I think that Charles Johnson is a product/consequence of the failure of Catholicism to remain relevant in a person's life over a lifetime---he's a lapsed Catholic, you know. He obviously rejects the religion's touchy-feely, peace and love side entirely, yet the muscle memory of remaining contextualized by a strong, age-old culture full of jots and tittles of law is still there within him. So even though he's turned his back on religion in general, the broader contexts of religion and philosophy keep framing his psyche, and he's produced this site, an extension of his psyche as all sites are, that is obsessed with the struggles over religion and ethnic identity, obsessed with fanaticism itself. The site enables the blogger to remain tied and even relevant to strong and muscular cultural traditions, even while he has rejected his native one.
From an interview with Martini Republic editor Joseph Mailander (hat tip TP!)
No comments:
Post a Comment