Such a great reminder to delve into the meanings and definitions of things. Lewis and Chesterton did this so well in the first half of the 20th Centuryz
Excellent article on the whole! I would note that I would bet that actual father-bashing father's day sermons are also about as common as millionaire, male-model, all-varsity high school bullies—they definitely exist, but they are not near the typical norm and while I've often heard of them I've never actually heard one. :-)
To be fair, I haven't had to to sit through one since the Aughts, but I recall quite a few back then. I think there has been some improvement among most folks on this topic because of the attention it has received.
I almost chose a different analogy, but this one was too perfect for the topic at hand, especially since I could tie it directly to something that Marcuse specifically discussed.
You're right, but one level of analysis off. Critical Theory is the science of how to think critically. It defines the rules and methods of critical thinking. Like any skill, it requires technique and practice, and can be done well or poorly.
Great post! Nietzsche, who I think first used the term transvaluation of values, could be useful now that many postmodern ideas are mainstream. His idea of ressentiment describes that valorization of weakness as a moral virtue like the nerdy screenwriters in the post, who treat envy as a sense of moral righteousness. Nietzsche is a good antidote to our flattening impulse and could be a tool for bringing back beauty and tragedy as evangelistic tools.
Perhaps now that secularism is at least as vulnerable to Nietzsche’s and Marcuse’s criticisms, Christians will be less scared of using them?
Actually, I've spent the last year working with Catholic philosopher Max Scheler's work. In his book, Ressentiment, he attempts to salvage Nietzsche's work and place it in a more correct context. Scheler argues that Nietzsche misidentified the root of ressentiment, which is not found in Christianity per se, but in the way that bourgeois culture infiltrated and infested Christianity in the 19th Century. We could easily apply this to the American situation - we have no shortage of problems with American middle and upper-middle class values passing for Christian values in our Churches, which leaves us vulnerable to the same problems that Nietzsche and Scheler identify. The "cult of nice," for example, is a clear case where American office culture has become assimilated to Christianity, and upper-middle class Christians frequently seem to think that correct "office behavior" is the end-all-be-all of good moral values.
I've not heard of Scheler before but I think that this is a profound misreading of Nietzsche.
As understand Nietzsche, he represents the mirror inverse of the Manichean philosophy. He saw the physical world/ life as a good and that all that supernatural/spiritual stuff was evil since it distracted from the goods of the world. Educated in Philology, Nietszche was an existentialist snob who valued the good, joy, eros, beauty and the strong. He felt that these were the ideals of the classical world. He was no drunken hedonist but a high classicist.
He thought of the Christians--(not the bourgeoisie)--as the original Critical theorists who undermined the values of classical world and replaced them with anti-life values. In this way he saw that Christians had become exactly like Buddhists, except what differentiated them from the Buddhists is that the Buddhists lacked ressentiment and were thus "healthier".
The bourgeoisie get blamed for a lot, but they're not responsible for this. Within Christianity, from the outset, there have been unbalanced people who have hated this world. Augustine sailed really close to Platonism and it took Aquinas to "rebalance" Christianity but the threat has always remained, especially among the ascetic elements of Christianity. This is an "in-house" problem which Christians fail to recognise.
Brilliant article. I have felt for the past year that the collapse of mainline Protestantism destroyed the primary intellectual institutions that would have performed these duties more faithfully. The lack of intellectual rigor in evangelical Protestantism and the corresponding emphasis on moral purity spiraling does not make up for it. There’s a lot of polemics out there about getting men to stop watching porn and start families and make money, but (as Aaron has pointed out in the past) this is always defined in terms of what women want. There is no rhetoric aimed at men explaining why doing this is existentially fulfilling and not merely emotionally validating; this is outsourced to a broken secular culture that sees fathers as losers, as Dr. Mabry points out here. Similarly, building a career focused on excellence and accumulating soft power in doing so really means something; it’s not just about getting a 9-5 and making money.
We really need an intellectual tradition that is decidedly American and decidedly Protestant, distinct and separate from the various Catholic and Jewish and secular-atheist traditions and free from foreign influence.
Does Dr. Mabry have a Substack or other place where his writings are collected? I would love to follow him and his work more closely.
I'm a full-time professor (or more than full-time, my boss assigned me six classes for the Fall), so I don't have the time to regularly post essays. I do an article or two in popular (non-academic) magazines per year and occasionally do pieces like these as favors for my friends.
This is probably the most incisive and profound article I have read to explain the upside down world, the Negative World we are living in. I hope this will energize someone to do the hard, close work to re-examine the definitions we accepted without thought.
I must also say thank you for giving Dr. Evan Goligher an opportunity to speak on the horror of MAID in Canada. I’m of an age to read a lot of funeral notices. An astonishing number of them reference that the deceased died proudly at his or her choice of time and place at the hands of a medical professional who swore to do no harm, and at my, the taxpayer’s, expense. This has gone from a hotly debated issue to the thing to do in less than a decade.
Thanks for sharing this, Sue. I had no idea things were that far gone in Canada. It's hard not to think that it won't be long before euthanasia goes from the thing to do to the thing you're expected to do. Refusing it will be considered selfish and immoral.
Such a great reminder to delve into the meanings and definitions of things. Lewis and Chesterton did this so well in the first half of the 20th Centuryz
Excellent article on the whole! I would note that I would bet that actual father-bashing father's day sermons are also about as common as millionaire, male-model, all-varsity high school bullies—they definitely exist, but they are not near the typical norm and while I've often heard of them I've never actually heard one. :-)
To be fair, I haven't had to to sit through one since the Aughts, but I recall quite a few back then. I think there has been some improvement among most folks on this topic because of the attention it has received.
I almost chose a different analogy, but this one was too perfect for the topic at hand, especially since I could tie it directly to something that Marcuse specifically discussed.
It would seem that Mr Mabry is defining critical thinking, which might lead us to some, or lead us back to some Useful Theories.
Minor quibble.
You're right, but one level of analysis off. Critical Theory is the science of how to think critically. It defines the rules and methods of critical thinking. Like any skill, it requires technique and practice, and can be done well or poorly.
Great post! Nietzsche, who I think first used the term transvaluation of values, could be useful now that many postmodern ideas are mainstream. His idea of ressentiment describes that valorization of weakness as a moral virtue like the nerdy screenwriters in the post, who treat envy as a sense of moral righteousness. Nietzsche is a good antidote to our flattening impulse and could be a tool for bringing back beauty and tragedy as evangelistic tools.
Perhaps now that secularism is at least as vulnerable to Nietzsche’s and Marcuse’s criticisms, Christians will be less scared of using them?
Actually, I've spent the last year working with Catholic philosopher Max Scheler's work. In his book, Ressentiment, he attempts to salvage Nietzsche's work and place it in a more correct context. Scheler argues that Nietzsche misidentified the root of ressentiment, which is not found in Christianity per se, but in the way that bourgeois culture infiltrated and infested Christianity in the 19th Century. We could easily apply this to the American situation - we have no shortage of problems with American middle and upper-middle class values passing for Christian values in our Churches, which leaves us vulnerable to the same problems that Nietzsche and Scheler identify. The "cult of nice," for example, is a clear case where American office culture has become assimilated to Christianity, and upper-middle class Christians frequently seem to think that correct "office behavior" is the end-all-be-all of good moral values.
I've not heard of Scheler before but I think that this is a profound misreading of Nietzsche.
As understand Nietzsche, he represents the mirror inverse of the Manichean philosophy. He saw the physical world/ life as a good and that all that supernatural/spiritual stuff was evil since it distracted from the goods of the world. Educated in Philology, Nietszche was an existentialist snob who valued the good, joy, eros, beauty and the strong. He felt that these were the ideals of the classical world. He was no drunken hedonist but a high classicist.
He thought of the Christians--(not the bourgeoisie)--as the original Critical theorists who undermined the values of classical world and replaced them with anti-life values. In this way he saw that Christians had become exactly like Buddhists, except what differentiated them from the Buddhists is that the Buddhists lacked ressentiment and were thus "healthier".
The bourgeoisie get blamed for a lot, but they're not responsible for this. Within Christianity, from the outset, there have been unbalanced people who have hated this world. Augustine sailed really close to Platonism and it took Aquinas to "rebalance" Christianity but the threat has always remained, especially among the ascetic elements of Christianity. This is an "in-house" problem which Christians fail to recognise.
Brilliant article. I have felt for the past year that the collapse of mainline Protestantism destroyed the primary intellectual institutions that would have performed these duties more faithfully. The lack of intellectual rigor in evangelical Protestantism and the corresponding emphasis on moral purity spiraling does not make up for it. There’s a lot of polemics out there about getting men to stop watching porn and start families and make money, but (as Aaron has pointed out in the past) this is always defined in terms of what women want. There is no rhetoric aimed at men explaining why doing this is existentially fulfilling and not merely emotionally validating; this is outsourced to a broken secular culture that sees fathers as losers, as Dr. Mabry points out here. Similarly, building a career focused on excellence and accumulating soft power in doing so really means something; it’s not just about getting a 9-5 and making money.
We really need an intellectual tradition that is decidedly American and decidedly Protestant, distinct and separate from the various Catholic and Jewish and secular-atheist traditions and free from foreign influence.
Does Dr. Mabry have a Substack or other place where his writings are collected? I would love to follow him and his work more closely.
I'm a full-time professor (or more than full-time, my boss assigned me six classes for the Fall), so I don't have the time to regularly post essays. I do an article or two in popular (non-academic) magazines per year and occasionally do pieces like these as favors for my friends.
My last popular article was in First Things: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/08/losing-their-religion.
This is probably the most incisive and profound article I have read to explain the upside down world, the Negative World we are living in. I hope this will energize someone to do the hard, close work to re-examine the definitions we accepted without thought.
I must also say thank you for giving Dr. Evan Goligher an opportunity to speak on the horror of MAID in Canada. I’m of an age to read a lot of funeral notices. An astonishing number of them reference that the deceased died proudly at his or her choice of time and place at the hands of a medical professional who swore to do no harm, and at my, the taxpayer’s, expense. This has gone from a hotly debated issue to the thing to do in less than a decade.
Thanks for sharing this, Sue. I had no idea things were that far gone in Canada. It's hard not to think that it won't be long before euthanasia goes from the thing to do to the thing you're expected to do. Refusing it will be considered selfish and immoral.
Thanks, Sue.
“This association of natural gifts with moral depravity is a “revenge” that TV writers play on the people whom they envied in high school.” Zing!