A note on Debt

Debt is a pretty good book, but one of the notions that rang false, very false, was his contention that other nations' purchases of America's debt are, essentially, tribute money. Here is an article discussing that. http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/04/02/why_china_pays_quot_tribute_quot_to_the_united_states.html The book is quite good and is always thought-provoking, even if not infallible. That is all.

The unforgivable sin.

Lotar brought to mind the question of unforgivable sins in his most recent web-log post. That is to say, some numbnuts he knew suggested to somebody with a weakness for the ladies that he needs to decide which he would rather be, a Lothario or an Orthodox Christian. Lotar and I both think this is precisely wrong. This reminds me, however, of some sins that are seen, in some way, as unforgivable, in effect if not in fact, either in Orthodoxy or the world at large, whether or not people actually think of it.

1. Sex. Here is my comment on his web-log article, mostly aimed at some styles of Protestant: If you make an ultimatum, great, they’re gone. Which would you really have somebody do: be a Lothario who still comes to church every Sunday, or be a Lothario who never comes to church again? I’d prefer the former, especially if he realizes that it’s wrong (it would be a little different if he were agitating for that lifestyle choice, but I’d still prefer it). I’d rather kick out the greedy people than the lustful.

   Further, you know, this is the sort of thing that drives a lot of people out of the church when they get to college (or earlier): they get a girlfriend, start having sex, and then stop attending church because they know that sex outside of marriage is wrong according to the church. Especially if they’re in some Protestant establishment that makes it the biggest sin, the one unforgivable offense. Once they’ve tasted the forbidden fruit, they’re forbidden to return (in their mind). And some people, like the aforementioned friend, explicitly make it the case! That is a horrible outcome and I don’t doubt that the priests (or pastors, in the Protestant case) are horrified by it, as it is explicitly not what they want.

2. Being poor, unemployed, or criminal. Blessed are the poor, except when they're making your church look shabby. Fortunately, this mindset is an isolated one. I hope our nation is changing its mind about the acceptability of a criminal record, too, as increasing numbers of our politicians seem to be ending up in jail. Unfortunately, the banking sector seems not to have been hit very hard. They will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
3. Not being happy-clappy. There are many parts of the country where unhappiness is a sin and anything other than the "joy of Jesus" is a sure sign that you are not one of the elect. It may not be licit to be sad at a funeral, even. Showing up to church unhappy means something is wrong and it needs to be fixed. It is best not to show up if you don't want to be - or are incapable of being - "fixed". Orthodoxy seems to take the opposite point of view, fortunately, as smiling in the Old Country on any day other than Pascha or perhaps the Nativity is seen as a sign of simple-mindedness.
4. Doubt. Or any sort of questioning. It is not permitted these days to have a "complicated" relationship with God. The only possible states you can be in are complete, undivided belief and utter rejection. This is, of course, silly. Having questions does not mean you no longer have faith, it means you have questions. Read the Psalms or the Book of Job if you want to see what that is like. But if modern man and sometimes even a church says that certain modes of relating to God mean that you're an unbeliever, well, it must be the case! Do not pass Go, do not collect $200, do not go to church anymore, and certainly do not read a wide variety of discussions the saints of both the East and West had about the precise phenomenon you are currently experiencing which they experienced too on their way to becoming saints - and which they say was in no way meaning they were bad people incapable of being good Christians. I think rather it means you have more potential than the simple-minded, happy-clappy, non-doubting folks.

Quite fortunately, revered saints have dealt with all four of these, and in the case of 2, 3, and 4 they probably didn't struggle against them, they were the backdrop for their real struggles.

Some time in the next couple weeks I might write a little bit about burnout because I saw some converty type on some message board asking about it. The short answer to their problem is this: stop doing so much and just go to church - don't even listen to AFR.

So I ran into an honest-to-God Orthodox monarchist on facebook?!

While looking at a friend's comments on stuff on the Book of Faces, somebody earnestly suggested monarchy as the Orthodox alternative to world-denying ideologies and was quite adamant that it was the only possible Orthodox response. I thought people like that only existed in comic books, though I do describe myself as a "reactionary theocrat". But this doesn't mean I believe we ought to replace our democratically elected government with a theocracy (who would go on top? besides God, obviously), but rather that God is our only king and everything else is just a bunch of guys with guns. Not that there's anything wrong with guys with guns, I'm sure some of my favorite people are guys with guns and under certain circumstances I, too, might be a guy with a gun. "Render unto guys with guns...". I don't suffer any illusions, though, that any government is anything but a concession in a post-lapsarian world. My political view, then, isn't a prescription for government, but rather a stance on government.

Anyway, I'm not quite sure what to do with a belief such as that man's, because it seems, on its face, to be blatantly ahistorical and theologically suspect. However, you still have centuries of Roman rule to deal with and a bit less time of Russian rule to cope with, as plenty of people saw the Church as being married to the State in some way and the Emperor or Tsar as some sort of bastion of Holy Orthodoxy put there by God or something like that. You also have polemicists responding to the Bolsheviks in the early 20th century, often with some arguments copped from reactionaries responding to the French Revolution (mind you, I'm a big fan of reactionaries, especially French ones). So I'm inclined to just wave my hand and laugh it off. Why bother thinking too much? That's my response to many forms of libertarianism, too, by the way: not worth the effort of engaging.

Going back to the Motherland.

So I finally made a decision about what stats PhD program I will attend. I had it down to two rather good choices: one in Pennsylvania and one in Iowa. They were both about equal in terms of research fit and prestige. The one in Pennsylvania had a church, too, while the one in Iowa was close to my family and easier to travel to and from the places I need to travel to. In the end, the one in Iowa won out. There's a Greek church 30 miles away, so that's feasible. It's an easy half hour.

Anyway, I'm listening to Sretensky Monastery Choir's Pascha CD a lot this week because of Pascha.

What I've Been Up To

I just read Debt, a very good book. The author is an anarchist and you can tell he's coming from the radical left, but he doesn't really have an agenda in the book, at least not one that you can't ignore. Rather, he's giving you a lot of information and tools to reconsider your relation to debt and society. Most importantly, he demolishes the just-so story arising in a lot of economics books that money arose to replace inconvenient barter trade. Political interpretations of modernity, of course, should be taken cum grano salis.

So I've gotten into a bunch of PhD programs in statistics and I'm waiting to hear back from one more (I'm #1 on their waiting list at the moment). I'm considering offers and have to make a decision, essentially, by April 15th. Coincidentally, this happens to be Pascha (Easter) this year. Of course, I'll have my decision before then, especially as it's a Sunday. In retrospect, the high yield I got (essentially: flawless victory) meant I should've aimed higher than having my "reach" schools ranked at about 10th, but I was constrained by the fact that I could really only do January 15th application deadlines. And that some of the "higher" schools don't quite do what I want to do (viz: Chicago is very heavy on theory, but I'm more interested in applied). Looking back, Michigan had a 1/15 deadline. Crap. Should've applied there, they're trying to expand and improve their ranking and are doing so by doing exactly what I am interested in. Well, whatevs.

I went on a trip to visit a couple schools. While on the trip, I stopped off at a monastery north of Pittsburgh. So here is a review: A+ would go again. Best feature: they typically say "You/Your" instead of that "Thou" nonsense.

I have been playing very little chess and lifting very few weights.

So that is what I have been up to.

I'm not a fan of Rod Dreher...

For a lot of reasons, but I will give credit where it is due. His article on Ron Paul is great. I wholly agree with him. Racism is bad.