“They’re boring everybody. Chesty Puller, a great Marine general, once said, ‘You can run me, and you can starve me, and you can beat me, and you can kill me, but don’t bore me.’ And that’s exactly what’s happening now: Everybody is boring everybody. It’s boring to listen to all this shit. It’s boring to listen to these candidates.”
There’s something I have always appreciated about Clint Eastwood, the way he dealt with bureaucracy as Inspector Harry of the Los Angeles police in the 1970’s. See Clint Eastwood defends Trump’s ‘racist’ remarks: ‘Just get over it’. I have no more sympathy for Trump than I have for Le Pen or UKIP in England, but at the same time I find the liberal left of Hollande, Obama and Hillary Clinton so deadeningly boring.
In the same way, I have disengaged myself from most churches, because they are so boring. It was something I noted about Jesuits in the 1980’s. They were boring and had nothing engaging or passionate to say. The only exception I came across was Fr Hugh Thwaites in London, who is now no longer with us.
Racism, political correctness, multi-culturalism. Everything becomes bad and boring as soon as it begins to be discussed. In bygone days, blacks and whites got on just fine. Jewish people were tolerated if they were decent and honest. Muslims and Christians generally got on together in northern Africa with a the exception of some atrocities. What do we expect politicians to do for us?
I get the impression that we are at the end of politics, and the strongest and meanest will the ones who will win. Bully for them! I’m not interested whether they are “liberal” or “conservative”, left or right. We need to remember that Clint Eastwood is an actor and doesn’t go around gunning all the bad guys down. Would we like him to blow away all the galoots in the saloon?
Well, do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?
The Blue Flower 
For a long time now I’ve felt an affinity with the Old Believers and their way of life. They saw the insufficiency of big box style churches and politics and simply headed for the far off hinterlands in order to live out their lives as free as possible from hindrance and interference. In a certain sense this is also the spirit of the desert fathers and traditional Buddhist monasticism as well. It all resonates with me.
The most boring thing about all the politics and the rhetoric today is that no matter what it’s all empty and meaningless. Western culture is dead. There’s no stopping he slide into ISIS style islam ( which really is pure Sunni Islam ) in Western Europe and no stopping the further slide into decrepitude of modern Catholicism. It’s a done deal on both counts.
The best thing we can do is to find a niche for ourselves in exile and live our lives according to whatever myth or religious narrative speaks best to us. If we find likeminded fellows all the better, but if not let’s rejoice we have something. . Leave the din behind. Most people really don’t care enough about anything anyway.
Live out in the country and sometimes get out to sea in a boat if possible. At least stay out of the cities. That won’t “cover” everything, but that’s all we can do other than pray and be compassionate with Christ’s “little ones”.
Actually, I do not find them boring, I find them very, very dangerous. Personally, I do not mind being bored. I really miss when going, as an example, to Mass was not interesting or shocking, but simply the old boring Mass that was the same as during my parents’, grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ day. Please, please give me boring.
Soon, when our societies implode in social, religious, and racial unrest, perhaps sooner than later, we shall all miss boring.
Boredom is the chief reason I closed my blog down. Sheer boredom, which has become the principal evil in my life.
Patrick I noticed that your blog was no longer up and running. I would like to thank you for all the hard work that you put into it over the years. I have always enjoyed your insights into issues; you tend to be very perceptive. I am sorry to see it go.
I hadn’t – is there nowhere online to reread what you wrote about Tolkien, then? (A saddening thought!)
I think Patrick needs time to gather his thoughts together and determine what he is really interested in and what he thinks he could share with others. One day, he will make a decision in life – perhaps give up the internet altogether and work in a mission in Africa and become a Pentecostal preacher. Who knows?
I say this in a spirit of friendship and kindness, since I have always been concerned for Patrick. I have given my advice, which he is free not to follow or to decide that it is bad advice. But, one bit of advice is good, for sure, to get out of the house and do something!!!! 🙂
Thanks! I wish him nothing but well – and fear I would benefit from some rigorous internet-fasting (and more fresh air) myself. At the risk of gaucherie, however, I do wish someone would host a (selective) Patrick Sheridan online Tolkien Archive, though! (But I have not tried to apply my limited skills to discovering if I could find any of the via The Wayback Machine, for example.)
Assez… Earlier this week, Black Lives Matter protesters blocked the motorway approaching Heathrow. In England.
I’m moving to Italy.
Buon auguri! La dolce vita…
For anyone who’s interested, I have re-opened my blog for readers who wish to look at the archives. But I shan’t be writing anything new.
Hurrah – thanks! (I should have read to the bottom of the page, before replying to Fr. Anthony’s reply to my comment!)