Recently posted on the Drudge Report was an article called "Rise of the Radical Nuns," linked to NationalPost.com.  It's about an orthodox order of Catholic nuns called "The Sisters of Life," located in Toronto, who have devoted their life to God in the most extreme way possible – extreme not in a political way, but in a social and cultural way (and economic, for that matter).  The subtitle of the article reads, "Meet the counter-cultural young women who have committed their lives to poverty, obedience and chastity."

What immediately came to mind is a comparison of these nuns who have chosen a "radical" lifestyle to those on the far left – i.e., the outspoken leftists in politics, in the media, and on the streets who claim to be the vanguard of the counter-culture and heirs to the radicalism of the sixties.

One wonders who the authentic radical is in today's society.  These nuns have rejected the material world, whereas the "radicals" on the left demand more from the world.  Their protests for equality and social justice are really just a charade in that they want more of what they don't have because of their obsession with the imbalance of income and possessions rooted in the consumerism of American culture, and the envy this "system" engenders.  Somehow they've deluded themselves into believing that they are counter-cultural when, in fact, they are the most saturated in the materialistic uniformity of American culture.

From Rise of the Radical Nuns:

At the age of 29 – young for a nun in modern times – Sister John Mary committed herself to lifelong vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. The habit that she wears, sews and washes herself is a sign of her commitment in what she calls today's "post-Christian culture."

"As our culture seeks to exclude God, we are attracted by a radical response to God," said Sister John Mary.

"It's very counter-cultural, but there's a great joy and freedom in the vows that we take in poverty, chastity and obedience. And it's kind of the opposite of what our culture offers."

The left insists on not just equalizing everyone's economic status, but expanding everyone's rights to worldly pleasure and choice.  In other words, tear down all limitations in the pursuit of instant gratification.  In today's world, feeling good literally and figuratively has become the primary value; one's pursuit of happiness is not to be denied.

It explains everything, from abortion to redefining marriage to legalized marijuana.  Leftists want to equalize everyone's conscience as well by removing any guilt that comes with eliminating traditional taboos through unbridled pleasure outside mainstream standards of morality.

From the book Virtue and the Promise of Conservatism: The Legacy of Burke and Tocqueville:

Discarding transcendent standards of right and wrong, forsaking knowledge of the good of man and of the questions of life, man fell into a self-flattering view of his own intellectual resources and an almost equally degrading view of his right to limitless satisfactions.

Another quote from Virtue and the Promise of Conservatism provides a prescient observation:

Tocqueville saw both hope and danger in the great, democratic crisis of our time. The search for equality may bring liberty and its essential guarantor: the rule of law. The search for equality also may breed materialism, conformity, and an unquenchable thirst for ever greater equality at all costs – even at the cost of our liberty. In the face of the crisis of equality, conservatism has lessons to teach us, lessons concerning the limitations, and the promise, of man. For the conservative it is when we accept the limitations of our reason, of our capacity for independent thought and affection, that virtue becomes possible[.]

Denial of the material world and all of its earthly pleasures is at the core of these nuns.  It sets them apart from everyone else.  There really is no other way to look at it – they're the radicals of today.

A final quote from "Rise of the Radical Nuns":

"As our culture seeks to exclude God, we are attracted by a radical response to God," said Sister John Mary.

"It's very counter-cultural, but there's a great joy and freedom in the vows that we take in poverty, chastity and obedience. And it's kind of the opposite of what our culture offers."

It is Christ who actually is the most radical and revolutionary person in history, because he changed perceptions of the world forever by demonstrating how we should all lead our lives – a world that has come to be based primarily on materialism and the need to constantly satisfy one's personal desires rather than one of spirituality and the need to serve others through sacrifice and self-denial.

The "radical" leftists are nothing but ultimate materialists imbued with satisfying their earthly desires, which makes them the ultimate frauds.