Wilhelm Roepke: German Economist as Southern Neighbor, by Ralph E. Ancil
How can a German economist be called a Southerner? Obviously not geographically but in the important sense that Southern Agrarians came to understand, as a possession of the mind and spirit. That Wilhelm Roepke’s mind and spirit, embodying the best of the German tradition, share significantly in the essential features of the Southern heritage is not too surprising when it is recalled that Southern culture itself was essentially European.
In evidence of this there are some suggestive comparisons that can be made here. For example, Richard Weaver went home in spring to farm his ancestral fields with horse and plow and refused the use of airplanes, preferring trains for long distance travel. Similarly, Roepke promoted urban gardening for the health of city-dwellers and refused to use ski-lifts, preferring to ride up the mountain slopes on shank’s mare. Or one may refer to the Southern fondness for the books of Sir Walter Scott whose stories of Saxon yeomen fighting Norman invaders parallels those of William Tell fighting Austrian conquerors as eulogized in Schiller’s famous poem, admired by Roepke. Then one may conjecture about the influence of Germans and Lutherans on Southern life. Certainly, Luther himself was a social medievalist and agrarian and longed for the non-commercial life of an earlier time. To what extent this affected Southern life is arguable as is the effect of his Lutheran faith on Roepke’s outlook. But the parallels are thought-provoking.
Read the complete article in The Imaginative Conservative
Democrazia anti-cristiana, by Riccardo Cascioli
Non solo è inquietante il filo rosso anti-cristiano delle azioni delle attiviste di Femen, ancor più lo è la reazione ostentatamente “morbida” delle forze di polizia nei vari paesi europei teatro delle esibizioni delle donne in topless. Se poi – vedi la Francia – mettiamo a confronto la tolleranza di cui godono gli attacchi delle Femen con l’inaudita violenza usata dalle forze di polizia ai danni dei pacifici dimostranti contro le unioni omosessuali, l’inquietudine diventa allarme.
Il fenomeno è così evidente che il governo francese dovrà rendere ragione della sua disparità di trattamento al Comitato dei ministri del Consiglio d’Europa. Tale organismo riunisce gli ambasciatori dei 47 paesi che fanno parte del Consiglio d’Europa; esso esercita soprattutto un potere di controllo sugli Stati per quanto riguarda il rispetto della democrazia, dei diritti umani, e dello stato di diritto.
Nei giorni scorsi quindi è stata presentata un’interrogazione al Comitato dei ministri da parte di Luca Volontè, presidente del gruppo del Partito Popolare Europeo all’Assemblea parlamentare del Consiglio d’Europa, il quale ricorda la violenza gratuita delle forze di polizia contro quell’enorme folla che nelle settimane scorse ha sfilato pacificamente per Parigi per protestare contro la legge – voluta dal presidente Holland – che permette il matrimonio a persone dello stesso sesso e addirittura l’adozione. Ci sono numerose riprese fotografiche e video che mostrano come le forze francesi abbiano usato il pugno di ferro contro i manifestanti, tra cui numerose donne e bambini.
La violenza è poi divenuta intimidazione: si ricorda il caso dell’uomo costretto a pagare una multa salata perché indossava una t-shirt con il logo della manifestazione, e poi i 67 giovani arrestati e tenuti in guardiola per una giornata intera solo per aver protestato (peraltro in silenzio) vicino alla sede dell’Assemblea Nazionale.
Dall’altra parte, invece, le attiviste di Femen godono di una impunità ben poco comprensibile all’apparenza, visto che le loro aggressioni contro persone e luoghi di culto si stanno moltiplicando. Perciò l’interrogazione chiede anche che il Consiglio d’Europa intervenga per far cessare in Francia le violenze delle forze dell’ordine contro i cristiani, oltre che indagare sulle attività di Femen.
Read the complete article in La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana
Hiding Behind the Screen, by Roger Scruton.
Human relations, and the self-image of the human being, have been profoundly affected by the Internet and by the ease with which images of other people can be summoned to the computer screen to become the objects of emotional attention. How should we conceptualize this change, and what is its effect on the psychic condition of those most given to constructing their world of interests and relationships through the screen? Is this change as damaging as many would have us believe, undermining our capacity for real relationships and placing a mere fantasy of relatedness in their stead? Or is it relatively harmless, as unproblematic as speaking to a friend on the telephone?
First, we should make some distinctions. We all now use the computer to send messages to our friends and to others with whom we have dealings. This sort of communication is not different in any fundamental respect from the old practice of letter writing, except for its speed. Of course, we should not regard speed as a trivial feature. The rapidity of modern communications does not merely accelerate the process whereby relationships are formed and severed; it inevitably changes how those relationships are conducted and understood. Absence is less painful with the Internet and the telephone, but it also loses some of its poignancy; moreover, e-mails are seldom composed as carefully as letters, since the very slowness with which a letter makes its way to its destination prompts us to put more of our feelings into the words. Still, e-mail is reality, not virtual reality, and the changes it has brought about are changes in real communication between real people.
Nor does the existence of social networks like Facebook, which are also for the most part real communication between real people, involve any attempt simply to substitute a virtual reality for the actual one. On the contrary, they are parasitic on the real relationships they foster, and which they alter in large part by encouraging people to put themselves on display, and in turn to become voyeurs of the displays of others. Some might claim that the existence of these networking sites provides a social and psychological benefit, helping those who shy away from presenting themselves directly to the world to gain a public place and identity. These sites also enable people to keep in touch with a wide circle of friends and colleagues, thereby increasing the range of their affections, and filling the world with goodwill and happy feelings.
Yet already something new is entering the world of human relations with these innocent-seeming sites. There is a novel ease with which people can make contact with each other through the screen. No more need to get up from your desk and make the journey to your friend’s house. No more need for weekly meetings, or the circle of friends in the downtown restaurant or bar. All those effortful ways of making contact can be dispensed with: a touch of the keyboard and you are there, where you wanted to be, on the site that defines your friends. But can this be real friendship, when it is pursued and developed in such facile and costless ways?
Read the complete article in The New Atlantis