In this episode, Rod and Kale discuss the underlying issue of "telos"—the end or purpose of a thing—as a necessary guide for action, whether in the context of the military or schools or any institution. What can you ground a culture or civilization upon? Is self-definition enough? Is desire sufficient? They move into a discussion of curated narratives and then into Sam Brinton, the BDSM enthusiast and new Biden appointee. What are the grounds for us to object?
They end with a discussion of liturgies. We all have liturgies—modes of scripted and often unconscious behaviors that "create" us or form us. What do our own personal and public liturgies create in and through us?
Topics:
- War and Perspective
- "Critical Military Theory"
- Fog of War, and the myth of administrative control
- "We create our own reality"
- When ideals clash with the telos
- What is a School for?
- Sam Brinton
- Narrative Suppression
- Pageau and the Liturgies of Sin
- Liturgies form and imply telos
- Normalizing Kink
- Auden watches a movie with Germans
- Liturgies of the death works and classical liberalism
- the long spirits that form us
Links:
