I always sort of wonder what functions as the katechon in the world after 1945. This is Schmitt’s 1947 diary. ‘I believe in the katechons, for me the only possible way to understand Christian history and find it meaningful. The katechon needs to be named for every epoch for the past 1948 years.’ The way I interpret this is that sotto voce, Schmitt is saying he has no idea what the katechon is. And maybe, the New Dealers are running the whole planet. Then of course, 1949 the Soviets get the bomb, and my sort of provisional answer is that the katechon for 40 years, from ’49 to ’89, is anti-communism. Which is in some ways is somewhat violent, not purely Christian but very, very powerful. I’ve argued that the katechon, or something like this, is necessary but not sufficient. And I want to finish by stressing where one goes wrong with it. If we forget its essential role, which is to restrain the antichrist, the antichrist might even present himself or itself or herself as the katechon, or hijack the katechon. This is almost a memetic version. A similarity between the antichrist and the katechon, they’re both sort of political figures. The katechon is tied in with empire and politics. If the antichrist is going to take over the world, you need something very powerful to stop it.
The katechon, the restrainer of the antichrist, must be both really powerful to prevent the antichrist, but that means there is also the danger that it IS the antichrist. I have a soft spot for theology and think it is fun to think about such mindbenders and finding real world examples. I guess Thiel was nerd sniped here.
The general point seems to be that Thiel would like to avoid anything which is too powerful, which is a globalist one-world-government. Which makes sense in a not-all-eggs-in-one-basket way.
I laughed about the juxtaposition of Francis Bacon and juvenile japanese Manga:
In his second lecture, Thiel also explores the idea of the antichrist through four works of literature – Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Alan Moore’s Watchmen graphic novel and Eiichiro Oda’s manga series One Piece.
I laughed out loud about this:
Thiel says he is “very pro-JD Vance”. But he has some concerns about his allegiance to the pope. “The place that I would worry about is that he’s too close to the pope. And so we have all these reports of fights between him and the pope. I hope there are a lot more. It’s the Caesar-Papist fusion that I always worry about. By the way, I’ve given him this feedback over time.
I don’t know how wooey Vance is, he comes off as relatively grounded, but Thiel giving the unsolicited advice to not get too close to the pope must have been an absurd scene (and suspiciously what I would have expected the antichrist to say).
Blueberry
11mo ago
No insight and likely a strong aversion to receiving treatment. Untreated schizophrenia tends to worsen. He's quite young, we don't know how bad it'll eventually
What can be done here?
Blueberry
11mo ago
It is easy to find counter the argument. You can eat a Big Mac in Jakarta, but that doesn't mean there are a lot of US-American migrants in Indonesia. Most places who make Lasagna are not operated by Italians. There are good sushi places in Budapest, even though there is no big japanese diaspora in Hungary. It just means Sushi is delicious.
Blueberry
11mo ago
But regarding Kirk:
[x] Shooter hits their target
[ ] coherent manifesto
[ ] unadorned weaponry (the ammo counts too?)
[x] captured alive
Blueberry
11mo ago
There is kind of annoying stuff in them, but I liked both books in the trilogy.
There is an internet theory that Patrick Rothfuss "father was his shadow writer. It’s Pats idea and world building, but his dad was the one who actually wrote it. After TNOTW and TWMF, Pat wanted to prove to himself that he could continue to write the books from now on. So he wrote TSROST all by himself. But he knew it wasn’t written the same and as the others. That’s why he says people won’t like the book because he knows it didn’t have the same feel as before."
As a European I am confused: Do Americans not have stores and supermarkets near them?
More options
Context Copy link