Philosophy and culture with Mr. Wright

That would be John C. Wright, who works the high wire as well as anyone blogging the occasional deep thought. Here, he starts and finishes by talking about whether appetites can be properly ordered, because he's arguing at length against the (hard libertarian?) position that informed consent is sufficient warrant for any action. Along the way, without getting into theology, Wright proves why "the postmodern messiah does not make for good drama" -- and it's not even a political statement he's making, although the point would stand in that arena, too:

"Modern thinkers of many schools of thought seem unable or unwilling to draw a distinction between empiricism being silent on an issue outside its jurisdiction, and empiricism being condemnatory of an issue within its jurisdiction. They think that if science cannot prove or disprove that Marc Anthony or Hamlet or even Mrs. Muir saw a ghost, that ergo science proves beyond doubt that ghosts do not exist.

But the silence of Empiricism is overwhelming. The assumptions or axioms upon which the theory of Empiricism rest are not themselves open to empirical proof."

I love this:

"As a science-fictional aside, let me mention that in the third MATRIX movie (I forget the name. MATRIX REHASHED? MATRIX REVISITED? MATRIX RETARDED? Something like that) when our hero, Neo, the thinly-disguised messianic figure in shades and black leather is facing the Evil Secret Agent of Evil (who is dressed like a Republican, I suppose) the Evil Guy of Evil sneeringly demands that Neo justify why he fights?

Neo, being a hepcat postmodern figure, cannot say he fights for truth, justice and the American Way, as the superheroes of an earlier and healthier period could say (despite that Neo is quite obviously fighting for these things); he cannot say he is fighting for the woman he loves (despite that he obviously is, both during her life and in her memory); he cannot say, like an earlier Messiah, but one who did not use so much slick wirework Kung Fu, that he is fighting to bring the bread of heaven to men, to free the captive, to heal the sick and restore the dead to life (even though Neo has been freeing, healing and resurrecting like gangbusters during all three movies). No, his only answer, his sad and pathetic only answer, is to announce (amid a flourish of trumpets meant to sound inspiring) “BECAUSE I CHOOSE TO!” It is enough to make you spit your popcorn onto the floor in a flood of salty, butter-substitute dripping laughter."

FWIW, I've never even seen the Matrix movies. The "Neo" whom I'm far more likely to agree with is this one (and it's impossible to blame her for being jaded -- what does our president have against the people of Honduras, anyway?).