Lost! Oh, so Lost!

"Midway in the journey of our life
I came to myself in a dark wood,
for the straight way was lost."

(Dante, the Comedia I.1-3 Hollander translation)

The first thing to do, when we are lost, is to stop, calm ourselves, and try to get our bearings. In the dark wood, it is necessary to find the Son where He rises in the East. Providentially, it is now only a bit before Easter morning. So we know, somehow, what we desire.

I will assume, therefore, that no one reading this proposes that Goodness is subjective, or that it does not exist, or that we cannot find it. Our arguments are important, for our musings may lead us away from our goal, or towards it. It is a matter of deadly danger and supreme importance, for we must find the way out of the dark wood, and towards God, towards Goodness. Otherwise we die.

Now that we are calmed and sober, we must begin to ask the questions that orient us correctly. So what is this dark wood like? How did we get here? What is different from this place and what we desire, that is, the Good?

We must ask this question at the cosmic level, at the level of humanity, of the history of our civilization, of particular nations, of individual institutions or policies, and so on down to the smallest things. We must relate existence to the good or ideal, and know both of them, before we can understand the distance between and the path to bridge.

What then is the reality of the cosmos? What is the reality of the human condition? Let us begin there.

<<And, dear friends and readers, if I have missed anything, please tell it to me. I do not mean to attach the universe unaided, any more than I meant to be born unaided, unsupported. Do you disagree with my argument for methodology? Do I miss or misplace a premise? Argue it to me, to everyone! The purpose is to find the truth.>>

- Christian

Carthago Delenda Est.