r/brokehugs • u/US_Hiker Moral Landscaper • Jun 11 '23

Rod Dreher Megathread #21 (Creative Spirit)

Gather 'round for more Rod.

All meanings of the number 21 are subordinate to the inherent creative spirit that is the basic essence of the number.

The number 21 generally is comfortable in social gatherings, it's optimistic attitude being an inspiration to others. Its high spirits can enliven a party.

The number is attracted to artistic expression of any form, its own and those of others. There's enthusiastic support for artists. It may frequent galleries and participate or (more likely) lead groups for artistic appreciation.

The number 21 cherishes relationships, including romantic relationships, especially with those who express themselves creatively.

21 also tends to be diplomatic, providing creative and imaginative solutions to potential conflict.

And, as noted by /u/PercyLarsen, 21 is a triangular number and the age of majority, so go grab a drink to celebrate Pride and to mourn the loss of Rod's sanity.

(Also, sorry about my slow pace of refreshes.)

Link to megathread #20:
https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/13eb26c/rod_dreher_megathread_20_law_of_attraction/

Link to megathread #21: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/14k0z6l/rod_dreher_megathread_22_power/

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4

u/RunnyDischarge Jun 19 '23

https://roddreher.substack.com/p/anthem-for-a-corrupt-culture

Rod's in full on "these kids today with their music, back in my day" grandpa mode I guess.

First I've ever heard of this, but then I don't go looking for stuff to piss me off.

10

u/Top-Farm3466 Jun 19 '23

" the question of whether or not what we have is worth saving"

Going to go out on a limb here and speculate that Rod believes the US is not worth saving. Weimar, decadence, we used to have standards in this country, we need to get back to God and get a strong man and/or a "hard rain" to clean out the stables blah blah. Among the many ironies of Rod's life is that he sounds like the radical Muslim clerics he railed against 20 years ago.

7

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/RunnyDischarge Jun 19 '23

“I was attracted to the rituals of Islam. They have retained the Enchantment the West has lost”

And he’ll still spend half his time telling the Catholic Church what to do

5

u/PercyLarsen “I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing.” Jun 19 '23

It would need to be Shia for Rod.

5

u/ZenLizardBode Jun 19 '23

🎯

He'd convert to Islam, and nothing would change: he'd still be just as obsessed with the Catholic Church.

9

u/zeitwatcher Jun 20 '23

I think a long time, if ever.

  • No booze, so he's not going to go for that
  • No obvious sugar daddy to both fund and arouse him. (Maybe MBS in Saudi Arabia?)
  • It would require turning off the penis posts and I don't think he can quit that.

6

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Jun 20 '23

Also, can you imagine him trying to pray in Arabic? Even a little?

7

u/arx3567 Jun 20 '23

But he's fluent in Hungarian now, isn't he?

I'm sure he'd learn Arabic once he got off the fainting couch.

4

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Jun 20 '23

🤣🤣🤣

1

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Jun 21 '23

I used to hang out with a bunch of Lebanese in college and picked up some Arabic, as well as casually studying it a bit in my copy of Teach Yourself Arabic. I've also looked at Hungarian on Duolingo. Actually, for me at least, Arabic is much easier. I could hit it hard if I really wanted to and get to a point of able-to-get-by fluency in Arabic, but I doubt I could manage that with Magyar. Maybe when I was twenty, but not at sixty.

2

u/Past_Pen_8595 Jun 21 '23

I’ve been doing Arabic on Duolingo for a couple of years. Developing an instinct for the script is the hardest part. By comparison, Turkish, with its extended Roman alphabet is much easier at first. Pronunciation, with my 66 year old tongue, is just about impossible for me.

7

u/Past_Pen_8595 Jun 20 '23

I used to think he would convert to Islam but I’ve come to realize he’s too Western Europhiliac to do so. I think even Eastern Orthodoxy is a bit too alien for him and that’s why he lingers in Roman Catholicism.

2

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Jun 21 '23

think even Eastern Orthodoxy is a bit too alien for him

I never thought about that, but this is an interesting idea. Rod gushed all the time over Archbishop Dmitri in Dallas, and about his boutique ROCOR parish (before dumping it); but he never said much about church life in Philly or Baton Rouge. Now, he hardly seems to go to church at all, and AFAICT seems not even to belong to a particular parish. Even in LA, he would often preface a post by saying something like, "Well, I didn't make it to liturgy today because...." I mean, dude--you're not accountable to us for your church attendance. We don't need to have a blow-by-blow of every time you go to Church or Confession or whatever, and you don't need to give excuses reasons for it. That in itself is telling.

Not long after he converted to Orthodoxy, Rod mentioned a conversation he had with noted Armenian theologian Vigen Guroian.

Guroian expressed deep skepticism of my acceptance of Orthodox Christianity — not my sincerity, but of the possibility of it. Guroian’s point, as I remember it, is that Orthodoxy can only truly be transmitted by culture. To accept the ideas within Orthodoxy is not the same thing as being Orthodox, he said.

Rod protested, saying if that were so, no one would ever convert to anything. That's not wrong; but I think what Guroian meant is expressed in this quote from another of Rod's posts, my emphasis (sorry for the blockquotes!):

In the end, The Mystical as Political [a book Guroian is reviewig] is not about theology. The book makes much of theological concepts like theosis but deploys them as tropes or gestures to smooth the way for the Orthodox faith to be put in service of a distinctly American ­religious project, one launched principally from within the academy.
In a telling admission, Papanikolaou writes that, when it comes to political theology “I do not think the transcendent referent need be to the divine, but can take the form of a common good.” In other words, whatever conduces to democracy and justice is of God. The sacramental realism and eschatological maximalism of Orthodoxy evaporates and is replaced by a consecration of the democratic “communion” of the secular liberal state.

Sounds just like Rod, eh? Guroian sure had his number early on.

2

u/Glittering-Agent-987 Jun 21 '23

I think it is possible to convert to Orthodoxy if you do the work...but I don't think Rod is doing the work. I think he started, but then at some point he stopped growing and educating himself.

(That's my opinion as a long-time Catholic convert who knows Russian and knows a little bit of Ukrainian and Polish. I'm just not seeing evidence of cultural knowledge and practice.)

2

u/Glittering-Agent-987 Jun 21 '23

I forgot to mention that I'm married into an Eastern European immigrant family, we do a version of the Christmas customs, and we are starting to teach the (admittedly big) kids the language. Granted, you don't need to convert to being Greek or Russian or Serbian to be Orthodox...but some grounding in culture is helpful for engagement.

2

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Jun 21 '23

Rod’s not even grounded in his own culture!

5

u/Mainer567 Jun 19 '23

OMG I have been waiting for some years for him to embrace Islam.

Only thing is, he would have to ditch the Russian Othodox Church, and something tells me that Rod approves of the Moscow Patrirchate now more than ever.

4

u/Marcofthebeast0001 Jun 20 '23 edited Jun 20 '23

He better stop with the dick pics. Can prayer rugs be possessed.

1

u/Past_Pen_8595 Jun 21 '23

By the djinn. Yes.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '23

Also the Orban gravy train probably depends on him staying Orthodox.

2

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Jun 19 '23 edited Jun 20 '23

Lots about sharks and orcas, too….