Cogitationes, 8-4-2008

• A friend of mine, with whom I often talk about politics, history, philosophy, and the like, shared an idea with me that he'd been pondering.  He believes that the concept behind Maslow's "hierarchy of needs" has come largely to dominate the modern consciousness.  The hierarchy, taken from Maslow's 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation," proceeds thus:  physiological needs, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualization.  Each need must be met before a human can proceed to the next.  Specifically, my friend noticed that people seem to have the idea that material needs must be met before one can meet spiritual needs--what Maslow placed under "self-actualization."  Of course, as he pointed out, history and experience do not support these claims.  Material privation often fosters spiritual strength.  Jesus said, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God" (Luke 6:20), and, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" (Mark 10:23).  Karl Marx hated religion because of its role in keeping the poor relatively content with their economic lot, and expressed as much when he said that religion was the opiate of the masses.  When do we most turn to God:  when life is good, or when we have nothing else to depend on except Him?
• A few of my friends and I traveled to Stevensville, Michigan, Friday and Saturday to visit a friend of ours who is a summer intern at the nuclear power plant there.  While getting ready for the rest of the day, I happened to glance out of the window in the shower in our friend's apartment; my eyes met a wild conflagration of native, untended flowers and trees that helped me to appreciate anew the natural splendor of our state's western half.  But then something stopped me in my tracks:  Towering above it all were the golden arches of corporate empire, the ubiquitous McDonald's "M."  It's a source of some amusement to me that the same people who want universal economic equality deride large producers of mediocrity like Wal-mart and McDonald's, since Wal-mart and McDonald's are the only methods whereby that universal equality could be attained.  To paraphrase Tocqueville, equality lessens suffering through the propagation of mediocrity.  The empire of equality cannot afford to leave any beauty, any excellence untouched in its unstoppable expansion.
• In Stevensville, we watched one of my favorite movies of all-time:  UHF, starring "Weird Al" Yankovic.  Goofy humor, TV and movie parodies, a line-up of low-profile actors (including a pre-Seinfeld Michael Richards), and a David-versus-Goliath story--it doesn't get much better than that.  For listeners of Rush Limbaugh, this movie is the source of the "Spatula City" commercial.
• I just remembered this.  My friend from the first bullet-point also told me something interesting about conservatism and conservatives.  It seems to me as though conservatism will have trouble finding a foothold as large government and large business tear down traditional and local institutions.  My friend reminded me that conservatives must have a sense of the tragic, of the passing of old things.  And I do.  And as nostalgic as I can get, consevatives are not here to keep things the same--and who would want things to be the same?  Rather, we're here to ease the transitions through which society proceeds.  After all, as Burke would remind us, those transitions are divine in origin, and cannot--nor should they-- be stopped.  Our job is to keep society from precipitous plunges and violent convulsions, and to be living reminders of the timelessness of certain bedrock principles.

Later, guys!