yet another brief slam on traditionalism

The publisher's description of Harry Oldmeadow's The Betrayal of Tradition says in part... The title of this anthology alerts us to the spiritual crisis of modernity and to its root cause: the betrayal of tradition. That there is indeed a spiritual crisis will hardly be denied by anyone who has pondered the condition of the contemporary world. Well hey, I myself have pondered the condition of the contemporary world and have to agree that, yes, I see there is indeed a spiritual crisis. Of sorts. However, the crisis I see is that so many people are having so many spiritual fucking crises that it's become a regular cottage industry. And generally speaking, the people having them are hardly living in cottages. Among the several "symptoms" the editor lists for this dire state of affairs (the big crisis) is "the loss of any sense of the sacred, even among those who remain committed to religious forms." It all seems a tad tautological to me, but OK, if you say so, Harry. (Though I am heartlessly harshing on him here, I actually respect Oldmeadow's work. His Journeys East: 20th Century Western Encounters with Eastern Religious Traditions is excellent.) One the concepts these capital-T Traditionalists find fascinating, even attractive, is "caste." Now, rather than just clicking on the book in the right sidebar (I know you don't actually do that, but humor me), you can search it directly right here. Try a query for "caste" below. The quotation marks are unnecessary.

OK, that's all, that's it. The end. If you're thinking that this post was just an excuse to figure out (and mostly rip off) enough javascript to get book embedding working here, well, you're right. But remember... (now also available as a t-shirt)

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