“The Age of Information”

Our history books tell us about the different “ages” of mankind: the “Stone Age,” the “Bronze Age,” Iron Age,” and so on.  More recently, we speak of “ages” such as the “Industrial Age” (or “Industrial Revolution”) and today’s “Computer Age.”  Computer technology has, amongst other things, enabled us to produce (and reproduce) unprecedented amounts of data, to a degree that Johann Gutenberg never dreamed possible -- ushering in what has been hailed as a wondrous new “Age of Information.”  But has it?

Gutenberg’s invention of movable type certainly made the dissemination of information more plentiful -- and easier and cheaper; but technology, like anything else, can be a double-edged sword: it can be used to do good or evil.  Technology is an “enabler,” but not necessarily an improver.  What it does is to provide a multiplier effect.  But it also has a concentrating effect.  It can multiply anything – like power – but it also tends to concentrate that power.  And when power gets concentrated in the wrong hands, it can be a dangerous thing.  And right now, that is what seems to be happening.

For instance, as Lay Pulpit’s last article noted, the media have already been using their power to misrepresent information – both by disseminating the “wrong” information, and withholding the “right” information -- in the case of the “Ferguson” (Missouri) shooting, and in the Middle East, for instance.  And this, of course, is nothing new: “official channels” have been feeding us misinformation on a regular basis for generations.  Misinformation, as a matter of fact, is as old as mankind itself: the first bit of it had to do with an apple and a serpent – and it produced disastrous results.  And why is it done?  It is usually done because its perpetrators think that it will be to their material advantage to do so – that it will net them material gain.

But misinformation, just as it did in the Garden of Eden, invariably produces disastrous results – for all concerned.  Just about every war, for instance, is the result of “misinformation.”  One has only to look at our own history for that: “Remember the Maine” was a trumped-up pretext (by William Randolph Hearst) to get us into the Spanish-American War, as was the Lusitania sinking (to get us into World War I), and Pearl Harbor to get us into World War II (declassified documents show that FDR was informed about the impending Japanese attack beforehand; but chose to ignore it, because he wanted to get us into the war).  Even our Civil War was a “trumped up” thing: Lincoln knew that Fort Sumter couldn’t be held, but ordered the garrison there not to surrender, thereby forcing the South’s hand, i.e., making them attack, and thereby making them – the South -- the “aggressor”).  And Vietnam?  Does the phrase “Gulf of Tonkin” ring a bell?  Or can anyone explain our “reason” for going into Iraq and Afghanistan?  Better still, can anyone explain what we’ve “gained” for the trillion-plus dollars we’ve spent there (and the young men’s lives we’ve sacrificed)?

Misinformation bears bad fruit – and we are “up to our eyeballs” in it right now.  We are now told by our media that the “ISIS” Islamists (who are “Sunni” Moslems) are the “bad guys” (and they probably are – at least for now), and that the others (who are predominantly Shiite Moslems) are the “good guys.”  But it wasn’t all that long ago that it was the Shiites who were the “bad guys,” and the Sunnis the “good guys.”  Yesterday’s “bad guys” become today’s “good guys” (and then, perhaps, tomorrow’s “bad guys” again).  Many may remember that, when the Afghans were fighting the Russians, the Mujahideen were “freedom fighters.”  Now that we are fighting over there, they are our enemies.  And in Iraq, we once considered Saddam Hussein our ally.  (The irony is that he was our ally, and was thoroughly against Islamic extremists.  But he somehow “became” our enemy, and we had him hunted down and executed.)

The point here is that we really don’t know who the “good guys” are, or who they will be (and how long they will be!); and, more importantly, we don’t know if the “good guys” really are good and that the “bad guys” are really bad -- because we cannot be sure of the “information” that we’re being fed.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to discern what is “wheat” and what is “chaff” (not to mention, separating the one from the other).  Today’s world is one of Orwellian Newspeak, of Machiavellian duplicity, of double standards (and double talk), of manipulation and intimidation -- where confusion reigns and yesterday’s wrong is today’s “right” (and vice versa) – and where appearances, not reality, are what count.

And this is happening at the “micro” level as well as the “macro.”  One has only to look at today’s traddie world – and at Southwest Ohio’s cult-center in particular, to see where, again, misinformation is dished out aplenty, and appearances are what count.  For instance, “inappropriate attire” is condemned, but inappropriate behavior is condoned: it’s verboten for women to wear dresses whose sleeves and hemlines are too short, but it’s okay for the school principal’s sons to watch porn and animal torture videos (“boys will be boys”) and for one of those sons to impregnate a fellow student.  It was also okay for the principal to mistreat the school’s students; but when irate parents complained to the pastor about it, he defended the principal’s actions, and told the parents (that they could take their children elsewhere.*

Meanwhile, the SGG ”show” goes on: pontifical pageantry, “triple play” Masses for big donors, and elaborate processions with elaborate “props” (including a donkey on Palm Sunday).  And the misinformation goes on too: Daffodil Dan’s syrupy (and meaningless) sanctimony, and Phony Tony’s flat-footed attempts at playing the scholar (including his monstrous drivel about Schiavo, his dead-on-arrival Work of Human Hands, his failed defense of Dannie’s one-handed “ordination,” and his “una cum” nonsense).  And, of course, they use shibboleths like una cum to exact “compliance” from their flock: if a priest “prays for the wrong pope” during Mass, that Mass is “invalid”; and anyone who goes to such a Mass is denied the sacraments (as Mr. “A” – who now lives in Nova Scotia -- was), or, in some cases, even barred from the premises -- by police order).

And why do they do all of this?  For the same reasons that their “macro” counterparts do: for material gain, that’s why.  Dannie must keep the sheep in the pen, so that they can continue to bankroll him and his life-style.  That’s also why he makes repeated pleas to them for money (such as, to replace a poorly-designed roof that continues to leak, to buy “cost-saving arches” for a cloister that already has arches, and to pay “excessive” winter heating bills) – so that he can go on “apostolates” to Argentina and Baja during that same winter – and, of course (as we predicted), to Santa Fe, New Mexico for a “brief summer respite.”**

Eventually, the misinformation (and misdeeds) of both the “macro” and “micro” scoundrels will come to naught, because they do not have truth and justice on their side.  “That,” as they say, “is the good news.”  But the bad news is that it will be a hard battle – especially against the “macro” contingent.  But stopping the micro scoundrels is a relatively easy task: all one has to do is simply to not support them – to keep one’s wallet in one’s pocket – because the agenda of these hucksters is a simple one: they want la dolce vita – and that takes MONEY.

Right now, they have a pool of gullible givers on their side; but, again, they don’t have truth on their side. Misinformation, i.e., lies, only works for so long.  Eventually, they’ll get caught in their own tangled web, and people will start seeing the truth. Eventually, their pool of gullible givers will dwindle, because they’re beginning to recognize that truth -- and becoming “less gullible” in the process.  And as the truth sinks in, they’ll leave of their own accord (or they will get to the point where they can no longer ignore that truth, and will be shamed into accepting it).  And to that end, we will certainly keep “hammering home” the truth to them until they do. 

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*Several children were mistreated by the school principal; one was even beaten with a wooden paddle for missing a homework assignment.  Of course, the misdeeds of the principal’s sons went unpunished: when an SGG parishioner complained to the pastor about the principal’s sons watching porn and animal torture videos on the school computer, his reply was, “boys will be boys.”  He also took no action against the son who impregnated the girl; the boy was, in fact, feted not too long afterward in a subsequent SGG Newsletter article for his expertise in playing the organ.  

We sincerely hope that such behavior by the principal and his family no longer goes on at SGG.  But if it has stopped, it is only because it had to -- because it was “bad for business”: after the aforementioned scandalous behavior occurred at the school (around 2009), half the parish left – including SGG’s largest benefactor (who almost single-handedly bankrolled SGG’s entire West Chester operation) -- taking their money with them.  For the principal (and his sons) to continue this sort of behavior would have been disastrous for SGG’s financial survival (i.e., for the cult-masters’ and the principal’s survivals).

However, the scandal may still be going on, but “underground” – being patiently borne by those who remain at SGG.  This is a distinct possibility: the people who would not take that kind of crap have already left, leaving behind the credulous, subservient bootlickers who would.  After all, if sadistic behavior wasn’t enough to drive them away before, why would it afterwards?  It is amazing what obsequious, brain-washed people will endure to get “the show” – even mistreatment at the hands of a sadistic martinet.

**It seems that Dannie cannot let a summer go by without getting out to sunny Santa Fe (we’re not sure if Tony went with him).  In the Bishop’s Corner of August 24, 2014 (make that “Fr. McGuire’s Corner” – because Dannie was on vacation at the time), “Checkpoint Charlie” mentioned that Dannie was on a “brief summer respite.”  [Charlie’s “column” was, by the way, a pathetically crafted parody of Dannie’s column: the same sort of fluff, but full of punctuation and grammatical errors, and with an embarrassingly large assortment of syrupy, sugary platitudes that – although not as “polished” as Dannie’s – did “hit the mark” in capturing some of the latter’s celebrated sanctimony and trademark hypocrisy.]

We had predicted that the “respite” was in Santa Fe; and – bingo! – we were right: Dannie confirmed it in his Bishop’s Corner the following week, mentioning “beautiful Santa Fe”  and the “shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe” -- and “watching the sun rise over the Sangre de Christo mountains.”  Dannie, was that view of the mountains from your hotel room window at the Bishop’s Lodge, or from its ShaNa Spa?  And also, Dannie: what’s the “big deal” about going to Santa Fe?  Why do you have to keep going there?  There are plenty of shrines closer to your cult-center (including the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio – about a 150 mile drive).  Of course, Carey doesn’t have a “spa” or any of the other “goodies” of the Bishop’s Lodge, nor does it have a view of the Sangre de Christo Mountains; but it’s probably a lot cheaper – and Tony can drive you there!