In these latter days, I am always instinctively suspicious of anything so pushed by the Government. Why? Because I think the Government is packed full of dishonest, misguided, Modernist, vegetarian, teetotal, Protestant, secular, feminist, liberal (which, paradoxically, means precisely the opposite of freedom) Freemasonic idiots with a violently anti-Catholic agenda. I am filled with wrath whenever I hear about ''5-a-day'' (something which in my opinion has little or no scientific basis whatsoever), swine flu, climate change, ''carbon footprints'' etc, and I also get rather annoyed whenever I hear ''charities'' such as Cafod or Christian Aid or Oxfam going on about people starving in Africa, and dying of HIV/Aids on account of contraception. This requires some explanation, so I shall do my best without sounding too prejudiced.
Take my mother: 48 years old, with more than enough in her own life and in the life of our family to worry about (which I will not elaborate here without her leave) - why should she spend a great deal of her spare time feeling miserable about the suffering of people thousands of miles away? Now, I grieve at those sufferings, but does it really behove us as Catholics to be constantly and vividly aware of them? It seems to me to run counter to the nature of Man as created by God to live lives annexed to a constant misery on account of suffering. I wonder, were we ever supposed to be aware of such suffering? Modern technology is to blame of course, that and journalism and propaganda: they seem to have burdened or imposed upon our sympathies. Was human emotion ever intended for such burdens? It seems that if we do not sympathise with anonymous people thousands of miles away, or fret over carbon footprints or whatever we are accused of prejudice or callous indifference.
If somebody you know, a relative or friend, is having a ''difficult patch'' (lets say), such as the death of a loved one or a divorce - well, it is becoming that you sympathise and condole with them. But if Joe Bloggs living in Nigeria is having a ''difficult patch,'' is it equally becoming to sympathise and condole with him in the same manner? I think it is quite impossible. More Saints come from eras in the Church's history when there were no blogs, internets, TVs etc. Are they any less holy and heroic because they were simply unaware of climate change!? Was St Francis of Assisi worried about his ''carbon footprint!'' Certainly not. And yet he is derided and scoffed at these days for being indoctrinated by the silly Romish Medieval religion by stupid people truly brainwashed by journalism and modern governments about climate change! Such people are haughty and arrogant busy-bodies under the pretence that their zeal for curtailing Co2 emissions is the real concern for the race of Men. I am personally more concerned for the marring of the human soul by Sin and the overthrow of the human mind by idolatry and superstition than the effects of climate change - which are probably grossly exaggerated anyway. I wonder - is indifference the answer? I have long ceased to care about the news, which passes through the clogged and muddied filter of journalism and triviality before it is stared at by people who bother to watch TV. I hope this doesn't sound too callous? I wonder if people think likewise...
Whenever thinking about things of this sort, I am reminded of this Scripture quotation: For the poor you have always with you: but me you have not always (Matthew 26:11).
I never watch the news nowadays, more-or-less for the same reasons.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Paul. Indeed, the only remedy I can think of is to not watch TV or read newspapers. I deplore ''journalism'' (my uncle is in fact one, but I suppose every family has one!), because journalists always seem to have an air of pretended authority on everything, and it is altogether trivial also, and an engine of secular power.
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