assessors bearing the writs of the Ram to square the world-floor and number the tribes and write down the secret things and take away the diversities by which we are, by which we call on your name, sweet Jill of the demarcations
arc of differences
tower of individuation
queen of the minivers ...'
Brilliant talk just now, Paul. As ever, thank you for your insight and willingness to call out these pernicious and infernal forces.
Paul, the talk was amazing, thank you! I listened live, but was unable to post a comment on YouTube. So I'll try here. I listened to your talk while weeding carrot beds, your dire warnings in my plastic headphones drowning out the joyful song of a mockingbird. Yes, I'm a hypocrite and the irony is delicious and all that, but as a practical matter, how important and feasible do you think it is to create our own new networks? Is Substack enough of a parallel institution? Or should we have a goal of extricating ourselves from the digital world completely? It seems scary to do that without a replacement that has a global reach. My parents were a part of the counterculture of the 60's, and it seems like so much of that power (for good or ill) grew from the concerts, the protests, the communes... all of the organic, seething, non-rational interactions of flesh and blood humans. Do you see anything like that on our horizon?
An unsettling talk Paul, and I mean that as a compliment. Also, thank you for introducing me to Loab who, considering that I have frequently had the fear of a zombified woman emerging from the dark whenever I have been in a particularly isolated place at night, will now haunt my dreams forever.
Paul, an excellent talk, and I'll watch it again with the children. I need to read Francis Bacon again - I'd perhaps naively just read him as a Christian thinker. You prompted me to think of this passage from Isaiah 44 - and to wonder when we make and then worship an idol whether we tend to be worshipping ourselves. Yet Paul tells us that behind every idol there's something else entirely (1 Corinthians 10:19-20).
9 All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. ... 12 The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. 13 The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. 14 He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” 17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
18 They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. 19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”