Monday, March 18, AD 2024 10:51pm

Quotes Suitable for Framing: Robert Conquest

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The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.

Robert Conquest

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.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Friday, April 29, AD 2016 2:29pm

Donald I found out that the word “cabal” is related to “Kabbalah “. I don’t have any implications about that but think it is interesting.. Maybe E. Morales and Pope Francis already know:
cabal (n.)
1520s, “mystical interpretation of the Old Testament,” later “society, small group meeting privately” (1660s), from French cabal, in both senses, from Medieval Latin cabbala (see cabbala). Popularized in English 1673 as an acronym for five intriguing ministers of Charles II (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale), which gave the word its sinister connotations. (From online etymological dictionary)

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Friday, April 29, AD 2016 5:21pm

Dr. Jerry Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

DJH
DJH
Friday, April 29, AD 2016 7:30pm

A couple (or more?) yeas ago, there was on some blog the question of what “would make you loose your faith in the Catholic Church.” At the time, it was contraception. If the Church gave the nod to contraception (frankly, I am not sure Her hierarchy doesn’t…), then I’d know that the Church was simply another in a long line of fake religions.
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More recently, I just shake my head at the promotion of what I perceive to be socialism and the total lack of understanding (or so it seems to me) of free market economics.
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Now, with the latest and greatest written missive (Amoris Laetitia), I’ve come to conclusion that for a lot of the hierarchy it’s about job security and keeping the gravy train flowing. Gotta keep the current customers happy and increase market share. Or at least stop the hemorrhaging of the less committed customers.
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The Pope certainly seems to have downplayed the “intrinsically evil”-ness of contraception, and muddied the very clean words of Christ about marriage and adultery.
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Yes, I know, there have been corrupt periods of time in the Church, and the Church yet survives. In fact, it is 2000 years old. So the Holy Spirit must be in there somewhere keeping the Barque of Peter afloat, right? But Judaism is older, and so is Hinduism and Buddhism.
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It wasn’t the Catholic Church of the 20th Century that gave us the Bible; it was the Church of the 325AD in Nicea. Things do fall apart. And Jesus supposedly asked if there would be faith when he returned. So I do wonder if the current Catholic Church is really what Jesus intended. And I ask myself 1) do I really have to give monies to the Church–not just my parish, but any money that will definitely end up in Rome 2) Am I really in communion with these folks?

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Saturday, April 30, AD 2016 10:38am

“Now, with the latest and greatest written missive (Amoris Laetitia), I’ve come to conclusion that for a lot of the hierarchy it’s about job security and keeping the gravy train flowing.” – DJH

WWDS. What would Dante Say. I think he said it. Inferno, Canto III: 35-42, about self-seeking church types, they, “the wretched souls of those, who lived
Without praise or blame, ..”:

[Dante, speaking to Virgil]:
..
I then, with horror yet encompassed, cried:
“O master! what is this I hear? what race
Are these, who seem so overcome with woe?”

He thus to me: “This miserable fate
Suffer the wretched souls of those, who lived
Without praise or blame, with that ill band
Of angels mix’d, who not rebellious proved,
Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves
Were only. From his bounds Heaven drove them forth
Not to impair his luster; nor the depth
Of Hell receives them, lest the accursed tribe
Should glory thence with exultation vain.”

I then: “Master! what doth aggrieve them thus,
That they lament so loud?” He straight replied:
“That will I tell thee briefly. These of death
No hope may entertain: and their blind life
So meanly passes, that all other lots
They envy. Fame of them the world hath none,
Nor suffers; Mercy and Justice scorn them both.
Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by.”

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