So much for God; now you, Adolf...

Check this out here or here.

For a taste, try this:

'… [Dawkins's] sense of 'Fascism' is lamentably error-strewn. Dawkins has only a superficial knowledge of Mein Kampf, or the poetry of Marinetti; and he seems entirely ignorant of the much more subtle and intellectually stimulating work of Fascist philosophers such as Hermann Graf Keyserling, Alfred Baeumler, Martin Heidegger, Giovanni Gentile, Rafael Sánchez Mazas, Alain de Benoist and many others. Only somebody who has mastered the complete works of all these thinkers could even conceivably be in a position to advance an anti-Fascist argument. The lack of that necessary body of knowledge fatally undermines Dawkins's right to attack Fascism in the first place.'

Absurd? Well, no! Look at this: 'Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology. ' 'What, one wonders, are Dawkins’s views on the epistemological differences between Aquinas and Duns Scotus? Has he read Eriugena on subjectivity, Rahner on grace or Moltmann on hope? Has he even heard of them? Or does he imagine like a bumptious young barrister that you can defeat the opposition while being complacently ignorant of its toughest case?'

More from the more serious review:

'Worse, he does not seem to realise that his own position, so-called non-Fascism, is actually a kind of Fascism: a structure of belief determined by Fascism, dependent for many of its core ideas on Fascist traditions.'

'I am not, of course, suggesting that Fascism has been perfect; no reasonable Fascist would. Whilst it's true that the Leader is the inerrant embodiment of the will of the People—ordinary Fascists themselves are prone to all the fallibilities of the human condition.'

Enough; go read the whole thing. I only wish I'd thought of it.

Beware! Screaming Gittery!

Everybody in the world really should read Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn from today in full. But for the heck of it, here's a few choice quotes:

'If it wasn't for the Enlightenment, you wouldn't be reading this right now. You'd be standing in a smock throwing turnips at a witch.'

' "Spirituality" is what cretins have in place of imagination.'

And I can't edit this paragraph at all without losing a bit I really like, so here 'tis:

'Maybe you've put your faith in spiritual claptrap because our random, narrative-free universe terrifies you. But that's no solution. If you want comforting, suck your thumb. Buy a pillow. Don't make up a load of floaty blah about energy or destiny. This is the real world, stupid. We should be solving problems, not sticking our fingers in our ears and singing about fairies. Everywhere you look, screaming gittery is taking root, with serious consequences. The NHS recently spent £10m refurbishing the London Homeopathic Hospital. The equivalent of 500 nurses' wages, blown on a handful of magic beans. That was your tax money. It was meant for saving lives.'

All television reviews should be like this.

Ooh, get her!

I love a nicely turned piece of understatement, so here's one from today's Guardian single reviews:

'note: "reasonably agreeable" is not really a compliment in rock'n'roll'.

Envoy to WHERE?!

Around fifteen years ago a friend and I compiled an imaginary tape to have been entitled 'Thatch No More'. The details are lost in the mists of time and that long ago drunken haze, but the lead off track was to have been 'Glad To See You Go' by the Ramones.

Please don't misunderstand, I love America, but no one can embarrass you like those you love...

Well, now. I recognise that brainstorming can be very productive, and that you've got to throw around as many ridiculous ideas as you can in order to get at the good ones. But Gay Bombs? Gay Bombs? Only in the confused, repressed, creationist mind of a midwestern Colonel, surely.

As is often the case, Stephen Fry has expressed it in a way which probably cannot be bettered:

“Tell you what, lovely army, very nice vehicles and things; d’you have any grown-ups anywhere?”

As if I didn't have enough to do

I fear I'm going to have to read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire at some point. Try this passage:

‘But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and philosophic world to those evidences which were presented, not to their reason, but to their senses? During the age of Christ, of his apostles, and of their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, daemons were expelled, and the laws of Nature were frequently suspended for the benefit of the church. But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occupations of life and study, appeared unconscious of any alterations in the moral or physical government of the world.’

Isn't that lovely? I'd count myself a serious writer if I could manage a passege that good just the once...

Life in a Secular State

On the radio this morning, I heard one of the Republican candidates for the Presidency of you know where. It seems that following outcry from various scientists and the like, he had decided to moderate his earlier comment that he did not believe in evolution. He now said that all he knew was that God had created the world, but was not too concerned with how, and didn't see that it affected his ability to carry out the duties of the President.

Well, as far as relevance to his duties goes, it would demonstrate a capacity for rational thought. And it would demonstrate that he could take on board uncomfortable information, rather than just pretending the world was the way he wanted it to be and acting accordingly.

So I suppose he was right, at that.