Among practical men the idea prevails that Government can do nothing but “keep the peace.” They say all higher tasks are unsafe for it, impossible for it,–and in fine not necessary for it or for us. …

Keeping of the peace is the function of a policeman, and but a small fraction of that of any Government, King or Chief of men. Are not all men bound, and the Chief of men in the name of all, to do properly this: To see, so far as human effort under pain of eternal reprobation can, God’s Kingdom incessantly advancing here below, and His will done on Earth as it is in Heaven? On Sundays your Lordship knows this well; forgot it not on week-days. I assure you it is forevermore a fact. That is the immense divine and never-ending task which is laid on every man, and with unspeakable increase of emphasis on every Government or Commonwealth of men. Your Lordship, that is the basis upon which peace and all else depends! That basis once well lost, there is no peace capable of being kept,–the only peace that could then be kept is that of the churchyard.

- Thomas Carlyle, The New Downing Street.

Just started using OneNote. The initial experience: It is having the ability to write out notes and re-arrange them in a manageable space. For me it will replace the use of paper, glue and scissors on my little apartment’s hardwood floor.

Now if only one could mash the note taking functionality of OneNote up with the bibliography management of EndNote, the collaborative power of Wikis, the data-describing functionality of RSS feeds, and the analytical prowess of text mining software. In that, I imagine, I would come to discover greater functionality and potentiality behind the blank sheet of paper.

As if the blank page wasn’t daunting enough. Tomorrow the “eternal torments of Dying” itself will be manifested in the nothingness that is the blank page.

“Growing up (as I did) in the province of Québec, you learn not just the joys but also the perils of bilingualism. A separate national identity, revolving entirely around “Francophonie,” became a raging issue that led to social unrest, terrorism, threats of separation and a referendum that came within a hair’s breadth of breaking up Canada.” – Charles Krauthammer

terrorism: Oklahoma city bombing;
social unrest: US race street riots; and
threat of separation: The Civil War.

What does Canada have to compare to that?
terrorism: The October Crisis;
social unrest: Montreal Massacre;
threat of separation: A Referendum (Say! Not the blood thirsty Ballot!)

I think there is a communism that will not fail to deliver. The Israelites in the desert, or Jesus with his disciples, or the community of the Spirit (for they were all filled by the Spirit) in Acts 4:31ff – are all examples of classless societies (in the guise of first feudalism-God the suzerain, then a monarchy-Christ the King, and then ?-the Spirit the ?). And why they worked, I think was because the principal of justice was in their midst. But they all appear to have been temporary societies, they appear to have failed in time. Or did they? What do you think?

- something I posted on Jono’s blog that I had just that day developed a little more extensively in my head, but not yet in writing. The musing continues:

Of course everything I’m saying is debatable – but that’s part of the point – it is being debated, which means there is something there. The Levites, a class, but potentially a misappropriation of the word. [1 In addition there are some interesting discussions out there (Gottwald, Bloch) that’d suggest so much as that the ancient Israelites in Egypt ran a sort of ‘peasants revolt’ against the Egyptians with revolutionary focus and unity on YHWH and his promised city. Appropriating that thought to the Jews at the time of Jesus – that is Jesus and his coup of Jerusalem. And then for the folks in Acts – the revolutionary focus is on the Spirit and the Coming Kingdom.

… none of God’s social experiments ‘worked’ or at least had staying power. The desert community that together ate the same meal over and over again soon forgot their YHWH, his political system not practical or enlightened enough or something. Thus more practical gods, say the fertility inducing Baal, and more human leadership, say that one would have in a king, were sought after.

Christ’s little order of merry disciples didn’t have much staying power either – donkey riding, palm leaves, and miracle menus didn’t keep the disciples from packing it in and going back to fishing.

And the little community in acts – their spirit centeredness quickly seems to fade into the “larger political system” – note how by the end a Levite (!) sold some property and brought the money to the feet of the apostles. Difference established that seems out of kilter to verses prior.

… there is a curious progression here … . An evolving relationship to an incarnation of god and a morphing notion of the coming city/community are both at the centre of these revolutionary-like groupings of people.