Counter-Revolution

During my reading of Bismarck's Table Talk for my book, one of his quotes sprang upon me some wonderful wisdom.  "What we want," the old Junker said, "is not a counter-revolution.  We want the contrary of the revolution!"

And that's exactly it.  The Enlightment cannot be undone by another, different kind of Enlightenment.  For what was the Enlightenment, much like the Sixties, but an angry, childish rejection of traditional religion, of reality itself?  What would the true contrary of that sort of thing be but an embrace of tradition and reality, of a re-establishment of old religion, old truths and old, enduring reality?

So the best way to build for the future is to reinforce the lessons of the past.  The so-called Enlightenment must not be fought.  It must be ignored and bypassed, allowed to slip into the dustbin of history where it belongs.

Partant pour la Syrie

Odd, isn't it, that the French have been noodling around about sending bombers and cruise missiles and all those wonderful new devices into Syria?  From the point of view of a historian with an addiction to the "Carnival Empire", Napoleon III's reign as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870, this is particularly ironic because the theme song of that Empire was "partant pour la Syrie", making the point that overseas adventures were part and parcel of the greatness of France and of Louis Napoleon.  Whether in Nouvelle Caledonie or Pondichery in India or Algeria or Central Africa, bringing the benefits of French civilization to the heathen was a privilege, nay, a duty of every Frenchman.

And the US, of course, must tag along.  Even the supposed anti-imperialist Zerobama must tag along, again, as a duty or a privilege or yet another stupid mistake it's difficult to tell.  Perhaps he'll just go along with whatever the military suggests, as he did with the attack on Pakistan to get Osama, of which I fully approved because of the light it shone on the empty hypocrisy of Zero's attacks on the Bush way of doing things in the Middle East.

No, not empty hypocrisy.  Hypocrisy full of meaning for those who seek insight into men's souls.

Conundrum again, or still.  We have not solved the puzzle of life.  And I still own Swiftcurrent!  Not in the best of shape.  Still getting too many flat tires.  It's a bit dangerous to ride with all these big SUVs around.

Speaking of dangerous, I started this blog shortly after the 9/11 attack.  Here in 2013 we are about to start another war that may lead to more attacks.  One thing you can say about these Islamic terrorist  characters, though, they sure don't seem to care if they accomplish anything to, for instance, spread Islam worldwide, which was supposed to be their job description.

But Obama's going to do something unspecified to Syria to accomplish some (secret!) unspecified goal.  But at least he accomplished something, or will no doubt take credit for it.  He found George W. Bush's weapons of mass destruction!  I, like Hillary Klinton and John (Magic Hat) Kerry, always knew they did exist.  But nobody still seems to know what to do about them.  Anything effective, that is.