Linguistic Disfunction

I had an informative read this week followed by a coherent and related podcast.

First Things has an essay by Carl Truman entitled "Our Marcusan Moment".  In this eloquent piece was a link to a 1968 academic work "Repressive Tolerance".  The lead paragraph states:

THIS essay examines the idea of tolerance in our advanced industrial society. The conclusion reached is that the realization of the objective of tolerance would call for intolerance toward prevailing policies, attitudes, opinions, and the extension of tolerance to policies, attitudes, and opinions which are outlawed or suppressed. In other words, today tolerance appears again as what it was in its origins, at the beginning of the modern period--a partisan goal, a subversive liberating notion and practice. Conversely, what is proclaimed and practiced as tolerance today, is in many of its most effective manifestations serving the cause of oppression.

I urge you read both.

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Done yet?

Ideologically loaded Humpty-Dumpty language lives.  My question is: to what end are these inversions of language directed?  

Is it just breeding resentment and dysfunction?  Destroying what currently is to allow to new utopia to be born?  A childish tantrum?

Honestly, to what end and is the end worth the destruction?

One discussion from an evangelical perspective is a podcast from HillFaith.blog which discusses Critical Theory with regard to our current cultural moment. 

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Postscript:  I suspect that Marlon Brando's character in The Wild One was more honest than Marcuse.

Predictive Processing

I came across a review of the book "Surfing Uncertainty" by Andy Clark.  The review and subsequent comments were a good and challenging read. 

The key insight: the brain is a multi-layer prediction machine. All neural processing consists of two streams: a bottom-up stream of sense data, and a top-down stream of predictions. These streams interface at each level of processing, comparing themselves to each other and adjusting themselves as necessary.

 Two key ideas to catch: predictive processing and the concept of embodied cognition.  The complete review is at Slate Star Codex.  RTWT and comment please.

HT: Assistant Village Idiot

News sites for the new year

Sadly, some of my older standby sites (BBC and such) have become useless in their wokeness: they are now propaganda in the same manner that Radio Moscow was back when shortwave was the thing.

There is no comprehensive world news media but there are some that are reliable within a limited scope.

First, World News does a weekday podcast "The World and Everything in It".  They do great reporting from a (reform christian) biblical world view.

Next, RFI and France24 are doing well especially with the African reportage.  They have not yet become BBC/CNN class obsessed with gender/climate,[insert prog cause here]...thankfully.  Still watchable.

Channel News Asia does great Southeast Asia coverage.  Headquartered in Singapore, they are doing excellent reporting.

NHK out of Tokyo reminds me of PBS in the sixties - deliberate and unprovocative, prehaps even educational without being ....tenditious.

For a well crafted, almost alternate reality, there is always Al Jazeera.

If you know of any other news stations that are faithful to a consistent world view please leave a comment.

Advent Already

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Keto Pancakes from the Tribal Kitchen

Obligatory Introductory Blather:

My dear co-conspirator, Donna, eats healthier than do I, but Sunday morning pancakes have been a trial and a thorn.  Many attempts with various sugar-free and keto recipes have been less than satisfactory.  This version is based loosely on something from random-keto-foodie-blogs with tweaks arrived at by discussion and experiment.

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Keto Pancakes from the Tribal Kitchen

Preheat griddle to 320ºF/160ºC

Sift together

•     1/2 cup almond flour
•     2 tbsp coconut flour
•     1 tsp cinnamon
•     1/2 tsp baking powder
•     ¼ tsp glucomannan
•     1-2 tbsp granulated sweetener of choice

Whisk together

•     2 tbsp oil (light olive is what I use)
•     3 large eggs
•     1/4 cup milk of choice (½ cream - ½ almond milk ?)
•     Perhaps a splash of vanilla extract

Add dries to wets and whisk until smooth.

Butter the preheated griddle.
Pour ⅓ cup of batter on the buttered griddle
Cook for 4+ minutes per side till nicely browned and bubbly


Another cooking method:
Warm a small pan (I have a 6” cast iron) with a lid over medium low.
Before each pancake add a bit of butter or coconut oil to the pan.
Pour 1/4 cup of batter in the pan.  It should sizzle slightly.
Cook covered for 4+ minutes per side.  The pancakes fluff more using this method.

Makes 4-6 pancakes.

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Serve with butter, (sugar-free) syrup, almond butter, cottage cheese, yogurt, or whatever else makes for a good morning.

Lepanto

Of all poems I have read recently (granted most were by Byron) the most beautiful has been a poem about the battle of Lepanto written by G. K. Chesterton.  It begins so:

White founts falling in the courts of the sun,

And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;

There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,

It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard,

It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips,

For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.

You can read the whole thing online, but in whatever medium, read it out loud.  It sings. It vividly paints the importance of the battle and the weakness of Europe at the time.  It also has a glorious portrayal of the importance of prayers and the place of the knight.  ("Don John of Austria is going to the war!" will continue to ring with excitement.)  I think I want to memorize the poem.

The anniversary of the battle was just this past Sunday.

Broken lawn mowers and grace

I wanted to mow the lawn. I know that's not something Dad really likes doing and I had the time to do it. Out I went to the garage and started up the old riding mower. Thankfully, it was functional and full of gas. I hopped on and started riding around the lawn. Perhaps I was being careless or just miscalculated the space I needed to give so I wouldn't run over a rock that was a bit out of line from the border of the rock garden. All I know is I ran over a rock, it sounded very unpleasant, and I think I chipped some of the rock away -- and broke the lawn mower. To my dismay, the blade deck started clacking like crazy. I parked the riding mower in the garage and used the push mower to get as much done before dusk as I could. When Dad returned that evening, I sheepishly told him what I had done. He shrugged and said that it was fine and that we could fix it. The next morning, with a new blade in hand, he invited me to help him fix it. Thankful for the opportunity to help right what I had broken, I quickly threw on my tennis shoes and and followed him. However, when we went to the garage, he went to the push mower to replace that one's blade. Hesitantly, I explained that it was the riding mower, not the push mower, that I had broken. “Well,” he responded, “the blade on this one is broken too, so we'll fix this and then take a look at the other one.” So we did. Sure enough, that blade was pretty bent out of shape and one end was broken off. Then we looked at the other mower. We pulled the blade deck off and examined it. Thankfully, the clacking of the blades was just caused by them being loose on one side. But there were several more things that needed to be fixed or changed: new belts and welding to patch the blade deck cover. It turned into a two day project to get it all done. I only helped with tightening the blades and a bit with the belts. But it set me to thinking. I had set out to help Dad and ended up making more work for him. Yet, without getting upset or disgruntled, Dad set about fixing what I broke, inviting me to help him get it done. On top of fixing just what I broke, we discovered additional things that needed work. And Dad invited me to help fix these things that I needed could never have done on my own.

The more I thought about this, the more I realized that it was a wonderful example of how God is with His children. We set out, following his example, and trying to “help” him, to participate in the work he wants done in this world (just like I was trying to take part in the work that Dad does for our family). Sometimes, even when we do some good (I did get the front yard mown before breaking the mower), we often -- maybe always -- mess something up. We are forgetful and make mistakes that may make more work than the original task was. Yet, somehow, with incredible graciousness, God uses those failures as opportunities to work good. Not only does He fix the mess we made, He often fixes things we never knew were broken -- and invites us to participate in that restoring work as well! What graciousness and love that is, to allow us to work and mess things up and participate in the restoration of more than we ever realized or thought possible! And what a blessing to have a father who shows me with his life how God is with us! Thank you, God, and thank you, Dad! Happy Father's Day!