McGilchrist Finds Gnosticism . . . and the Thought of Eric Voegelin
I've maintained for years that these two thinkers needed to get together. It finally happened.
A Meditation on Gnosticism Over at Substack This Morning
The guy who demands that everyone be rational becomes the most irrational of all.
That’s an old Taoist zinger. It rang true when Lao-Tzu swayed atop his water buffalo to the misty hills of eternity; it’s true today as we clatter along in our mechanical Jacobins, guillotinely crisp
The Pilgrim Plague
Ah, the elite progressive white people. Those insufferable, self-righteous bastards who've managed to infect the American psyche with their millenarian madness for centuries. It's a flippin’ disease, a gnostic virus that's been festering in our national bloodstream since the first Puritan set his sanctimonious
Loneliness and Activism
Why We Don't Like Handicapped People
Social Activist Thomas Merton Didn't Stay Informed?
Merton didn't trust the media, but he formed strong opinions on current events. It's because Merton was an artist victimized by his left hemisphere. He needed to embrace causes.
Western Civilization Hit Its Apex During Advent 1273
A civilization can, indeed, advance and decline at the same time. Eric Voegelin, New Science of Politics, 132.
As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Abraham Heschel, God in Search of Man
Modern civilization is gnostic civilization. Gnostic civilization is left-hemispheric civilization.
Gnosis: Knowledge. Specifically, explicit knowledge, the kind
Paragraph 7 of This Newman Sermon is Stunning (Plus a Thomas Sowell Kicker)
"Sermon 13: Implicit and Explicit Reason"
The Gnostic: A Person Controlled by His Left Hemisphere, Plus a Cause
Merely being controlled by the left hemisphere doesn't make a person a gnostic. He also needs a cause.
We're Increasingly Lonely Because the Gnostics are Increasingly Powerful
This is a great piece at Plough, drawing de Tocqueville to diagnose the problem with democracy. The bottom line: In a static culture, a man knows his place and settles into quiet contentment. In a democratic culture, no one knows his place and is neither quiet nor content . . . and he&