How have I not heard of this guy before?  Nicolás Gómez Dávila ("Don Colacho") was a 20th-century Colombian thinker and little-known author who very much seems like our kind of guy.  Read his bio here.

He is best known for his collection of Pascal-style "Aphorisms" which I recently encountered for the first time.  They include thoughts like the following:

#2,982 In their childish and vain attempt to attract the people, the modern clergy give socialist programs the function of being schemes for putting the Beatitudes into effect.
The trick behind it consists in reducing to a collective structure external to the individual an ethical behavior that, unless it is individual and internal, is nothing.
The modern clergy preach, in other words, that there is a social reform capable of wiping out the consequences of sin.
From which one can deduce the pointlessness of redemption through Christ.

and

#2,967 No one is more insufferable than a man who does not suspect, once in a while, that he might not be right.

Enjoy,
LC
Lillian
4/3/2012 11:45:23 pm

If there is anyone still reading this website (which I am starting to doubt) I just discovered today that the English-speaking scholar behind the Don Colacho translation website is a personal friend of mine in Chicago. The site never gives a name, so I had no idea that all these translations were done by a friend of mine. It makes it that much cooler!

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Conor
5/26/2012 10:19:01 am

Lily, yes people still do read this website. That's cool about your friend.

I really like that second aphorism. I think what makes a good aphorism is that it speaks to something that resonates with most people's experience. We've all known insufferable people who can almost never admit to being wrong.

As for the first one, I'm not sure I understand it. Could you maybe give me an example of what a program today would be that falls into this category?

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