The Neo-Barbarians

Cancel culture continues – and there seems little or no distinctions in the collective mind in what they will destroy, annihilate, obliterate. We use the singular ‘mind’, for independent thought seems to be vanishing faster than statues of colonial white men, in what Mark Steyn has dubbed the ‘march of the morons‘. They are defacing and toppling monuments not only of those who espoused what would now be considered racists views, but also those who did not speak out loudly enough, as well as those who fought racism, even those who were of oppressed races. Churchill? Lincoln? Nelson? Mandela or Horatio? Napoleon? Luther? It is iconoclasm on a grand scale, anarchy, and it’s all gotta go – and the modern colonialists – the term is ominously vague – must ‘take the knee’, bowing to a spirit that is also ominously vague.

A ‘moron’ literally means one who is slow, used metaphorically in the educational domain, in the sense of one who has yet to catch up, who has but begun his journey towards knowledge and truth. Hence, those in their second year of post-secondary education are called ‘sophomores’ – or ‘wise fools’, since they realize they have learned something, but also that they have a lot left to learn – indeed, that there no end to learning, which that being ‘wise’ includes the capacity to place oneself in the mindset of others, and that there mysteries to life, and things we will never know.

The marchers, stomping on all and sundry, seem never even to have reached that stage, and we are reaping what we have sown in modern academia. The mobs are the students of our universities, and what passes for whatever education they receive is mostly in the wrong things. They see history down the opposite end of the telescope, everything not only in the stunted present tense, but even from a purely solipsistic sense – it’s all about one’s own vanishing-point present perspective.

The barbarians were called so by the Greeks since their language sounded like that to the refined Hellenic ear – bar, bar, bar. Plus, they couldn’t read. Father George Rutler has an excellent piece on the effects of such modern cultural illiteracy.

As Saint John Henry Newman put it, a true education should allow one to see people, things, events, epochs, from a universal point of view, the small in the context of the great, and vice versa – hence, university. We have done almost the opposite, so that our places of learning – and we may use that term advisedly – now narrow the mind. The graduates, such as they are, are not even aware of what they don’t know, and should know – the ever definition of ‘ignorance’ – and they don’t seem to care. They seem, au contraire, to revel in blithe unawareness, which does not absolve them, nor their anarchy and anger.

To know one’s place in the cosmos, in the ‘order’ of God’s providence, is the key to humility, to charity, to peace. If a little learning is a dangerous thing, it’s even more dangerous when one knows not how little it is, and how little one is.

Carney’s Amoral Majority

After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→

Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress

This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→

A Closed, Unsustainable, Descending Loop

As a follow-up to my thoughts on Payette’s payout, here be a stark image of where are here in Canada. As the graph shows in, well, graphic terms, since 2025, the public sector has contributed to 95.5% of economic growth. The private sector – which funds the public sector, or is supposed to – has[…]Continue reading→

A Tale of Two Benedicts

A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→

My Name is Bernadette

April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→

Presidential Pardon of Weronika Krawczyk

As a good news, follow-up to our story from Poland, of the persecution of Weronika Krawczyk for her pro-life views, we heard that she has been granted a presidential pardon. One might still wonder why one needs a presidential pardon for simply holding the long-held belief that the child within the womb is a child,[…]Continue reading→

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→

The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus

As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→

Pope Leo and a Rosary for Peace

Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics across the world to join him in a Rosary for peace today, at 18:00 Rome time (6 pm), which would be noon from where I write (EST). If you are able, whether at that time or another, and in whatever way you pray, to join in intercession with the[…]Continue reading→

Payette’s Payout

I was glancing through some headlines, and noticed a mention of Julie Payette – engineer and astronaut and sometime the Queen’s representative in Canada – which brought back vague memories. She was appointed Governor-General by Justin Trudeau in 2017. Ms. Payette resigned in 2021, amidst claims that she created a ‘toxic work environment’, with allegations[…]Continue reading→