07/8/22

Looking at Carlo Vigano’s Speech (2021) “How the Revolution of Vatican II Serves the New World Order” (Part 11 of 14)

0070 At this point, there are two arrangements, a two-level interscope and an intersection. The interscope depicts an alchemic flow. The intersection depicts an eclipse₂, a single actuality involving two celestial bodies, where one body occludes the light of the other.

0071 From the modernist point of view, the two-level interscope operates. Vatican II is triumphant. Modernist experts are empowered to alchemically isolate the substance of the sacraments, dissolve it, and then coagulate it as an open religion, on par with all the other religions of the world. The Catholic Church_3a aligns with Vatican II_3b, through the ministrations of experts.

0072 From the integralist point of view, the intersection operates. According to Vigano, Vatican II_3H is one normal context and the Catholic Church_3V is another. Typically, normal contexts exhibit the logics of exclusion, alignment and complement. Here, the two nested forms cannot complete their logical destinies, because their actualities consolidate into a single actuality. So, the two actualities cannot be the same, but they are stuck together.

0073 Is the integralist eclipse₂ on its way to an alignment of two nested forms?

The modern experts want it so.

But, there is a problem.

Vatican II_3H has not, and cannot, complete the task of reconciling the two actualities of intergralism_2V and modernism_2H, and bringing them into alignment.

But maybe, that is not the end game.

Perhaps, the end game is much more cruel.

0074 Why?

The charism of Christ_1V is the potential that underlies the contiguity between the body of Christ_2V and the kingdom of God_2V.

The potential of experts_1H dissolves the credibility (tradition and authority) of the sacraments and alchemically coagulates an open religion, redefining the body of Christ_2V as the human brotherhood_2H and reformulating the kingdom of God_2V as the open society_2H.

0075 In the eclipse₂, the horizontal potential_1H exploits the substance generated by the vertical potential_1V.

Why does the two-level interscope fail?

The moment that the sacraments cannot be dissolved and reformulated into the lingo of human brotherhood_2b and open society_2b, the substance of the open religion can no longer feed of its host.

Why is the interscope cruel?

The potential of the Third Person of the Trinity_1a cannot be virtually situated by experts harvesting material precipitates_1bof sacred sacraments_2a and making the coagulate open for all to share_2b. But, it can be exploited.

0076 In section ten, Vigano suggests that maybe Catholics should just… let go… of this strange monstrosity.

Let go of the exploitation.

0077 Indeed, the eclipse₂ is a strange configuration, since the historic Church stands with the Virgin Mary upon the moon and is clothed in the garments of righteousness and the open religion, which is what “we” want the church to be(according to Fratelli Tutti), stands in the umbra of the moon, along with the other “open” religions of the world.

I wonder whether there are alternate analogies.

07/7/22

Looking at Carlo Vigano’s Speech (2021) “How the Revolution of Vatican II Serves the New World Order” (Part 12 of 14)

0078 In section eleven, Vigano proposes that there is a way to win the battle between the integralists and the modernists. Go back to what the Church has always done. Stop doing what the anti-church asks for.

Then, almost as a correction, Vigano quotes 2 Maccabees 15:23, which says (more or less), “So now, O Sovereign of the Heavens, send a good angel to spread terror and trembling before us. By the might of your arm may these blasphemers, who come against your holy people, be struck down.”

0079 Why would Vigano say, at first, “Simply return to the pre-Vatican II Church.”, and then immediately, “Lord, send your angel to destroy those exploiting your Church.”?

Here is a picture of the flows between substance (the contiguity in secondness) and potential, transferred from the modernist’s two-level interscope to the integralist’s eclipse₂.

0080 Does this diagram picture the cruelty of the intersection of the eclipse₂?

To some extent, the nightmare is portrayed by Vigano’s initial shifting metaphor.

The substance of the sacraments belongs to the Church, standing in solidarity with the Mother of Jesus, wrapped in the mantle of divine righteousness. In artistic renderings, Mary stands on the moon.

The substance of the open religion belongs to the Church, located in solidarity with all the religions of the world(including Protestant religions), in the umbra cast by the eclipse₂ of the sacraments. Open religion stands in the umbra below the moon.

0081 The church, like some quantal object, is delocalised. It is a waveform, presenting in two locations, above and below the moon. It is not the particle that Bergoglio’s customers think that they are purchasing. The world demands a particle. God offers a wave.0082 I wonder, “Is there another analogy, one less physics-oriented, and one more attuned to the transactional character of Vatican II, where facilitators sell their positional authority to ‘someone else’?”

07/6/22

Looking at Carlo Vigano’s Speech (2021) “How the Revolution of Vatican II Serves the New World Order” (Part 13 of 14)

0083 Here is an alternate analogy, pertinent to the crisis of the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the crisis of the 2010s and 2020s. Vigano does not envision this analogy, even though he raises the topic of motivation. The following analogy is latent in his argument. It will take a few steps to set it forth.

0084 I start with the vertical axis.

Sacrament is the contiguity between two real elements. Similarly, the term, “commodity”, is a contiguity between two real elements, which I will call, primal matter and human labor.

0085 Here is the first analogy.

0086 For the horizontal axis, the term, “money”, labels the contiguity between two real elements, products for sale and social arrangements that the products engender.

Here is the second analogy.

0087 The normal contexts of production_3V and transaction_3H mirror the distinction between the Catholic Church_3V and Vatican II_3H.

The potential_1V that is analogous to the charism of Christ_1V is utility_1V, defined as the potential of ‘the charism of a product’_1V.

The potential_1H that is analogous to the alchemic transformation conducted by experts_1H is price_1H, defined as the potential to ‘transmute a commodity into money’_1H.

The single actuality₂ composed of construction_2V and sales_2H is the market₂.

0088 Here is a picture.

0089 So, now I have an intersection that is analogous to Vigano’s eclipse₂.

0090 The alchemic flows are also analogous.

0091 The exploitation is also analogous.

07/5/22

Looking at Carlo Vigano’s Speech (2021) “How the Revolution of Vatican II Serves the New World Order” (Part 14 of 14)

0092 The analogy in the previous blog brings me back, full circle, to the so-called spirit of Vatican II, as well as the title of Vigano’s speech.

Mercy is not the same as mercenary. The Catholic elites of the time before Vatican II wanted to be accepted by their secular superiors, Big Government (il)Liberals. They wanted to be acknowledged by those-in-the-know so badly that they promulgated a new theology to mask a cruel exploitation. That new theology alchemically dissolved and coagulated the sacraments into the open religion demanded by the wealthy and well-positioned purveyors of “the human brotherhood” and “the open society”.

This examination reveals that the Catholic elites, operating on the society tier, recapitulate the exploitation practiced by the financial elites in the organization tier.

0093 Students of political theology take note.

The alchemist says, “As above, so below.”

0094 Does the societal alchemic transmutation of the body of Christ_2V into the human brotherhood_2H and the kingdom of God_2V into the open society_2H have a parallel below, where well-funded organizations transmute our bodies as primal matter_2V into products for sale_2H and the labor of caring for human health_2V into product-driven social arrangements_2H?

0095 Intersections can be mysterious.

Intersections can also be cruel.

0096 Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano on the Church, America and the World is the subtitle for A Voice in The Wilderness,published by Angelico Press in 2021. The presentation under examination appears on pages 251-274. The speech is worth reading.

0097 How To Define the Word “Religion” is a masterwork by Razie Mah concerning political theology, one of the most disconcerting intellectual challenges of our current Lebenswelt. This e-work is available at smashwords and other electronic book vendors.

0098 Plus, there is more.

Other electronic articles for sale may be found in the Intimations of Political Philosophy Series.

0099 In addition, recent blogs include the following.

Looking at Peter Redpath’s Essay (2000) “The Homeschool Renaissance”, raziemah blog, June 2022

Looking at Thomas Michaud’s Article (2021) “Anatomy of the Progressive Revolution”, raziemah blog, May 2022

Looking at Josh Hammer’s Opinion Piece (2021) “…Experts”, raziemah blog, July 2021

Comments on Philip Marey’s Post (2021) “Insurrection”, raziemah blog, Jan 2021

Comments on Yoram Hazony’s Post (2020) “Challenges of Marxism”, raziemah blog, September 2020

Theology of the Deep State, raziemah blog, May 2020

06/29/22

Looking at Peter Redpath’s Essay (2000) “The Homeschool Renaissance” (Part 1 of 17)

0001 Twenty years pass since Professor Peter Redpath publishes an article, titled, “The Homeschool Renaissance and the Battle of the Arts”, in the Summer 2000 premier issue of Classical Homeschooling Magazine.

Homeschooling is one alternate to failing public schools systems, which are unlikely to be reformed, because these systems are governed by acolytes of the religion of big government (il)liberalism.

0002 Homeschool parents face difficult choices. There are no paths to guaranteed success.

But, certainly, homeschooling is better than the path to failure embodied by public school systems. Even the child who is accepted to a fast-track program or School of the Arts or Sciences, becomes a loser in a house divided. There is only one house, the House of God. No one knows that more than the newly minted postmodern disciplines of resentment.

Homeschools seek guidance about the Big Schoolhouse, where everything that rises must converge.

0003 Often, homeschooling parents turn to great books programs. The classics are ideal for recovering the former glory of Christendom. Here is where Peter Redpath stands, 20 years past. He is a guide to the big Schoolhouse, where the liberal arts are born again.

Classical Homeschooling Magazine illuminates the way.

0004 Today, the winds are more insistent. The leaves of disenchantment rustle through public schoolyards, as entrepreneurs follow Redpath in offering their wares, for the Big Schoolhouse, to many little schoolhouses, and to many many home schools, networked in patterns hitherto unimagined.

0005 In the following blogs, Razie Mah looks at Redpath’s whirlwind tour of a failure in the Italian, later European, Renaissance. Mah uses tools derived from the first postmodern philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce. These simple tools, wares on offer for the education of young minds, include the category-based nested form, the three-level interscope and the triadic structure of judgment.

06/28/22

Looking at Peter Redpath’s Essay (2000) “The Homeschool Renaissance” (Part 2 of 17)

0006 Small mistakes at the beginning of a grand enterprise become larger mistakes at the end.

So notes Thomas Aquinas, at the opening of his overtures to both God and fellow man.

0007 Peter Redpath wants to avoid making initial errors.

Small errors may eventually culminate in misfortune.

To magnify this insight, Redpath tells a tale…

0008 … about the last great rebirth of Western civilization.

Oh, to be born again. We wash away the sins of prior eras. So, we imagine. Then, we don white garments with tiny flaws that will unravel slowly, at first, then exponentially, at the terminus, when the once-birthed era ages and rips apart.

Redpath identifies the start of the Italian Renaissance with humanist Francesco Petrarch (7104-7174 U0′).

Why the strange dates?

Subtract 5800 in order to get to AD.

0 Ubaid Zero Prime nominally corresponds to the formation of the Ubaid culture of southern Mesopotamia. The First Singularity and Its Fairy Tale Trace addresses the importance of this culture, at the dawn of our current Lebenswelt. The current year is 7822 U0′.

The time-distance between today and Petrarch is one tenth the distance between Petrarch and Adam.

0009 Petrarch reads the ancient Latin writers and longs for the days of Rome. Petrarch envisions a return to political actuality, arising from Christendom’s spiritual potential. The actuality of Rome is political. Yet, Petrarch lives in a world where the capitol, Rome, governs a theological and organizational network and weighs upon sovereign states. The network is based on a religious construction, seeking to portray itself as sensible, operating according to the criteria of the most sensible philosopher to have walked the face of the Earth, Aristotle.

One could say that the Catholic worldview, where God encompasses both reason and revelation, might have entangled a small error. The tear becomes a harbor, for Petrarch and his fellow travelers, to lobby for a political capitol arising from the spiritual capitol.

0010 The Italian humanists offer an alternate to Christendom’s vision.

0011 First, philosophy is not sensible. It is apocryphal, initiated by the most prophetic person to have walked the face of the Earth, Moses.

Second, Moses is a humanist. He is a poet.Third, a new politics, that is, a new “polis” or “city”, will arise from the network of Christendom, as humanist learning, the poetry of governance, flowers in the rebirth of Rome.

06/27/22

Looking at Peter Redpath’s Essay (2000) “The Homeschool Renaissance” (Part 3 of 17)

0012 Poetry, what is it worth?

Surely, it is valuable in the arts of seduction, inspiration and adornment.

But who needs these, when God is Love, Commitment and Awesomeness incarnate?

0013 The Italian humanists face a problem. How do they place poetry and the writings of classical Rome front and center?

The academics in the room have an easy answer, “First of all, get rid of logic in the curriculum.”

0014 Ah, does that not sound like a small error?

Starting with Petrarch, Italian humanists alchemically place the actualities of Greek philosophy and Western history₂ into the novel context of the liberal arts₃, emerging from the potential of five disciplines₁: grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and ethics.

The result can be portrayed as follows, according to A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form.

0015 The dyadic actuality of Greek philosophy [and] Western history₂ is placed in an alchemic vessel₃ alien to its original, natural and organic milieu₁. Plutarch’s liberal arts₃ is a normal context that excludes Aristotle’s realist philosophy₃. The pentagram of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and ethics₁, whose points operate independently and in combination, constitutes a digestive organ potentiating transformation.

06/24/22

Looking at Peter Redpath’s Essay (2000) “The Homeschool Renaissance” (Part 4 of 17)

0016 What is this [and] between Greek philosophy and Western history?

0017 According to Charles Peirce (7639-7714 U0′), the category of secondness is the realm of actuality. Secondness consists of two contiguous real elements. The nomenclature is one real element [contiguity] other real element.

Here, the contiguity, [and], describes a substance that coheres to the most rudimentary causality, the contiguity between matter and form. Or, should I say, style and form? The nomenclature is Greek philosophy [and] Western history.

0018 The [and] composed by Thomas Aquinas (7025-7074 U0′) takes Aristotle as Greek philosophy and the Bible as the foundation of Western history. Does that sound like matter [and] form or style [and] form? The normal context is scholastic inquiry₃ and the potential is understanding₁, formatted according to the synthetic and analytic logics of Aristotle’s four causes.

0019 The tradition of Petrarch alters the normal context to the liberal arts₃ and the potential to the pentagrammatic disciplines: grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and ethics₁.

Do these alterations elevate style [and] form over matter [and] form?

Do these alterations serve as an alchemic vessel₃ and digestive juices₁ for the meat of scholastic inquiry₂?

Is the contiguity, [and], the same for the scholastics and the Renaissance humanists?

0020 Petrarch and his fellow travelers assert that common folk, traditional Christians, cannot appreciate the lofty metaphysical grammar and moral realities offered by the ancient poets. A Christian knows that the Greek and the Roman pantheons are simply not true. These gods are idols.

But, change the normal context, and let rhetoric, poetry and history work their magic, then newly digested truths become palatable.

These pre-digested morsels are valid in the normal context of the liberal arts₃, which excludes all other normal contexts, and thus is universal. Only after digestion by pentagrammatic modes of inquiry₁, do the allegorical and figurative meanings of Moses₂ turn into the stuff of Renaissance, and later, Enlightenment ideals. Only a nominalist can delineate the pathways from Moses to Socrates and onwards to the Christians and Neoplatonists. Only a nominalist can reveal the mysterious [and], the contiguity between Greek art, philosophy and wisdom and Western history.

0021 [And], the contiguity between ancient Greek and Roman literature and the glories of Rome, takes on the substance of revival.

06/23/22

Looking at Peter Redpath’s Essay (2000) “The Homeschool Renaissance” (Part 5 of 17)

0023 The Renaissance program sets the humanities against Aristotle’s logic and naturalism. It undermines the union of philosophy and scholastic theology.

Poetry gains attention.

Logic is neglected.

Before: Philosophy (including logic) stands as a handmaiden to theology, the queen of the sciences.

After: Poetry is the transcendent queen of the arts.

0024 Of course, I speak allegorically.

According to Redpath, the humanist ascent of allegory has historic precedent. Allegory appears in Hesiod’s attack on Homer’s veracity, the Ionians critique of mythological reasoning, and Plato’s interpretations of epic poetry. Then, allegory is used to counter-attack, arguing for the truth of Homer, myths and epics. The truth is found, not in fact, but in fiction. The truth is concealed within a rhetorical facade. By the time of Augustine, rhetorician and philosopher are one and the same.

0025 I pause and ask myself, “What on Earth is allegory?”

Allegory is a technique, characteristic of our current Lebenswelt (and perhaps, the Lebenswelt that we evolved in), whereby symbols associate to concrete or material forms.

For Renaissance humanists, the forms are literary. The symbols are political.

Style becomes matter. Symbols of the glory of Rome are matter, and ancient literary works are the corresponding forms.

On the one hand, matter [substantiates] form. On the other hand, form [informs] matter.

Now, style [substantiates] form. Form [informs] style.

What is [informs]?

[To inform] is [to be substantiated by].

0026 Here is a comparison.

06/22/22

Looking at Peter Redpath’s Essay (2000) “The Homeschool Renaissance” (Part 6 of 17)

0027 I left off with the following pair of hylomorphes.

0028 These two actualities associate to Redpath’s argument.

First, starting with Petrarch, Italian humanists elevate the disciplines of rhetoric, poetry and history in their search for symbols that (1) trace back to antiquity and (2) exploit the dual charisms of Moses and Greek philosophy.

Second, these symbols, isolated in the digestion of Greek philosophy [and] Western history₂ by the solvents of rhetoric, poetry and history₁, alchemically coagulate (or “occult”) into universals and abstractions that can be read as the grammar₁and the ethics₁ of nature and revelation.

Third, these grammatical and ethical slogans concern political matters. They announce a revival of the Roman polity, a polis at once outside of the city of God and the city of man.

0029 Oh, what about tiny, initial flaws?

Even though, in the above figure, I associate this Renaissance vision to two hylomorphes, the dyadic structure of the hylomorphe is logical and thus disregarded in the normal context of the liberal arts₃.

An Archaeology of the Fall

A Horror Story by Razie Mah