Friday, November 09, 2007

Learning and Relearning the Americoon Way (11.01.10)

Some things I have learned from God and Gold:

Since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Anglo-Americans have been on the winning side in every international conflict. And we didn't just win these conflicts, but reorganized the world in our image. Much of the resentment toward us has to do with the fact that in order to survive and flourish in this world, you must adapt your dopey world to the world we both discovered and made, which is to say, "reality" -- and nothing is the source of more resentment than the demands of reality.

Never confuse "Anglo-American" with "European," much less "white," let alone "French." "It is France that has most often attempted to defeat or at least most often contain" the Anglo-Americans. "Whatever we call it, the hatred and fear of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants and all of their doings is one of the motors driving the world." It is "one of the key organizing principles that many observers use to make sense of mysterious events," i.e., it is an unconscious paranoid process that animates resentful and envious people who don't really have any ideas, only rebellious anti-ideas.

We see ourselves as fighting for liberty over tyranny; the French see themselves as fighting for "civilization" over barbarism, especially us. As one frog put it, "America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization." Or as an intellectual from one of those useless South American countries put it, "Americans are Englishmen with the good qualities left out and the bad qualities swollen to fill up the vacuum."

Very early on, the Anglo-Americans discovered the dynamics of complex systems, i.e., the "invisible hand." They understood that order emerges from chaos, not just in economics, but in virtually every realm -- politics, the marketplace of ideas, science, relationships, etc. Most cultures -- including half of our own -- still struggle with the idea that most things will improve if only you leave them alone.

Anti-Anglo-Americanism is a constant in world history. It just takes different forms. Thus, the hatred of President Bush, both here and abroad, is nothing new. It's been the same pattern from from Louis XIV to Osama bin Laden to the New York Times.

For at least a couple hundred years, sensible Anglo-Americans have been predicting the End of History -- the end of poverty, war, stupidity, and all the other follies of fallen mankind. We always think world peace is just around the corner, under the assumption that the rest of the world will naturally come to its senses and adopt our liberal values, since they are obviously so successful. George Bush may be the latest victim of this sanguine view of mankind, i.e., giving Muslims the gift of freedom and expecting them to appreciate or make use of it

Heidegger is an even bigger a**hole than I thought: first he sees Hitler and Nazism as "Europe's best and even noblest protection from the twin threats" of Marxism and "Americanism"; then he concludes that the latter "is the hideous final destination on humanity's road away from a meaningful way of life"; and then he finally decides that "the Marxist machine, for all its evil, was less dangerous than the American." And Heidegger's vision "remains central to much European and Latin-American anti-Americanism today...." Truly, you could pick a name at random out of the phone book and obtain more wisdom than from this "great" philosopher.

Ever since England established the first national bank over 300 years, ago, economic illiterates have been howling that national debt would bring economic catastrophe and ruin, but instead, it has always led to more growth. You could publish a Paul Krugman editorial in 1740, and it would be just as timely as today. (Wisdom is not the only human knowledge that is timeless; a corollary is that certain forms of stupidity, or (-k), are timeless as well, something well understood in scripture.)

What Germany is to music and Italy to painting and sculpture, New York and London are to finance.

All Raccoons know this, but it's worth repeating: in reality, only the free market respects the masses, as it efficiently responds to their genuine needs, even if elites have comtempt for them. In traditional or elitist societies it is "the rulers and well-born whose tastes must be studied, prejudices indulged, and caprices made much of." "The power of mass consumption, harnessed by flexible markets to the economic interest of the talented, may be the most revolutionary human discovery since the taming of fire. The changes that have come and will come from this union of the ambitions of the elites with the aspirations of the masses are incalculable."

By the time Marx was dead and writing his books, middle and lower-income families were already enjoying "a higher standard of living in some ways than even the most aristocratic households had enjoyed only a half century before." Thus, his ideas were born obsolete, one reason why leftist academia is such a soul-killing environment.

It is because Anglo-American governments have been so relatively weak that they have been so strong. Like the free market, they must respect the wishes of the people and lean on voluntary cooperation instead of coercion. Thus, big government will necessarily become unpopular, because it no longer need respond to the citizenry and instead must coerce or use force. This is why everyone hates the IRS or recognizes the failures of the education establishment or the problems with social security, but no one can change them. Imagine the permanent nightmare of nationalized healthcare, which constitutes some 17% of our economy.

Again, all Raccoons know this, but societies that overvalue reason and devalue tradition and revelation become dysfunctional and cannot evolve. "Dynamic religion" is the philosopher Bergson's term for "the angel that calls people forward to ever more open societies." Those who have read the Coonifesto will be familiar with my idea that only open religion specifically engages the eschaton, O, luring the open system toward it, both individually and collectively. Mead notes that open religion can take many forms, such as "a feeling of restlessness and unease, a yearning for new experiences, a voice in the head shouting warnings or commands, visions, dreams, or ideas." It is living religion, or O-->(n).

Dead or "static religion" is the historical norm, certainly outside the Judeo-Christian world, but often within it as well. And radical secularism can be as much a static religion as any other. In this regard it is the form -- the deep structure -- not the substance, that counts. Put it this way: whoever you are, you either practice a dead religion or a living one:

"The tragic choice that many self-consciously 'modern' observers see between the black-and-white realism of open modernity and the visionary colors and imagery of closed tradition and myth disappears if Bergson's dynamic religion is taken into account." We cannot do without our great visions that "light up the western sky" and "stir human souls to the depths," driving us to "to pull up our stakes and move on," which is to say evolve, both within and toward O.

Which is why Raccoon philosophy is simply the operative philosophy of reality; it is what we might call "dynamic" or "evolutionary neo-traditionalism."

That's only half the book... we'll get to the second half in the next post.

39 comments:

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

"Most cultures -- including half of our own -- still struggle with the idea that things will improve if only you leave them alone."

And at a small fraction of the enormously bloated cost of bureaucracy.

Why can't we all just leave it alone?

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

"(Wisdom is not the only human knowledge that is timeless; a corollary is that certain forms of stupidity, or (-k), are timeless as well, something well understood in scripture.)"

Aye. No shortage of fools, that's for sure.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Most common elements in the universe.

1. Hydrogen
2. Stupidity

Or, hot air and foolishness...

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

"Which is why Raccoon philosophy is simply the operative philosophy of reality; it is what we might call "dynamic" or "evolutionary neo-traditionalism.""

Raccoons may know this, but a review is always helpful for relearning and reinforcing the truth.

Besides, no one I know can explain it as elegantly and efficiently as you do, Bob.
For me, it's like you reorganize the gnoledge I have, add revelation, and complete the puzzle everyday!

Then you express it and I recognize it...sort of like a timeless deja-vu plus a holy mystery all wrapped up and everywhence.

Yes, the puzzle is completed, and that unlocks more mystery...and the good news is, it never ends.
Call me crazy but I find that a comforting Truth! :^)

Van Harvey said...

"Heidegger is an even bigger a**hole than I thought: first he sees Hitler and Nazism as "Europe's best and even noblest protection from the twin threats" of Marxism and "Americanism"... and then he finally decides that "the Marxist machine, for all its evil, was less dangerous than the American." ... Truly, you could pick a name at random out of the phone book and obtain more wisdom than from this "great" philosopher."

Ain't that the Truth! I can imagine what our (dumb as a) post-modern aninnymouse's would reply "...Oh! " (oops, no caps, forgot), "...oh! but you don't understand, you did not read enough of him, or derrida, or foucault, to see their brilliance... if you did you would see i am much higher evolved...".

When you see that the foundation of their 'thought' is built upon excrement (hence the prominent a**hole), there really is no need to go in and try the fluffy chairs, the hole house is all just going to stink to high Heaven.

Anonymous said...

>>the French see themselves as fighting for "civilization" over barbarism, especially us<<

Hey, I thought the systematic use of soap was civilized.

Anyway, "civilization" in the French context generally means spirited indulgence in sensual pursuits.

NoMo said...

Speaking of the French and static religion, I actually know some French people who readily say they are Catholic before they are Christian. I have also come to believe that these French (at least) have a deeply rooted disdain for my WASPish self. Seriously, I've extended only love and acceptance towards them - and I actually think they hate me for that as well. They would never SAY they are bigots - that wouldn't be very civilized.

walt said...

Fascinating in-sights into our history! I'm guessing that the "unabashed" tone in the post comes from Bob, not Mead?

From your description, Mead's book sounds like a macro version of James Webb's book, Born Fighting, which I gather focuses only on this country.

But wait! In the Islamic version, we've got it all backwards!

Van Harvey said...

will said... "Anyway, "civilization" in the French context generally means spirited indulgence in sensual pursuits."

Oh those galling Gauls. And what's with the underarms? Anyone tell them that disposable razors are safe to use (though I could understand any frenchie named Louis or Marie getting skittish)?

Anonymous said...

Van & Will said:
I can imagine what our (dumb as a) post-modern aninnymouse's would reply "...Oh! " (oops, no caps, forgot), "...

Hey, I thought the systematic use of soap was civilized.

Oooooobaby, just LOVE it when you talk like that! Gets me all hot&bothered....

Van Harvey said...

From Walt's 2nd link: "He said Muslim philosophy was the impetus behind Islamic science that had contributed to various disciplines including botany, zoology, algebra, trigonometry, physics, chemistry, astronomy, physics, chemistry, physiology and mathematics in the pre-industrial era."

What a joke. The arab world was riding on the remainder of Hellenism that Alexander spread to them. I'll thank them, particularly the likes of Avicenna and Al-Farabi, for preserving the Greek treasures, but mooslim sensibilities, in the person of Ghastly al Ghazalli, eventually realized the dangers to allah inherent in dealing with reality, and shut it all down, turned out the lights, locked them permanently into their crazy past.

robinstarfish said...

"Learning and Relearning the Americoon Way..."

Circular Breathing
seasons in pursuit
chasing down the voodoo miles
passing zone ahead

Gagdad Bob said...

Walt--

Yes, I took the liberty of trancelighting Mead into plain Coonglish.

Magnus Itland said...

I don't know about the French, but I know that my native Norway has become a lot more Americanized in my lifetime. That is to say, mostly, more freedom to choose. When I grew up, there was only one radio channel and one TV channel, both run by the government of course. Telephone and mail were considered "natural monopolies" and you had to apply for a telephone, then wait until the bureaucrats deigned to assign one to you. If we were to describe our past to kids today, they might think we were talking about North Korea. I firmly believe that this freeing of the mind has done far more to kick the Norwegian economy to the top of the world than has our oil resources. In a manner of speaking, it is better that things are improving than that they are good. As long as things get better, even from a bad start, there is a spirit of optimism that releases a power in the people.

Anonymous said...

wow, I didn't realize before how simple everything is. Your philosophy, and that which follows from it, is responsible for all that is good and everything else is responsible for all that is bad.

Yes, those non anglo-americans are so useless. The only question is whether we should try to convert them[but why, they are so ungrateful when we try] or eliminate them. Though we do need them to do all those jobs we don't like. hmm, what to do?

Anonymous said...

Has anyone read Theodore Dalrymple's new book?
In Praise of Prejudice: The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas

Any good?

Just finished "My Grandfather's Son" by Clarence Thomas

1)great read
2)brother-under-the-pelt for sure
3)lets wankers have it with both barrels
4)mirrors Raccoon-style return to Faith

I was glued to CSPAN during those hearings & even taped the last several days. Remember standing up & saying Yes Yes Yes when he shut the panel's BS down. Turns out he thought: screw the nomination, got righteous about the bull & asked the Holy Spirit to speak thru him.

It definitely was powerful & memorable.

Way to go Clarence!

Van Harvey said...

mr. undercutting bottom said "...Though we do need them to do all those jobs we don't like. hmm, what to do?"
Hey! Almost got the shift key down! Impressive! But then again, what you have to say is just as under whelming as ever. Everything is not simple, it just seems that way because you are.

What to do about them? If they're here legally, let them! Just as the long trail of immigrants before them from the Vietnamese to the Italians, Irish, Germans, English, etc, etc, etc... the hard workers will get established, begin to earn more than the snotty folks that are here now (that'd be you) looking down on them, and force them to begin applying themselves once again .

What’s the end result? America prospers as a new wave of immigrants become Anglicized and Americanized.

Van Harvey said...

And with Veterans day coming up, thanks to the Veterans for making it possible!

Magnus Itland said...

How to eliminate the non-angloamericans: Invent cheaper birth control. Since they don't want the bother of caring for anyone else, even their own children, they eliminate themselves. The countries that can afford reliable birth control already wither on root, so the next step is to make cheaper birth control for the most misruled countries where people barely can afford food. Then wait, and eventually colonize the vast empty lands.

Hope that helps!

wv:sarex

Anonymous said...

You're right. What they need is to changed from their inferior selves into more perfect pseudo-americans. Of course, they'll never really totally assimilate, but their children, since they aren't tainted by their non-american past, can be treated as real equals. We can look past their dark skin color as long as they work hard and pray to the correct God.

But what will we do with those who were raised anglo-american but don't wave and salute the flag properly and who deign to think outside the correct theo-political norms? Maybe we should deport them to some third-world shithole, which was obviously not created by anything Anglo-Americans have ever done, and let them come begging back after they realize how foolish they were to reject Reality. Yes, deportation is the only solution to those damned Leftists. Now all we need is some non-absurd and non-arbitrary criterion for deciding who really is a Leftist. Man, this job of purifying the world of everyone other than proper white anglo-americans[and those who aren't but who will play our game] is tougher than I thought.

March on Christian Soldiers.

NoMo said...

hair on der bottom - My what an angry little troll you are! You certainly have it all figured out -so, March On!

Oh yeah...WOOF!

Anonymous said...

Ask not for what the troll bawls....

As Bob said, nothing causes more resentment than reality.

Anonymous said...

Piling on in praise of Justice Thomas' My Grandfather's Son . On a recent trip, I was so weepy over its early chapters that the stewardess was concerned she had a basket case aboard. Read it, read it. And, not least, buy it. The prayer that he came to in connection with the confirmation hearing ordeal would hoover out anyone's soul. I am not worthy even to review a book by this man.

And now that Sarkovsky says he just "doesn't get" anti-Americanism, it may be time to diligently catalogue the tired Old World's tired old calumnies, and identify the recycled categories in a display of exaggerated world-weariness, especially Ceasar's: Aha! I see you embed our old familiar the Degeneracy Thesis! très intéressant!

Anonymous said...

Yes, what might be taken as frustration or anger is, when seen by those who dwell in Reality, obviously resentment. Whenever someone gets upset with me for espousing my thinly veiled fascism I know that they really just resent me for telling the truth.

Its similar to when Jesus got upset with the money changers in the temple. He thought he was angry because they we doing horrible things and that his anger was justified, but no, he was really just resentful of how much money they were making. Silly Jesus.

Anonymous said...

Hair etc.: he was really just resentful of how much money they were making. Silly Jesus.

Ah, the familiar calumny that Americans are preoccupied with money over morals. Sehr interessant!

"The American knows nothing, he seeks nothing but money. He has no ideas; consequently the state is no spiritual or customary institution (Fatherland ), but an artificial convention. ..." (Ceasar p. 152)

Gagdad Bob said...

Pffft. What a disappointing conclusion to God and Gold. With Soros in the shadows, I knew there had to be another shoe somewhere. Stay tuned....

Gagdad Bob said...

Still worth reading, though. Just needs to be put through the dream-machine for a couple of cycles....

Van Harvey said...

Magnus,

I didn't know they did Droll in Norway?

;-)

Van Harvey said...

miss tear underware said "...Of course, they'll never really totally assimilate, but their children, since they aren't tainted by their non-american past, can be treated as real equals. We can look past their dark skin color as long as they work hard and pray to the correct God..."

My oh my, you are an angry little bigot aren't you?

"But what will we do with those who were..."

What is it about you leftists, that you always want to do things with people? Especially 'people' as a group? Maybe something in the roots of your herr....

Anonymous said...

Actually, I think Herr Troll is trying to say that his anger is just as justified as Jesus's was. These lefties do have a high opinion of their moral outrage, don't they? And so yet again I'm reminded that at the end of the day it's the moral zealotry and absolutism of the Left that's the real danger. Their needle is pegged all the time. They are always cranked to 11. They'll lie, they'll slander, they'll throw food, they'll slit tires, they'll undermine the principles of classical American liberalism -- whatever it takes to satisfy their moral passions.

And besides that, they're irritating as hell and most of them dance funny.

Anonymous said...

And besides that, they're irritating as hell

Yeah, I suppose they are, somewhat in the manner that a dog barking incessantly at a squirrel might be.

Of course the dog is neither so vain nor so stupid as to think he is unveiling devastating wit when he's making all that noise.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Ah outrage. I think Jesus said, "This is a house of prayer, but you have made it a house of robbers"?

Where was ever your house of prayer, troll? Where was your altar? Your sacrifice? Where was your worship for the One?

Your private interpretation of the scripture is just that - suited for your own justification and egotism.

Anonymous said...

Dilys:
re The Prayer.

Yikes.
I am reminded of the common quip, "Be careful what you pray for." To which I often respond, "Yeah- Never pray for humility."

I read somewhere about a correlation between fear of God and Wisdom.

Hi gang. I've been here in Lurk Mode for a while- content to sit back, and take things in. I've been working a lot lately, too. Just got the one-year follow up after last October's troubles. Everything was very good. BP, Cholesterol, EKG stress. The doc took me off the lipitor, so now I need to find the best organic herbal nature friendly gaia approved nonexploitational culturally sensitive, recyclable, and recycled vitamin pills. You know- something fermented out of the toe fungus from some snotnose bat found only on one remote island that's all full of giant gorillas and stuff. The kind of crap you can only get at like Trader Joe's, or something.

JWM.

NoMo said...

JWM !

Somewhere is here...

Great to hear from you!

NoMo said...

You have to start somewhere...why not at the beginning?

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Hey John!
That's great news! :^)
I'm so glad yer doin' well!
As far as the vitamins, I highly recommend the Walmart generic multivitamins. More vita for the buck!

Anonymous said...

Dear Bob, your view of Heidegger is not the whole story; he is a very ambivalent figure, I agree that his view of America is bullshit and indeed, and I can't understand why he never apologized because of his behaviour in 1933; but still he *is* a great philosopher, even a spiritual one; I wonder if his writings "Vom Ereignis" - published a long time after his death (in 1989) - are translated yet into english; it contains a lot of spiritual stuff about the origin of beeing, ideas which are able to connect western und eastern spirituality. I think you would like it.
Best wishes,
Jens (I learnded about you by reading What is Enlightenment and your wonderful book), Editor of the german anthroposophical magazin
www.info3.de )

Anonymous said...

For more on American exceptionalism, try "Our First Revolution" by Michael Barone, about the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Also, "Albion's Seed" by David Hackett Fischer which tells the story of the four waves of English/Scots immigrations to America. There's an analysis in the back of the book on every Presidential election for 200 years (well, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit) with electoral maps showing how presidents are really chosen. Fascinating!! James Bennett's "The Anglosphere Challenge" is also interesting. Bennett defines the Anglosphere as Great Britain, Canada, Australia, US, India & Japan. His website is "Albion's Seedlings", lots of good book recommendations there. "Chicagoboyz" is also in that same flavor .

Susan Lee

Van Harvey said...

Anonymous said "...but still he *is* a great philosopher, even a spiritual one..."

Of what use is a Philosopher, a lover of Wisdom, who is not wise? Who not only makes such monumental 'errors' of judgment such as choosing Nazi Germany over America, but who would not even acknowledge it as a mistake?

This is not merely a trivial item of preference such as choosing candidate X over candidate Y, or a disagreement over party affiliations - this is a defining choice and reflects his deepest most fundamental judgments and values and ultimately his estimation of what is Good, Beautiful and True - or whether or not they even exist - which in the end, for him, they did not.

He may have put some fine looking decorations upon his philosophical house, but he showed his foundation to be rotten to the core, and I guarantee you that if you look closely at those pretty adornments you'll find them to be corrupt as well.

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