Monday, August 11, 2008

Libertarians for Obama - Something that has been overlooked

Obama's record as a state legislator reveals a strong ability to effectively counter a tremendously corrupt and abusive government institution.

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4 comments:

Anatoly Antohin said...

I have to point (all) political comments away from this blog to myspace.com/anatolant -- subtext for this post : Obama wasn't a choice of Dem. Party; perhaps, he is NOT "their" candidate. "Barack vs. Obama" thought.

Anonymous said...

You say you will move political Obama posts, but THIS IS NOT POLITICAL: The Blog over at First Things says, partly quoting a man named Beran:

"Senator Obama is the post-masculine version of the collectivist demagogue. Like his spiritual forbears, Obama projects a quasi-divine power to relieve suffering; he pours contempt on moral 'absolutists' in the name of an impatient pragmatism that will brook no obstacle to the realization of 'communal values'; he exhorts the people to purge themselves of petty antagonisms for sake of a blissful collective regeneration. But unlike the political shamans that blighted the last century [IN THE SOVIET UNION], Obama does not have the effulgent virility of which we have grown so wary. His manner is not imperial, but calm, comforting, almost motherly.
Most interesting to me ...is Obama’s relativistic rejection of 'the West’s traditional morality.' Beran notes that the West’s moral vision is an obstacle to collectivist schemes both because it places strict limits on what can be done as a means to realizing a utopian vision and because it inculcates a strong sense of human proneness to sin and error, making that vision seem absurd."


OBAMA HAS A SPIRITUAL PROBLEM - HE IS THE OPPPOSITE OF SOLZHENITSYN!

By the way, the, "Soul in Exile" book I recommended is MUCH BETTER than the silly reviews on Amazon - again, it is not a huge, thick book like the other English biographies, but it was the last book Solzhenitsyn HIMSELF worked with an author on and APPROVED. It is about his spiritual vision.

I am the "Anonymous" in all the comments - on Von Balthasar too -

Athansius Contra Mundi

Anonymous said...

Postmodern relativism, Utopia and traditional values -- I do not know if any serious (analytic) book is written on PoMo and Christianity, but I do not see any conflict between Freedom (Christ) and Individual.
This is where I differ not only with Solzhenitsyn, but Dostoevsky asl well. I believe that true Christian starts at the point, when everything is allowed.
Utopian?
Than we could call Chrtianity an utopian thought.

Anonymous said...

In reply to your comment, while I deeply love Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn, their Russian Orthodoxy differs from that 20th century Catholic movement of which von Balthasar is the greatest theologian, and which is connected to John Paul II, Benedict XVI, the movement "Communion and Liberation" (the "liberation" refers to freedom in Christ, not Marxist "Liberation Theology" which was popular in the late 20th century) and the whole "COMMUNIO" movement (http://www.communio-icr.com/index.html - Communio is the journal founded by von Balthasar and Ratzinger).

Until someone has studied Guissani's "The Religiodus Sense" - which was praised by Moslems, Buddhists, and Jews as well as Christians - and the trilogy of von Balthasar, he cannot really speak of what Christians think about freedom.

Guissani and the others all DO believe in freedom in the way you describe, and claim that the Mystery - God - respects that freedom. I believe NO ONE has written on freedom better than Guissani and the many others of the Communio school. I should not even call it a "school" because it is not another ideology.

Look at Communion and Liberation's "Crossroads" website, for example. (http://www.crossroadsnyc.com/home.html). Also Msgr. Julian Carron has written brilliantly on freedom.
If I had time I would give more examples....

Perhaps your education has been lacking. If you retire it will be time to begin reading what really matters. Guissani understood DOstoevsky but went beyond him. And no one - no one - has even come close to von Balthasar on freedom, on beauty, on the good, etc. They also understand TRUE community - not libertarian individualism and not communist collectivism, but COMPANIONSHIP, communio.