jeudi 30 octobre 2014

Dooyeweerd: Meaning in the fall of man

Jan Davidsz. de Heem, "Triopall le Blàthan is Measan"
"Cha tèid càil san t-saoghal Dia-àicheil seo air chall ann an Crìosd. Chan eil pàirt sam bith de fhànas, chan eil beatha thìmeil sam bith, chan eil gluasad tìmeil no lùths tìmeil, chan eil cumhachd, gliocas, maise, gràdh, creideamh no ceartas sam bith as urrainn dhan t-saoghal pheacach a chùmail mar shealbh aige fhèin as aonais Chrìosd.
...Tha e gu tur taing do ghràs coitcheann Dhè ann an Crìosd gu bheil meadhanan sam bith air am fàgail san t-saoghal thìmeil a chur an aghaidh neart sgriosail nan eileamaidean a fhuair ma sgaoil; gu bheil meadhanan ann fhathast a bhith strì an aghaidh galair, gu bhith bacadh thinneasan-inntinn, gu bhith cur smaoineachaidh loidsigich an gnìomh, gu bhith sàbhaladh leasachaidh chultaraich bho dhol sìos ann am buirbe mi-chneasta, gu bhith ag altram cainnt, gu bhith gleidheadh comas a' chonaltraidh shòisealta, gu bhith seasamh an aghaidh mi-cheartais, agus mar sin air adhart. Tha na nithean uile seo mar thoradh air obair Chrìosd, fiù 's mas do nochd E air an talamh. Bhon toiseach sheall Dia air A chruitheachd leagte ann an solas an t-Slànaigheir."
(Herman Dooyeweerd, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Vol II p 34)
______________________________
Meaning in the fall of man.
     There remains, however, another central problem of extreme importance: As regards his human nature, Christ is the root of reborn creation, and as such the fulness of meaning, the creaturely Ground of the meaning of all temporal reality. But our temporal world in its apostate religious root lies under God's curse, under the curse of sin. Thus there is a radical antithesis in the subject-side of the root of the earthly cosmos. It may be that this antithesis has been reconciled by the Redemption in Jesus Christ, but in temporal reality the unrelenting struggle between the kingdom of God and that of darkness will go until the end of the world. The falling away from God has affected our cosmos in its root and its temporal refraction of meaning. Is not this a final and decisive reason to distinguish meaning from reality? Does not the radical antithesis between the kingdom of God and that of darkness, which our transcendental Idea itself also recognizes as fundamental for philosophic thought, compel us to accept an ultimate dualism between meaning and reality?
     Is sinful reality still meaning? Is it not meaningless, or rather the adversary of meaning, since meaning can only exist in the religious dependence on its Origin?
     Here we indeed touch the deepest problem of Christian philosophy. The latter cannot hope to solve it without the illumination of Divine Revelation if it wants to be guaranteed from falling back into the attitude of immanence-philosophy.
     I for one do not venture to try and know anything concerning the problem that has been raised except what God has vouchsafed to reveal to us in His Word. I do not know what the full effect of unrestrained sin on reality would be like. Thanks to God this unhampered influence does not exist in our earthly cosmos. One thing we know, viz. that sin in its full effect does not mean the cutting through of the relation of dependence between Creator and depraved creation, but that the fulness of being of Divine justice will express itself in reprobate creation in a tremendous way, and that in this process depraved reality cannot but reveal its creaturely mode of being as meaning.
     It will be meaning in the absolute subjective apostasy under the curse of God's wrath, but in this very condition it will not be a meaningless reality.
     Sin causes spiritual death through the falling away from the Divine source of life, but sin is not merely privatio, not something merely negative, but a positive, guilty apostasy insofar as it reveals its power, derived from creation itself. Sinful reality remains apostate meaning under the law and under the curse of God's wrath. In our temporal cosmos God's Common Grace reveals itself, as KUYPER brought to light so emphatically, in the preservation of the cosmic world-order. Owing to this preserving grace the framework of the temporal refraction of meaning remains intact.

The Christian as a stranger in this world.
     Although the fallen earthly cosmos is only a sad shadow of God's original creation, and although the Christian can only consider  himself as a stranger and a pilgrim in this world, yet he cannot recognize the true creaturely ground of meaning in the apostate root of this cosmos, but only in the new root, Christ. Any other view would inevitably result in elevating sin to the rank of an independent counter-power opposed to the creative power of God (1). And this would result in avoidance of the world, an unbiblical flight from the world. We have nothing to avoid in the world but sin. The war that the Christian wages in God's power in this temporal life against the Kingdom of darkness, is a joyful struggle, not only for his own salvation, but for God's creation as a whole, which we do not hate, but love for Christ's sake. We must not hate anything in the world but sin.
The apostate world cannot maintain any meaning as its own property in opposition to Christ. Common Grace.
    Nothing in our apostate world can get lost in Christ. There is not any part of space, there is no temporal life, no temporal movement or temporal energy, no temporal power, wisdom, beauty, love, faith or justice, which sinful reality can maintain as a kind of property of its own apart from Christ.
     Whoever relinquishes the 'world' taken in the sense of sin, of the 'flesh' in its Scriptural meaning, does not really lose anything of the creaturely meaning, but on the contrary he gets a share in the fulness of meaning of Christ, in Whom God will give us everything. It is all due to God's common grace in Christ that there are still means left in the temporal world to resist the destructive force of the elements that have got loose; that there are still means to combat disease, to check psychic maladies, to practise logical thinking, to save cultural development from going down into savage barbarism, to develop language, to preserve the possibility of social intercourse, to withstand injustice, and so on. All these things are the fruits of Christ's work, even before His appearance on the earth. From the very beginning God has viewed His fallen creation in the light of the Redeemer.
     We can only face the problem of the effect on temporal meaning that the partial working of the falling away from the fulness of meaning has in spite of common grace, when we have gained an insight into the modal structures of the law-spheres within the temporal coherence of meaning. But— and with this we definitively reject any separation of meaning from reality — meaning  in apostasy remains real meaning in accordance with its creaturely mode of being. An illogical reasoning can occur only within the logical modality of meaning; illegality in its legal sense is only possible within the modality of meaning of the jural sphere; the non beautiful can only be found within the modal aspect of meaning of the aesthetic law-sphere, just as organic disease remains something within the modal aspect of meaning of the biotic law-sphere, and so on. Sin, as the root of all evil, has no meaning or existence independent of the religious fulness of the Divine Law. In this sense St PAUL'S word is to be understood, to the effect that but for the law sin is dead ("χωρς γρ νόμου μαρτία νεκρά" Romans 7:8).
     All along the line meaning remains the creaturely mode of being under the law which has been fulfilled by Christ. Even apostate meaning is related to Christ, though in a negative sense; it is nothing apart from Him.
     As soon as thought tries to speculate on this religious basic truth, accessible to us only through faith in God's Revelation, it gets involved in insoluble antinomies. This is not due to any intrinsic contradiction between thought and faith, but rather to the mutinous attempt on the part of thought to exceed its temporal cosmic limits in its supposed self-sufficiency. But of this in the next section. For thought that submits to Divine Revelation and recognizes its own limits, the antithesis in the root of our cosmos is not one of antinomy; rather it is an opposition on the basis of the radical unity of Divine Law; just as in the temporal law-spheres justice and injustice, love and hatred are not internally antinomous, but only contrasts determined by the norms in the respective modalities of meaning.

The religious value of the modal criterion of meaning.
     If created reality is to be conceived of as meaning, one cannot observe too strictly the limits of the temporal modal law-spheres in philosophic thought. These limits have been set by the cosmic order of time in the specific 'sovereignty of the modal aspects within their own spheres'.
     Any attempt to obliterate these limits by a supposedly autonomous thought results in an attack upon the religious fulness of meaning of the temporal creation.
    If the attempt is made to reduce the modal meaning of the jural or that of the economic law-sphere to the moral one of the temporal love of one's neighbour, or if the same effort is made to reduce the modal meaning of number or that of language to the meaning of logic, it must be distinctly understood that the abundance of meaning of creation is diminished by this subjective reduction. And perhaps without realizing what this procedure implies, one puts some temporal aspect of reality in the place of the religious fulness of meaning in Christ. The religious value of the criterion of meaning is that it saves philosophic thought from falling away from this fulness."

     (1) In his Kirchliche Dogmatik KARL BARTH has tried to escape this consequence by deriving the positive power of sin from the 'Divine No' placed over against His 'Yes' with respect to His creative act. But this dialectical solution of the problem results in a dualistic (at the same time positive and ncgative) conception of creation.
     The Divine 'No' cannot explain the power of sin, which as such is derived from creation itself, as we have stated in Vol. I.
     The idea of a negative creation is destructive to the Biblical conception of the integral Origin of Heaven and earth, because it implies that sin has a power outside creation in its positive sense.
     Creation itself implies the Divine 'No' with respect to sin in its negative sense as 'privatio'.
(Herman Dooyeweerd, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought. Vol II, p 32-36)
_________________________
"Brí i dtitim an chine dhaonna.
     Tá fós, áfach, fadhb lárnach eile atá ana-thábhachtach: Maidir le a nádúr daonna, is é Críost fréamh an chruthaithe athshaolaithe, agus mar seo is lánmhaireacht na brí é, bunús créatúrúil brí na réaltacht teamparálta uile. Ach tá ár saol teamparálta, ina fhréamh reiligiúnach dhiashéantach, faoi mhallacht Dé agus faoi mhallacht an pheacaí. Dá bhrí sin tá fritéis radacach ann i dtaobh-suibiachta fréamh an chosmais dhomhanda. D'fhéadfadh sé a bheith go ndearna an fhritéis seo a réiteach leis an Fhuascailt in Íosa Críost, ach i réaltacht teamparálta leanfaidh an choimhlint gan staonadh idir ríocht Dé agus ríocht an dorchadais go dtí deireadh an domhain...
(Herman Dooyeweerd, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought. Vol II, p 32-36)

Dooyeweerd: Dìleab Arastotail agus Kant/ Legacy of Aristotle and Kant


Arastotal                                               Kant
Feart os-indibhidealach na puinge tòiseachaidh.
Tha aonachd bhuillsgeanach agus radaigeach ar bitheachd an dà chuid indibhidealach agus os-indibhidealach. Is e sin ri ràdh, an taobh a-staigh na pearsantachd (mise-fhìn-eachd) fa leth tha an t-aonachd seo a' tomhadh air taobh thall an ego aonair. Tha i tomhadh ri na dh'aonaicheas an cinne-daonna uile gu spioradail ann am freumh, a thaobh cruitheachd, tuiteim, agus saorsa. 
     A rèir ar creidimh Chrìosdail, tha an cinne-daonna uile air a ghabhail a-steach gu spioradail am broinn Adhaimh. Annsan tha mac-an-duine gu lèir air thuiteam. Agus an lùib mhic-an-duine thuit an cosmos tìmeil gu lèir mar an ceudna, a bha co-chruinnichte na bhroinn. Ann an Iosa Crìosd tha an cinne-daonna ùr uile na aon ann am freumh, mar bhuill an aona chuirp.
     Ann am faclan eile, tha ar mise-fhìn-eachd freumhaichte ann am comann spioradail a' chinne-daonna. Chan e "susbaint" fèin-fhoghainteach no "monad gun uinneig" a th'ann, ach tha "mise" beò ann an comann spioradail "sinne", air a stiùireadh ri "Thusa" Diadhaidh, a rèir tùs-chiall na cruitheachd.

Ciall prìomh-àithne a' ghràidh.
     Is e seo ciall dhomhain prìomh àithne a' ghràidh: Gràdhaichidh tu an Tighearna do Dhia thar na h-uile nithean, agus do choimhearsnach mar thu fhèin...

Spiorad a' chomainn agus an grunnd-bharail cràbhach.   
Nise, is e spiorad cumanta a chumas comann cràbhach a' dol. Spiorad a bhios gnìomhach (mar dhunamis, mar phrìomh chumhachd-brosnachaidh) ann am puing co-chruinneachaidh bitheachd a' chinne-daonna. Bidh an spiorad comainn a tha seo ag obair tro ghrunnd-bharail cràbhach a bheir stà do sprionga-buillsgein an t-seasaimh beatha agus smaoin gu lèir...
    O chionn an tuiteam agus gealladh teachd an t-Slànaighir, tha dà sprionga-buillsgein gnìomhach am broinn cridhe bitheachd a' chinne-daonna. Is e th'anns a' chiad fhear ach dunamis an Spioraid Naoimh. Thrèig a' chruitheachd Dia agus thuit i bhon fhìor Thùs aice, ach le cumhachd-brosnachaidh Facal Dhè, 's e ioncholainnte ann an Iosa Crìosd, bidh an dunamis seo a' stiùireadh na cruitheachd air ais dha Chruithear. Is e dàimh macachd ris an Athar Diadhaidh a bhios an dunamis seo a' buileachadh air mac-an-duine .
(Herman Dooyeweerd, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, p 60-64) 

The supra-individual character of the starting-point.
The central and radical unity of our existence is at the same time individual and supra-individual; that is to say, in the individual I-ness it points beyond the individual ego toward that which makes the whole of mankind spiritually one in root in its creation, fall and redemption. 
     According to our Christian faith, all humanity is spiritually included in Adam. In him the whole human race has fallen, and in mankind also the entire temporal cosmos, which was concentrated in it. In Jesus Christ, the entire new humanity is one in root, as the members of one body.
     Our I-ness is, in other words, rooted in the spiritual community of mankind. It is no self-sufficient "substance", no "windowless monad", but it lives in the spiritual community of the we, which is directed to a Divine Thou, according to the original meaning of creation.


The meaning of the central command of love.
     This is the deep meaning of the central command of love: Thou shalt love God above all and thy neighbour as thyself...


The spirit of community and the religious basic motive.
     Now a religious community is maintained by a common spirit, which as a dynamis, as a central motive power, is active in the concentration-point of human existence. This spirit of community works through a religious ground-motive, which gives contents to the central mainspring of the entire attitude of life and thought... 
     Since the fall and the promise of the coming Redeemer, there are two central mainsprings operative in the heart of human existence. The first is the dynamis of the Holy Ghost, which by the moving power of God's Word, incarnated in Jesus Christ, re-directs to its Creator the creation that had apostatized in the fall from its true Origin. This dynamis brings man into the relationship of sonship to the Divine Father. Its religious groundmotive is that of the Divine Word-Revelation, which is the key to the understanding of Holy Scripture: the motive of creation, fall, and redemption by Jesus Christ in the communion of the Holy Ghost.
     The second central mainspring is that of the spirit of apostasy from the true God. As religious dynamis (power), it leads the human heart in an apostate direction, and is the source of all deification of the creature. It is the source of all absolutizing of the relative even in the theoretical attitude of thought. By virtue of its idolatrous character, its religious ground-motive can receive very diverse contents.


The Greek form-matter motive and the modern Humanistic motive of nature and freedom.     
     In Western thought, this apostate spirit has disclosed itself chiefly in two central motives, namely, (1) that which has dominated the classical Greek world of culture and thought, and which has been brought (since the time of ARISTOTLE) under the fixed designation of the form-matter motive, and (2) that of the modern Humanistic life- and world-view, which, since the time of IMMANUEL KANT, has been called the motive of nature and freedom. Since the 18th century, this latter motive came more and more to dominate the world of Western culture and thought.
     The former motive originated from the encounter of the older pre-Homeric Greek religion of life (one of the different nature religions) with the later cultural religion of the Olympic gods. The older religion of life deified the eternally flowing Stream of life, which is unable to fix itself in any single individual form. But out of this stream there proceed periodically the generations of transitory beings, whose existence is limited by an individual form, as a consequence of which they are subjected to the horrible fate of death, the anangkè or the heimarmen tychè. This motive of the form-less eternally flowing Stream of life is the matter-motive of the Greek world of thought. It found its most pregnant expression in the worship of DIONYSUS, which had been imported from Thrace.
     On the other hand, the form-motive was the main spring of the more recent Olympian religion, the religion of form, measure and harmony, which rested essentially upon the deification of the cultural aspect of Greek society (the Olympian gods were personified cultural powers). It acquired its most pregnant expression in the Delphic Apollo as law-giver. The Olympian gods leave mother earth with its ever flowing Stream of life and its threatening anangkè. They acquire Olympus for their seat, and have an immortal individual form, which is not perceptible to the eye of sense. But they have no power over the fate of mortals.
     The form-matter motive itself was independent of the mythological forms which it received in the old nature-religions and the new Olympian culture-religion. It has dominated Greek thought from the outset.
     The autonomy which philosophic theoria demanded, in opposition to popular belief, implied, as we have observed in an earlier context, only an emancipation from the mythological forms which were bound to sensory representation. It did not at all imply a loosening of philosophic thought from the central religious ground-motive which was born out of the encounter of the culture-religion with the older religion of life.
     The modern Humanistic ground-motive of nature and freedom, which we shall presently subject to a detailed investigation in the transcendental criticism of Humanistic philosophy, has taken its rise from the religion of the free autonomous human personality and that of modern science evoked by it, and directed to the domination of nature. It is to be understood only against the background of the three ground-motives that formerly gave the central direction to Western thought, namely, the form-matter-motive, the motive of creation, fall and redemption, and the scholastic motive of nature and grace. The last-named motive was introduced by Roman-Catholicism and directed to a religious synthesis between the two former motives.
     It is not surprising, that the apostate main spring can manifest itself in divergent religious motives. For it never directs the attitude of life and thought to the true totality of meaning and the true radix of temporal reality, because this is not possible without the concentric direction to the true Origin.
     Idolatrous absolutizing is necessarily directed to the speciality of meaning, which is thereby dissociated from its temporal coherence, and consequently becomes meaningless and void. This is the deep truth in the time-honoured conception of the fall as a privatio, a deprivation of meaning, and as a negation, a nothingness.


Sin as privatio and as dynamis. No dialectical relation between creation and fall.
     However, the central dynamis of the spirit of apostasy is no "nothing"; it springs from the creation, and cannot become operative beyond the limits in which it is bound to the divine order of meaning. Only by virtue of the religious concentration impulse, which is concreated in the human heart, can the latter direct itself to idols. The dynamis of sin can unfold itself only in subjection to the religious concentration-law of human existence. Therefore, the apostle PAUL says, that without the law there is no sin and that there is a law of sin.
     Consequently, there can be no inner contradiction between creation and fall as long as they are understood in their Biblical sense. A contradiction would exist, if, and only if, sin were to have not merely an imaginary but a real power in itself, independent of creation.


The dialectical character of the apostate ground-motives. Religious and theoretic dialectic.
     On the contrary, it belongs to the inner nature of the idolatrous ground-motives, that they conceal in themselves a religious antithesis.
     For the absolutizing of special modal aspects of meaning, which in the nature of the case are relative, evokes the correlata of these latter. These correlata now in religious consciousness claim an absoluteness opposed to that of the deified aspects.
     This brings a religious dialectic into these basic motives, that is to say, they are in fact composed of two religious motives, which, as implacable opposites, drive human action and thought continually in opposite directions, from one pole to the other. I have subjected this religious dialectic to a detailed investigation in the first volume of my new trilogy, Reformation and Scholasticism in Philosophy. And I demonstrated, that this dialectic is quite different from the theoretical one which is inherent in the intentional antithetical gegenstand-relation of theoretic thought.
     For theoretical antithesis is by nature relative and requires a theoretical synthesis to be performed by the thinking "self". On the other hand, an antithesis in the religious starting-point of theoretical thought does not allow of a genuine synthesis. In the central religious sphere the antithesis necessarily assumes an absolute character, because no starting-point beyond the religious one is to be found from which a synthesis could he effectuated.

(Herman Dooyeweerd, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, p 60-64)

mercredi 29 octobre 2014

Dooyeweerd: Historical Development

"Falkirk Wheel" (Photo: F. MacFhionnlaigh)
Dooyeweerd: Historical Development
     In order to perceive God's ordinances for historical development, it is necessary that we search for them in the historical aspect and in its unbreakable coherence with the structures of the other aspects. If this search is not to go astray, then the scriptural ground-motive of creation, fall, and redemption through Jesus Christ must be our only point of departure and our only religious motivation.

     Some may object by posing the following questions: Is such an intricate investigation really necessary to gain insight into God's ordinances for historical development? Is it not true that God revealed his whole law in the ten commandments? Is this revelation not enough for the simple Christian? I answer with counter questions: Is it not true that God placed all the spheres of temporal life under his laws and ordinances — the laws that govern numerical and spatial relationships, physical and chemical phenomena, organic life, emotional feeling, logical thinking, language, economic life, and beauty? Are not all these laws, without exception, grounded in God's creation order? Can we find explicit Scriptural texts for all of them? If not, should we not acknowledge that God put the painstaking task to humankind to discover them? And admitting this, can we still hold that it makes no difference whether in this search we start from the ground-motive of the Word of God or are guided by unscriptural ground motives?

     Those who think they can derive truly Scriptural principles for political policy formation solely from explicit Bible texts have a very mistaken notion of the nature of Scripture. They see only the letter, forgetting that the Word of God is spirit and power which must penetrate our whole attitude of life and thought. God's Word-revelation puts people to work. It claims the whole of our being; where death and spiritual complacency once held sway in us, it wants to conceive new life. Spiritually lethargic people would rather have the ripe fruits of God's revelation fall into their laps, but Jesus Christ tells us that wherever the seed of God's Word falls on good soil, we ourselves must bear fruit.

     Today Christians face a fundamental question, namely, what historical yardstick do we possess in this new age for distinguishing between the reactionary and the substantially progressive directions in history? We cannot derive this criterion from the ten commandments, for they were not meant to save us from investigating God's creational ordinances. To answer this basic question, one needs insight into the specific ordinances that God established for historical development. It requires in-depth investigation. Our search will be protected against derailment if the creation motive of God's Word obtains complete control in our thinking. 

(Herman Dooyeweerd [1894-1977], "Roots of Western Culture: Pagan, Secular, and Christian Options", Paideia Press 2012, pp 59-60)
_____________________

jeudi 23 octobre 2014

The forgotten coup - how America and Britain crushed the government of their 'ally', Australia

Wiki
The forgotten coup - 
how America and Britain crushed the government of their 'ally', Australia
by John Pilger (23 October 2014)

Across the political and media elite in Australia, a silence has descended on the memory of the great, reforming prime minister Gough Whitlam, who has died. His achievements are recognised, if grudgingly, his mistakes noted in false sorrow. But a critical reason for his extraordinary political demise will, they hope, be buried with him.

Australia briefly became an independent state during the Whitlam years, 1972-75 [...] Although not regarded as on the left of the Labor Party, Whitlam was a maverick social democrat of principle, pride and propriety. He believed that a foreign power should not control his country's resources and dictate its economic and foreign policies
Read full article
_______________
See also:

____________________

jeudi 16 octobre 2014

Why did nobody question Brown when he made his worthless pledge?

Why did nobody question Brown when he made his worthless pledge?
Commentary by G.A.Ponsonby (15 Oct 2014)

Reblogged from Newsnet Scotland

Who would have thought it eh?  The promises made by Gordon Brown in the final days of the referendum campaign were not worth the airtime they were given.

It's almost hard to believe given the final result, but the Yes campaign had just taken the lead in the opinion polls – two surveys, one by Yougov and a private poll carried out by the No campaign pointed to a Yes victory on the 18th.

Alistair Darling's Better Together campaign was heading for the rocks until Brown gave a surprise speech to party activists pledging Home Rule.  The backbench MP also laid out a timetable within which these significant extra powers would be granted if Scots voted No.

Brown's address to the nation was broadcast live by the BBC as the corporation set about flooding its news platforms with the former Labour leader's two key pledges.



For days we were bombarded by bulletins and sound-bites from the broadcaster and others.  What authority Brown had to speak on behalf of the three Westminster party leaders was never fully explored nor was any attempt made at defining what powers Brown was promising.

It was the last days of the campaign and the Scottish media, Unionist to its core, and fearing a Yes win simply abandoned all pretence of proper journalistic scrutiny and parroted anything leading Unionist figures said.  Alistair Darling appeared on BBC Scotland and Jackie Bird fed him her now infamous 'Devo Max' line.



What this media failing led to of course was not just a No vote, but a constitutional mess evidenced by yesterday's House of Commons debate.  The debate was supposed to be a platform to discuss the extra powers pledged by Cameron, Clegg and Miliband in their famous Vow, hawked by the Daily Record, but that proved impossible when all three failed to turn up yesterday.

Brown's own contribution turned out to be a plea not for more power for Scotland, but for less.  In his speech the Kirkaldy MP actually argued for the Conservatives to offer less income tax powers than they had proposed during the referendum campaign.  To break their vow no less.  Has any Scottish outlet picked this up?

Brown seemed more worried that Scottish Unionist MPs might lose influence at Westminster.  SNP MPs already refuse to vote on English only issues.

His speech, which you can watch below, makes it clear his referendum pledge, and the so-called vow, were panic measures that had not been agreed or worked out.  Indeed in the video below a desperate sounding Brown is clearly only now trying to come up with a workable plan.


Note in the interview above [5 mins 40 secs] it is revealed that the Conservatives did indeed warn that English Votes for English Laws [EVEL] would be tied into the Scottish Devolution issue if Scots voted No.  John Redwood's revelation calls into question Labour claims that David Cameron's announcement outside Downing Street the day after the referendum, came as a complete surprise.

Indeed three years earlier the leader of the Better Together campaign, Alistair Darling had himself pointed out that any further devolution of power to Scotland would have consequences and that difficult questions had to be answered before people went to the polls.


But it's too late for questions now because we have already gone to the polls.

So where do we go from here?  MPs in England, mostly Tory, have now hijacked the Scottish debate and are pressing for equality in Westminster voting.  If they are to be denied voting on Scottish only matters then it is only fair Scottish MPs should be denied votes on English only matters they say.

The situation has arisen precisely because the Scottish media allowed eleventh hour pledges and promises to corrupt the independence referendum.  The three Unionist parties had not prepared for the late Yes surge and had cobbled something in a last desperate attempt to prevent No losing.

Of course the people charged with asking the difficult questions had no interest in asking them.  They're sole goal was to prevent Yes winning the referendum.

The British Labour party and its referendum allies the Tories have now little interest in Scotland as evidenced by the absence of their leaders from the debate yesterday.  The Scottish media, in particular BBC Scotland, were partly responsible for ensuring the current situation arose.  They have betrayed a nation.

The final insult is that these three leaders will appear on our televisions next year as part of the UK general election campaign.  Missing will be the party of government in Scotland, but Farage is scheduled to appear in one of the three debates.  Somehow I don't think Scottish Devolution will be high on the agenda in these debates.

BBC Scotland presenter Gary Robertson doesn't seem to believe the SNP deserve to be included in the UK wide televised debates because they don't field candidates in England.

(SNP MP Angus Robertson interviewed by BBC's Gary Robertson)

Isn't it weird that regional presenters like Robertson have ammunition ready to deploy when faced with calls for Scotland's voice to be heard, but who were struck dumb when Brown and others were making vacuous pledges and vows.

[I am currently writing a book which chronicles the BBC's handling of the independence referendum and its conduct in covering Scottish politics from 2007 up until the day of the referendum.  The book will aim to expose the corruption at the heart BBC Scotland News and Current Affairs and the influence the corporation had in the final days of the referendum campaign. The provisional title for the book is - 'How the BBC Stole the Referendum'.  I hope to have the book finished for the early part of 2015, well before the UK General Election.]

by G.A.Ponsonby
____________________

Cad a tharla dom? - Michael Ignatieff agus an Fortuna Fuarchúiseach

John Paul McCarthy


‘Thig an fhírinne amach ar deireadh’ a bhí mar sheanfhocal sa teanga seo chomh maith le teangacha eile. Bhí John-Paul Mc Carthy ag léamh cuntas amháin den chineál sin ó láimh an Cheanadaigh, Michael Ignatieff.

Ní minic a fhoilsítear leabhar a bhaineann le botúin agus le teipeanna an údair féin. Sa rannóg liteartha chúng sin, rannóg na mbotún, d’fhéadfaí Henry Adams a lua. (Agus é ag cuimhneamh ar na laethanta a chaith sé mar iriseoir óg, scríobh “the chances of ending in the gutter were, at best, even”). Rinne an scríbhneoir Astrálach Don Watson iarracht speisialta teip a fhostóra Paul Keating san ollthoghachán i 1996 a mhíniú freisin ina Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM. Chuir Watson an milleán ar lagar spride Keating fé 1996 mar aon lena mhórtas pearsanta agus a easpa smachta. (“Paul Keating is a kind, charming and very intelligent man who would risk his own life to save yours or to get an unwanted crease out of his trousers”). Agus fuarthas mea culpa eile ó Robert Mc Namara, iar-rúnaí cosanta le linn ré Kennedy agus Johnson, ina leabhar, In Retrospect, ach go háirithe ó thaobh Vítneam de. (“We were wrong, terribly wrong…”).

Anois, is féidir linn iarracht eile a chur isteach sa rannóg liteartha seo, ’sé sin Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics (Harvard U.P.) ó Michael Ignatieff. Scoláire, iriseoir agus pearsa teilefíse sa Bhreatain sna hochtóidí is ea Ignatieff, ach ball d’uaisleacht pholaitiúil Cheanada is ea é freisin.

Leugh an t-aiste slàn
___________________

mercredi 15 octobre 2014

The Establishment - Andrew Marr And Owen Jones

Picture the scene: No.10 Downing Street, September 16: 'a gentlemen's-club-style reception room, given factitious poshness by two marble pillars'. The event: a book launch party hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron himself to 'mark the publication' of a political novel, 'Head of State', by the BBC's senior interviewer and former political editor, Andrew Marr.

Reporting for the Independent, eyewitness John Walsh saw the significance:
'To see how the establishment operates, you really needed to be at this week's launch party for Andrew Marr's new book.'
Walsh noted that the room was packed with political and media bigwigs:
'Jeremy Hunt, George Osborne, Yvette Cooper. Journalists talked to each other, eyes busily flickering, desperate not to miss anything. Beside the bar stood Jason Cowley, editor of the New Statesman.'
The BBC's creative director, Alan Yentob, was there. So, too, was Lord Chadlington, or Peter Gummer - brother of John Selwyn Gummer, or Lord Deben, former chairman of the Conservative Party - who 'has long-standing links' to David Cameron, is President of the Prime Minister's Witney Conservative constituency association and 'lives in a manor house that neighbours Mr Cameron's Oxfordshire home'...

Read full article 
_____________________

samedi 11 octobre 2014

Seasick Steve, Dooyeweerd, Rookmaaker, Van Til, Schaeffer


Chaidh an t-aiste seo fhoillseachadh air tùs air Gobha-uisge ri Plubraich, ann an 2009.

Co-là breith agam a' bhòn-dè. Siathad 's a h-aon. Trì fichead 's h-aon. Fhuair mi CD bho Chiaran. Seasick Steve. Caran an aon aois rium fhìn saoilidh mi. Bho a choltas, co-dhiù. Chunnaic mi agallamh leis air an TV o-chionn dhà no trì seachdainn. Na shuidhe ann an dungairìos. Chluich e sean giotar a rinn e fhèin às bucas siogàr. Math fhèin. Fuaim a thug dham chuimhne an nòs cluich sònraichte ud a bhuineas ri blues a' Mhississippi Delta. Duine gasta iriosal. Gun mhòrchuis:
anyway i don't know why you wanna listen 
to what i got to say at all -
don't you got nothin better to do?
don't you got nothin better to do?
don't you got nothin better to do?
than listen to a man 
from another time? 
("Man from Another Time", Seasick Steve) 
Agus post-dealain bho Alan Wilson a' togail ceist mu bheachd Dhooyeweerd a-thaobh Sgriobtair. Deagh cheist gun teagamh. Nach robh Dooyeweerd air iomrall buileach sa chùis seo? Barrachd spèis aige ann am feallsanachd na Facal Dhè? Dubh-cheist. Doirbh freagairt a thoirt seachad. Chreid Dooyeweerd gu robh Facal Dhè fada nas farsaing na Sgriobtar. Gar cumail suas gach là. Biodh solas ann. Tha solas ann. Tha am Facal beò agus cumhachdach. Agus cha tig duine sam bith dhan Sgriobtar gun chagair gun fhiosta na chluas bho fheallsanachd a-choireigin. Aquinas. A' chuid as mò againn fo bhuaidh Aquinas nam Meadhon-Aoisean. Aquinas fhèin fo bhuaidh Arastotail.

don't you got nothin better to do?
don't you got nothin better to do?
don't you got nothin better to do?
than listen to a man
from another time?


Aquinas. Feallsanachd nan Seana-Ghreugach a' cagarsaich na chluas. Eilidheachas. Sgolàstachas. Sgoltachas. Sgaradh is sabaid eadar Apollo is Dionusas. Eadar anam is corp. Eadar nèamh is talamh. Eadar Spiorad is Ùir. Gun rèite ann. Ach THA rèite ann an Crìosd. Sin an soisgeul.

                                                                             
Herman Dooyeweerd
Chreid Dooyeweerd an Sgriobtar. Ach, mar a thuirt e fhèin, chreid na Farasaich an Sgriobtar. Agus cheus iadsan Crìosd. Cha tug iad spèis dhan Chruithear. Dhan Fhacal san robh a h-uile càil a' co-sheasamh. Dhan Dia Bheò. Sin cnag na cùise. Ontaig a' toirt bàrr air teòiric. Sin agad seasamh Dhooyeweerd. Cha bu chòir dhuinn a bhith saoilsinn gur e fìor-bhith a th'anns an eòlas-diadhaireachd. Rud easchruthach beachdail a tha sin. Is e gnìomh teòiriceach neo-fhoirfe daonna a th'ann am mìneachadh an Sgrìobtair. Rud a tha gabhail àite am broinn na h-eanchainne. Chan e rud teòiriceil a th'ann am Facal Dhè, ge-tà. Tha an Sgriobtar, mar gum biodh, ro-theoiriceil. Tha Facal Dhè beò. A' toirt breith air smuaintean is rùintean a' chridhe. Is e an cridhe a' chùis airson Dooyeweerd. Chan e "cridhe" san t-seagh "faireachdainnean" seach "smuaintean". Ach cridhe mar fhacal Sgriobtarail a tha ciallachadh am fìor-phearsa. Am fìor thusa. Am fìor mhise. Thusa agus mise nar tùr-dhoimhneachd phearsanta. Os cionn tìme. Faodaidh beachdan fàs aost agus rag mur eil an cridhe beò:
my greatest fear before i die
is to turn into a borin old fart
all that i can do is keep on playin what's in my 
heart 
heart
heart
("Man from Another Time", Seasick Steve)
Chreid Dooyeweerd gu bheil ar cridhe os cionn tìme. Os-tìmeil. Tha sìorraidheachd sa chridhe (Ecc 3:11). Tha ar cridhe, ar fìor-fhèin, ann an sìorraidheachd an dràsta fhèin. "Leis gach uile dhìcheall glèidh do chridhe; oir as a sin tha sruthan na beatha" (Gnàth-Fhacail 34:23). Gu ìre tha mi tuigsinn Dooyeweerd agus ag aontachadh ris. Ach mar Alan tha teagamh agam nach eil Dooyeweerd a' cur cuideam gu leòr air ùghdarras teacs an Sgriobtair cho math ri dunamis an Sgriobtair. Ach ged a thogas sinn ceistean a-thaobh seasamh Dhooyeweerd air Sgriobtar, tha e iongantach a' bhuaidh a tha air a bhith aige. Air Cornelius Van Til, mar eisimpleir, ged a thuit an dithis seo a-mach thar nam bliadhnachan.
Cornelius Van Til
Tha leabhraichean Van Til dìreach air am foillseachadh as ùr le P&R Publishing. Is e am fear-deasachaidh William Edgar. Faic, mar eisimpleir Diadhachd Rianail Van Til. Bha Francis Schaeffer na oileanach aig Van Til, ged a chaidh e a shlighe fhèin gu ìre mhòr. Tha aiste aig William Edgar mun diofar eadar an dithist seo: "Two Christian Warriors: Cornelius Van Til and Francis A. Schaeffer Compared(ceangal briste).
 
Francis Schaeffer
Thàinig Edgar fhèin gu Crìosd fo bhuaidh Francis Schaeffer agus Hans Rookmaaker aig L'Abri san Eilbheis. Ann an aiste eile air loidhne, tha Edgar ag ràdh:
     "Rookmaaker's lectures at l'Abri...stress the unity of life. In them he defends the Kuyperian approach to a world-and-life view. He reminisces on his discussions with his closest friend, Francis Schaeffer, about Dooyeweerd, recalling that they both profited from his critique enormously but made a conscious effort not to use his difficult terminology. Rookmaaker was deeply critical of pietism. He believed that the great tragedy of modernity was to have split the world into a sacred and a secular realm. He cautioned against Christian attempts at living in a subculture, because that unwittingly supported the same split world."(Why All This?: Rediscovering the witness of Hans RookmaakerWilliam Edgar 2006) 
            
Hans Rookmaaker
Tha Edgar cuideachd ag ràdh a-thaobh Rookmaaker:
     "Several aspects of Rookmaaker's life and thought are particularly worth underscoring. What were his major influences? During World War II, he served in the Dutch navy. He was interned in a prison camp near Nuremberg, then another in Stanislau, doing hard labor. Though not from a believing background, he began to read the Bible upon the recommendation of a friend back home. He became convinced of its truth. He read other books, and wrote papers on prophecy and aesthetics. In prison, he met Captain Johan Pieter Albertus Mekkes, a Christian, who introduced him to the Amsterdam philosophy espoused by Stoker, Vollenhoven, and, especially, Herman Dooyeweerd (1894–1977), whose New Critique of Theoretical Thought revolutionized Rookmaaker's outlook on epistemology and apologetics...      
After the war, Rookmaaker devoted much of his early writing to aesthetic theory based on the Cosmonomic Idea (feallsanachd Dhooyeweerd), which posited that nothing was neutral... Students of Rookmaaker's in the '60s and '70s may not have realized how deeply his thinking was permeated by the Amsterdam philosophy." (Ibid)
Tha William Edgar gu math comasach mar chluicheadair jazz, eg The Christian Roots of Jazz (MP3).

Bha Hans Rookmaaker na Ollamh de Eachdraidh na h-Ealain aig Oilthigh Saor Amstardaim. Ach bha e cuideachd na ùghdarras air jazz agus blues. Tha Edgar ag innse dhuinn:
     "Hans Rookmaaker spoke of the great artistry and authenticity of Victoria Spivey, Texas Alexander, Bumble Bee Slim, Blind Willie Johnson, and a host of other founders of classic black music. Not only was Rookmaaker the European editor of Fontana Record's series, Treasures of North American Negro Music, but he had been to America and met Thomas A. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, and Langston Hughes. What was the attraction of jazz to this Dutch art historian? For that is what he was during his professional career. He said it often in his lectures and throughout his writings. It put iron into the blood! Discussing his hero, Joseph "King" Oliver, he compares the New Orleans cornetist's orchestral sounds to the music of J. S. Bach. He finds very similar musical qualities in the baroque polyphony of the Brandenburg Concertos and Oliver's Creole Jazz Band from the 1920s. Not only the technical structure, but the mood and atmosphere are similar. Especially, he finds in both of them joy, true joy, not romantic escape. In stark contrast to Theodor Adorno's attacks on jazz, which found it "unruly," "rebellious," and "emasculating," Rookmaaker describes it as orderly, harmonious, and full of vigor. The opposite of joy for him is happiness, or the escapism of those who look for depth in the tragic and ruinous. And the ultimate source of true joy, whether in jazz or any other human expression, is biblical Christian faith, which Bach and Oliver shared." ("Why All This?: Rediscovering the witness of Hans Rookmaaker, William Edgar 2006). Faic cuideachd an t-aiste seo le Edgar: "Art and the Christian Mind: The Life and Work of H.R. Rookmaaker" (William Edgar 2005)
Agus mu dheireadh an dràsta, seo dhuinn faclan Rookmaaker fhèin a-thaobh Dooyeweerd:
     "In the course of the years [Francis] Schaeffer and I discussed many things, among which philosophy and particularly Dooyeweerd’s philosophy were favourite topics. Dooyeweerd’s ideas have had an influence on Schaeffer and L’Abri in that way. Of course Schaeffer incorporated these ideas in his own thinking and continued on. Neither of us is a slavish pupil of Dooyeweerd. I make quite an effort not to use his difficult terminology, which in a way belonged to the style of the 1930s. So you will not find Dooyeweerd’s vocabulary in our discussions at L’Abri, but his thoughts are there just the same.     Dooyeweerd himself wrote a good and short introduction to his work called [In] The Twilight of Western Thought. In the first part of that book he asks the question how Western thought is to be approached. Is it really Christian and if not, what is it? Escape from Reason is Schaeffer’s version of what Dooyeweerd develops in those chapters. They both talk for instance about nature and grace and about the influence of Greek concepts. Dooyeweerd tries to trace the various ways of thinking in Western history to their starting points. A starting point can be defined as the basic answers that are given to basic questions like: What is the world? Who is God? or What is the source of this world? The answers given to those questions colour the answers that are given to all other questions. The second part of Dooyeweerd’s book deals with a truly Christian approach to reality. Firstly it is basic to such an approach that we begin with a world that is created. Secondly we hold that this world is fallen, it is not perfect. But thirdly we say that this is not the end, there is redemption as Christ came to redeem this world. On the basis of these truths we can try to grasp reality and analyse how this world is made. Dooyeweerd then proceeds to give such an analysis." (Hans Rookmaaker 'A Dutch view of Christian philosophy' The Complete Works of Hans Rookmaaker edited by Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker Vol 6 Part III The L'Abri Lectures. Piquant, 2005)(Faic "Rookmaaker on Dooyeweerd and Schaeffer" air "An Accidental Blog" leis an Dooyeweerdach Steve Bishop.
"never ever go west 
when you know you should be headin south
never ever whisper 
when you know it's time to shout!" 
("Man from Another Time", Seasick Steve)