{"id":31302,"date":"2016-02-13T16:07:52","date_gmt":"2016-02-13T21:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=31302"},"modified":"2016-02-13T16:07:52","modified_gmt":"2016-02-13T21:07:52","slug":"life-is-a-maze-and-love-is-a-riddle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2016\/02\/13\/life-is-a-maze-and-love-is-a-riddle\/","title":{"rendered":"Life is a maze and love is a riddle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u2022 OK, I finally figured out what \u201cAlways Submit to the Church Administration<\/a>\u201d reminds me of: Lenka\u2019s 2008 song \u201c The Show<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\nFiguring that out also taught me something else I hadn\u2019t realized, which is that \u201cThe Show\u201d is from Australian singer-songwriter Lenka and not, as I mistakenly thought, from a reunited Frente! She sure sounds<\/em> like Angie Hart, though. Not that that\u2019s a bad thing.<\/p>\n\u2022 Here are <a href=\"http:\/\/religionandpolitics.org\/2016\/02\/09\/why-were-not-in-a-new-gilded-age\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Heath Carter<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com\/2016\/02\/the-debate-on-the-new-gilded-age\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Erik Loomis<\/a> on the analogy of a New Gilded Age. Carter focuses on the aspects of the analogy that may be misleading. Loomis focuses on the aspects of it that provide insight.<\/p>\nFor me the key factor\u00a0is this: the term \u201cGilded Age\u201d was originally coined by Mark Twain. It was not, in other words, a historical designation or category so much as it was a fiercely barbed joke<\/em>. Whether or not the abuses of our 21st-century corporate overlords are precisely parallel to the abuses of late-19th-century corporate overlords is less important than the fact that we still need that joke and many more like it.<\/p>\nOur present-day Robber Barons may not exactly parallel the original Robber Barons, and our time may or may not be a New Gilded Age, but we absolutely do need a New Twain. We need a lot of them.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_31315\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31315\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2016\/02\/TwainQuote.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-31315\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2016\/02\/TwainQuote.jpg\" alt=\"TwainQuote\" width=\"500\" height=\"322\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-31315\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Not quite what I mean when I say\u00a0we need a new Twain for the 21st century.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u2022 \u201cI never asked you to have faith in me, Goody Watson.\u201d <\/em>I write a lot here about witch-hunting, witch-finders, witch-sniffers and the perennial quest to purify our world and our self-image by punishing imaginary\u00a0Satanic baby-killers. So it\u2019s refreshing to see someone address all of that with the honesty Mallory Ortberg displays here: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/the-toast.net\/2016\/02\/09\/reasons-i-would-not-have-been-burned-as-a-witch\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Reasons I Would Not Have Been Burned As A Witch In The Early Modern Era No Matter What I Would Like To Believe About Myself And Would Have In Fact Been Among The Witch-Burners<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\nWhat she confesses there isn\u2019t entirely true, of course, but it\u2019s rare to see anyone admit that it might be even a little bit true when it\u2019s probably more than a little but true for most of us.<\/p>\nShe\u2019s also <a href=\"http:\/\/the-toast.net\/2016\/02\/05\/the-most-exciting-poem-ever-written-is-the-beaufort-wind-scale\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">completely correct about the Beaufort Wind Scale<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u2022 Theology lessons from an investment manager at Goldman-Sachs: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/livewire\/heidi-cruz-face-of-god\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">T<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/livewire\/heidi-cruz-face-of-god\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">his Christian God that we serve is the foundation of our country<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u2022 \u201cIn the early days of the western United States, a masked man and an Indian rode the plains, searching for truth and justice. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when from out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again!\u201d True story \u2014\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/leseanthomas.tumblr.com\/post\/75932783184\/the-lone-ranger-wasnt-just-a-legend-perpetuated\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">but not quite the one we\u2019re used to hearing<\/a>. (<a href=\"http:\/\/storybones.blogspot.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">via<\/em><\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n\u2022 Speaking of Frente!, here\u2019s the \u201980s remixed as\u00a0the \u201990s:<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Frente! - Bizarre Love Triangle\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IJ1c9ErCn7w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\nFor those keeping track, this week I posted songs by Kasey Chambers, Lenka, and Frente! Anyone know of any other fragile-voiced Australian singer-songwriters? Apparently I like that sort of thing.<\/p>\nThe Kasey Chambers song was about the inevitability of death, so it seemed appropriate for Ash Wednesday and the start of the Lenten season. Although, of course, in the southern hemisphere this week actually marks the start of Advent (or does the liturgical calendar not work that way?).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OK, I finally figured out what song that creepy “Always Submit to the Church Administration” ditty reminds me of, and it’s not Frente! after all. Plus: The need for a new Twain; an honest discussion of witch hunts; and the true story of the Lone Ranger. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13,58,26,239,29],"class_list":["post-31302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church-state","tag-greed","tag-money","tag-music","tag-satanic-baby-killers"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Life is a maze and love is a riddle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"OK, I finally figured out what song that creepy "Always Submit to the Church Administration" ditty reminds me of, and it's not Frente! after all. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Life is a maze and love is a riddle","description":"OK, I finally figured out what song that creepy \"Always Submit to the Church Administration\" ditty reminds me of, and it's not Frente! after all. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}