Thomas Aquinas distinguished between everyday tyranny, which merely neglects the common good, and extreme tyranny, which, in the name of something or other, attacks it. Though one should always hope for better, I would say that everyday tyranny is pretty much the norm in most times and places. The great challenge is to resist the onset of the extreme sort, which in our day tends to have an angry but utopian tinge.  I neither expect nor demand a classless society.  I do cherish a few modest hopes:

That the ruling classes not be so ossified and self-perpetuating as to resist the circulation of new elements into their ranks, and of old elements out of them.

That they not be so secure in their position that they can hold common people in utter contempt.

That they not be too clever at disguising such contempt as service to the masses.

That they not believe too much in their own virtue.

However, that they believe in the reality of virtue, recognizing the age-old morality they did not invent, even if they do not practice it personally.

That's actually quite a lot, and more than we enjoy at present.  It would help, I think, to teach it.  I would love to see a comeback in the genre of literature that did, which in much earlier times was called Mirrors for Princes.

Some weeks ago I mentioned my then-upcoming Conversation , “Flavors of the Common Good,” with the Common Good Project, an initiative of the Law School, University of Oxford, England.  When we did the talk early in March, the sound was terrible, but we’ve fixed the audio problem and re-recorded.

So if you tried to catch the original version but couldn’t make out my words, try the re-do, which not only sounds much more clear but is also, I think, more fun and more interesting.  Natch, it’s also listed on my Talks page.  Happy listening!

If you can identify as a woman in a man's body, or a black person in a white person’s body, then why stop at sex and race?  Some persons say they identify as cats.  Some have even asked to have their limbs amputated because they identify as paraplegics.

Fitting slogans for the identity movement may at first present a little difficulty.  “Power to the People” is no longer acceptable, because not all beings identify as people.  “Everything to the Entities” might do for now; let’s work on it.

It has rightly been said that we must stop discriminating against women who don’t have vaginas and men who don’t have penises, but let’s not forget fish who don’t have gills, like my neighbor Ed, a proud 68-inch trans trout who stands on two legs and fights prejudice every day.

And from now on, all dictionaries must be written as fill-in-the-blank.

What have we come to?  We used to rebel against injustice; now we rebel against the order of the created universe.  As human beings before our day understood, “an opinion is true or false according as it answers to the reality.”  Things aren’t true when they correspond to our thoughts; our thoughts are true when they correspond to things. 

Related:

“Truth and Correspondence (Part 1 of 2:)

“Truth and Correspondence (Part 2 of 2)”

Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Law

Enter then, all of you, into the joy of our Lord.

First and last, receive alike your reward.

Rich and poor, dance together.

You who fasted and you who have not fasted, rejoice together.

The table is fully laden:  Let all enjoy it.

The calf is fatted:  Let none go away hungry.

Let none lament his poverty;

for the universal Kingdom is revealed.

Let none bewail his transgressions;

for the light of forgiveness has risen from the tomb.

Let none fear death;

for death of the Saviour has set us free.

He has destroyed death by undergoing death.

He has despoiled hell by descending into hell.

He vexed it even as it tasted of His flesh.

-- St. John Chrystostom, Paschal Homily

Women are commonly held to be more emotional than men.  I think this statement is grossly misleading, but as with all plausible mistakes, at the bottom of it lie a few misunderstood truths.  Like what?

1.  Obliviousness.  To feel something is not the same as to know that one is feeling it.  Even when a man has the same emotions as a woman, he is likely to be less aware that he is having them.

2.  Selectivity.  Though men are not less prone to emotions in general, they are usually less prone than women are to feeling certain emotions at certain times – although more prone to feeling certain others.

3.  Pride.  Men also tend to be more disgraced than women are by feeling certain emotions at certain times -- although prouder of feeling certain others.

4.  Shame.  Finally, men tend to consider it more shameful than women do to display certain emotions at certain times -- although more honorable to display others.

The other emotional differences between men and women are equally important but more subtle.  For both sexes, good deliberation requires help from well-trained feelings:  We need to feel the right things, toward the right people, in the right ways, on the right occasions, to the right degrees, and because of the right considerations.  This being the case, it cannot simply be the case that to be rational is to be unemotional.  But although, for both sexes, reasoning and emotion are connected, the deliberation of men tends to be connected with emotion somewhat differently than the deliberation of women is connected with it, and this is entirely fitting.

Why?  Because a man is a rational being who is in potentiality for fatherhood, but a woman is a rational being who is in potentiality for motherhood.  So, for example, a woman may be just as courageous as a man, but ideally, her courage is differently inflected, because she is rightly more fearful of harm to her body than he is.  After all, hers carries the future of the human race in a way that his does not.  She must be willing to protect her body for future generations; for the same reason, he must be willing to risk his.

Related:

Burning Minds, Thoughtful Feelings