Anti-blogging may well be light through the summer, as I am trying to reorganize

myself in the shade of my most recent petty disasters, and will sometimes be
straying to locations where this laptop does not shine. And sometimes, having
gone nowhere, I just leave it there unconsulted, for there are other things to do.
Among the innumerable paradoxes of contemporary life, is that technology has
anchored us, tied us down, done just the opposite of set us free. We are tethered
to these devices,! which themselves become a place. "hat is hardly a novel
observation, yet I don#t thin$ the full implications are conjured with, than$s in part
to the epidemic of s$ipjac$! literal-mindedness that is another feature of Internet
addiction% and let me add, the associated &omment 'evolution ( interactivity!
and the horrible unchastity it abets. )reedom in this world has been rede*ned, not
as independence but as mobility. +ecause we now have extremely portable
devices, we are trapped, but not at home, or in the factory or o,ce, the way we
used to be. Instead we are secured to the devices, so perfectly that a moment of
freedom from them *lls us with morbid anxiety and dread.
In a friend#s unpublished novel, that I have been reading, there is the image of
aeroplanes passing overhead. "he narrator imagines them with the aircraft
stripped away- pictures pilots and passengers sitting in the s$y, moving at great
speed through nowhere to nowhere, in the illusion of some purpose. "hey are
ridiculous.
.ilgrimage! will be my word for today. It is something /uite di0erent from
mobility, although the literal-minded might associate it with wandering. Well yes,
it is associated with wandering- to a shrine, as ma$ing a pilgrimage. It is a
consciously religious act, as we might ma$e a &onfession. It is not synonymous
with travelling, however, just as attending the 1ass does not reduce to ma$ing a
trip across town.! "hat is in turn a small pilgrimage, of the $ind almost anyone
could ma$e, almost any day, on foot, or by car, bus, or trolley.
I have the sweetest memories of being young, of being on the road,! usually over
the ground, and often to an undetermined destination% of being a spectator, a
witness, in my passing% and in myself, at the crossroads of many divergent paths.
2f being, truly, alone on the road, or thrown in with total strangers, not of my own
language, culture, or bac$ground. "he sweetest memories even of the danger of
being on the road, far from help or rescue in some remote place. It was
exhilarating ( to live in that animal alertness, and the sparrow joy in that
alertness.
+ut what I did was not a pilgrimage, though it felt often as if it might be so, and in
mornings setting out I often thought of e.g. &haucer#s pilgrims, the more because
I was writing a long rambling novel or se/uence of interrelated stories,
provisionally entitled "ravellers, and meant as a 33th century &anterbury "ales.
4"he manuscript in my satchel became excessively heavy, and was ultimately
consigned to the 1e$ong 'iver, a little below 5ientiane.6 I was writing the parody
of a pilgrimage ( of e.g. foolish young dope-smo$ing hippies on the road to
7athmandu. +ut in re8ection, the pilgrimage for me was 9od, Whom I did not then
recognize, wishing to show me a few things% and re/uiring nothing from me, at
that time, except my full attention.
'eal, material dangers are part of the attraction through the great ages of
pilgrimage- my beloved 1iddle Ages.! 2ne imagines the need sometimes to
travel in convoy against highwaymen, for instance% to be well-armed and prepared
for some despicable 'obin :ood. 2ne imagines much greater exposure to perils of
weather, disease, even wild animals% nights in real dar$ness, shivering under the
stars% the practical possibility of starvation. Ah, the lost joys. ;et also the moments
of sanctuary, of a $ind that cannot be appreciated today- the *rst sighting of a
town and its towers from a distant hill% *rst hearing the tin$le of its distant steeple
bells, carried on the breeze% the high walls and proud towers, and within them,
safety. <ife was more vivid then, and the more vivid it becomes, the more clearly
9od may be discerned in the pattern- a <ord who cannot be casually avoided,
ignored then forgotten, as :e is in our city life today% who must be personally
welcomed, or rejected. And by rejection, I mean rejection- not casual cussing, and
our modern pissing in the wind, but real blasphemy. 1en were once capable of
that.
"ethered- for wherever we travel today we may call home and stay in touch with
everything% and all of our wanderings are circular. =o one steps aboard a ship,
thin$ing he will never see his homeland again, for he is sailing too far away. :ow
wretchedly pointless is a holiday in the sun, airport to airport and then bac$ again.
:ow do people live, that they could feel the need of such 4aptly termed6
vacations! ( which prove, in almost every case, to be a vacating of the
pilgrimage itself> 2r going, as they boast, to an unspoilt! place, some little
earthly paradise they have located, to get away from it all. +ut if so, only going
there to spoil it.
?
"o be a pilgrim, it is not necessary to go anywhere at all.
We are on our pilgrimage through space and time% and even in stillness, we are
moving through time. <et me dwell upon this very simple notion, perhaps too
simple to be readily understood. "he otherworldly moments, in which it seems we
have stood out of time, are themselves locatable along time#s arrow. I don#t thin$
people ta$e this universe seriously enough. We disconnect ourselves abstractly,
when we imagine ourselves the authors of some progress! that is, in the reality,
completely beyond our control. 2ur participation is itself fully real. We are entirely
here, and not elsewhere% we have been put here, and not by ourselves. We are
subjects, tightly bound within laws! that are unalterable and unfailing, and we
are answerable *nally not to ourselves. We were summoned to this pilgrimage, to
the freedom of the open road.! +ut if I may shift from sublime to ridiculous- we
did not build that road. =or was it built by human hands. =or is our travel optional%
nor the conditions of travel% nor the duties to our 9od and to our neighbour that
are the rules of this road. 1y friend @oe :anna describes the lives of great masses
of people today, as one seamless sin of omission.! "hin$ on that.
"hin$ on this universe, which mimics in*nity, but had a beginning and will have an
end. 4)or centuries upon centuries &hristians tried to explain to scientists those
outrageous words, In the beginning,! and were repeatedly laughed out of their
court. It is less than a century since the scientists progressed! so far that they
began to realize, to their consternation, that the &hristians were right. ;es, the
universe had a beginning, a very literal beginning, a beginning of time, and the
end follows from the beginning. "he materialists may dispense with their
smugness now.6
"he &hristian must be aware that he is moving towards a destination% and that the
destination is not in this world. :e must maintain a certain detachment from the
things of this world% a chaste detachment% for where he is going cannot be here.
Apectator and witness, perhaps actor in his turn, in some role for which he is or
isn#t suited% bearing responsibilities to others in every single case. :is su0ering
may be of more value than any achievement to which he may claim. :e cannot
vest his hopes in earthly things, $nowing they will vanish. :is *nest possessions
are not of this world, but from another- the phenomena of reciprocated love% of
truth, goodness, and beauty apprehended, preciously $ept in the purse of
memory% of news from a foreign country! received. "his is all he will hold at the
end of his journey, when his road through space and time lies behind him, and
everything he once carried on his bac$ has been used up, thrown or ta$en away,
and even the old bag of his 8esh is discarded.
"o be sure, we all $now this, but it is also true that we don#t $now what we $now.
-------------
.alaeoconservative.!
I#ve been reminded of this word by my &hief WrocBaw &orrespondent 4who is also
&onvenor for the .olish +ranch of the Cavid Warren )riendship Aociety6. :e cites
the wor$s of another friend and guru, .aul 9ottfried, along with other
palaeoconservative thin$ers on both sides of the Atlantic Aea, most of whom will
be utterly un$nown to the general reader, let alone the media s$ipjac$. 4"he
allusion is to a shallow-draught *shing vessel, designed to retrieve oysters, only,
and only from &hesapea$e +ay. 2r, in older Dnglish, to a class of inexpensive
manservant or footman, whose strength and wea$ness lay in a certain lightness of
heel, and a focused literal-mindedness. 2r, the word could be left to *nd its own
associations.6
Aee, should gracious reader be inclined, =o &ountry for 2ld .olitics,! by .rof.
9ottfried, which may be found by diligent Internet search. "he gentleman
patiently explains at some length what the word might mean% and how
conservatives! in media, the academy, politics, and so forth, are e0ectively in
alliance with liberals! to $eep palaeoconservative ideas out of play.
.alaeoconservative,! I have come to thin$ myself, is necessary to distinguish
actual conservative thought, from the rightwing form of glib liberal thin$ing.
&uriously, we do not also need the term palaeoliberal,! to describe the old
Dnlightenment attitudes, which remain in fashion after three hundred years, and
some portions of which were, until /uite recently, partially sane. =ineteen-*fties
liberal! is sometimes attempted- but that $ind of person is now called a
conservative,! and has been called a conservative since at least the 'eform +ill
of EFGH. :e is of the faction that waves all the old signboards for <ibertI, JgalitI,
)raternitI, and what have you, but would prefer the realities for which these
slogans stand to arrive at a slower pace. 4"he italicized words are the national
motto of :aiti% and I thin$ also of )rance.6
Whereas, a palaeoconservative! would not li$e them to arrive at all. :e refuses
to wave those signboards. 4:e sees how things have wor$ed out in :aiti.6 Indeed,
he does not believe in signboards, or li$e them.
If we want to be democratic about this, I would suggest we form a political party.
1y proposal for a cool, sexy name would be- "he &atholic &hristian &ounter-
'evolutionary and Anti-+ourgeois Cistributist Aubsidiarial <imited-1onarchist
:ierarchical and Aristocratic .alaeoconservative Action <eague.! And insist that
the authorities print the full name on every ballot, not try to reduce it to &&&-
'KA-+CA<-1:KA.A<,! or whatever. "hat way, by ta$ing up extra space, we will
reap a huge harvest of unintentional supporters.
Alternatively, just the .alaeoconservative .arty,! and hope for the best.
)or we have to wor$ with what we have, according to a young lady with whom I
was spea$ing recently, who added that what we have is democracy.! Which is to
say, <ibertI, JgalitI, )raternitI, and bats with little human faces. Ahe dismissed
my central idea 4which was to restore &hristendom6 as impractical, and
impracticable, under present conditions. And as I could see she might have a
point, I am trying to become more practical.
--------
It would seem that, this morning, for the *rst time in more than eighteen
centuries, there are no &hristians in 1osul, Ira/.
"he city was founded on the west ban$ of the 'iver "igris, as the continuation of
the more ancient =inevah, which it is still sometimes called by the biblically
inclined, including its &hristian former residents. 9entle reader will recall that
=inevah 4on the other ban$6 was sac$ed by the +abylonians, et alia, in LEH +&.
"he *rst rebuilding was done a few miles north% the most recent only a few
centuries later, bac$ at the natural bridgehead.
'ecent! is a relative term% all history is modern history, as I li$e to repeat. 2ld
1osul 41epsila!6 is mentioned in 3enophon#s Anabasis, from when his 9ree$s
were passing through, towards the end of the *fth century +& ( a time when the
ruins of =inevah had already been forgotten. It was later a &hristian city, before it
became, by con/uest, a 1uslim city- yet it remained until the dawn of the present
century an important &hristian centre, seat of the :oly Apostolic &atholic Assyrian
&hurch of the Dast, and of classical Ayriac learning. "he ruins of &hristian
monasteries may be found scattered through the surrounding desert% many
survived long into the Islamic era. A story could be told about At Dlijah#s
monastery, for instance, just to the south of 1osul, which American soldiers
helped to restore only a few years ago. +efore "amerlane, it had dispatched
missionaries across India, &hina, and &entral Asia, as well as delegates to distant
'ome. +y much older tradition, the tombs of several 2ld "estament patriarchs and
prophets are to be found within the large area now under 1osul#s modern urban
sprawl. 4It is the largest city in Ira/, except +aghdad.6 "his includes the shrine
associated with the tomb of @onah, itself of extraordinary anti/uity ( torched and
demolished last wee$.
All physical evidence that &hristians ever lived in 1osul will soon be erased, if it
has not been erased already. Ahia Islamic shrines have also been demolished by
the Aunni jihadis% and I gather that 1osul#s famous museum, one of several sites
around the city under nominal protection of M=DA&2 as world heritage,! has also
been trashed by these iconoclasts.
&hristians were still a substantial minority in 1osul, at the time of the M.A. and
allied invasion in HNNG. "heir numbers had since been reduced considerably by
Aunni Arab torments% last month it was estimated that only GO,NNN remained.
IAIA! ( the army of fanatics that has seized much of northern Ira/ ( mar$ed
their houses with the Arabic letter for =, which stands for =asrani,! or =azarenes.
4"his is what &hristians are called in the 7oran.6 Dducated readers may note that
the =azis had the homes of @ews mar$ed in a similar manner ( bac$ when that
wasn#t really news, either.
"he *nal solution! for 1osul#s &hristians was blared from loudspea$ers in the
minarets of the city#s Aunni mos/ues after )riday prayers. "hey would have
twenty-four hours to 8ee, ta$ing nothing but the clothes they were wearing. "hose
found still in the city, after noon yesterday, would be put to the sword. A third
option, conversion to Islam, was mentioned only for the record. Any intending to
do that would surely have done it by now. "he possessions of all &hristians had
been nationalized,! according to the announcement ( everything they owned
now belonged to the Islamic &aliphate of Ira/ and the <evant.
"his last point, though a technicality, is important to understand the se/uence of
events. +ecause the &hristians now owned nothing, it would be impossible for
them to pay the jizyah ( the Islamic tax for non-1uslims. 42ver the centuries,
throughout the many lands con/uered in the name of the .rophet, from 1orocco
through Indonesia, &hristians who valued an easy life above that of &hrist
gradually converted to Islam, the principal reason being to avoid paying this
onerous protection money, to say nothing of the occasional pogrom.6 "he amount
of the tax ( payable wherever and whenever it is demanded ( is currently *xed
in neighbouring Ayria, wherever the jihadis of IAIA have ta$en over from the
regime of +ashir Assad, at one half-ounce of pure gold per head for every man,
woman, or child. I gather cash e/uivalents are not acceptable. 9old is hard for the
&hristians to obtain under prevailing conditions% it is one of many factors exerting
an upward in8uence on the international gold price.
Cetails, details- I wish that our Western media were capable of spotting and
recording them, on almost any topic. =ot being in 1osul myself, currently, I
cannot attest to the details in any of the reports I have read. 42ne may *nd the
main event mentioned even by the ++& and &==, if one examines their websites
forensically.6 +ut from previous familiarity with radical Islam, several small things
struc$ me. 2ne was that the announcement of &hristian dispossession was
phrased with bureaucratic precision, specifying that the clothes they are
wearing! must under no circumstances be used to conceal coins, jewellery, or a
long list of other portable valuables, all of which were to be left in the homes
which the jihadis would now secure.
It would be a mista$e to assume that because they value human life so lightly, the
jihadis are indi0erent to the values of the bazaar. =ote that their conception of
heaven is also presented in mar$et terms- as so many virgins in payment to a
martyr,! plus luxuries and treasures also carefully denominated. 2ne might call it
a transcendental materialism ( religion in the form of compelled material
transactions, and in that sense not fundamentally di0erent from the democratic
liberalism of our own =anny Atates.
"he &hristians have 8ed, by necessity many on foot under the $illing sun of the
1esopotamian summer, mostly towards 7urdistan- the one part of northern Ira/
the jihadis have not yet attempted to subjugate. "hat is also where Western
refugee aid is most li$ely to be available. At this point, we cannot guess how many
will ma$e it alive. &ertainly the number of dead will vastly exceed those tallied in
the airliner that was shot down in eastern M$raine ( the story now at the top of
Western media headlines, for the plane was full of Duropeans.
We pray, with least compulsion, for our own. 9ranting that is how things must be,
by nature, those who remain &hristian in the West should recall that &hristians
everywhere are our own.