{"id":3496,"date":"2019-11-12T16:37:41","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T16:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/11\/12\/tom-and-van-a-tale-of-two-idealists-2\/"},"modified":"2019-11-12T16:37:41","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T16:37:41","slug":"tom-and-van-a-tale-of-two-idealists-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/11\/12\/tom-and-van-a-tale-of-two-idealists-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom and Van: A Tale of Two Idealists and their Disillusionment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Merton<\/a>Thomas Merton and Jean van Heijenoort were both studies in youthful idealism. Both made drastic life decisions early on, and both sacrificed much for their respective ideals. Van joined Leon Trotsky to save the world rather than attend the prestigious Ecole Normale in pursuit of a bourgeois career. While Van was motivated by a desire to save the world, Tom was driven by contemptus mundi<\/em> to flee the world and retreat to a monastery, which is what he did in 1941 at the age of 26 when he joined the Trappists. A convert to Catholicism, with the zeal of the convert, he took it to the limit the old-time doctrine implied: if the temporal order is but a vanishing quantity, then one should live with eternity ever before one's mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both became disillusioned,* but in different ways. Van lost his secular faith, broke with Marxism, and went back to the serene but lifeless precincts of mathematics to become a distinguished bourgeois professor of the subject.  Tom remained a monk but dropped the contemptus mundi<\/em>. Van abandoned activism for mathematical logic and romantic affairs. Tom dropped his quietism — not entirely, however — and became active in human affairs, the peace movement in particular, during that heady period of ferment inside and outside of the Church, the 1960s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Van<\/a>Both met their ends in foreign venues by unusual means. Unable to stay put like a good monk in Gethsemani, Tom flew to Bangkok for a theological conference where he died of accidental electrocution in December of 1968 at the relatively young age of 53. Van's addiction to sexual love and 'romance' led to his destruction, and in the same Mexico City where the long arm of Stalin, extended by Ramon Mercader's ice axe,  finally slew his erstwhile mentor, Trotsky. Van couldn't stay away from Anne-Marie Zamora even though he believed she would kill him. Drawn like a moth to the flame he flew from Boston to Mexico City.  And kill him she did. While he was asleep, Zamora pumped a couple of rounds from her .38 Special into his head.  Trotsky was done in by the madness of politics; Van by the madness of love. <\/span><\/p>\n

What is the moral of this comparison?<\/span><\/p>\n

Superior individuals feel the lure of the Higher. They seek something more from human existence than a jejune bourgeois life in pursuit of property, pelf, and social status.  They seek transcendence, and sometimes, like Marxist activists, in the wrong places.  No secular eschaton<\/em> is "right around the corner" to borrow from the prevalent lingo of the 1950s CPUSA.  Man cannot save himself by social praxis. The question as to how we should live remains live. Tom chose a better and nobler path than Van. But can any church be the final repository of all truth? <\/span><\/p>\n

For sources, see articles below.<\/span><\/p>\n

Related:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Like a Moth to the Flame<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Trotsky's Faith in Man<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

A Monk and his Political Silence<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

___________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

*Is 'disillusioned' a  predicate adjective of success? If a person becomes disillusioned about X, does it follow that X really is an illusion? Or can one be wrongly disillusioned about X, i.e. come to believe falsely that X is an illusion?  I would say that 'disillusioned' is not a predicate adjective of success.  <\/span><\/p>\n

ADDENDUM (11\/13): WAS THOMAS MERTON ASSASSINATED? <\/span><\/p>\n

This just over the transom from Hugh Turley:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Dear Mr. Vallicella,<\/span><\/p>\n

In your article \u201cTom and Van: A Tale of Two Idealists and their Disillusionment\u201d you repeated a popular error when you wrote that Thomas Merton "died of accidental electrocution.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
It is understandable that you could repeat this mistake because there was deliberate deception to conceal the truth about Merton\u2019s death and the falsehoods have been repeated for over 50 years.  In 2018 I co-authored The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation<\/em> with David Martin.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
There is absolutely no evidence to support the accidental electrocution story.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
I invite you to visit our website and look at the official documents from Thailand concerning Merton\u2019s death and find more information.  http:\/\/www.themartyrdomofthomasmerton.com<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
There is also a video of a presentation that I gave in New York City in September.<\/span><\/div>\n
https:\/\/153news.net\/watch_video.php?v=9O1A7KHOUY2X<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Yours for the truth,<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Hugh Turley<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I confess to not having considered, until now, the possibility that Merton was assassinated. So this is news to me and I take no position on the matter. The reviews of Turley's book I have so far located are all positive. If there has been an attempt to rebut his (and his co-author's) claims, I would like someone to let me know.  <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Here<\/a> is one of the favorable reviews. And here<\/a> is a June 2019 article by the authors on the ongoing cover-up of what they take to be the truth.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomas Merton and Jean van Heijenoort were both studies in youthful idealism. Both made drastic life decisions early on, and both sacrificed much for their respective ideals. Van joined Leon Trotsky to save the world rather than attend the prestigious Ecole Normale in pursuit of a bourgeois career. While Van was motivated by a desire … Continue reading “Tom and Van: A Tale of Two Idealists and their Disillusionment”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,102,39,73,358,221,203],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-corner","category-communism","category-human-predicament","category-merton-thomas","category-monks-and-monasticism","category-psychology-and-personality-typology","category-questers-and-other-oddballs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}