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Euthanasia is becoming legalized across the Western world. Pat McGeehan, Delegate of West Virginia, is fighting against it. Advocates employ slogans like “death with dignity,” and appeal to compassion; but, the actual results are much different. Already, a “suicide tourism” phenomenon has begun, with people flying to states like Oregon to get legal doctor-assisted suicide. Pat tells a story of one of his constituents who, tragically, was a victim of this. Likewise, Canada’s MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) program has resulted in the deaths of over 40,000 people since 2016; with legislation only being passed recently to curb the amount of suicide tourism. By legalizing euthanasia, the door is open for gross misuse: the elderly who feel they are a burden to their children could be pressured into an untimely death, people with treatable illnesses could elect to end their lives, hospitals and health insurance providers could increase euthanasia recommendations to patients to decrease costs. But, Pat is fighting for the dignity of his constituents in West Virginia. Euthanasia denies the dignity of the person; Pat is working to uphold that dignity by constitutionally banning euthanasia in the state of West Virginia.

Marc and Maria continue their conversation on Humanae Vitae; specifically on the desire to control the body and its reproduction through abortion. They discuss how abortion not only plays the function of the killing of innocent children, but reshapes the experience of the body as such.

This episode is part 2 of a conversation on the Control of the Body.

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READINGS

Contraception, Abortion Episode (I-II)

Donum Vitae:
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html

(All hail the parchment background)

Humanae Vitae: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html

(All mourn the loss of the parchment background)

Maria and Marc read Humanae Vitae, the Catholic Church's decisive rejection of contraception, as a text which prophesies and makes sense out of the meaninglessness we ascribe to our male and female bodies today.



This episode is part 1 of a conversation on the Control of the Body.

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READINGS
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Introductory Episode

We don’t have any readings for our introduction, but it may be helpful to give Gender, by Ivan Illich, a read, to get hip to a medieval/pre-industrial vision of Gender.

Here’s a pdf: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/libra...

Capitalism

We are reading Silvia Federici’s “The Accumulation of Labor and the Degradation of Women” in her book “Caliban and the Witch,” which is available in our magazine, Issue 4.4: https://newpolity.com/single-issues/i...

But if you are POOR or CHEAP here’s a pdf. The essay in question starts on pg. 60: https://files.libcom.org/files/Caliba...

This is also a great time to read Karl Polyani’s “The Great Transformation,” which gives a (non gender specific) account of the transition to liberalism/capitalism in Europe.

Here’s a pdf: https://inctpped.ie.ufrj.br/spiderweb...

The Loss of the Virgin

We are reading Martin Luther condemning virginity, not because he was the only guy to do it, but because (a) he has a flair for exhortations and (b) we had to pick someone. The point is to understand how what had been an unquestioned symbol of perfection in Christendom is now being characterized as a merely individual calling.

The only free source for this exhortation in English appears to be this pretty intense website:

https://www.godrules.net/library/luth...

If you need an example of previous Christian enthusiasm for virginity, try

Gregory of Nyssa “On Virginity”: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/290...

The Beige World

The kids aren’t just bored, they are navigating a society of consumption through the power of efficacious vanity!

For a primer on consumerism, we read William Cavanaugh’s “Being Consumed.” https://www.eerdmans.com/978146743829...

Then we read Christopher Lasch’s “Culture of Narcissism.” Available wherever books are sold a momentarily at this link: https://thezeitgeistmovement.se/files...

Marc mentioned Eberstadt’s “Primal Screams.” Here’s his review: https://humanumreview.com/articles/ma...


Contraception, Abortion Episode (I-II)

Donum Vitae:
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/co...

(All hail the parchment background)

Humanae Vitae: https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-v...

(All mourn the loss of the parchment background)

The Problem of Individualism

We read the meanest book in the world so you didn’t have to. You will learn very little from Otto Weininger’s effort to destroy the woman and her sign, but here it is if you want to:

https://brittlebooks.library.illinois...

America is sinking into pagan practices and beliefs. While Americans may not use the same language as the ancient pagans, John Daniel Davidson believes that the central pagan creed is present: there is no truth, everything is permitted. Liberalism had attempted to create neutral spaces, but as those spaces become more fought over, the only rationale can be one's own power. Dr. Andrew Willard Jones and John Daniel Davidson discuss the roots of a pagan worldview, the extent to which America is pagan, and how Christians should approach the pagan political order.

Get his book “Pagan America”.

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Everywhere is beige. The same beige houses, the same big box department stores, even the exact same food is served everywhere all across the country. What has this monotone sameness done to produce our cultural moment - one that seems to glorify diversity on the one hand, but ship it out en masse with the other? Join Marc Barnes and Maria Brandell as they explore our desaturated modern world and why we look to gender for the way out.

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We don't know what to do with consecrated virginity. The only way we can think of it as a disembodied spiritual calling; or as a fairly strange alternative to what is normal, marriage. Marc and Maria describe how Protestantism (and, in particular, Luther) denied the purpose of the virgin.

Come to our Conference! https://newpolity.com/events/2024
Don't miss out on great essays. Subscribe to New Polity magazine. https://newpolity.com/magazine