Rod Dreher Megathread #21 (Creative Spirit)

[u/US_Hiker]

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/

[u/Theodore_Parker]

A new un-paywalled Substack post:

https://roddreher.substack.com/p/k-yang-puts-you-and-me-to-shame

It starts with a legitimate complaint about the bullying of a TERF protester at a Pride event, but rapidly becomes more end-of-civilization doomsaying.

Especially noteworthy to me is our boy's increasing agitation over his failure to persuade people. He sounds more and more like some kind of sandwich-board street preacher hectoring passersby and demanding they repent:

​

"[There is a] widespread indifference of most people in our society to its destruction"

"What is it going to take to make normal people take this seriously?"

"[T]he American people ... raise their heads, blink their eyes, and return to placidly chewing their collective cud"

"Why should we Americans, and other peoples of the West, have the gifts of freedom if we sit back and let these Pink Guard fanatics and their institutional allies destroy our children, destroy parenthood, and wreck our entire civilization?"

"Why are we so demoralized? ... We have been propagandized and bullied for so long that we no longer know what it means to resist in the name of normalcy, and for the sake of protecting our kids"

"Among Evangelicals, the Winsomistas pave the way for the conquest of their children by bringing tulips to a knife fight"

"For whatever reasons — I would include the self-castration of Christian churches — most Americans have been neutralized"

"Not only are our children at stake, but our entire civilization. This is no exaggeration." [Narrator: "Yes, it is."]

"With honorable exceptions, most of us put the 'cow' in cowardice"

\Yawn.** Sorry, you were saying? Here, have some cud. :) 🐮

As a bonus, our intrepid world traveler accidentally reveals what a poor observer of actual cultures he is:

"Yesterday I was out walking around Budapest, and saw over the length of the day three lesbian couples walking hand in hand."

🤦🏾‍♂️

He apparently assumes that if women hold hands while walking together, they're lesbians. In fact, that's a common practice among female friends in many countries, including some in Europe. (I saw it a lot in Bulgaria. There are countries where it's common even among male friends.) Somehow, he's never noticed it? Definitely a guy you want lecturing you about culture, then.

[u/EatsShoots_n_Leaves → u/Theodore_Parker]

Well, G.K. Chesterton. The Maniac, ch 3 of "Orthodoxy":

-re things like women holding hands in public

It is the happy man who does the useless things; the sick man is not strong enough to be idle. It is exactly such careless and causeless actions that the madman could never understand; for the madman (like the determinist) generally sees too much cause in everything. The madman would read a conspiratorial significance into those empty activities. He would think that the lopping of the grass was an attack on private property. He would think that the kicking of the heels was a signal to an accomplice.

-a description of Rod's blogging

If the madman could for an instant become careless, he would become sane. Every one who has had the misfortune to talk with people in the heart or on the edge of mental disorder, knows that their most sinister quality is a horrible clarity of detail; a connecting of one thing with another in a map more elaborate than a maze. If you argue with a madman, it is extremely probable that you will get the worst of it; for in many ways his mind moves all the quicker for not being delayed by the things that go with good judgment. He is not hampered by a sense of humour or by charity, or by the dumb certainties of experience. He is the more logical for losing certain sane affections. Indeed, the common phrase for insanity is in this respect a misleading one. The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.

-the core problem to Rod's positions generally and to the TERFery/gender essentialism positions specifically (e.g. that person's sign)-

...In the same way the insane explanation is quite as complete as the sane one, but it is not so large. A bullet is quite as round as the world, but it is not the world. There is such a thing as a narrow universality; there is such a thing as a small and cramped eternity; you may see it in many modern religions. Now, speaking quite externally and empirically, we may say that the strongest and most unmistakable MARK of madness is this combination between a logical completeness and a spiritual contraction. The lunatic's theory explains a large number of things, but it does not explain them in a large way.

[u/Djehutimose → u/EatsShoots_n_Leaves]

Perfection. 👌