types of guilt

In the last week we have seen two examples of madness that have caused people to kill young children or infants. In Belgium, a 20 year old man, whose parents allegedly were trying to get him admitted to a psychiatric hospital, stabbed and killed several infants. In Melbourne, a man involved in a custody battle threw his daughter from a high bridge and then drove to a law office in the city, asked people to look after the other children and then collapsed in distress.

These acts have caused public shock and anger and some calls for revenge on the two men involved.

These were two acts of madness, and no-one yet knows what caused them. On the other hand, the Victorian parliament has last year coolly and calmly passed legislation to allow decriminalised late term abortions, up to 24 weeks without approval, and after 24 weeks with the approval of 2 doctors.

A couple of other recent events have been the delivery in the USA of a multiple birth of 8 children at 31 weeks, and the visit to Australia of 31 year old Gianna Jessen, whose mother attempted, unsuccessfully,  to have her aborted at about 31 weeks.

Only God knows who has the greater guilt.

Parallel liturgy

Compared to 30 years ago, the attendances at Anzac Day ceremonies have become huge in recent years. The sacrifices of the soldiers in noble causes are remembered, which is a fine thing. The only thing I find regrettable is that the interest and gratitude in remembering the soldiers' sacrifice has not been matched by praise and thanksgiving for the sacrifice Jesus made for us on Calvary. The biggest day of the Easter Show is Good Friday, but woe betide any store that dares to open on Anzac Day during the march.

Enthusiasm for Australia Day has also increased, and the birth of the nation is celebrated, with some regrets by and for aboriginal people.

It just occurred to me that we are creating a secular liturgical year as a parallel (and I would say poor parallel) to the real liturgical year, but delayed by about a month.

The feast of Christmas is followed about a month later by Australia Day. The Advent season precedes Christmas, and the celebrations of the Festival of Sydney precede Australia Day.

Then, usually in April, the Church remembers Christ's sacrifice on Good Friday, and in the secular liturgical universe, we remember the soldiers' sacrifice on Anzac Day on April 25th.

It is a pity if the secular liturgy only succeeds at the expense of the real, and much more fruitful liturgy of the Church.

I don't know what isn't art, but I know it when I see it.

We were all shocked by the sudden death of Heath Ledger one year ago, and we all pray that his soul rests in peace.

The role of the "Joker" he played in the Batman movie has been universally praised as a masterpiece of the art of film.

Now, hang on a minute!!!!

Batman, and the villian called the Joker are comic book characters invented to appeal to young children. They have recently been turned into violent and sadistic movie characters, apparently intended to appeal to adolescent boys. In what way is that art? Apart from the obvious and simply evil violence in the movie, it is claimed that Batman and the Joker are complex characters because they recognise their opposite in each other and in some way need each other. That sounds evil, scary and a little bit psychological and is said to constitute art. But what is art?

Leo  Tolstoy was an eccentric thinker, but he turned his mind to this subject in an essay called "What is Art?"

If you like, you can read an excerpt and outline of this essay on the web. In the opinion of Tolstoy, the social elite class has decided what is art, regardless of its moral function, and whether it satisfies the function of real art.

On the other hand, his criteria for real art include:

• It is a means of communication. "To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling -- this is the activity of art.
       Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them."
• Good art always pleases everyone. It employs pictures, sounds, or formal design understood by "everyone" or, in the case of prose and poetry, is comprehended by any language speaker of a language into which it's translated. Corollary: It is accessible without the aid of interpretation by art critics
• Good art unites us. Tolstoy describes two kinds of feelings that unite men, those imparted by religious art and universal art. Religious art does not express the doctrines of any organized religion or "cult." It expresses "an understanding of the meaning of life which represents the highest level to which men of that society have attained". In our time, this feeling is connected to message of "love of God and of one’s neighbor."

Universal art expresses simple and accessible positive feeling. Found in all arts, but "most of all" in music.

Now, does the comic book character the Joker satisfy Tolstoy's criteria for art? Is it communicating a feeling experienced by the actors? I certainly hope not. Does it please everyone? I can't really say, but it doesn't please me, for one. Does it unite us and express positive feelings? Certainly not.

As I said in the heading, I find it hard to define exactly what isn't art, but I think movies about evil comic book characters are not art.

Flash 10 reader on ASUS EEE PC 701

 

Some flash videos on the internet could not be read by my EEE PC 701 because they require a Flash 10 reader, and Flash 9 is installed on the PC by the manufacturer.

There is a problem, described in this forum post. The problem is that Flash 10 requires a newer version of the glibc library than the one included in the Xandros operating system on the EEE PC. However, according to the post above, there is a beta version of Flash 10 that uses the old version of glibc and will work, namely

flashplayer10_install_linux_081108.tar.gz from

http://download.macromedia.com

The installation procedure is described here.

tar -xvzf flashplayer10_install_linux_081108.tar.gz

Type sudo bash (still in terminal) and the prompt will change so you know you are now a super user
then type
cd install_flash_player_10_linux
Lastly type
cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
Close the terminal, start FF and type about:plugins in the address bar and you should now see Flash 10

The case of Linda Walsh

David Marr has an article in today's newspaper about the case of Linda Walsh, who was told she could not be President of the Society's Migrant and Refugee Centre because she is not a Catholic. She then sued the Society and has just been awarded damages, as I understand it, because it is not written down anywhere that you have to be a Catholic to be in a controlling position in the Society.

David Marr is very upset that she could not be the President of the migrant and refugee centre. He talks about the "harsh but forgiving gaze of those women on the counter" at the local StVdP shop, and at the end says:
"Maybe the faithful will strip their cupboards of unused wedding presents, books and LPs, suits, cufflinks, dresses, hideous cut glass, complete sets of National Geographic and all the Tupperware they can spare for the cause. Others may prefer to see their old treasures used as landfill rather than fund an operation like this."

There are a couple of other articles about this case

here

and

here

Personally, I don't find it at all strange that an organisation supported by the Catholic Church and given large amounts of money by the members of the Church would ask that it be run by Catholics. I find it a little strange that she was even appointed a conference president, let alone a manager of a section of the Society.

One fact from the other articles that David Marr neglects to mention is that Linda Walsh was "one of the 5,000 non-Catholics in the society's 8,000-strong volunteer force in Queensland".  So the Society is not quite as narrow minded as Marr's article might suggest.

David Marr also says that the options given to Linda Walsh were:
"In January 2004 an ultimatum was delivered by the society's diocesan president for Gold Coast, Peter Richards. She had until June to become a Catholic, resign her position or leave the society."
From the other articles I read that the options were:
"in 2004, the society gave Ms Walsh three options - become a Catholic, resign her position and stay only as a member, or leave the society."

So David Marr or his editor omitted the words "and stay only as a member" from his selective quote.  why did he feel inclined to leave out those words, since Marr's version leaves the incorrect impression that Linda Walsh had to leave the St Vincent de Paul society even as a member.