Sexuality is a microcosm of personality. It is a part of the person — I can draw it out from other parts, like rationality — but it also signifies the person. Like a fractal that contains within itself the governing idea of the fractal-pattern, a sanctuary in a temple, or a thesis statement that is both a part and the whole of an essay, sexuality recapitulates the fundamental realities of the person of which it is a part. This is... Read more
If freedom is an exploding horizon of possible options and a friendly butt-tap of encouragement to “go, choose one,” I’ll take some mild form of oppression — thanks. The eternal possibility of “another option” isn’t a space to stretch my arms and sing the national anthem — it is the paralysis of the human person into grotesque inaction. This is best shown by Netflix. To sit down and choose “any movie” out of the massive expanse of options Netflix offers... Read more
Planned Parenthood use the term “women” to demarcate a group they support, trust, and represent. Since not all women want to be supported, trusted or represented by Planned Parenthood, we must charitably assume that the organization is referring to an idea of women, and not to that actual, wonderful population — les personnes de sexe féminin. As such, Planned Parenthood are responsible for defining the boundaries of their idea, i.e. when they say “women want _____” they implicitly exclude women who... Read more
Planned Parenthood stand with “women.” Assumedly this means something. It cannot mean that Planned Parenthood — in their actions, goals, and professed beliefs — stand for the all-inclusive category of “every human person with two “x” sex chromosomes.” 57% percent of women are in favor of abortion being illegal in all or most circumstances (20%, 37%, respectively). Planned Parenthood — who daily bemoans laws limiting abortion, manufacturing a menagerie of pink graphics protesting any and all proposed restrictions on the... Read more
You — assuming you are a person, not a corporation or a spam-bot — are a source of action. You do not merely react to stimulus, respond to other events, or receive the motion of some prior reality into yourself and express its power out of mechanical necessity — you also do. Your actions originate in you. In this sense, you are an uncaused cause — an unmoved mover. This is evident in the experience of responsibility. To be responsible for... Read more
One of my larger worries, considering that daily question of whether to be a Catholic, is whether it means giving up the spirit of rebellion. This, after all, is the common perception of things, that the sinner is the rebel and the Saint obedient, that those who “do what they want” deserve to swagger in the feeling of self-assertion — while those who are subservient to a transcendent God have no cause for such cool. But what is rebellion? Surely... Read more
The mode in which a message is delivered has the power to negate the content of the message. I may express my undying fidelity for a particular woman with words true and well-phrased, but as long as I send these words in a text-message, I obscure my own meaning. I might post a beautiful image of God with a powerful excerpt from Holy Scripture on Facebook. My intent is zealous, my faith is real, the translation from the Hebrew is accurate... Read more
Rule number 6 is so incredibly true, it hurts. 1. A prostitute has sex for money. Internet-writers write about sex for money. Try your utmost to remember the difference between your writing and prostitution. 2. The Internet-writer is not paid for being read. He is paid for putting people into contact with the advertisements crowding his designated pixel-space. The more his work is viewed, the more the advertisements around his work are viewed. By increasing the sale of products he doesn’t care about, the writer generates money for people... Read more
Part 2 of a series. Seeking to find out who-we-are from the observation of what-we-usually-do would be fine — if we were something other than persons. Gravity may be given an identity based on its typical “action,” defined as “the force that attracts a body toward the center of the earth,” but a person is that type of being with the terrifying capacity to act against who he is. He defies being defined by his usual actions because he is... Read more
Personality tests can be accurate and helpful. People taking these tests tend to scare me. For a long time I conflated the test with its takers and thus developed a longstanding, unthought, ideological commitment to freaking out whenever anyone tried to pin my possible personality type. Phrases like “don’t crush me with your overburdened psychological systems” were common. Deliberately confusing the meanings of “sanguine” and “phlegmatic” so I wouldn’t accidentally associate myself with any particular temperament was a habitual exercise.... Read more
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