timeimmortal

It never ceases to amaze me how a minor little blog such as mine (seriously: check out the Technorati rating on the sidebar…mid-to-high 30s? Pathetic!) attracts the notice, on occasion, of folks in the news. Not that David Kahane is exactly a household name. Then too, he hasn’t exactly managed to avoid the spotlight either, and he writes in to remark on something I wrote about a class he teaches.

“St. Joseph’s College strives to engage everyone in the experience of those human values that encourage a respect for all persons, promote social justice, service, and friendship, and foster a desire for truth that includes the sacred.”

Hear hear. And yet I’m not feeling this ethos in your condemnation of me. Sorry.

I wish that you weren’t so quick to categorize me as your enemy, and to dismiss my work based on very limited information.

For the record, O Reader, I am but a former student of St. Joseph’s College at the University of Alberta — I am not currently a student of that institution, nor am I a member of the staff or faculty there. I am a member of the College chapel parish, as it is a Catholic church in addition to being an institution of learning, but that is about as far as it goes.

To be fair, I generally align myself with the ideals expressed in the statement of purpose that Mr. Kahane has excerpted above, especially in regard to “a desire for truth that includes the sacred.” To be equally fair, my intent in my earlier article was not specifically to offer condemnation, nor was it to define myself explicitly as the enemy of another person.

Rather, it was meant as a commentary on a certain…shall we call it liberal smugness? Fundamentally, what was at issue was that a philosophy class — in which students were encouraged to, among other things, think positive self-referential thoughts in a meditative style and to spend time sitting in public directing these “positive energies” as passers-by — was being touted as an experiment in social justice, when in fact it was nothing of the sort. Had it been billed as an experiment in liberal self-absorption, I’d have not bothered to take issue with it, because that latter classification would have been closer to the truth. But as it was billed as an experiment in social justice, I chose not to remark upon the untruth.

Sitting around thinking happy thoughts and hoping that the people walking past are getting your vibes is not social justice; it’s hippie-dippy claptrap. Social justice is spending five hours in a meager kitchen serving the best damn meal possible to a few hundred homeless people. Social justice is volunteering to take persons with out for various recreational activities. Social justice is joining [insert profession here] Without Borders and going to Africa for a year or two to do your very damndest to improve the lot of as many people as you can through the use of what technical skills you have amassed.

I’m not interested in being the enemy of anyone but Satan. I’m not trying to make enemies with what I write (as hard as that might be for some to believe). But equally, I have no tolerance for bullshit. If that sets me at odds with the “ethos” of the mission statement of St. Joe’s College (the educational institution, not the church), that’s something I’m willing to risk.

So it would appear that the founder of the Facebook group opposed to Bill C-10, University of Alberta professor David Kahane, is also the teacher of a course where students meditate, repeat to themselves “May I have the ease of well-being,” and have as homework the task of sitting in public places directing thoughts of love and kindness at passers-by.

And this is apparently a “social justice“-themed class.

Look, I know a lot of Catholics out there have some strong reservations about the “social justice” movements that have been gaining ground in the Church of late (some see it as nothing more than a backdoor attempt to sneak socialism back in to the Church). Be that as it may…for all the reservations that people might have about such groups, at least they do works of social justice from time to time, usually.

Not Professor Kahane’s students, it seems. They’re too busy telling themselves that they are okay, too busy having “the ease of well-being” (whatever that might be). And when it actually comes time to do something apparently related to social justice, what do they do? Sit on a park bench and think happy thoughts at the people going by.

It’s nice work if you can get it, but do you suppose that any of Professor Kahane’s students — let alone David Kahane himself — has ever, I don’t know, seen the inside of a soup kitchen? That is social justice. Sitting on a park bench wishing yourself “the ease of well-being” and intently hoping that your positive vibes are reaching the people walking past is not social justice.

It’s just lazy, self-centered liberalism at its finest.

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

May his name be blotted out. No details yet on the gunman, and conflicted reports on casualties (15 to 18 wounded, 1 to 3 dead including the shooter).

Pray for the victims of this latest tragedy, O Reader. And as much as you can, try not to remember the name of the shooter once it hits the press. These cowardly psychopaths do what they do partly because they want to “make a name” for themselves. The Bible suggests the perfect response to such sinful attempts at fame.

May his name be blotted out.

Update: 7 dead, 15 wounded appears to be the current count. The shooter was a white male (former?) graduate Sociology student (still no name, at least not officially), and his target was an Ocean Studies introductory class.

Continuing yet another pattern, the shooting happened in an area where heavy restrictions on firearms are in effect — Illinois has some of the more rigorous gun control legislation in the United States. No concealed-carry weapons are allowed, and it is illegal to have a firearm on the campus of an Illinois college.

One cannot help but note that this has been a pattern in recent shootings — the gunmen have preferred to target areas with strict gun bans. And why not? Why risk having the spree cut short by anything so inconvenient as an armed fellow student who can and will shoot back?

Updates: The shooter “felt” passionate about social justice. Interesting way to demonstrate that commitment. It also appears now that he had some manner of disorder which required medication (and that he had lapsed in taking said medication). I guess, when you’re off balance to begin with, secular progressivism probably isn’t the best philosophy to add to the mix.

Update 3: Apparently, the shooter was also a fan of — that’s right — Friedrich Nietszche. All this secular progressivism that abounds today does nothing at all to inspire hope in people, and it seems that far too many of those who not only want to take their own life, but the lives of all those around them, have given themselves over to the despair of godlessness.