Upside down view of UD lectures
Subsidiary thought against the cult of prestige
It does not take much courage to criticize a group of which you are not a member. Instead, the noble man, as Dante writes in Paradiso, will strike “the roughest blows on the highest peaks” and correct his men when they go astray.
These words have been languishing in my computer for months. Driven by my antipathy to consensus and the push forward of our confused priorities, I now feel compelled to subject them to the discomfort of attention.
The principle of subsidiarity states that every task must be carried out on the lowest possible cell of society. More fundamentally, however, subsidiarity is a way of thinking that directs our attention to local issues. This helps us better understand the needs of those around us and prevents us from moving away from them.
In the few months that I have been here, I have never seen the university turn its intellectual powder on the city from which we took our name. Immigration, crime, food security, urban planning – all these issues that concern the daily life of every Texan and intersect with Catholic social thought have been left without attention. Where are we on these issues? Tell the average local that you’re a student at the University of Dallas and you’ll hear the result of this snub: “Oh, you mean UTD?”
However, the war in Ukraine, the goal of NATO and the future coronation of Tsar Vladimir Putin were not left without attention. The UD has no power to influence the outcome of these events, and we do not even have a comparative advantage in speaking about them, as we have, for example, with Italian politics.
The war in Ukraine, like any conflict, is shrouded in the fog of war. In an age of such sophisticated disinformation warfare—read: propaganda—it would be prudent for an independent thinker to refrain from making judgments about such conflicts rather than engage in military fervor. In the absence of truth, fervor is all that is and all that can be. The fact that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 did not teach us this lesson is embarrassing. Which of those times today can raise his head higher: a skeptic or a hawk?
On the other hand, the proxy war between NATO and Russia in Ukraine does provide us with an opportunity to demonstrate that we are ready to be on the right side on important important issues of the regime and, to borrow a phrase, strengthen our reputation and recognition. . However, I wonder: who is the target audience for these efforts?
If we hope to earn prestige in the eyes of the American cultural and political elite, this seems like a fool’s errand. The Church can never win favor with institutions hostile to its tradition unless that tradition is sacrificed on the altar of prestige.
The pursuit of prestige is illusory and separates us from our Lord. He asks us: “Why do you notice the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not feel the beam in your own eye?” A university that neglects its local community but rants about global issues would do well to take a deeper look at this issue. The church in general, and the UD in particular, need to be more vigilant against the temptation to rally around prestige issues. These questions can make us feel important, but also distract us from our neighbors.
One of my heroes is the late Czech dissident Vaclav Havel, whose political leadership led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union in Czechoslovakia. In his essay “The Power of the Powerless“ he describes a greengrocer who posts Soviet propaganda on his windows to show his respect for the regime.
One day, the greengrocer decides he’s had enough and takes down the communist sign. “He rejects the ritual and breaks the rules of the game… His rebellion is an attempt to live within the bounds of truth.”
Under a corrupt and increasingly secular regime, prestige is available only to those who live a lie. Does the story of a new cold war smell like corruption or truth? We can avoid this question altogether if we devote ourselves to our city – not to Kyiv, Moscow or Washington, but to Dallas.
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