Fascinating piece and perspectives, thank you for sharing 🙏🏼
Couple points of pushback:
1. I would not say the main reason the great cathedrals arose was purely because of rich guys wanting to extend their legacy / family name. The sheer majestic sacredness & breathtaking vastness evoked by these architectural miracles reveals Divine inspiration. The handprint of God is on those structures. Whatever other human currents or motivations may have factored in, I would see those factors as being downstream of the Holy Spirit mysteriously working through mankind to make His/Her Presence known in the world — not to mention a great ancient tradition capable of coordinating such faith, effort, vision, and resources over hundreds of years. Plenty of rich guys nowadays try to build epic stuff with their name on it but they don’t come close to the great European cathedrals — because their efforts are self-serving
2. I’d be curious what would happen if you steelmanned what Nietzsche calls ‘slave morality.’ You seem to strawman / caricature it here — I don’t think “ugliness” is considered a virtue by anyone. Thomas Merton (one of Remi’s favorite authors) is a good one to read in this respect. Classic Christian virtues such as humility, simplicity, meekness, chastity, charity, love, asceticism, mercy, & contriteness of heart offer us a great deal of wisdom & beauty to reflect upon. That’s not to say they’re perfect for everyone or that the ‘master’ virtues you highlight cannot also be beautiful. Personally I believe there are interesting ways to synthesize ‘master and slave morality,’ ‘left and right hand path,’ as well as Christianity and New-Age-ism (which often focuses more on individuality, empowerment, etc) — probably endless ways these can be combined, permutated, rebalanced, remixed… no two individuals will ever have precisely the same morality or spirituality
Fascinating piece and perspectives, thank you for sharing 🙏🏼
Couple points of pushback:
1. I would not say the main reason the great cathedrals arose was purely because of rich guys wanting to extend their legacy / family name. The sheer majestic sacredness & breathtaking vastness evoked by these architectural miracles reveals Divine inspiration. The handprint of God is on those structures. Whatever other human currents or motivations may have factored in, I would see those factors as being downstream of the Holy Spirit mysteriously working through mankind to make His/Her Presence known in the world — not to mention a great ancient tradition capable of coordinating such faith, effort, vision, and resources over hundreds of years. Plenty of rich guys nowadays try to build epic stuff with their name on it but they don’t come close to the great European cathedrals — because their efforts are self-serving
2. I’d be curious what would happen if you steelmanned what Nietzsche calls ‘slave morality.’ You seem to strawman / caricature it here — I don’t think “ugliness” is considered a virtue by anyone. Thomas Merton (one of Remi’s favorite authors) is a good one to read in this respect. Classic Christian virtues such as humility, simplicity, meekness, chastity, charity, love, asceticism, mercy, & contriteness of heart offer us a great deal of wisdom & beauty to reflect upon. That’s not to say they’re perfect for everyone or that the ‘master’ virtues you highlight cannot also be beautiful. Personally I believe there are interesting ways to synthesize ‘master and slave morality,’ ‘left and right hand path,’ as well as Christianity and New-Age-ism (which often focuses more on individuality, empowerment, etc) — probably endless ways these can be combined, permutated, rebalanced, remixed… no two individuals will ever have precisely the same morality or spirituality
Food for thought — peace and love 🙏🏼❤️🔥