I got a note today from an acquaintance who is a European and is involved in a sort of rear-guard action to attempt to salvage some scraps of European culture out of the ongoing slow deluge.

Thinking about that noble, perhaps quixotic, effort, I had an epiphany. I think I know why European intellectuals hate the U.S.

(I’m not saying that all Europeans hate us. I believe [on the basis of limited personal contact and some reading] that most Europeans like us just fine, at least as individuals. A lot of them probably believe our country is the root of all evil, but they don’t mean us to take it personally.)

It occurred to me that the “native” European is under tremendous cultural pressure. The orthodoxy of our time proclaims that all evil in the world—without exception—is the fault of old Christian civilization. Which essentially means Europe. Therefore the conscientious European feels obligated to despise himself.

Well, what does a person do when he’s full of self-hate?

He looks for a scapegoat.

America is the scapegoat. When the European intellectual feels at his worst, his most sinful and guilt-ridden, he still has the satisfaction of pointing at America and saying, “Well, we may be evil, but we’re not as evil as that!”

This concludes my epiphany.

Note to aspiring criminal masterminds:

If you intend to embark on a career of larceny which may require you to assume a fictitious identity for a while, it’s probably not a great idea to have your real name tattooed on your neck.

This public service announcement has been brought to you by Brandywine Books.

Over at Culture 11, Nicola Karras has written an outstanding essay on how she moved from the liberalism she absorbed as a child to a conservative world-view.

From Nietzsche, from René Girard, from history, I had taken an important lesson about the darkness at the heart of Man. The human race is not, at its core, nice. For every worthy urge, there are a dozen unworthy ones: violence, lust, anger, greed, ressentiment… Society’s job is then to teach us to be better. Plato thought that once we knew the Good, we would have no choice but to follow it, but he was wrong.

She doesn’t say much about religious faith, but it may be implied, or perhaps she’s still on that journey.

The article’s a little highbrow for those of us whose philosophy reading is spotty, but well worth the effort.

Sword and axes

It’s winter, it’s getting near to Christmas, and so my thoughts turn to Norway (oddly enough, they do the same thing in summer). Someday I’d like to spend Christmas in Norway, though that would probably be a cruel abuse of my relatives’ hospitality.

I long for even shorter days, I guess.

Here’s a series of three, related commercials from Norway. They appear to actually be Swedish, but the company, Freia Chocolate, is an old, beloved Norwegian one (now owned by Hershey, it almost goes without saying, but it’s still really good chocolate).



Continue reading All Norwegian, all the time →

Jared notes a post on silence by Mark Driscoll (posts the blogger while streaming talk radio). Driscoll says, “I remembered the words of missionary martyr Jim Elliot, who said, ‘I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, crowds . . . Satan is quite aware of the power of silence.'”

Top 10 (of 120) literary magazines based on certain awards won

Another Advent service tonight, and so another late (and superficial) post.

I’m disappointed, mostly in myself. I set my VCR to tape “Pushing Daisies,” but it didn’t occur to me that under the rules of the new technology I have to engage that digital converter thingy I sent away for. And so I missed the show for the second week in a row.

(TIVO? What’s that? Who do you think I am, Lileks?)

Which wouldn’t be a big deal, except I read that they’ve cancelled “Pushing Daisies.” Soon it will be just a fond memory, a cautionary lesson for network executives not to get too creative, or to respect the audience’s intelligence too much.

In my heart, I’m convinced it’s really my fault. I missed the first couple episodes when it (finally) returned, and now I’ve missed two more, and surely that’s what tipped the scales. Kristin Chenoweth will certainly hunt me down and murder me slowly with a blowtorch.

Which, in winter in Minnesota, is almost a merciful death.

For the record.

Everybody in the conservative world seems to be talking up the possibility that President-elect Obama was conniving with Gov. Blagojevichowitzsteinhoffer to broker his former Senate seat.

From what I’ve heard and read of the Governor’s recorded statements, it seems to me he was quite upset that Mr. Obama wasn’t playing ball with him.

Time may bring new facts to light, but for now I think it’s unwise and uncharitable to play that particular card.