Alongside an incredible cast, plenty of twists and turns make HBO’s “The Outsider” binge-worthy, particularly now that many of us find ourselves with plenty of time on our hands. It may not feature <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/review-netflix-docuseries-tiger-king-is-a-bizarre-and-fascinating-true-crime-tale">murderous wives, methamphetamines, or polygamous zookeepers</a>, but it’s still quite entertaining nonetheless.
Based on Stephen King’s 2018 novel, the show combines elements of mystery and horror at an almost maddening pace. Particularly in the first half of the series, “The Outsider” unfolds into a labyrinth of dead ends and ominous clues echoing King’s better works as well as a dash of Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler.
Though I’d already read the novel, I found the show far more compelling than the book itself. Sure, the book is a page-turner with strong elements of mystery and pulp. <a href="https://www.hbo.com/the-outsider/what-to-watch-while-you-wait-richard-price">Richard Price’s</a> adaptation for television, however, manages to smooth out a lot of the rough edges and unsteady plot points that King’s works are sometimes notorious for.
In fact, King is famous for his aversion to plot in his works and even states as such in “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/oct/01/stephenking.sciencefictionfantasyandhorror">On Writing</a>”:
<blockquote>I won&#8217;t try to convince you that I&#8217;ve never plotted any more than I&#8217;d try to convince you that I&#8217;ve never told a lie, but I do both as infrequently as possible. I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plotless, even when you add in all our reasonable precautions and careful planning; and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren&#8217;t compatible.</blockquote>
Unfortunately, “The Outsider” is no exception. Thankfully, Price manages to function as a de facto editor in his rendition of King’s story with solid results.
WARNING: Spoilers Ahead!
For the most part, the show functions largely as a crime thriller punctuated with brief but fantastical moments of supernatural fright. Ralph Anderson, a gnarled small town detective, played exceptionally well by Ben Mendelsohn, arrests Terry Maitland, a popular little league coach, for the brutal murder of a young boy. Amid the uproar and outrage, paradoxical and contradictory evidence emerges.
At loggerheads with his own guilt and misgivings, Anderson begrudgingly recruits Holly Gibney, a quirky private investigator, played by Cynthia Erivo. Fans of King will recall the character of <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a30552601/the-outsider-holly-gibney/">Holly Gibney in other novels</a> as well.
Erivo manages to channel a clinically introverted Sherlock Holmes in playing Holly Gibney though, at odd moments, her portrayal seems to inadvertently hint toward <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095953/">‘Rain Man.’</a> Regardless, she does a fine job.
Gibney discovers the otherworldly origins of the murderer in the form of a demonic presence she dubs El Cuco that feeds off grief and anguish. King’s creature draws from various myths including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelg%C3%A4nger">doppelgangers</a> and, more importantly, the Hispanic folklore of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_(folklore)">Coco</a>, the eater of children, that dates back to the 17th century.
As fantastical as it all sounds, “The Outsider” succeeds in not giving too much of the mysterious creature away while keeping the show grounded as a gritty whodunit. We only get to see the creature in fleeting, peripheral moments that only add to the tension.
Visually, the most terrifying aspects of the show evoke the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley">Uncanny Valley</a>. El Cuco is just barely human enough to give one, at least, a bit of shiver. It’s drooping face and blackened eyes are reminiscent of some of the great costume designs in classic shows like “The Outer Limits” and “The Twilight Zone.” I actually wish they showed a bit more of it.
Now from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-horror-films-may-be-last-remaining-bastion-sharif-khan">a digressive vantage point of faith</a>, the otherworldly elements in “The Outsider” are what draw me toward the genre of horror more than anything else, and what make the show such a fun watch. Too often, we are confronted with a very reductive and, dare I say, limited view of reality each and every day. I mean, right now, avalanches of information accost on an hourly basis. A good horror story reminds us that there is far more to this world then what we often have to reckon with to exhaustion.
Amid all the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-panic-pandemonium-and-the-pandemic">current pandemonium</a>, HBO’s “The Outsider” is not only a worthy distraction, it offers some food for spiritual thought or, at the very least, a reasonable snack of sorts. For fans of mystery and horror, you will not be disappointed.

“The Outsider” premier

KHAN: Review Of ‘The Outsider’ On HBO

Hollywood

The Outsider

If history tells us anything, the very first casualties in a crisis are often critical thinking and civility. Sadly, this is now evident in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Judging by the insufferable hoarding, overwrought histrionics, and the lack of toilet paper, it’s quite reasonable to say we are fast approaching the zenith of hysterics.
Our collective sense of civility is increasingly fractured and devolving into a conditional mess. That is, some are abandoning the tenets of decency and restraint if their own respective needs are not first met. Instead, they are resorting to infantile tantrums amid dystopian hubris with little to no regard for those most in need, i.e., our elderly and our infirm. Surely, we are better than this. This is simply not what we stand for as Americans.
We all need to do our part to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/youre-not-helpless-america-u-s-surgeon-general-tells-americans-how-to-deal-with-coronavirus">flatten the curve</a> with vigilance and cautious appraisal of the various factors involved in the pandemic. We also need to flatten the hysterical curve as well. Panic leads to disorder and disorder leads to chaos. Again, history provides ample proof.
It’s worth noting that, aside from this very real pandemic, we are also enduring an insufferable <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/infodemic-when-unreliable-information-spreads-far-and-wide-11583430244">infodemic</a>. A constant barrage of information is being thrown at us on an hourly basis. A lot of it is just hyperbole disguised as facts. As MIT recently <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615368/facebook-twitter-social-media-infodemic-misinformation/">reported</a>:
<blockquote>Social-media platforms <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/facebook-groups-coronavirus-misinformation-thrives-despite-broader-crackdown-n1151466">continue</a> to be a dangerous socio-technical vulnerability in times of confusion and crisis. When information is scarce, opportunities abound for media manipulators to trade on chaos and fear.</blockquote>
We are also reminded again that the proverbial political swamp remains as bloated as ever and has, so far, proved pretty ineffectual in this crisis. Instead, all the insufferable political volleying back and forth these last few weeks demonstrates just how many heads in Washington remained buried in the sand or elsewhere.
Far too many in Washington insist on using the coronavirus pandemic to undermine their opposition rather than look out for the American public. Others throw caution to the wind in the hopes that this novel virus would simply flit away in the breeze. Clearly, it hasn’t. So far, it has become a perfect storm of apoplectic fits and Polly Anna optimism. It’s even been alleged, but not proven, that some in Washington have tried to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/21/us-senators-accused-coronavirus-insider-trading-are-a-symbol-moral-bankruptcy">profit off the crisis</a>.
This calculated jockeying for positioning in the political sphere is being done with little to no regard for the economy and for our jobs, never mind our public health. David Katz, the founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center wrote the following in a piece for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/opinion/coronavirus-pandemic-social-distancing.html">The New York Times:</a>
<blockquote>I am deeply concerned that the social, economic and public health consequences of this near total meltdown of normal life – schools and businesses closed, gatherings banned – will be long lasting and calamitous, possibly graver than the direct toll of the virus itself. The stock market will bounce back in time, but many businesses never will. The unemployment, impoverishment and despair likely to result will be public health scourges of the first order.</blockquote>
Larry Brilliant, the epidemiologist who helped defeat smallpox, also offered some much-needed insight on the pandemic in a recent interview with <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-interview-larry-brilliant-smallpox-epidemiologist/">Wired</a>:
<blockquote>Well, I&#8217;m a scientist, but I&#8217;m also a person of faith. And I can&#8217;t ever look at something without asking the question of isn&#8217;t there a higher power that in some way will help us to be the best version of ourselves that we could be?</blockquote>
All of us must simply rise to the occasion. What’s necessary right now for most of us is some hard-eyed optimism alongside a deeper sense of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-amid-so-much-fear-and-fret-what-does-faith-tell-us">faith</a> and good cheer despite the current ominous outlook. We will get through this.

Virus testing

KHAN: Panic, Pandemonium, And The Pandemic

Coronavirus

COVID-19

Now that the Coronavirus has been <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-03-11/italy-passes-10-000-infections-as-clusters-spur-worry-in-us">declared a pandemic</a>, many find themselves at the mercy of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-amid-so-much-fear-and-fret-what-does-faith-tell-us">fear and anxiety</a>. It’s certainly understandable to an extent. After all, we have been inundated these last few months with an endless stream of both information and misinformation regarding COVID-19 that has now turned into a veritable flood.
To be sure, the virus is deserving of a healthy dose of concern and we ought to proceed with caution at this juncture. However, the rising tide of panic amid a variety of wild forebodings ought to remain the major source of apprehension for us.
It seems all the odd prognosticators are coming out of the woodworks to declare all manner of strange claims. Some are even misusing scripture to declare the end is nigh. They are rifling through any and all religious passages to bolster such silly pronouncements.
Never mind that such an exegetical pursuit is a deductive fallacy of sorts that only reckless extremists of all ilk love to make, it also goes against the very foundation of faith itself. Faith inspires us toward meaningful hope and an ability to endure with grace the hardships that befall us. Humility, not hubris, is its benchmark.
Faith is not some tool we employ to prophesize about the future in a reckless manner or, worse, use to speak in God’s stead, especially in times of crises, great and small. At the risk of Polly Anna proclamations, faith reminds us to remain steadfast, even-keeled, trust God, and look to be of service to our neighbors no matter who they are or what they believe. That is an inherently American ideal rooted in the enterprise of faith.
Not to be outdone, many progressives are doubling down on their secular pretensions to declare the sky is falling as well amid the current pandemic. Panic has become both a cheap form of political currency and a kind of dogma for many on the Left. It’s strange and comical to witness them try to save the world with nothing save <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-why-progressives-cant-save-the-world">histrionics</a> at their disposal.
They continue to declare war on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-joaquin-phoenix-rescues-calf-from-slaughterhouse-after-viral-oscars-cow-speech">hamburgers</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-walsh-america-responsible-almost-none-matt-walsh">plastic straws</a> among so many other trivialities in the name of so-called progress. It’s as though they’re hell-bent on summoning the final despondent lines from T.S. Eliot’s masterful poem, <a href="https://allpoetry.com/the-hollow-men">‘The Hollow Men”</a>:
<blockquote>“This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”</blockquote>
The truth is, the current pandemic is just the way the world spins, not the way it ends. Trials and tribulations on an individual and on a societal level are often the orders of the day. Sadly, war, famine, and disease are mainstays of the human condition. Just a cursory glance at the entire history of the world confirms this beyond a shadow of a doubt. This world was never meant to be a utopia or some form of paradise.
I’d be remiss though if I didn’t share my own personal fears and apprehensions on the current crisis. I mean, the Lakers were atop the Western Conference and poised for a legitimate run at another championship after a long drought. That run may be for naught now that the NBA has rather wisely <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-nba-suspends-season-after-player-tests-positive-for-coronavirus">suspended all games</a> for the time being.
Forgive my attempt at some much-needed levity. In all seriousness, my most pressing concern remains for the elderly, including my own parents. God willing, we will come together as a nation devoid of fatiguing partisan lunacy as we’ve done innumerable times in the past and find our way out of this pandemic stronger than ever.

Coronavirus lab

KHAN: This Is Just The Way The World Spins

faith

“Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret…”
– John Keats, <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44479/ode-to-a-nightingale">Ode to a Nightingale</a>
Just a brief glance at the headlines these days can find us overwhelmed by phantasms of calamity. Plagues and disasters seem to lurk around every corner. We are accosted by bad news and fear-mongering 24/7 online and elsewhere. Obviously, going ape over every possible hazard, real or imagined, just isn’t the wisest course in life for any of us.
Certainly, we can’t yield to blind optimism either. Some measure of vigilance is always necessary in life. Voltaire said it best in “Candide”:
“‘What&#8217;s optimism?’ asked Cacambo. &#8216;I&#8217;m afraid to say,&#8217; said Candide, &#8216;that it&#8217;s a mania for insisting that all is well when things are going badly.”
Faith affords us a very different kind of optimism than the one Voltaire mocks and derides. It’s grounded in the fundamental notion that hardships will befall all of us in some capacity, but that we are more than capable to rise to the occasion in service to others and ourselves with God at our side.
In fact, it may be that the hardships that fall upon our shoulders are the very things that mold and shape us into who we ought to be. Often it’s the challenges we don’t want to face that force us to grow in spite of ourselves.
We are not afforded visions or foresight into our future. Instead, God tasks us with the profound and simple command to trust Him because ultimately, all is well and as it should be – as inscrutable as that may seem at times. Of course, such trust in God is no easy feat. Just ask <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_(biblical_figure)">Job</a>.
Here was a righteous man of God beset by a harrowing series of afflictions in his life. Loss of family, loss of wealth, and disease all assailed Job in unimaginable ways.
Though Job may have questioned his own existence at times in his anguish, he never abandoned his belief in God throughout the entirety of his trials and tribulations. Trust in God is how Job finally defeated the Devil’s most powerful tool: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-faith-in-a-dark-time">Despair</a>.
Rabbi Harold Kushner offers good insight on Job in his book, “The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened To A Good Person”:
<blockquote>It is to this dimension of God, a God who cannot tolerate the reduction of a human being, fashioned in His image, to less than human status, that Job may be appealing. Job, in his extremity, is calling on God, saying,  “I have no one left. I am without family. My friends have deserted me. You who are the Father of all humanity…”</blockquote>
In more recent times, one can draw from Viktor Frankl and his harrowing account of the Holocaust in his seminal work, “Man’s Search For Meaning”:
<blockquote>Life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths…The rift dividing good from evil, which goes through all human beings, reaches into the lowest depths and becomes apparent even on the bottom of the abyss which is laid open by the concentration camp.</blockquote>
In spite of such horrors, Frankl emphasizes again and again just how integral faith was for survival in concentration camps:
<blockquote>…I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost…It is this spiritual freedom – which cannot be taken away – that makes life meaningful and purposeful.</blockquote>
The world will always remain in a state of flux. Calamities great and small will befall all of us. Faith in God, however, remains our greatest antidote in such times. Our greatest strength as Americans and as people of faith is that we rise to any occasion and never succumb to it.

Stained glass dove

KHAN: Amid So Much Fear And Fret, What Does Faith Tell Us?

Christianity

Judaism

Religion

Amid the mass shootings, the substantial <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-a-thin-line-separates-suicide-from-violence-among-men-today">uptick in suicides</a>, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-addiction-fuels-homelessness-crisis-not-lack-sharif-khan">addiction epidemic</a>, the constant refrain seems to be that America is suffering a mental health crisis. Certainly, the numbers bear out when we consider prescription drug use to treat anxiety and depression alone.
<a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/astounding-increase-in-antidepressant-use-by-americans-201110203624">Harvard University</a> reported that antidepressant use has increased by 400% since the 1990s:
<blockquote>According…to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the rate of antidepressant use in this country among teens and adults (people ages 12 and older) increased by almost 400% between 1988–1994 and 2005–2008.</blockquote>
Those statistics alone should be cause for some serious soul-searching for all of us. Such a staggering increase in antidepressant use certainly adds to the argument that America is quickly becoming a helpless, inoculated society of hopeless souls.
Even a popular <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UoMXF73j0c&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=722">TED Talk</a> diagnosed our current plight with exacting precision:
<blockquote>We are the most addicted, we are the most medicated, obese, and in-debt adult cohort in human history.</blockquote>
Worse, the actual effectiveness of antidepressants is not at all confirmed when factoring in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/npp2012153">placebo</a>. In fact, the claims made by psychiatry and by pharmaceutical companies on antidepressants remain quite dogmatic. In a piece entitled “The Psychiatric Drug Crisis” for <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-psychiatric-drug-crisis">The New Yorker</a>, Gary Greenberg states the following:
<blockquote>Despite their continued failure to understand how psychiatric drugs work, doctors continue to tell patients that their troubles are the result of chemical imbalances in their brains. As Frank Ayd pointed out, this explanation helps reassure patients even as it encourages them to take their medicine, and it fits in perfectly with our expectation that doctors will seek out and destroy the chemical villains responsible for all of our suffering, both physical and mental. The theory may not work as science, but it is a devastatingly effective myth.</blockquote>
Sadly, simple physical exercise has been repeatedly proven to be more effective in treating mild to moderate depression. In 2014, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/for-depression-prescribing-exercise-before-medication/284587/">The Atlantic Monthly</a> reported:
<blockquote>A 2011 study…looked at 127 depressed people who hadn’t experienced relief from SSRIs, a common type of antidepressant, and found that exercise <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21658349">led 30 percent of them into remission</a>—a result that was as good as, or better than, drugs alone.</blockquote>
If simple physical exercise can remedy an exceedingly common mental health issue, the fundamental problem with so many in America is, ultimately, a moral one. Our volition, our sense of courage and forbearance, are all now at a premium. However, so many are now accosted by a very insidious and nihilistic question: “What’s the point?”
Resignation and defeat seem to pervade the American landscape. We can barely even register notions of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-men-must-learn-to-uphold-the-common-good-again">the common good</a>, never mind what is objectively good for ourselves.
The moral and ethical foundation that ought to buttress us in times of hardship and fatigue is cracked and crumbling, if not altogether broken. While the Left has certainly deconstructed our values into oblivion, we cannot disregard our collective <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-anxiety-and-faith-in-these-modern-times">spiritual and moral lassitude</a> in this crisis either.
At best, only frail and brittle platitudes inform our collective moral pedigree these days. There are no longer discernible footholds to guide us out of the various trials and tribulations that assail us. Instead, we are told to inoculate ourselves with all manner of pills and potions. Others simply turn to illicit drugs and alcohol to remedy the existential aches.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-faith-in-a-dark-time">A dull despair</a> seems the order of the day. We must do better. It’s imperative that we dust off and engage our moral compass once again for the betterment of each other, and for ourselves. And we must do so with courage, fortitude, and, most importantly, hope.

Man with pills

KHAN: Is America Suffering A Mental Health Crisis Or A Moral Crisis?

Drugs

Mental health

Mental Illness

Morality

obesity

Prescription Drugs

Recent protests in Los Angeles over attempts to end homeless encampments in public areas signal just how deranged many progressives have become over the pressing issue of addiction and homelessness in California and elsewhere. As the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-24/homeless-activists-protest-echo-park-lake">Los Angeles Times</a> reported:
<blockquote>Homeless people and scores of activists protested as city crews arrived Friday for a cleanup at Echo Park Lake, publicly calling on Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell to meet with them and work out a deal allowing them to remain at the park. &#8230; If the city ejects the encampment, “it’s like breaking up a family,” said Davon Brown, who said he has lived in the Echo Park encampment for four months. “This is not a cleanup. This is a homeless eviction.”</blockquote>
Never mind how contradictory the notion of a “homeless eviction” actually is, what so many of these entitled activists fail to recognize is how these derelict encampments impact the working poor. It’s the working poor who have to navigate in perilous proximity to the many fatiguing criminal elements that fuel these encampments.
The working poor are the ones who are forced to deal directly with all the refuse and risk from the addiction epidemic. They have to contend with the many strung-out, dangerous individuals on their daily commutes on buses, subways, and sidewalks alongside all the trash, human waste, and hazardous needles that now infest their world.
Addicts literally took over a subway station in San Francisco according to a local <a href="https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/04/25/drug-users-san-francisco-civic-center-bart/">CBS News affiliate</a>. Shannon Gafford, a local commuter, documented the crisis, and the video rivals any depiction from fictional zombie apocalypse:
<blockquote>[O]ver the course of a week, Gafford documented his trip to work. His videos show dozens of people slumped along a hallway, open IV drug use, unconscious men and women, and piles of vomit on either side of the hallways.</blockquote>
Not only is drug use hopelessly prevalent in these encampments, so are drug dealing and all the nefarious consequences associated with it, including violence and prostitution. According to LAPD Captain Brian Morrison, most of these encampments are built around heroin and meth. He stated as much in a recent investigative piece for <a href="https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/news/2019/11/04/police--drug-addiction-plagues-westside-homeless-camps">Spectrum News 1</a> that details just how drug use remains the driving force in these many encampments throughout California.
<blockquote>“That encampment, from our perspective, is predominately built around drug use,” said Captain Brian Morrison, the new head of Los Angeles Police Department’s Pacific Division.</blockquote>
Worse, law enforcement has been hamstrung by insipid policies such as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-addiction-fuels-homelessness-crisis-not-lack-sharif-khan">Prop 47</a>. Drug arrests are no longer tenable as there are no longer substantive consequences for such crimes. Crimes that were once met with arrests and potential jail time now receive, at best, citations and stern warnings. Captain Morrison confirms this in the same interview:
<blockquote>Police have made nearly a dozen arrests for selling drugs, and a half dozen for possession or drug-related warrants. However, Morrison said Proposition 47 basically decriminalized drug use, that weak sentences for possession are not enough to urge addicts into rehab.</blockquote>
It’s high time progressives in California put down their oat milk lattes and deal with the reality of the addiction epidemic. Their meaningless protests and myopic attempts at compassion completely disregard the working poor, never mind common sense. Their self-righteous indignation simply tramples upon those desperately trying to actually better themselves.

Skid Row.

KHAN: The Addiction Epidemic Cripples The Working Poor

Crime

Los Angeles

Progressivism

In the wake of Kobe Bryant’s sudden death, makeshift memorials abound for the NBA legend, and rightly so. Bryant was a bona fide American icon who transcended the game he played to near perfection for some twenty years. So many of us grew up witnessing him will himself to victory countless times on the hardwood. His patented <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5o2PK76hs">fadeaway</a> has been mimicked a million times and counting all over the world in gyms, schoolyards, even offices.
Unlike so many other athletes though, Kobe dispelled our dogmatic notions of black and white. His intrepid spirit defined him as patently American in the vein of so many mavericks before him. In doing so, he shunned the many stereotypical trappings associated with athletic stardom.
Bryant traveled alone and had no entourage. He held no interest in appearing hard or tough off the court. Instead, he presented himself as an intellectual and an autodidact with a voracious thirst for knowledge on and off the court. He spoke <a href="https://twitter.com/Baxter/status/1211521161944657920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1211521161944657920&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.complex.com%2Fsports%2F2019%2F12%2Fkobe-bryant-heckles-luka-doncic-in-native-language">several languages</a>. The man even taught himself to <a href="https://www.complex.com/sports/2016/04/kobe-bryant-taught-himself-play-piano-stop-wife-vanessa-divorcing-him">play the piano</a> to save his marriage.
Perhaps, most importantly, Kobe Bryant began to exemplify fatherhood to a generation in desperate need of such examples. In fact, fatherhood became his primary focus after retiring from basketball.
As <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/the-tragedy-of-losing-kobe-because-he-was-trying-to-be-the-best-dad-204045029.html">Yahoo!Sports</a> explained:
<blockquote>Kobe Bryant died being a father. This isn’t a surprise, because being a father had long ago become the most important thing in his life, even more than lifting the Los Angeles Lakers to five NBA titles and earning international fame.</blockquote>
He even took on a paternal role to the many younger players in the NBA seeking his guidance and approval. When Gordon Hayward suffered a gruesome, potentially career-ending injury in 2017, Bryant immediately reached out to him with words of <a href="https://www.si.com/nba/2017/10/18/gordon-hayward-injury-kobe-bryant-message-instagram">wisdom and encouragement</a>:
<blockquote>It’s a long journey but if you focus on the mini milestones along the way you will find beauty in the struggle of doing simple things that prior to this injury were taken for granted…You see the belief within you grow with each mini milestone and you will come back a better player for it. Best of luck to you on this journey my brother <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/mambamentality/">#mambamentality</a> always.</blockquote>
Of course, Kobe’s preternatural work ethic and competitive spirit is now the stuff of legend. He never relied solely on his God-given talent nor did he waste precious time among the various distractions that hound so many professional athletes. He also didn’t focus on failure except as a means to improve and grow.
Kobe shot four air balls in a crucial playoff game his rookie year. Instead of wallowing in defeat, he used that pivotal moment as motivation to propel him forward.
As legend Jerry West recalled to the <a href="https://www.dailynews.com/2016/01/15/kobe-bryants-airball-game-in-1997-was-as-defining-moment-in-his-career/">Daily News in 2016</a>:
<blockquote>That was a defining moment in his career. If somebody would have shot an air ball on our team and they had shot a second one, they would only shoot a third one. He was fearless. I think that’s one of the things that spurred him to greatness. He wasn’t going to allow himself to fail.</blockquote>
This vigilance and focus allowed Bryant to lead Team USA to gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He led by example and his teammates followed suit as reported in a piece by <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2795121-how-kobe-bryant-led-the-rebirth-of-usa-basketball">Bleacher Report</a>:
<blockquote>That Bryant was so famously obsessive when it came to practice would prove valuable. He led Team USA to gold, imparting his “Mamba Mentality” on his teammates long before such wisdom had its own tagline. Ten years later, that performance remains as memorable as ever. And it was largely of Bryant&#8217;s doing.</blockquote>
Kobe Bryant’s legend continues to grow as many now eulogize him around the world. Of course, no man or woman is ever perfect. Such an attribution is a kind of pop idolatry that too often infests our modern mindset. However, that some in the media immediately sought to deride him even on the very day of his passing is nothing short of foul.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/washington-post-issues-new-statement-about-reporter-suspended-over-kobe-bryant-tweet">The Washington Post</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/01/27/800158099/remembering-kobe-bryant-and-the-shadow-on-his-legacy">NPR</a> immediately began running hit pieces detailing the 2003 rape allegations even though the charges were later dropped after Bryant’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Bryant_sexual_assault_case">accuser refused to testify</a> against him. Many in the media still insist on trying to retroactively stamp a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-moral-musical-chairs-metoo-movement-continues-sharif-khan">#metoo hashtag</a> on the incident almost twenty years later in the wake of his death. It’s gross but, sadly, par for the course in this day and age.
The story of Kobe Bryant will remain unfinished and imperfect, as is true for all of our lives. One hopes though that worldly success atop any proverbial mountain signals a demand to finally aspire toward higher, heavenly abodes in all of us. I think, finally, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kobe-a-devout-catholic-reportedly-attended-mass-morning-of-accident">Kobe Bryant began to understand this</a> as the shoreline from his monumental NBA career began to recede into memory.
In her piece on Kobe Bryant’s retirement in 2016, <a href="http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/15232286/former-lakers-star-kobe-bryant-left-nba-just-getting-started">ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne</a> recalls that on the morning after he ended his legendary career, having just scored a staggering 60 points in his final NBA game the night before, he did not sleep in or rest or even workout. Kobe Bryant woke up bright and early and simply went to church.

Kobe Bryant.

KHAN: In Many Ways, Kobe Bryant Personified The American Dream

Kobe Bryant

The fundamental inability to prioritize the sanctity of human life on the part of progressives has struck again. California Governor Gavin Newsom has allocated some $50 million toward ending euthanasia for pets according to the <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article239174863.html">Sacramento Bee</a>:
<blockquote>Specifically, Newsom’s budget calls for a $50 million one-time general fund allocation to the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program to develop a grant program for animal shelters, with a goal of helping local communities “achieve the state’s policy goal that no adoptable or treatable dog or cat should be euthanized,” according to the budget summary.</blockquote>
Though the idea of “no kill” animal shelters is not without merit, it’s maddening to witness the constant devaluing of human life among progressives like Newsom amid so many crises we’re confronted with on a societal level. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-feminist-promotes-brags-about-abortion-amanda-prestigiacomo">Infanticide masquerades</a> as a cause, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-addiction-fuels-homelessness-crisis-not-lack-sharif-khan">addiction epidemic</a> continues to fester, and a profound sense of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-faith-in-a-dark-time">hopelessness</a> grows unabated.
More to the point, when it comes to actual human beings, euthanasia is now actively encouraged in California.
As the <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/newsom-make-california-no-kill-state-for-animals-but-not-sick-people/">National Review</a> reports:
<blockquote>Ironically, as the governor works to save animals from death, California not only legalized assisted suicide but allows <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/california-bill-okays-assisted-sucide-encouragement/%20/t%20_blank">encouraging suicide</a> to the terminally ill, and moreover, promulgated a regulation granting access to doctor-prescribed death to dying patients who are <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/11/a-right-to-assisted-suicide-for-the-institutionalized-mentally-ill%20/t%20_blank">involuntarily committed</a> in psychiatric hospitals due to mental illness.</blockquote>
However, it should all come as no surprise considering progressives have deconstructed morality, tradition, and the very idea of sanctity into oblivion. Their values are completely at the mercy of whim and fancy. Worse, these values often corrode into monstrous proclamations.
Take contemporary philosopher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Singer">Peter Singer</a>. Singer, a lauded professor of bioethics at Princeton, is notorious for such vile and outlandish statements as the <a href="https://petersinger.info/faq/">following</a> in his very own FAQ found on his website:
<blockquote>Newborn human babies have no sense of their own existence over time. So killing a newborn baby is never equivalent to killing a person, that is, a being who wants to go on living.</blockquote>
Singer is not only an ardent advocate for abortion, he actually dehumanizes newborn infants as well. This is nothing short of madness.
But wait, there’s more! Singer considers the very notion of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctity_of_life">sanctity of life</a> to be a worn, outdated ideal as he states in his very opening line for a piece in <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/20/the-sanctity-of-life/">Foreign Policy</a>:
<blockquote>During the next 35 years, the traditional view of the sanctity of human life will collapse under pressure from scientific, technological, and demographic developments. By 2040, it may be that only a rump of hard-core, know-nothing religious fundamentalists will defend the view that every human life, from conception to death, is sacrosanct.</blockquote>
Again, Singer is a highly influential philosopher and a professor at one of the world’s most prestigious universities. He’s even considered by <a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/04/now-peter-singer-argues-that-it-might-be-okay-to-rape-disabled-people">many</a> to be one of the world’s most highly regarded ethicists today.
One is reminded of how necessary and vital something as deceptively simple as Thomas Aquinas’ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_chain_of_being">Great Chain of Being</a> remains. At the very least, it offered some semblance of meaning and coherence to existence. One could find a secure foothold in the grand scheme of things. More importantly, human life was afforded sanctity and proper dignity and not relegated to the bottom of the barrel as so many secular progressives insist upon doing. That’s not hyperbole or political pandering either. The foul dogma from the likes of Singer proves it. Worse, progressive politicians like Gavin Newsom keep falling for it, hook, line, and sinker.

California flag.

KHAN: Progressives Seem To Prioritize Animal Life Over Human Life

animals

California

Euthanasia

Gavin Newsom

“We would rather be ruined than changed;
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of our moment
And let our illusions die.”
– W.H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety
It seems that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-faith-in-a-dark-time">maladies of the spirit</a> pervade the American landscape more than anything else these days. Certainly, a restless undercurrent of anxiety and despair festers all around us. Sad, anxious faces teem down our busy freeways on a daily basis with little fulfillment aside from endless distractions and antidepressants. How strange to even state that in this great land of ours. One is compelled to turn to traditions and philosophies that have withstood this onslaught of postmodernity.
One such example is the philosophy of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard">Søren Kierkegaard</a>. Commonly referred to as the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/">father of existentialism</a>, he was also a masterful theologian. He is known for tackling anxiety and dread in the context of faith as evidenced by the titles of some of his works, such as “Fear and Trembling” and “The Concept of Anxiety.”
Kierkegaard argued that anxiety and dread are the consequence of the vast freedom inherent to existence.
He states in “The Concept of Anxiety”:
<blockquote>Anxiety may be compared with dizziness. He whose eye happens to look down the yawning abyss becomes dizzy…Hence, anxiety is the dizziness of freedom, which emerges when the spirit wants to posit the synthesis and freedom looks down into its own possibility, laying hold of finiteness to support itself. Freedom succumbs to dizziness.</blockquote>
Heady stuff for sure. What the Danish philosopher is saying though is that freedom, in an <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/existential">existential sense</a>, is akin to staring into a veritable pit of endless possibilities. Anxiety then becomes an understandable response given the vexing matter of choice in our lives. How can one choose without inevitably succumbing to an anxious dread? It seems only natural. No matter how careful or well-intentioned we try to be, none of us have the gift of foresight, and bad things happen to the best of us. No wonder anxiety accosts so many of us on a daily basis in our careers, our relationships, even while grocery shopping. It can lead to a kind of paralysis.
For Kierkegaard, the answer was found in the confidence only faith provides. Put more succinctly, the antidote against the fatiguing anxiety of choice and consequence resides in the eternal hope we only find in God, not in any kind of worldly hope or pursuit.
However, trust and faith in God is not some passive choice, but very much an active one we must continually make, according to Kierkegaard.
From Kierkegaard’s Religion, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/">Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy</a>:
<blockquote>Faith [for Kierkegaard] is the most important task to be achieved by a human being, because only on the basis of faith does an individual have a chance to become a true self. This self is the life-work which God judges for eternity…But the choice of faith is not made once and for all. It is essential that faith be constantly renewed by means of repeated avowals of faith. One’s very selfhood depends upon this repetition…</blockquote>
And elsewhere, from “<a href="https://www.sorenkierkegaard.nl/artikelen/Engels/027.%20Kierkegaard%20and%20Faith.pdf">Kierkegaard and Faith</a>”:
<blockquote>Authentic faith is an active faith in that the movements of faith are chosen again and again. Active faith is for the individual in his or her own solitude to find meaning. Inauthentic faith is inactive and complacent. Complacent faith is faith for comfort&#8217;s sake.</blockquote>
In other words, for faith to fortify us against the various spiritual maladies that hound us, we cannot succumb to lip service in relation to God. More importantly, we cannot treat our relationship with God as some mere ornament of affection and worship.
If we are to be freed from the shackles of despair, we must pursue faith with diligence and wholesome discipline, not apathy or disdain. Only then does our trust in God’s will become a fortification against the endless parade of anxiety and despair that surrounds us. We are no longer burdened or vexed by the consequences of our choices great and small. Instead, we reside in God’s mercy and forgiveness. It’s hard to imagine a greater, more blissful sense of freedom than this.

Stained glass dove.

KHAN: Anxiety And Faith In These Modern Times

anxiety

Based on a popular collection of fantasy novels and stories by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrzej_Sapkowski">Andrzej Sapkowski</a> and an even more popular video game trilogy, Netflix’s “The Witcher” seemed primed to be a possible heir to “Games of Thrones.” At least, that’s the hype Netflix hoped for. Instead, the show comes across more like “Hercules” a la Kevin Sorbo sharing ale with “Xena: Warrior Princess” at some dimly lit tavern on the outskirts of <a href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Winterfell">Winterfell</a>.
The fantasy series builds around the character Geralt of Rivia, played by Henry Cavill. Essentially, Geralt is a “witcher” who wanders a land known as The Continent fighting monsters for money. Witchers are apparently superhuman mutants forged by science and magic imbued with special powers.
Sadly, all that science and magic could not afford a better wig for poor Geralt. That mop was forged in the fires of The Hair Club For Men before being gussied up by a local taxidermist. Honestly, it should be registered as a service animal, but I digress.
Hairpieces aside, Cavill does a fine job as Geralt. The actor is a huge fan of “The Witcher” universe, and it shows. Apparently, Cavill <a href="https://bgr.com/2019/07/31/the-witcher-netflix-new-details-henry-cavill-interview-geralt/">hounded Netflix</a> for the lead role. He nails the stoic, gruff disposition of Geralt and remains the most compelling and entertaining aspect of the new series.
Two other characters remain the focus of “The Witcher” as well. Anya Colatra plays Yennefer, a sorceress mired in bitter existential ruminations and Geralt’s budding love interest. Ciri, played by Freya Allan, is a teenage princess on the lam desperate to find her potential savior in Geralt. Their character arcs are quite uneven so far, though maybe that’s to be expected in the first season of any show.
Given author Sapkowski’s Polish origins, it’s not surprising that “The Witcher” draws from a fair amount of<a href="https://time.com/5753369/the-witcher-history-folklore/"> European and Eastern European folklore</a>. The creatures that infest The Continent are often directly inspired by centuries of myth and legend. With that in mind, some of the multicultural castings of characters seem a tad bit odd. On one hand, it’s a fantasy series, so who really cares. On the other hand, Netflix is so <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cancel-cultures-failure-james-baldwins-famous-essay-exposes-the-lefts-flawed-logic">desperate to appear “woke”</a> it feels like they are trying to fill some <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test">silly quota</a>.
As for the plot, complexity does not benefit the show at all. The odd timeline in “The Witcher” is more confusing than clever, and creates a somewhat incoherent brand of storytelling. The show simply works best as a <a href="https://geekandsundry.com/procedural-versus-serialized-television/">fantasy procedural</a>. As much as “The Witcher” wants to wow us with unusual narrative schemes, the show is at its best when it sticks to a more episodic monster-of-the-week formula. It&#8217;s far more entertaining and Cavill’s charm shines through when the show doesn’t take itself too seriously or try to compete with shows like “Game of Thrones” or “Westworld.”
Also, showrunner Lauren Hissrich seems to think that gratuitous nudity lends seriousness and sophistication to the show. Instead, it comes across as garish and trite – not to mention that if a man had been at the helm of “The Witcher,” he’d be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-no-leftists-critics-of-cancel-culture-dont-hate-democracy">burned at the stake</a> for some idiotic variant of toxic masculinity with all those bared breasts.
Finally, it must be said that the theme song, “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher,” is simply insufferable. Sung by Geralt’s bard and sidekick, Jaskier, it runs through most of the first season and continues on in your head for days like some neurotic tick. The song sounds like some noxious mashup of Panic! At The Disco and Engelbert Humperdinck. <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a30360114/netflix-the-witcher-song-toss-a-coin-lyrics-bard-jaskier-joey-batey/">Sadly, many consider it epic</a>. Rest assured, it’s going to be played to exhaustion at Renaissance Fairs throughout the land this summer amid clouds of patchouli and rank body odor.
Countless mixed reviews aside, “The Witcher” remains a bona-fide hit for Netflix at the moment. It’s certainly watchable and entertaining on the level of, say, binging frozen pizza and ice cream. You will more than likely enjoy it, but you might feel a bit ill afterward.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/review-the-mandalorian">REVIEW: ‘The Mandalorian’</a>

&#8220;The Witcher&#8221; Netflix Premiere

REVIEW: ‘The Witcher’

Netflix

A compelling discussion on the common good continues to take place among conservative circles far and wide. Recently, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro offered his own <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-the-problem-with-common-good-conservatism">keen insight</a> on the matter as well. While it remains primarily a political discussion at the moment, it’s also very much a moral issue that we all must contend with on an individual and civic level, particularly as men.
Unfortunately, it seems quite evident that so many men have abandoned their sense of the common good out of fatigue, complacency, and despair. We are living in a day and age where excess and defeat in all their various ugly guises are legion. Now more than ever, it’s vital that we rediscover our moral compass with courage and fortitude for ourselves and, more importantly, for those around us.
We Are Deadened By Defeat
“But man is not made for defeat,&#8221; he said. &#8220;A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”  – Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and The Sea
Perhaps more than anything else, a prevailing sense of defeat disallows men from upholding virtue and the common good. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-a-thin-line-separates-suicide-from-violence-among-men-today">Despair</a> is seemingly the order of the day for so many men. We now accept defeat with a shrug and sigh before reveling in so much smut and slop.
Limitations and setbacks are no longer viewed as challenges and opportunities toward growth and betterment. Accountability and self-reflection have gone the way of the dinosaurs. Instead, we allow such defeat to fester and define us. We then wallow in a fatiguing amount of poor choices including lassitude, inactivity, porn, junk food, etc.
Progressives have turned such wallowing into an art form as they vie for the crown of victimhood ad nauseam. How can we even begin to address the common good amid such defeatism? That is not for us. We must be better.
Are We, In Fact, Masters of Our Domain?
Obligatory <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUtJBqgwNgo">Seinfeld reference</a> aside, it’s rather prescient that the current discussion on the common good centers around the issue of pornography. Pornography is so commonplace now that its prevalence and consumption is viewed as no more dangerous than fast food. In fact, its insidious grip is virtually castrating generations of men, young and old. That’s not just speaking figuratively either. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/mar/11/young-men-porn-induced-erectile-dysfunction">Porn-induced erectile dysfunction</a> is a growing phenomenon.
Worse, boys are exposed to pornography at such a young age it beggars belief. A <a href="https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/1187/mdx-nspcc-occ-pornography-report.pdf">Middlesex University study</a> out of the U.K. reported that 94% of boys had viewed pornography by the age of 14. Such early sexual exposure verges on abuse.
Like other kinds of drug use among men, pornography has become another sad method of inoculation to distract us from the challenges of life. Again, that’s not hyperbole. A recent <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0102419">Cambridge study</a> found undeniable neurological similarities between drug addiction and porn addiction.
It’s also mutating so many grown men into man-children, incapable of healthy relationships or even basic functioning as adults. In “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMJgZ4s2E3w&amp;vl=en">The Demise of Guys</a>,” Stanford professor and psychologist Philip Zimbardo targets online pornography as one of the main culprits in this sad phenomenon. It is, for all intents and purposes, stunting men’s growth into a state of perpetual adolescence.
If we are not masters of our domain, then we are fundamentally weak as men. No amount of muscle or toughness will counter this fact. The remedy does not lie in self-flagellation either. Instead, we must seek out discipline and restraint, lest we reduce the inherent grandeur of existence to our gonads and digestive tracts.
Freedom, Discipline, and Responsibility
For decades now, the very notion of freedom has been deconstructed from a lofty civic and moral virtue to simply a pathetic excuse toward intemperance and licentiousness. One needs only to look around to find endless evidence.
Thankfully, the coupling of freedom, discipline, and responsibility among men has finally seen a reemergence of sorts in popular culture due, in part, to the likes of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocko_Willink">Jocko Willink</a> and Jordan Peterson. Willink nails it when he argues that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoEv5PxrDvs">freedom is only found in discipline</a>, as does Peterson when he wisely insists to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp9599kwnhM">clean your room</a>.
To be sure, the coupling of these virtues goes all the way back to antiquity and remains an inherent aspect of masculinity toward which we all ought to strive. It’s echoed in <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/">Aristotelian thought</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine_of_the_Mean">Confucianism</a>, and the Abrahamic traditions.
Perhaps though, freedom and discipline are most succinctly expressed in the Stoic philosophy of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epictetus">Epictetus</a> (the same philosopher <a href="https://reasonandmeaning.com/2015/03/08/admiral-james-stockdale-and-epictetus/">Admiral James Stockdale</a> credits for his survival as a POW in Vietnam).
As professor A.A. Long <a href="https://lithub.com/what-the-stoic-philosophers-knew-about-being-free/">explains</a>:
<blockquote>You can be externally free and internally a slave, controlled by psychological masters in the form of disabling desires and passions and cravings. Conversely, you could be outwardly obstructed or even in literal bondage but internally free from frustration and disharmony, so free in fact that you found yourself in charge of your own well-being…The latter, in essence, is the freedom that Epictetus, the ancient Stoic philosopher, made the central theme of his teaching.</blockquote>
More recently, Viktor Frankl, author of the seminal classic, “Man’s Search For Meaning,” expressed just how inseparable freedom and responsibility are, especially on an existential level:
“Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.” – Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning.
There is no freedom found in the pursuit of wayward desires and impulses. That is simply a form of self-imposed bondage disguised as pleasure. Responsibility and discipline are the foundations that finally set us free regardless of circumstance and allow for genuine growth in character and wellbeing. Only then can we contribute to the common good in a meaningful way.
So many men have lost the ability to rise to the occasion for the sake of the common good. They have deadened <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-faith-in-a-dark-time">their sense of virtue</a> with excess and despair. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Winters">Generations before us</a> would find it nothing short of pathetic. Again, we must demand better of ourselves:
   Lives of great men all remind us
   We can make our lives sublime,
   And, departing, leave behind us
   Footprints on the sands of time;
   Footprints, that perhaps another,
   Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
   A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
   Seeing, shall take heart again.
   Let us, then, be up and doing,
   With a heart for any fate;
   Still achieving, still pursuing,
   Learn to labor and to wait.
   &#8211; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life

Candle.

KHAN: Men Must Learn To Uphold The Common Good Again

Conservatism

Freedom

Masculinity

pornography

A part of me is convinced that the current success of Disney’s The Mandalorian plays on the profound frustration we all felt when <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boba_Fett">Boba Fett</a> died far too easily in Return of The Jedi. I mean here was arguably the greatest bounty hunter in the known universe tossed overboard in the heat of battle by a bit of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4xKHWQckfI">gimmickry</a>, then summarily eaten by a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarlacc">sarlacc</a> with little to no resistance aside from some brief indigestion on the sand monster’s part.
Created and written by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Favreau">Jon Favreau</a>, The Mandalorian is an exceedingly simple show. It’s really just about a bounty hunter with a growing conscience that goes rogue to protect an innocent creature. The plot unfolds as a grand chase ensues similar to, say, John Wick after he righteously betrays his assassin’s guild.
Simplicity is a fundamental part of The Mandalorian’s charm, however, and why I immediately felt like I was transported back to my childhood watching some odd combination of Buck Rogers meets <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_Guy">The Fall Guy</a>. While there’s no underlying depth, there is also, thankfully, no cut-and-paste progressive messages either a la <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-captain-marvel-towering-artistic-achievement-matt-walsh">Captain Marvel</a> or <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/star-wars-last-jedi-review-harry-khachatrian">The Last Jedi</a> (well, so far, anyway).  Certainly, we could all do with a lot less <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cancel-cultures-failure-james-baldwins-famous-essay-exposes-the-lefts-flawed-logic">didactic drivel</a> these days.
Pedro Pascal, best known for his roles in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcos">Narcos</a> and Game of Thrones, effortlessly plays the title character in The Mandalorian. On some level, it’s almost too effortless. The deadpan delivery and nonchalance can grow a bit wooden and tiresome. It’s as though the stoic resolve of the Mandalorian inadvertently shifts toward some form of clinical depression at times.
Still, Pascal is a fine actor and I hope the character is afforded more complexity and development as the series continues. So far, he’s just a typical reluctant hero who, in the parlance of D&amp;D, is struggling to change his alignment from neutral to some version of <a href="https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Neutral_good">neutral good</a>. We don&#8217;t need Hamlet to emerge from behind all that <a href="https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Mandalorian_armor">Beskar armor</a> but some depth and nuance would be nice.
Odd cameos abound in The Mandalorian as well. First, we get Carl Weathers. Then, strangely enough, the German director <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Herzog">Werner Herzog</a> makes an appearance as some Imperial broker. Former MMA fighter, Gina Carano, shows up in the fourth episode in what is, so far, the worst outing of the series. However, we should note that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryce_Dallas_Howard">Bryce Dallas Howard</a> directed that particular episode. Perhaps no further explanation is needed.
We also get a cherubic incarnation of a Yoda in need of the Mandalorian’s protection. I’d offer the actual name of his species but, so far, <a href="https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Yoda%27s_species/Legends">it remains a mystery</a> (not to assume Yoda’s gender, tsk tsk). More importantly, it’s hopelessly cute in a fatiguing kind of way. If you thought <a href="https://gremlins.fandom.com/wiki/Gizmo">Gizmo</a> was adorable, wait till you see baby Yoda. I can only imagine <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickle_Me_Elmo">the retail stampede</a> a baby Yoda doll would have caused had the show debuted some 25 years ago.
Is The Mandalorian a must-see show? Probably not. You might enjoy it for its simplicity and archetypical tropes though. I would certainly take The Mandalorian over just about all the films in the Star Wars universe that have followed the original trilogy. For now, at least, the show simply scratches a certain nostalgic itch.

The Mandalorian

REVIEW: ‘The Mandalorian’

Disney

Star Wars

A fair amount of hilarious pageantry surrounds the championship bout between current UFC Welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and former interim champion Colby Covington. Some have even likened the bout to a <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2866291-a-morality-play-for-our-time-usman-vs-covington-is-more-than-mere-grudge-match">morality play</a> of sorts. I would argue it’s just an entertaining ruckus more in line with professional wrestling than some odd allegory for America. Regardless, the main event of UFC 245 could easily end up being one of the best fights of the year.
To be sure, Colby Covington is doing his very best to become a coveted heel in the UFC a la Chael Sonnen, <a href="https://www.mmamania.com/2019/8/5/20754946/michael-bisping-rates-colby-covingtons-heel-job-it-just-doesnt-seem-authentic">Michael Bisping</a>, and, of course, The Notorious Conor McGregor. After all, that’s where a lot of the money is in the fight game these days. Fighters have to build their brand inside and outside of the cage if they’re to stay relevant.
So far, much of Covington’s hyperbole is reminiscent of the WWF’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Heenan">Bobby Heenan</a> set to the tune of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rico_Suave_(song)">Rico Suave</a>. Adorned in the Stars and Stripes, he poses with strippers, brags about his sexual conquests, and hobnobs with the <a href="https://www.westernjournal.com/mma-star-colby-covington-says-first-family-accepted-invite-ufc-event-making-history-sport/">First Family</a>. He’s also a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MMA/comments/e9qd7d/almost_3_years_ago_colby_covington_trolled_rda/">gut-busting troll</a> online and elsewhere. Sure, he can be cringey at times but he’s also <a href="https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/08/ufc-colby-covington-matt-hughes-train-accident-comments-remarks-reaction-twitter-lawler">damn funny</a> in a very unapologetic kind of way. To be sure, many insist that behind the outrageous act, Covington is actually very kind and respectful, including the likes of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a_mQSNk_fs">Joe Rogan</a>.
Kamaru Usman, on the other hand, is quite a bit more reserved. The son of Nigerian immigrants, he’s not known for his verbal jousting. Like many wrestlers-turned-MMA fighters, he presents a more stoic front to the game a la Dan Henderson and Randy Couture.
As for the fight itself, it could not be more of a dead heat going into Saturday night’s Welterweight Championship. Notwithstanding the <a href="https://www.oddsshark.com/ufc/ufc-245-odds-and-picks">Vegas odds</a> that give the nod to Usman, the fighters share a nearly identical MMA pedigree on paper. Both Usman and Covington boast a record of 15-1-0. Both come from storied wrestling backgrounds. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamaru_Usman">Usman</a> is a Division II National Champion while <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colby_Covington">Covington</a> was a Pac-10 Champion two years in a row.
That both Usman and Covington are such solid wrestlers means the fight may very well turn into a slugfest. Neither fighter will likely be able to take the other one down, at least in the early rounds. The fight could be decided on the feet and this is where there’s an appreciable difference between the two.
Usman is the more powerful striker whose prowess has blossomed under the tutelage of renowned kickboxing coach, <a href="http://www.henrihooft.com/about">Henri Hooft</a>. He hits hard and has developed some deft footwork. He’s also, far and away, <a href="https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2019/12/ufc-245-kamaru-usman-vs-colby-covington-analysis-breakdown">the better striker against the cage</a>.
Covington, on the other hand, makes his living in volume striking. He boasts an endless gas tank that rivals only the likes of Tony Ferguson. The man simply doesn’t tire in the Octagon. He wears his opponents down with constant pressure like a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_badger">badger</a>. In Covington’s <a href="https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/27316603/covington-dominates-lawler-solidify-title-shot">dominating victory</a> over Robbie Lawler, Covington threw a dizzying 541 strikes compared to Lawler’s 171 strike attempts. That’s more volume than Kelly LeBrock’s hair in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weird_Science_(film)">Weird Science</a>.
The fight seems to favor Usman in the early rounds. If he manages to coral Covington against the cage with footwork and powerful shots, he may prove the victor, as he did against <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/mma/news/ufc-235-results-kamaru-usman-dominates-tyron-woodley-to-win-welterweight-championship/">Tyron Woodley</a>.
However, if Covington can weather the initial storm and drag Usman into the later rounds with his head still intact, he could very well win. He needs to demonstrate the same growth in striking he did against Lawler, though while maintaining his relentless pace.
In either case, expect the main event at UFC 245 to be a barn burner. My prediction? Covington by split-decision.

Colby Covington

Pro-Trump Contender Colby Covington Battles For The Welterweight Title At UFC 245

Progressives insist that they are the ambassadors of tolerance and compassion and have done so now for decades. They clamor for their endless list of causes behind the garish guise of these two high virtues and insist they stand on the moral high ground in all social issues.
Much to the chagrin of progressives, however, the roots of tolerance and compassion are decidedly religious in origin and remain so. They actually form the Golden Rule. And while the Golden Rule gets bandied about too often to count these days, many often forget that the maxim is inherently religious. That is, it simply would not exist were it not for religion.
After all, it’s a foundational maxim for all the major religious traditions of the world. Even the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule">Wikipedia entry</a> states as much as does the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philosophy-religion/">Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy</a>:
<blockquote>All known world religions address the nature of good and evil and commend ways of achieving human well-being…there is a substantial overlap between many of these conceptions of the good as witnessed by the commending of the Golden Rule.</blockquote>
Here’s a key proviso in relation to the Golden Rule though. It only makes sense in a decidedly religious context. Religious faith not only provides a foundation for the Golden Rule but also guideposts. A sense of wholesome direction and discipline are established.
Bereft of the necessary religious foundations, tolerance and compassion mutate into vacuous pity and a complete disregard for boundaries. Almost anything is allowed. We are reduced to bestial impulses. Wanton hedonism emerges alongside blinding narcissism under very deviant definitions of tolerance and compassion.
Tolerance, in particular, warps into “anything goes and you’re not allowed to criticize it.” This is evident among progressives now more than ever and, sadly, in America at large today.
Unlike religious faith, when one finally decides to peer behind the curtain of progressive claims to such virtues, one finds that no moral foundation whatsoever exists. Their ideas are rooted in nihilism and narcissism. At best, they draw from comic books, films and television shows. These have formed a hopelessly insular and circular narrative for them ad nauseam.
For example, the Star Wars universe has become a moral guidepost for many progressives. <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/7-life-lessons-i-learned-_b_8716432">I’m not kidding</a>. Last I checked though, George Lucas is not some grand harbinger of wisdom.
In fact, the very first Star Wars trilogy alongside pretty much the entire genre of fantasy draws from J.R.R. Tolkien and his seminal classic, The Lord of The Rings. Here’s a fun fact for progressives: Tolkien was very much <a href="https://denvercatholic.org/the-catholic-origins-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-and-other-truths-about-j-r-r-tolkien/">a devout Catholic</a> and says as much in his own words regarding his work:
<blockquote>The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.</blockquote>
Tolerance and compassion remain fundamentally religious values. Sadly, progressives have not only abandoned religious wisdom – wisdom that has remained for centuries upon centuries &#8211; they generally malign the very notion of religious faith unless it involves some silly New Age dreck from the likes of Ram Dass, Marianne Williamson, or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneesh">Osho and his fleet of Rolls Royces</a>. It’s no wonder that such high virtues have devolved into self-serving progressive virtue-signaling.

Group Prayer

KHAN: Tolerance And Compassion Are Inherently Religious Values, Not Progressive Ones

For much of the 19th century, the British government bombarded China with illicit shipments of opium. In what became known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars">Opium Wars</a>, this passive sort of chemical warfare led to a generation of addicts and put an effective stranglehold on China’s economy at the time.
Now it seems China is resorting to similar tactics here in the U.S. with the synthetic drug Fentanyl — a drug 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin. In a piece entitled “<a href="https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/china-poisoning-america-fentanyl">China is Poisoning America with Fentanyl</a>,” The Heritage Foundation reports that fentanyl is now the leading cause of overdose deaths here in the U.S. Overdoses claimed almost 100,000 lives in 2017 and 2018 and there seems to be no end in sight as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-addiction-fuels-homelessness-crisis-not-lack-sharif-khan">the opioid epidemic</a> expands beyond measure. For comparison, those numbers rival the peak of the AIDS crisis in 1995 according to the <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10091.html">Rand Corporation</a>.
Incredibly cheap to manufacture, the cost ratio of Fentanyl is staggering. An investment of a few thousand dollars can easily yield millions of dollars. It’s no wonder the Mexican Cartels have turned to Fentanyl according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/11/07/what-are-mexican-drug-cartels-fighting-over-chance-sell-fentanyl-here/">The Washington Post</a>:
<blockquote>[M]uch of the current supply of fentanyl pushing the broader opioid crisis to unprecedented heights is being smuggled into the country by the Sinaloa cartel and its rivals in Mexico…Black-market fentanyl and other synthetic opioids smuggled in from Mexico and China have become the <a href="https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2018-11/DIR-032-18%202018%20NDTA%20final%20low%20resolution.pdf">fastest-growing and most lethal drug</a> in America, far surpassing heroin and the prescription narcotics that often serve as gateway drugs.</blockquote>
A key point though is that the majority of fentanyl being produced originates in China. Endless factories abound with little to no oversight from the Chinese government. As a result, the drug is allowed to proliferate with little to no resistance. The <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-opioid-epidemic">Council on Foreign Relations</a> reports that:
<blockquote>Most fentanyl coming to the United States is produced in China, U.S. officials say, and commonly <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/mexicos-drug-war">transited through Mexico</a>. Chinese authorities “have struggled to adequately regulate thousands of chemical and pharmaceutical facilities operating legally and illegally in the country,” says a 2017 <a href="https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/USCC%20Staff%20Report_Fentanyl-China%E2%80%99s%20Deadly%20Export%20to%20the%20United%20States020117.pdf">report</a> [PDF] issued by a congressionally mandated commission.</blockquote>
Whether or not this utter lack of regulations and oversight on the part of the Chinese government is a calculated ploy needs to be seriously considered now. Considering the stranglehold the Chinese government has on its population, it’s hard to imagine that the authoritarian regime has a sudden, profound inability to control the production of such a nefarious substance like fentanyl.
Certainly, the impact the opioid epidemic has had on us here in the U.S. has reached crisis levels. Like the aforementioned Opium Wars of the 19th century, the opioid epidemic here in the U.S. has had a palpable effect on our economy as well. The Council on Foreign Relations also reports that:
<blockquote>Opioids have also begun to take a toll on the economy. Testifying before the U.S. Senate in 2017, Janet Yellen, then chair of the Federal Reserve, linked the opioid epidemic to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-07/opioid-use-explains-20-of-drop-in-american-men-from-labor-force?ex_cid=SigDig">declining labor-force participation</a> among “prime-age workers.” Princeton University economist Alan Krueger wrote that it could account for 20 percent of the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2017/09/07/how-the-opioid-epidemic-has-affected-the-u-s-labor-force-county-by-county/">decline in participation</a> among men and 25 percent among women from 1999 to 2015.</blockquote>
Though our economy is hopelessly entangled with China for the foreseeable future, it’s high time we consider taking a meaningful stand against that regime’s marauding influence over us, especially as it pertains to illicit drugs like fentanyl. As a nation, we are increasingly at the mercy of the pernicious toll of addiction and it seems that the Chinese government is all too willing to contribute to this drug-fueled downward spiral.

Fentanyl

KHAN: China, Fentanyl, And The New Opium War

China

It seems the same dark impulses that are driving an alarming number of <a href="https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a9202/britain-male-suicide-crisis/">men to kill themselves</a> may very well be the same impulses driving many of them to turn on others in hatred and violence.
Just a cursory investigation into some of the many men who have committed or encouraged egregious acts of violence suggests a perilous search for acceptance, some desperate search for meaning among the increasing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-why-progressives-cant-save-the-world">existential emptiness</a> that has been hollowing out our great country over the last forty years.
Take one of these murderous extremists recently profiled in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/05/23/a-neo-nazi-converted-to-islam-and-killed-2-roommates-for-disrespecting-his-faith-police-say/?utm_term=.8d78efa17574">Washington Post</a> in 2017. The directionless 18-year-old, who fancied himself a neo-Nazi alongside his two roommates, eventually appeared to gravitate toward Islamic extremism in 2017, suddenly showing support for the likes of ISIS. He would go on to murder his two roommates for harboring the very same beliefs he once had:
<blockquote>“According to records, [the extremist] told officers that ‘all of them had been friends with a common neo-Nazi belief’ until [he] converted to Islam…It is unclear if and when [he] actually converted to Islam, was an observant Muslim or ever attended a mosque. ‘Allah Mohammad,’ which [he] exclaimed to police as he was being led to the patrol car, is not a Muslim phrase.”</blockquote>
To argue that the young man was simply deranged is patently unfair and dismissive of the complexities at hand. Desperation and an utter lack of direction are the more likely culprits. He played a hopelessly superficial game of hopscotch with beliefs and ideologies that lead to a tragic and senseless act of violence. He was, to put it simply, lost.
And there are plenty of men like the neo-Nazi-turned-ISIS fan out there. The notorious founder of the neo-Nazi site, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Stormer">The Daily Stormer</a>, had a similar hapless and haphazard search for some semblance of meaning. He spent his formative years as an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/12/the-making-of-an-american-nazi/544119/">anti-racist vegan</a>. With little to no guidance outside of impulse and whim, it led him to a savage kind of hatred as well.
To be sure, the narrative that somehow the desperate, chaotic violence that litters our newsfeeds is the result of some innate, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-psychologists-say-masculinity-harmful-matt-walsh">toxic masculinity</a> is as misleading as it is false. Rather, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-faith-in-a-dark-time">dark, virulent nihilism</a> has emerged amid the war on civility, virtue, and faith as fundamentally objective values. Our collective moral compass as a society is broken and it’s often evidenced by these <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Hook_Elementary_School_shooting">mindless, terrible acts of violence</a>.
We have traded fortitude and sacrifice — hallmarks of religious faith, particularly among men — for the solipsism of postmodernity and its consequent, seductive whispers of violence and suicide. It’s even reflected in the absurd, godless philosophies of the likes of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/camus/#SuiResAbs">Albert Camus</a> that are more prevalent today than ever:
<blockquote>“There is only one really serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Deciding whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy.”</blockquote>
The desire to turn on oneself seems to be often intimately related to the desire to turn on others. Both are borne from a corrosive form of self-hatred compelled by an overwhelming need to forfeit life itself. That hatred is often extended to the world and to others. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre">Jean-Paul Sartre</a>, a compatriot of Camus in the philosophy of bleak, godless existentialism, famously quipped in his play, No Exit:
<blockquote>“Hell is other people.”</blockquote>
The landscape now teems with discarded, listless men fueled by nihilistic rage and woe. So many are as disconnected and directionless as they are disconsolate. Most will go about their lives in &#8220;quiet desperation.&#8221; Some will not. Before we condemn them out of hand though, we must first consider the existential roots of this maddening epidemic.

Despair

KHAN: A Thin Line Separates Suicide From Violence Among Men Today

Suicide

Violence

As the Left insists on forcing its sociopolitical ideas down everybody’s throats through various mediums including film, television, and art, James Baldwin’s essay, <a href="http://faculty.gordonstate.edu/lsanders-senu/Everybody's%20Protest%20Novel%20by%20James%20Baldwin.pdf">Everybody’s Protest Novel</a>, is as relevant today as ever.
Penned in 1955, Baldwin’s essay takes aim at the famous protest novel, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Son">Native Son</a>, written by his friend and former mentor, Richard Wright. Suffused with communist ideals, most of Native Son amounts to didactic slop, as Baldwin rightly points out.
Wright’s zeal to infest his work with overt political tropes effectively ruins the novel. Characters lack dimension and the plot stumbles toward the absurd. Most importantly, it’s bereft of any real sense of humanity. The novel reads more like a political pamphlet or a fictional exercise in communism than a piece of genuine literature.
Baldwin elaborates:
<blockquote>“The failure of the protest novel lies in its rejection of life, the human being, the denial of his beauty, dread, power, in its insistence that it is his categorization which is real and cannot be transcended.” </blockquote>
Baldwin’s reductive, limiting notion of categorization is what the Left forcefully asserts on all of us these days. The decidedly superficial aspects of ourselves are what must inherently define us now according to the Left — be it our skin color, ethnicity, or sexual preference. We are stripped of the deeper, more essential qualities of our collective humanity.
Worse, these categories exist in a nebulous hierarchy. Only the most fringe are crowned to preside over the rest of us as gatekeepers of what is allowable, particularly in the arts. The evidence is increasingly clear.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/glaad-we-want-20-of-series-regular-characters-to-be-lgbtq-by-2025">GLAAD demands that 20 percent</a> of series regulars on shows be from the LGBTQ community by 2025. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test">The Bechdel test</a>is now a common feminist metric to coerce filmmakers and novelists into artificially representing women in their works. The progressive pull of these groups in Hollywood and elsewhere is staggering in scope and continually evidenced by the films, shows, and novels being thrown at us ad nauseam.
Certainly, if any artist attempts to stray from these measures the specter of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-no-leftists-critics-of-cancel-culture-dont-hate-democracy">Cancel Culture</a> looms over them. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dave-chappelles-rotten-tomato-standup-reviews-are-amanda-prestigiacomo">Rotten Tomatoes</a> certainly tried to undermine Dave Chapelle’s recent comedy special, Sticks and Stones, by only allowing for negative reviews from supposed critics.
Baldwin’s essay foreshadows the nefarious impact such sociopolitical strictures like virtue signaling and Cancel Culture have not only on artistry but on truth and the very notion of freedom itself.
<blockquote>“Let us say, then, that truth…is meant to imply a devotion to the human being, his freedom and fulfillment; freedom which cannot be legislated…This is the prime concern, the frame of reference; it is not to be confused with…devotion to a Cause…Causes, as we know, are notoriously bloodthirsty.” </blockquote>
Of course, given the nature of higher education these days, it’s doubtful many are even aware of Baldwin’s eloquent and prescient essay. Over the last thirty years, pedagogy has given way to progressive demagoguery on college campuses all across America. Healthy critical thinking is at a premium in academia and beyond.
I’d be remiss though if I didn’t note some information about Baldwin himself. Not only was he a great, complex American writer, he was black. And gay. How about them apples, progressives?

Dave Chappelle

Cancel Culture’s Failure: James Baldwin’s Famous Essay Exposes The Left’s Flawed Logic

Political Correctness

&#8220;Hope springs eternal in the human breast,&#8221; Alexander Pope famously stated in his poem <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44899/an-essay-on-man-epistle-i">An Essay on Man</a>. From a religious vantage point, that means it’s inherent to existence and beyond, not something that manifests itself by attending rallies, protests, or voting some perceived savior into office. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDYNVH0U3cs">Progressives seem to think otherwise</a> and often in mind-numbing fashion.
From climate change to human rights, progressives insist that it rests upon their shoulders to affect some sort of cosmic change in the world. Their view of existence is rooted in a spiritual fallacy of sorts. For them, all of existence is self-contained and only exists on some fatiguing <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socialism/#SociTranDimeDIII">historical and horizontal line</a> rather than the decidedly vertical aspirations that only faith can offer. There is little to no sense of God or the afterlife. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology">Eschatological</a> considerations are cast aside. Certainly, if God is even considered, His omnipotence and omniscience are rendered impotent.
As a result, progressives insist that civilization can only move forward through the efforts of human volition alone. It’s no wonder things only become worse with their dogged insistence.
In 1976, renowned religious scholar Huston Smith addressed the terrible, mythical stature this flawed notion of progress had achieved during the 20th century in his work Forgotten Truth. Smith writes:
<blockquote>“The [20th] century in which politicians have preyed on hope unprecedentedly, promising ‘The Century of the Common Man,’ ‘The War to End All Wars,’ ‘The War To Make the World Safe for Democracy,’ ‘The Four Freedoms,’ ‘The Great Society’ – this century of maniacally inflated expectations has seen utopian writing come to a dead stop…Even Bergsen, who moved Darwin into philosophy, came at the end to view that man was ‘being crushed by the immense progress’ he has made.” </blockquote>
Now, more than forty years later, amid an onslaught of postmodernity and even more supposed progress — in medicine, technology and, most importantly, values — a silent pandemic of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-faith-in-a-dark-time">despair festers and grows</a> all around us, particularly here in America, the bastion of all things seemingly progressive.
What progressives seek verges on fantasy and delusion. Their myopic, reductive view of the world bereft of any meaningful notion of God forces them to act as though omnipotence is a human possibility with just the right amount of outcry and activism. Inevitably, a terrible cynicism forms and festers as their efforts prove hopeless in effecting the radical change they convince themselves is possible.
To be sure, faith in God does not render us dogmatic or fatalistic. It can liberate us from the bonds of tragedy and despair. We do not labor like some histrionic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_(mythology)">Atlas</a> with the weight of the world upon our shoulders, as is the case with so many progressives. Instead, faith and God embolden us toward humble heroism, sacrifice, and composure.
The lines that follow Pope’s famous words in his immortal poem are worth quoting in full for those of us that do our best to recognize that, ultimately, the world will always reside in God’s benevolence and might:
<blockquote>“Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin&#8217;d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.”</blockquote>

Atlas

KHAN: Why Progressives Can’t Save The World

It was more than a year ago that NBA superstar LeBron James bristled at the notion that he ought to just <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lebron-james-responds-laura-ingraham-i-mean-too-emily-zanotti">&#8220;shut up and dribble&#8221;</a> rather than express his sociopolitical views.
James immediately <a href="https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/965448138902286336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E965448138902286336&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbssports.com%2Fnba%2Fnews%2Flebron-responds-to-news-pundit-i-will-not-shut-up-and-dribble-i-owe-it-to-the-youth%2F">fired back</a> at the comment by Fox News host Laura Ingraham after the 2018 NBA All-Star Game:
&#8220;I will not shut up and dribble. I owe it to my peers. I owe it to my fans. I owe it to the youth. I owe it … to everybody that has laid the path for me to get to this point.”
In what now resounds with irony, <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/lebron-responds-to-news-pundit-i-will-not-shut-up-and-dribble-i-owe-it-to-the-youth/">CBS Sports</a> stated in 2018:
“Lebron James has never shied away from sensitive issues. He&#8217;s known for being an activist and uses his platform as an athlete to share his thoughts on the world.”
James has now decided to pathetically <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lebron-bows-to-communist-china-pro-hong-kong-advocates-not-educated-negative-things-come-with-free-speech">bend the knee</a> to China and all the monstrous <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-as-woke-nba-bows-to-china-we-learn-more-about-the-horrific-acts-of-the-communist-regime">atrocities</a> its government continues commit.
In response to Houston Rockets’ General Manager Daryl Morey’s now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/backfire-nba-houston-rockets-cower-to-communist-china-get-blasted-online">famous tweet</a> expressing solidarity with the Hong Kong protests against China’s Communist regime, James offered the following <a href="https://twitter.com/BenGolliver?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1183917743680020480&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fftw.usatoday.com%2F2019%2F10%2Flakers-lebron-james-crushed-for-take-on-daryl-morey-usa-china-situation">mind-numbing response</a> on Monday:
<blockquote>We all talk about this freedom of speech, yes, we all do have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and you’re only thinking about yourself. I don’t want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand, and he spoke. And so many people could have been harmed not only financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet and say and we do, even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that, too.</blockquote>
The level of ignorance on James’ part is staggering. It’s abundantly clear that he is absolutely clueless, if not altogether craven. Here is the NBA’s most recognizable player as well as one of the greatest to ever play the game, actively shilling for the Chinese government. This is the very same player once dubbed by the <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/lebron-james-to-take-floor-for-nba-all-star-game-as-the-most-powerful-voice-in-his-profession/">Undefeated</a> as “the most powerful voice in his profession.”
Writing for <a href="https://theathletic.com/1281993/2019/10/14/charania-inside-what-went-on-among-nets-and-lakers-players-on-the-ground-in-china-amid-the-nba-china-conflict/">The Athletic</a>, Shams Charania reported that last week James lead a players-only discussion on the relationship between the NBA and China. According to Charania, James did not want players to speak out on the horrific injustices being committed by the Chinese government because they felt confused or uncomfortable about the subject. Of course, these very same players have no problem whatsoever letting loose when it comes to their criticisms of America.
More importantly, the issue is not at all some vexing deliberation over geopolitics from the likes of James and the NBA. The issue is money and sponsorships. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nike-pulls-american-flag-sneaker-after-complaint-emily-zanotti">Nike</a> is intimately connected to China and James is easily the shoe company’s biggest star. The NBA also has billions of dollars tied to China, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-07/nba-china-crisis-threatens-billions-of-dollars-decades-of-work">Bloomberg</a>.
It seems that, more than anything else, many, if not most, of the players in the supposedly &#8220;woke&#8221; league have gone decidedly corporate. Countless players have millions of dollars tied up in deals and sponsorships directly related to China. In 2017, the <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/klay-thompson-signs-80m-deal-with-anta-aims-to-be-the-m-j-of-chinese-shoe-brand/">Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson</a> signed an $80 million deal with Chinese shoe company, Anta.
Perhaps, James Harden’s rather pathetic quip last week to <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/china-rounds-rockets-gms-hong-kong-tweet-031203458--nba.html">Agence France-Presse</a> summarizes the extent to just how low the NBA and its players have stooped. The NBA’s 2018 MVP and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zpmigCh0Aw">notorious traveler</a> brazenly stated, like only a good comrade could: “We apologize. We love China.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-democracy-hong-kong-protesters-unload-on-lebron-brainwashed-or-bought">Pro-Democracy Hong Kong Protesters Unload On LeBron: ‘Brainwashed’ Or ‘Bought’?</a>

LeBron James

KHAN: When It Comes To China, LeBron Has Decided To ‘Shut Up And Dribble’

Communism

Free Speech

Laura Ingraham

Recently, The Atlantic Monthly published <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/09/free-will-bereitschaftspotential/597736/?fbclid=IwAR2jRgvcsnILYqgaMph5gxz9K-5hNu4mCcRJ9vLrXHVFzM1cD3vhD0iP5oc">an article</a> entitled “A Famous Argument Against Free Will Has Been Debunked.” The article details the latest discoveries in neuroscience regarding the age-old debate between <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/#DoWeHaveFreeWill">free will and determinism</a>. According to the piece, the available science now suggests that we may, in fact, have free will contrary to the biological determinism impressed upon us by the scientific community for almost a century. And so the debate rages on for yet another millennia, if not till kingdom come.
More importantly, the article illustrates a vital point for those of us who maintain faith as a central aspect of our lives. It’s imperative as people of faith that we do not attempt to corroborate our beliefs with scientific facts or endeavors. Not only is it a fool’s errand, it’s also a detriment to faith itself.
While it may seem intriguing or even somewhat reasonable to buttress our religious beliefs with scientific evidence, it very much runs the risk of delegitimizing the very beliefs we are attempting to prove as empirically true. Nevermind that it can be a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/science-red-seas-parting-180953553/">theological wild goose chase</a>, scientific theories are disproven all the time. If we seek scientific corroboration for our deeply held religious beliefs those very beliefs run the risk of being disproven as well.
<blockquote>“But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” – C.S. Lewis</blockquote>
An inherent aspect of science is that it remains in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superseded_theories_in_science">constant state of flux</a> wherein in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity">new discoveries</a> supplant long-held theories in an instant. For example, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craniometry">craniometry</a> was considered a perfectly valid method to scientifically measure human intelligence in the nineteenth century. We know now that it’s bunk and the methods and paradigms employed to reach such conclusions were specious at best.
Regardless, let’s say, for the sake of argument, that some piece of scripture in the Abrahamic traditions seemingly supported the antiquated idea that head size was indicative of intelligence. The instant the scientific theory is rendered obsolete, the scripture is as well. One is, essentially, building exegetical constructs on quicksand.
That doesn’t mean that science cannot provide us with a continued sense of wonderment toward all that God has created nor does it mean that we dismiss scientific truths for the sake of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46432/cases-measles-us-climbs-highest-level-25-years-ashe-schow">rote, blind dogma</a>. Not at all. What it does entail is that religious truths cannot reside in the lower, earthly strata of the scientific worldview. Simply put, religious truths must supersede them.
<blockquote>“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” – Hamlet, William Shakespeare</blockquote>
It also has to be vehemently stated that though we may not find tenable support in science for our religious beliefs, this does not mean, in any way, that we abandon our critical faculties when studying our respective traditions. Faith must be an active pursuit if it’s to maintain its necessary vitality and strength and not be reduced to some dust-covered ornament on a shelf. God gave us both a head and a heart for a reason.
That said, we need to also consider just how hopelessly dogmatic the scientific community continues to be as the defining paradigm for well over a century. In Why Religion Matters, renowned religious scholar Huston Smith drives home this point compellingly:
<blockquote>Among scientists themselves, debates over Darwin rage furiously, fueled by comments such as Fred Hoyle&#8217;s now-famous assertion that the chance of natural selection&#8217;s producing even an enzyme is on order of a tornado&#8217;s roaring through a junkyard and coming up with a Boeing 747. But when religion enters the picture, scientists close ranks in supporting Darwinism&#8230;Michael Ruse of the University of Guelph — a self-confessed bulldog for Darwinism — puts this colonization of theology by biology when he charges his fellow Darwinists with behaving as if Darwinism were a religion. (Why Religion Matters, p. 77)</blockquote>
While religious traditions continue to be maligned as antiquated and dogmatic pursuits, particularly by younger generations, they are completely unaware of just how dogmatically suspect many of their <a href="https://youtu.be/GlZtEjtlirc?t=203">own current conclusions</a> can be.
Smith continues:
<blockquote>Rustum Roy, a materials scientist at Pennsylvania State, goes further. Half seriously, he has threatened to sue the National Science Foundation for violating the separation of church and state in funding branches of science that turned themselves into religions&#8230;we have the curious spectacle of [Darwinism] colonizing not only theology but biology as well. (Why Religion Matters, p. 77)</blockquote>
While it may be intriguing to find parallels between our religious beliefs and all that science offers and continues to discover, it’s an unwise pursuit outside of some mild curiosity. Science is limited and reductive in scope and simply cannot grasp the awe, grandeur, and transcendence faith and God encompass beyond measure.

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Sharif Khan

Articles by Sharif Khan