Just listening to Barnhardt podcast, a couple thoughts occurred to me.
The first one was of something she called the "divine office". The thing that
caught my attention was that it isn't being taught anymore to Catholics. Barnhardt
is Catholic, you see. Now, the point here is that it reminds me of something
that happened to the nuclear industry in the USA. There was the proven concept
of molten-salt reactor technology that almost died out completely, before it was
given away to the Chinese. Not bought, but given away to the Chinese.
The only reason the technology survived was because a group of very determined
people didn't want the tech to die out when all the scientists died. They kept
the tech alive, but the government wanted no part of it, and gave away the tech.
The attempt to explain the superiority of molten-salt tech is not the point here.
Just try to believe for the moment that this technology was and still is superior to what we
had then and now. Our government, in all its wisdom, has suppressed this knowledge,
and as a consequence, we had the seventies' energy crisis, and the 9-11 attack.
You may doubt the significance of what I just wrote, but the fact remains that
this tech is superior, and it has been suppressed. Once the suppression failed,
it was given away. Now, foreign countries will develop the tech that we could
have had forty years ago. There was no need for what happened. It was the fault
of the government that these bad things happened.
That was the first thing I correlated Miss Barnhardt's talk to what I have written
about before on this blog. Culture is dying out. More properly, it is being
MURDERED in front of our very eyes. Giving our tech away to the Chinese is like
committing suicide. Murder or suicide, the results are the same.
The second thing has to do with language. She seems to be a big proponent of Latin.
She went over the Latin grammar and said how important it is to the Church. But
the thing that caught my attention was how the Latin language is very precise
in its use of grammar. It seems that it is impossible to have ambiguities in the
language, as opposed to English, which seems to permit it. This, according to
Barnhardt.
The thing that I learned was that English simplified its grammar over the course
of its development into the language we speak today. That, according to S.I.
Hayakawa, if memory serves. What Hayakawa taught was semantics, which is the study
in the use of language.
What I got from Hayakawa was to simplify, simplify, simplify. When you have a
concept to express, use the least complex words available. This seems to clash
with what Barnhardt is saying.
Perhaps I am misunderstanding Barnhardt and misremembering Hayakawa. However it
may be, this blog will simplify as opposed to "complexify", when discussing any
topic. That will be the case regardless of topic.
Basically, the blog has been about what has gone wrong with our society in recent
history. But this trend has been going a long time. It probably won't be
turned around that easily, if at all.
If there is a common vein in these two ideas thus expressed, it is that knowledge can
die out within a few generations. It is important that knowledge be preserved
from one generation to the next, and in perpetuity.
The Romans failed to do this. The great library at Alexandria was destroyed, and
it took a millenia to restore the knowledge that was lost.
People seem to take for granted that progress is inevitable. But that is not the
case in history. Societies rise and fall. Nothing is written in stone. This is
true for us as it was for the Romans.
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