Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Left Wing Fascism: Different Strokes for Different Volks

Still on the road to recovery. The Boy's pediatrician says it's a virus, something worse than a cold but better than the flu. At least it's giving me the opportunity to finish Max Hastings' chilling Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945.

Not too long after the successful landing of D-Day in June 1944, everyone realized the Allies would eventually win. As such, there was no rational reason for Hitler to continue the war, much less with the frenzied sadism with which he did so. But then, there was no rational reason for him to have started it, either.

The last year of the war was its most bloody, destructive, genocidal, and hellish. The suffering that took place is truly beyond imagination -- and this includes the suffering caused by the Allies, which wouldn't have been at issue if the Nazis had simply relented. And the sadism and barbarity of the Russians might actually exceed that of the Nazis, if that is possible. The Russian savagery that took place in east Prussia is in the same league as the Holocaust.

Anyone who is sanguine about human nature needs to read this book and get a clue; also anyone who doesn't appreciate the rare and beautiful thing we had going in this country until the left got the upper hand. They will not rest until we are just like the decadent Europe we rejected long ago.

Anyway, this gives me a chance to reflect on an old post about a book called Hitler and His God: The Background to the Hitler Phenomenon.

***

Now, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but we shall soon see that Nazism represents a perfect shadow of what we might call "Christian evolution," or the possibility of further spiritual development within a Christian framework. In virtually all areas, Hitler wished to invert Christianity and literally create a new religion that represented its very opposite. As John Toland wrote, "National Socialism was a religion and Hitler was its Christ."

Van Vrekhem makes a convincing case that there actually wasn't any such thing as "Nazism" in any consistently articulate sense. Much less was Nazi Germany primarily "fascist." Rather, its ultimate principle was not only the fuhrer in general, but Hitler in particular. Truly, just as Christianity is not fundamentally a religion of "ideas" but of a person, so too can it be said that Nazism was a man. Furthermore, as we shall see, he was most definitely a kind of "word made flesh," only in a very different sense than that with which we are familiar.

Nevertheless -- and this is another key point -- the Hitler phenomenon could not have occurred in the absence of our intuition of the cosmic principle that allows word to become flesh. In other words, it was as if Hitler were hijacking a legitimate channel for a very illegitimate end. But when you think about it, this is not fundamentally different than when someone uses language in order to lie. Our cosmos is created in such a way that objects and symbols may embody, encode, and transmit truth. But for that very same reason, they may encode and convey lies. Likewise, if art is to exist, it will be capable of transmitting the celestial beauty from above as well as diabolical ugliness from below.

Van Vrekhem goes into considerable detail about the utter trauma sustained by the German people in the wake of losing World War I. For most Americans, our history has been so comparatively uneventful that we just can't imagine what it would be like for every pillar of stability to be obliterated. I suppose we got a taste of it in the Great Depression, which was precisely why so many nations lurched toward a fascist solution.

There is no doubt that FDR rode to power on a similar messianic wave as Hitler, which is precisely what allowed him to usurp and wield presidential power in a theretofore unprecedented way. Most of what FDR did was demonstrably harmful to the economy, but the need was so deep for a "strong man from above," that the people actually embraced it. Again, there was a kind of perfect resonance between the messiah and the masses. (We will later discuss this in the context of Obamania, as it is a reflection of these same enduring principles.)

Now, to back up a bit, there is no doubt that man has been dealing with an ongoing existential crisis with the onset of modernity. I'm not going to press the point, partly because it's just too obvious, but the rupture between the Middle Ages and the scientific revolution was so great, that we are still dealing with its implications. It is as if there are tectonic plates in human time, more or less continuous planes that occasionally shift, causing an earthquake in history. One such quake was the "axial period," during which most of the world's revelations were downloaded from above.

Then, after the world was largely oriented around these revelations came the massive quake of the free markets, democracy, and the industrial and scientific revolutions. In his book Modern Fascism, Veith discusses the deep alienation that resulted from the dramatic change from an agrarian, religious, hierarchical, and essentially timeless (or cyclical) existence to one that was suddenly ordered around the machine, the clock, democracy, and (small r) reason.

If we say that man appeared approximately 200,000 years ago, his outward circumstances changed little between then and the Agricultural Revolution some 10,000 years ago. Afterwards not a lot changed for the average Joe until the Industrial Revolution, beginning in the 18th century. So in the overall scheme of things, our current lifestyle is truly just a blip -- 300 years out of a total of 200,000. No wonder, therefore, that humans have such a strongly romantic and nostalgic streak.

But some people are more romantic than others, none more so than the late 18th and early 19th century Germans -- perhaps as a reaction to how rapidly they found themselves hurtling into a new and unknown world. While they apparently represented the apex of "civilization" by the onset of World War I, that civilization was superimposed, so to speak, on some very experience-near collective memories of blood, soil, and mythology that were not just bubbling under the surface, but existing side by side with the advances.

Back to that idea in just a moment, but we can get a glimpse of the same phenomenon in our contemporary culture, in which, for example, the most cutting edge science exists side by side with the most primitive new age magic and mythology, a la Deepak and his ilk. Instead of seeing these things as opposed (i.e. scientistic fairy tales and new age mythology), perhaps we should see the new age as a kind of fascist revolt against the anti-humanism of postmodernity.

In any event, as we shall see, the cultural matrix that gave birth to Hitler was a deeply "new age" one, with all sorts of books, movements, and secret societies exploring the occult -- seances, spiritism, chanelling, reincarnation, hidden knowledge, etc. This phenomenon was only ramped up in the wake of the catastrophic loss of World War I. For example, Van Vrekhem discusses how much interest there was in contacting the dead, given how many parents had lost their sons to the war -- some five million dead between the German empire and Austria-Hungary.

Veith writes that "fascism is essentially a response to the alienation that has been a part of the spiritual landscape of the West since the Enlightenment.... Science, technology, and the economic realities and environmental damage of the industrial revolution isolate the individual from nature. There has thus been a genuine yearning for community and for an organic unity with the natural world."

Living a life of cold logic is intrinsically alienating. There is nothing Rational about living a life of pure (again, small r) reason. But nor is there anything rational about abandoning reason altogether and living a purely instinctual life, which is clearly what occurred with Nazi Germany, but also to a lesser extent in the 1960s, not just in America, but all over the developed world.

I remember a particular patient who was maybe a decade older than I, and who was a young adult by the end of the '60s, whereas I was still a young teen. He was a deeply alienated man, and quite hostile to religion. Interestingly, he frequently articulated his alienation in the form of nostalgia for the 1960s, which, you might say he missed out on. He was more a witness than participant in the dionysian frenzy of that decade, which made him feel as if that is what was missing in his life. If he could only go back and relive the '60s, but this time do it right -- completely obliterate his ego and live some sort of communal life with no tension, instant sexual gratification, no boundaries, etc. For him, it was as if there had been this giant, boundary-less party taking place, but he had been on the outside looking in. (The film American Beauty also explores this theme.)

But again, this was just a symbol of my patient's current alienation, which could only be resolved now, not by dreaming and fantasizing about the past. The blogosphere is a pretty sorry place, but some of the sorriest people of all are the ones like my patient, who are now in their 60s and posting on dailykos about how much they miss the 1960s, and how the Obamessiah is going to bring back that sense of community and oneness.

Again, this is anything but progressiveism; it is pure romanticism, which is always backward looking -- and not just backward looking, but backward to an idealized past that never existed to begin with. It is pure projection of present existential pain, and escapism into the past. No one is more conservative than a progressive. It's just that what they want to conserve is childhood and all of its privileges, e.g., irresponsibility, dependency, entitlement, rebellion against the grown-ups, polymorphous perversity, weak boundaries, etc.

Which is perfectly understandable. For someone who lives without any religious telos, the denial of impulses seems stifling and arbitrary, because it "leads nowhere" (since God does not exist), and merely becomes bourgeois respectability or rank hypocrisy.

Thus, as Veith writes, "If objective knowledge is alienating, subjective experience is liberating and healing. Authentic experience comes from unleashing the emotions, cultivating the subjective and irrational dimension of life." So never ask why the left is so hysterical and irrational, because that is the whole point. It is a way of life. You will look in vain for the "rational end" they are seeking, because the emotional irrationalism is its own end. I am quite convinced that leftism is simply a "way of life" -- or, more precisely, a way of managing one's emotional life, of dealing with the pain and conflict of existence. It will be with us so long as cosmic alienation is with us, as an alternative to religion.

In Hitler & His God, Van Vrekhem goes into considerable detail about the "volkisch movement" that was a big part of the appeal of Nazism -- or which Nazism co-opted, to be precise. At the root of this movement was the idea that Christianity was a foreign influence superimposed on a much deeper reservoir of primitive beliefs. Christianity unifies people through a common belief system, but "volk" indicates "a tribal unity of blood, unmodified by ideas of a common humanity. Religious in the intensity of their beliefs, volkists had had no real equivalent in other Western nations."

The concept is especially difficult for normal (non-leftist) Americans to comprehend, being that we are the first nation explicitly created around abstract and universal principles instead of more primitive modes of blood, soil, mythology, etc. But here again, we can see how the modern doctrine of multiculturalism is in reality a quite primitive reversion back to earlier ways of life. Multiculturalism is specifically a rejection of American principles, what with its obsession with blood and race instead of ideas. This is why when you criticize Obama's ideas, they accuse you of being a racist.

For Americans -- and for Christians -- "essence" is in the individual. That is, we are created in the image of God, so that our deepest personal essence partakes of divinity. But for the volkists -- and for the multicultural left -- essence is in the group: "Volk is a much more comprehensive term than 'people,' for to German thinkers ever since the birth of German romanticism in the late eighteenth century, Volk signified the union of a group of people with a transcendental 'essence.' This 'essence' might be called 'nature,' or 'cosmos' or 'mythos,' but in each instance it was fused to man's innermost nature and represented the source of his creativity, his depth of feeling, his individuality and his unity with other members of the Volk. The essential element here is the linking of the human soul with its natural surroundings, with the 'essence' of nature."

Now, why do you suppose "global warming" has become the left's new religion? Here again, you need only scratch the surface of their irrational rhetoric to appreciate a reservoir of primitive, volkisch-like sentiments of "unity" with mother earth, of healing the planet, etc. Never mind that premodern humans were the worst stewards of the planet imaginable, in part because they were so fused with it that they didn't know the environment existed. Ironically, we only know about the environment because in the Judeo-Christian metaphysic, man transcends nature. But again, in the absence of a truly integral religious framework, this transcendence will be experienced as alienation, as if human beings have been exiled from mother earth, and need to come back down and re-merge with her like the prodigal mama's boy.

For (non-left) Americans, the individual stands above the state, and derives his inalienable rights from the Creator. But for the volkist, the group is the supreme identity that stands above or behind the state. Truly, in Nazi Germany, there was only one individual, Hitler; but in turn, he was merely the "embodiment" of the volk, which is rooted in blood and soil. Thus, "it was the genius of Adolf Hitler to wed the volkisch flight from reality to political discipline and efficient political organization."

To be continued....

40 comments:

julie said...

Still on the road to recovery.

Bummer. Does this mean you've left off the road to hell?

Anyone who is sanguine about human nature needs to read this book and get a clue; also anyone who doesn't appreciate the rare and beautiful thing we had going in this country until the left got the upper hand.

I'm pretty sure that, for a while at least, the American experiment at its best was the closest any culture ever got to heaven this side of the veil. The realization that it may be lost is unutterably sad. We were only so good for as long as we were a nation under God. That was our way, truth and light. Now that we are merely a nation under the thumb of man, the light is dimming. Some days, I truly believe that as a nation, we are passing the point of no return.

*sigh*

Think I liked the road to hell better...

Anyway, now to actually read the post...

will said...

>> . . . there was no rational reason for Hitler to continue the war . . <<

There was one "rational" reason - at least in his own febrile imagination - for Hitler to continue the war, and that was: kill more Jews, as many as possible before Götterdämmerung befell the 3rd Reich.

Most war criminals would try to "clean up" signs of their atrocities before they lost a war. Hitler actually accelerated the liquidation of the Jews when it became clear that Germany would lose the war. Manpower, trains, etc., all of which could have been used to combat the Allied advances, were instead used to ferry more Jews to the gas chambers.

The real nazi agenda couldn't have become more clear. Why the Jews? Well, that's obvious.

Never again, as they say.

JP said...

Bob says:

"Truly, in Nazi Germany, there was only one individual, Hitler; but in turn, he was merely the "embodiment" of the volk, which is rooted in blood and soil. Thus, "it was the genius of Adolf Hitler to wed the volkisch flight from reality to political discipline and efficient political organization."

I don't think genius is the right word to use there.

Once the "volkish flight from realiy" was properly attached to "political discipline" and "efficient organization", the result was predictable malignant social insanity.

That not genius. Unless you think that the social equivalent of becomming addicted to crystal meth on purpose is genius.

It's basically stupidity of the highest order.

julie said...

But for the volkist, the group is the supreme identity that stands above or behind the state.

Puts in mind a great many things I've read lately, not least of which being Piven's endorsement of Greek-style rioting of "the poor" against, well, everyone else. I wonder if she even has any idea who "the poor" are, either in general or specifically?

JP said...

Bob says:

"The last year of the war was its most bloody, destructive, genocidal, and hellish. The suffering that took place is truly beyond imagination -- and this includes the suffering caused by the Allies, which wouldn't have been at issue if the Nazis had simply relented."

No culture ever relents during a true "Crisis Era/Fourth Turning" war.

The war continues, getting worse and worse, until it finally ends.

Compare and contrast WWI (non-crisis war) with WWII.

The actual reason why WWII occurred with basically the same actors as WWI was because the U.S. did not take it's position as "world leader" for that cycle.

WWI resolved nothing and ended up setting the stage for WWII.

The entrance of Hitler and Stalin onto the world stage made the war a complete bloodbath.

JP said...

Julie says:

"Puts in mind a great many things I've read lately, not least of which being Piven's endorsement of Greek-style rioting of "the poor" against, well, everyone else. I wonder if she even has any idea who "the poor" are, either in general or specifically?"

Obviously, "the poor" are the people rioting.

The riotees, or the recipients of the rioting, are "the rich".

It's kind of like a club. If you feel like becoming part of a mob to pillage someone else, you have self-identified as "the poor".

It's pretty easy, really.

Gagdad Bob said...

Genius in this context means "a single strongly marked capacity or attitude." I am not enamored of genius in and of itself, which is, more often than not, simply error on a grandiose scale. The insipid "cult of genius" is one of the things that has replaced religion.

JP said...

Bob says:

"By genius is meant "a single strongly marked capacity or attitude." I am not enamored of genius in and of itself, which is, more often than not, simply error on a grandiose scale." The insipid "cult of genius" is one of the things that has replaced religion."

I think we need to bring back the word "monomania".

Hitler was certainly monomaniacial.

julie said...

The insipid "cult of genius" is one of the things that has replaced religion.

Yep - and thus we have an entire class of parents determined to turn their kids into "prodigies" and "elites."

will said...

I think genius can be evil, in the short term at least.

In very short order, Hitler united all the disparate nationalistic groups in Germany, groups that had been at war with each other in the streets. He did this without the benefit of Albert Speer and leni riefenstahl, did it just by speaking in beer halls. Hitler possessed - or was possessed - by a type of charisma suited for the volk and such charisma could be termed "genius". it got results. Hitler was amazingly successful in what he was attempting to do, up until he decided to invade Russia. Then it all came apart. Genius in the service of evil eventually and spectacularly self-immolates.

julie said...

Hitler united all the disparate nationalistic groups in Germany, groups that had been at war with each other in the streets.

Reminds me of how, within leftism, there are so many disparate groups that should be at odds with each other, because their first principles are so clearly incompatible. Unfortunately, they all seem to agree that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," and so we have anti-religious pro-choice feminists marching alongside Islamic fascists and women in hijab, all together crying for the demise of the West. Thank goodness they don't yet have a strong leader to pull them all together...

will said...

Right, Julie, imagine somebody who could unite the cryps, bloods, and latin kings under one slogan, one banner, one leader. That would be a bit of genius.

Anyway, yeah, the left excels at internecine warfare, and their materialistic ethos demands that might makes right, eventually. Thus one doesn't simply defeat the opposition, one must crush the opposition.

julie said...

Re. the gangs, that's a good point, too. Most of our left limit their violence to speech, and no matter how much they may talk about murder and mayhem, they are generally cowards at heart. I'm fairly certain such was not true of the Germans back in the day. If literally push came to shove here, I don't think the bitter clingers of the right would quietly allow themselves to be beaten into submission, but then that's why rhetoric is used so relentlessly instead.

Gagdad Bob said...

Re Will's 9:23 comment, one might say that the Holocaust was the Nazi eucharist....

julie said...

On a tangent, speaking of unholy eucharists, did anyone else find it particularly telling that Gosnell's most extreme work was performed on Sundays?

julie said...

Looks like Mushroom was having similar thoughts today:

Truly the old, bold socialists, eugenicists, and strong men who stalked under the noon sun are gone, replaced by careful and cowardly creatures of the night that scurry from shadow to shadow lest we see their true form. Apart from the insulated and the tenured like Peter Singer, few of the "pro-choice" advocates in our day admit that they long for a better race of men through more selective breeding, and, by the way, far fewer men for the most part. They have learned the chameleon trick of taking on the surrounding colors, especially the color of freedom, as they lurk and wait to strike. It's just me probably, but I'd rather take my chances face to face with the grinning tiger of the day than be struck by an ambushing death adder.

ge said...

nothing quite like a touch of
Esoteric Nazism
to spice up a wintry day!
[I am something of an admirer of Miguel Serrano's writing, at least his unique NOS BOOK OF THE RESURRECTION]
He croaked recently, near 100

wild said...

I have recently encountered the derangement of the Left on Wikipedia.

I read three Wikipedia entries (one about a conservative British philosopher/culture critic, another about a conservative American philosopher/culture critic, and another a general political article.

The first had little or no content about his ideas, and was largely taken up with Leftist smears. The second was written by somebody who had actually read the books of the person in question, and was quite good. The third was so biased to the Left it was frankly rather silly.

In the first two (drawing on their texts - I have nearly all the books of the people in question) I added some well sourced content, and in the general article I drew attention in the talkpages to some of the false claims. My contribution in the first article was instantly deleted needless to add, and so I sought to justify it in the talkpages. What followed was bizzare.

To cut a long story short, not only were my changes deleted, and the evidence I put in support of them ignored, but my my comments putting forward contrary evidence were deleted, and when I restored them I was banned from that article. Then on the basis of an entirely made up claim that I was a former Wikipedia banned author, I was not only banned from contributing on, or making comments about, the first article, I was banned from making any contributions or comments on the other article as well!

The entire article (not by me) on the American conservative thinker was then deleted, on the grounds that I had contributed to it and it was therefore it must be unreliable.

This was all done by editors without the slightest knowledge of the writings of the persons at issue.

When an editor protested at my treatment (calling it Stalinist) remarking that it was their inability to counter my objections that led them to delete my comments, this editor was also targeted, and they were also accused of being a banned Wikipedia author! There were various (unsuccessful) attempts to get them completely banned, and although I am not banned (because they have no evidence of me actually having done anything wrong) every contribution I make to any article is automatically deleted by one of them citing the banned author fiction.

What struck me was not the amount of time and energy some people dedicate to subverting articles, forming alliances, underming committes, and mastering procedural rules in search of justifications for their actions, but the sheer vindictiveness and complete disregard of any truth. Not only was there no interest in the truth of the content of the articles, there was no interest in providing a true account of what had happened in their campaign against me, quite the opposite.

It is only a few Wikipedia articles, not concentation camps and mass starvation, but I have to confess it leaves me feeling that many people on the Left are so mentally disturbed the only appropriate adjective I can use is evil.

To anybody who has not encountered such people they will no doubt think that your focusing on the Left (using European history as evidence) is nothing more than partisan chatter, but absurd as it sounds my recent experience on Wikipedia helps me understand the sheer darkness of the Left much better than any number of books (of which I have read many) about past events. Until you have actually encounted dedicated Leftists it is hard to believe that real people can behave in such a posionous and deranged way.

Gagdad Bob said...

The left gives new meaning to "vandalizing the page," since their vandalism and scholarship are indistinguishable. They vandalize the pages of history, economics, literature, whatever. It really is diabolical. No other way to explain it.

The Crack Emcee said...

GB,

Great post! This is The Crack Emcee from The Macho Response, and one of my readers turned me on to you because I cover much the same territory (though in a totally different manner and, obviously, for totally different reasons). If you haven't already, you might also want to check out (my friend) Chris Locke's Mystic Bourgeoisie site.

Though an atheist, I'll be devouring your writing over the next few days, because you've already given me a lot of food for thought.

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

OMG Crack MC: You are in a minefield. Run. No atheist comes here and establishes a "converstation."

GB and his henchpeople are viscious thugs.

Even this comment will no doubt be censored and deleted.

Venice Floating said...

In Mein Kampf and in his speech and action Hitler was consistent.

Towards the end he stated "If the German people can't win, then they do not deserve to exist."

He meant this literally. He did his part and annhilated himself on cue.

A REAL Darwinist, he. Whole races and subspecies could go extinct for all he cared.

mushroom said...

Thank you, Julie.

It seems to me that what the Founders did was make the government non-individual-dependent, based on the Constitution. It doesn't require geniuses or charismatic leaders to be fully functional and protect freedom.

The best pro-Constitution leader would be a guy like Calvin Coolidge who doesn't want the government to do anything if it can be avoided.

The left prefers the authority of the elite over the natural law, the rights with which we have been endowed by our Creator.

You might say they are antinomianist but pro-antichrist.

JP said...

Troll says:

"OMG Crack MC: You are in a minefield. Run. No atheist comes here and establishes a "converstation."

GB and his henchpeople are viscious thugs."

Well, it appears that he dislikes evil cults just like I do.

Although it's odd that an athiest would take that position, but hey, who am I to judge a fellow anti-evil cult guy?

I think his position is based upon his first hand experience that evil cultists are actually evil and not simply cute and amusing.

Wheras my position stmps mostly from a general feeling that they are evil and must be destroyed.

Van Harvey said...

"Truly, just as Christianity is not fundamentally a religion of "ideas" but of a person, so too can it be said that Nazism was a man. Furthermore, as we shall see, he was most definitely a kind of "word made flesh," only in a very different sense than that with which we are familiar. "

Except of course that the person is a personification of Truth, and nazism was of unprincipled, anti-truth, or hyper pragmatism... pure power directed towards one physical action after another leading off into an infinite quantity of regress.

wv:ghthro
'Uncle Jed! Chinese done discovered everything! A Chinee feller Mr. Who discovered America, and Who wrote the constitution, and Who discovered a cure for polio...!'
'Whee doggies boy, you got a heap a larnin' in that 6th grade edukayshun'

(I've been shoveling ice for three hours... delirious... sorry)

Van Harvey said...

"Veith writes that "fascism is essentially a response to the alienation that has been a part of the spiritual landscape of the West since the Enlightenment..."

Meh. Fascism is the culmination of the idea that we can exert power over reality, that we can force reality and it's ‘minion truth’, to submit to what we desire it to be, and Fascism elevates an anointed person to embody the peoples desire to escape the Enlightenments understanding that Reason, custom and manners are all subservient to Truth, the fascist leader will DO what is needed, will lead the Volk to triumph over the hated need to conform to principles and habits of Truth, Virtue… and all the rest, the hundreds of millions of dead and destroyed, are simply the inEveAteApple side affects of that.

will said...

Ack, the Blizzard keeps knocking me offline . . .

Julie, the left may be cowards at heart, but I think if given the chance, they'd string us up faster than you can say Saul Alinsky. It would take a Weimar Republic chaos for them to fill the vaccuum, but that could happen. Then all those mousy little academic apparachiks would bare their fangs and their hatred would foam over

will said...

What's a "converstation"?

julie said...

:D

Van - Isn't that what the man said?

Will - "if given the chance, they'd string us up faster than you can say Saul Alinsky."

Oh, I have no doubt of that. But there's the rub - they need both the chance, and the certainty that we've been cowed into submission enough that when they come for us, we won't put up a fight. It could come to that, too, should we keep giving ground in order to keep the peace, but I don't know... there are still an awful lot of conservatives out there who, I hope, would stick to their guns. Literally and figuratively.

Van Harvey said...

Will said "if given the chance, they'd string us up faster than you can say Saul Alinsky..."

Don't I know it. For all my shoveling today, I still couldn't get out of my driveway. I was supposed to be the other half of muscle for some of us infiltratin' a greenie(putrid aspect, for sure)-islambie event tonight... they went ahead without me... haven't heard the results yet, keep 'em in your thoughts please.

Van Harvey said...

"The essential element here is the linking of the human soul with its natural surroundings, with the 'essence' of nature.""

Yep, with it's flat material impulses... I so rue Rousseau, Pandora had nothing on his box of woes.

julie said...

If it makes you feel any better, Dante says there's a special place in the inferno for that guy...

will said...

Julie -

>>there are still an awful lot of conservatives out there who, I hope, would stick to their guns<<

This is the USA, baby - been nothing like it ever before. Our ideal shall not perish from the earth.

I do say we should stick to our prayers, first and foremost. Give our suffering to God, let's take the Holy Hit. Then we'll know what to do when the time comes and nothing will cow us.

Van Harvey said...

JP said "It's basically stupidity of the highest order."

Gotta watch out for that one, a temptation I've fallen for not a few times, but 'stupidity', as with 'monster', blinds us to what it actually is, intelligence serving anti-principles.

Sure it looks stupid from our point of view, after all, there's no way it serves any Good purpose... but that's not it's purpose, and it, he then, they now, are very cleverly serving those same purposes today - just not as bloodily... yet.

When we call them stupid or monsters, those who are somewhat familiar with them, can easily see that they are not stupid people, and have no apparent fangs or tri-sets of 6's stamped on them, so obviously we're the reactionary fools, and another one bites the dust....

Van Harvey said...

Gagdad said "The insipid "cult of genius" is one of the things that has replaced religion."

Another way of seeing it is where my sweetie Philosophy, is jumped up to supreme leader... but has had it's finest Qualities and Imagery replaced with the task of tallying quantities and deifying impulses.

That is monstrous... but being as it's the judge in the 'beauty' pageant, it's purveyors know it doesn't need to bother with poise and grace, all it needs to do is show skin to win, and we all lose.

Van Harvey said...

Mushroom said "The best pro-Constitution leader would be a guy like Calvin Coolidge who doesn't want the government to do anything if it can be avoided.

The left prefers the authority of the elite over the natural law, the rights with which we have been endowed by our Creator."

Exactly.

julie said...

Will,

Give our suffering to God, let's take the Holy Hit.

I've been thinking about that lately, that it may well require a big Holy Hit, or rather perhaps one hell of a pruning, to get us back on the right track. If so, then so be it; as I was well reminded over the Holidays, all things work to the good...

Gagdad Bob said...

Dr. Sanity has a sobering post about the feckless squandering of our golden hour.

will said...

re: the Golden Hour - The only thing I would question is conjecture # 2, the notion that we would strike the Islamic world with nukes should we suffer a similiar attack by them.

I doubt very much that Obama would order such an reprisal, even if ten American cities were dirty-bombed.

The next president, if there was one, would do so. But Obama . . . don't think so.

The Crack Emcee said...

Van,

When we call them stupid or monsters, those who are somewhat familiar with them, can easily see that they are not stupid people, and have no apparent fangs or tri-sets of 6's stamped on them, so obviously we're the reactionary fools, and another one bites the dust....

The image of NewAge (rhymes with "sewage") as "stupid" (which, to normal eyes, it is) or "harmless" is a sly cover - probably the best "wolf in sheep's clothing" disguise ever invented. Nobody's afraid of Oprah, right? Why, they can get away with murder with that reputation - and they do. Regularly. Mass murder, right under our noses. And, just like with abortion, anyone who challenges them is not stupid but "crazy". It all works exceptionally well.

To Anonymous:

Thanks for looking out for my welfare (if that's what you're doing) but unlike a lot of atheists - if not most - I'm not at war with Christianity. I'm an American, and understand my country - and the language of it's religion - very well. Christians and Jews have been my allies, since my ex-wife went on her killing spree, and I'm grateful they accept me.

I've spoken on Christian radio and worked as the Shabbos in a number of synagogues. All that's important to me is whether or not someone (or a group) recognizes the difference between "the good" and evil, and throws their hat in that ring, as I have.

One word about my blog:

TMR is intended to be a shocking experience - cult deprogramming is called "snapping" and consists of A) discombobulating the cultist, and B) not giving them room to maneuver as you challenge their "thinking" - so, while I can't create the exact process (anyone can just click away) by using the iconography that lures them in, and the badgering language that makes it unforgivably clear I'm not going along (causing doubt) I'm able to recreate it enough to help a few, here and there - and I've got the emailed testimonials (and donations) to prove it.

I'm an artist (mainly a recording artist, with a long career) who sees my next step, post-murders, etc., as introducing a cultural component that speaks to the left, musically (Rock, Rap, Jazz, etc.) while introducing conservative ideas, lyrically. I haven't seen or heard that done yet - basically fooling the Left into agreeing with us - but I think it's the next important cultural step in taking our country back.

I hope those here will approve and give me your support:

I'm with you.

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