Essays in Idleness

They were Buddhist monks, and one in particular, who told me that I should become a Catholic, or at least a good Christian. That was the path to my salvation, and not some flight into exoticism, such as Buddhism or another “oriental cult.” Oddly, I agreed with him, even at the time (over half a century ago), for I was allergic to the “peace brothers” and marijuana addicts I had met on the road to India; the “white hippies” as a girlfriend called them, with reference to the bedsheets they were wearing. All seemed, at least partially, motivated by resentment to the “established” Western religions which they had abandoned. Those who began to understand the “orientals” were, paradoxically, the more intelligent of them, and often the confirmed Catholics. Those who did not were the unrepentant children of the middle class. (“Consumptives,” I called them, in preference to “consumers.”)

That was when I was indulging a “comparative religion” phase, which consisted chiefly of reading beuks. Yet in a certain sense, I still suffer from it; for once acquired, curiosity does not easily whither away. I have a taste for genuine religion, in its variety, which I had even when I called myself an Atheist. (“Agnostic” seemed so wet.) Religion — readers should research the meaning of this word — is, to my mind, not exhaustively doctrinal, nor in any sense “modern” nor “progressive.” It has the power to cleanse, and bring relief from materialism.

What were the true religions? From childhood (in Pakistan) I was able to determine that Islam, in either Sunni or Shia form, was actually a false religion, rather a violent, totalitarian political cult, with sometimes superior architecture and calligraphy. On the other hand, Sufism — the persecuted mystical form of Islam — is unquestionably religious. The rites are musical and poetic, and Sufis seek interior purification, often more than external show.

Among the Jews, I was impressed by the joyful Hasids; as by all pious and orthodox; indeed, orthodoxy in all religions, perhaps even in Shinto Animism. This, through each traditional liturgy, turns one’s awareness naturally to God, and attention to the mystical reality that underlies the whole Creation. It does not reinforce the self-seeking middle class, although, to be fair, tedious middle-class values help to sustain good conscience and discourage cheating.

One does not collect such souvenirs, but some time in 1970, I think, a copy of the Economist (in the old larger page size) tumbled into my lap. I was sitting in a (partly busted) rattan chair in Bangkok, during my youth. The cover of this magazine reproduced a panel from some lively old war comic, showing weaponized GI’s in action. The headline — “Oh no, not Korea again!” — struck me as quite funny. Those were the days when the Economist ran genuinely witty captions, and before it became a worthless magazine, for economic or political information.

Korea, remember, was the transition, from an America that won crucial wars, to an America that knew how to lose them.

Vietnam was the real issue, at the time, in 1970. I was in the course of learning, at first hand, how the Americans were indisputably winning the War in Vietnam, but with the help of Walter Cronkite, throwing victory away. More than a million Vietnamese, and more than two million Cambodians, would pay with their lives for this American betrayal (adding all relevant deaths, including drownings at sea). Since, a few million more have been sacrificed to the Yankee narcissism, so eloquently expressed by their Democratic party. President Biden’s absurd walkaway from Afghanistan was a theatrical example, but there were hundreds more. That “the media” will only mention thirteen fatalities, from that monstrously evil abandonment, suggests the amount of truth one may extract from such sources.

The United States had not only won the vexatious War in Vietnam, with a huge, incompetent bureaucracy and an incredible expenditure on mostly redundant technology, but President Nixon and his Kissinger had also got North Vietnam to acknowledge this at the Paris Peace Talks. South Vietnam would be, by agreement, free of satanic Communist infiltration. But then the Communists, as usual, entirely ignored their diplomatic commitments, and the U.S. Congress voted to cut off military supplies (including even bullets) to the dependent South Vietnamese regime, directly contradicting formal American guarantees. Fifty-one years have now passed since 30th April, 1975: the day of infamy on which I learnt that “progressive opinion leaders” were not only blackguard liars, but in multiple other ways, remorselessly evil.

I look at all the “diplomatic” efforts to end the War in Iran “peacefully,” and withdraw American arms, before the Twelver regime is utterly exterminated, as what will be the next example. Defeat will again be somehow pried from the jaws of certain victory. No?

Today has been the patronal feast of the House of Savoy, and thus the Feast of the Holy Shroud, since Pope Julius II proclaimed it in 1506; and in my lifetime, the “Shroud of Turin” has been substantiated in an obvious way. It seems to have been precisely what was claimed for it — the winding sheet used to wrap Jesus’ slain body where it lay dead, and also as it “awakened,” or was initially Resurrected. I don’t think we can say, correctly, that He “was resurrected,” for who would be responsible for such an act except the Very God, who was and is Christ? (So much for Musalman complaints that we are polytheists.)

For those with access to a traditional Catholic missal, yesterday was the Feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross — commemorating the discovery of that very Crucifix, buried by the pagan Romans under many, many, cartloads of earth, stones, and muck, at the location of Golgotha in Jerusalem. It was exhumed, dug out, uncovered, by St Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, seventeen centuries ago (almost exactly). To those who are sceptical of this assertion, it ought to be explained that “Invention” is derived from the Latin invenio, meaning “uncovered.” (Alethea in Greek: proven, true.) The discovery was made in a very public way. Not hidden.

It is a curious feature of the Christian religion that, from Bethlehem forward, physical details of its existence have been available. Our faith has always been fully supported to whatever standard of proof pertained through the successive days since, and so the denial of Christ has been ludicrous, continuously over this time. For that matter, the archaeological evidence for Judaism remains, at the original sites, in contemporary Israel and beyond her borders, from Egypt to Babylon and Persia.

Today we are doing tests with “advanced technology,” which the Shroud, unsurprisingly, continues to pass. Don’t be naïve. Go check it out.