More Almost Forbidden Thoughts
Almost everything that George W. Bush says is either an insincere calculated tactic or a sincere fantasy.
Our Congresspersons operate from a mind-set that is expedient, short-term, and self-interested. The general good and a long-range perspective seldom trouble their minds.
In American public discourse and historical accounts, the Civil Rights Revolution of the 1960s is treated as a supreme, unquestionable triumph. No hint of even the smallest possible downside is permitted.
The Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s was thought of as applying only to the South, and, as far as possible, was designed to that end. If the public had realized it would soon be applied to others besides Southerners, it would not have passed.
Aside from a few fragmentary remnants, America has nothing that can be called a high culture and nothing that can be called a folk culture. It has a material culture—which has lost its creative and productive edge, and a pop culture—which is steadily sinking to the lowest common denominator.
War always involves to some extent exploitation of the young by the old and exploitation of the poor and humble by the rich and well-placed. However, in all places ansd times, the rich and well-placed have been obliged to share some of the risk and sacrifice. Except 21st century America.
"If only Longstreet had . . . " —O. Henry (William Sidney Porter)
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In one of his early works, Podheretz comments that Southerners represented the only real intellectual competition for the neocons---which explains a lot.
Dr. Wilson, I'm not sure what thread you're responding to, but the Republican's haven't shown themselves to be at all friends of traditional Southerners. Sad that they receive so much Southern support despite this fact. A recent article at Lew Rockwell reported on how the Southern Baptist had degenerated into little more that empire worship, an outrageous sell-out to the neocons, and represents a real departure from their historical stance.
M. Pointevit is right; the republicans have never been friends of Southerners. Growing up in the border country near the Waxhaws, the commonly accepted definition I learned for the epithet 'scalawag' was: "A Southron who joins the republicans".
That definition is still valid, in my opinion, though I also view Southerners who are steadfast democrats as idiots. Southerners have no real friends in any political party thanks to the false history taught by the custodians of education and assisted by those who dominate the news and entertainment media.
Mr. Poitevint, I am not sure what you are referring to, but I have never, in my entire long and chequered career, said anything good about the Rep[ublican party or denied that it is and always has been the deadly enemy of the Southern people. That has been a main theme of my writing. My opinion of the GOP is laid out at length on http://www.lewrockwell.com archives under "The Republican Charade," which is also, I think, on a CD or DVD from the Abbeville Institute.
Dr. Wilson, I apologize if it appeared that I was contradicting you or accusing you of Republican worship. I was just following on your comment referring to an earlier work by Podhertez. I am well aware of your opinions on the Republicans and am in total, absolute agreement. In fact, I was agreeing with your assessment. Nothing good can be said for the party of Lincoln. And the neocon take over hasn't improved it.
#32 kissane, If you look at the history of popular culture from music, books,T.V. and film you will strangly see that the Jewish and not Christan point of view is always there.It is subtle and requires attention to details but it is there. You are blinded by a political position or are young and stupid. Yes their are a lot of subgroups destroying our Christian heritage and they must be elliminated for us to be healthy again!
Apropos of the musical thread, I note that modern instrumental bluegrass is a speeded-up version of the traditional English "broken consort" music (bowed and plucked string instruments). Many old country fiddle tunes are either English or border Scots and can be traced back to Playford's or other late 17th-early 18th century collections.
One of the interesting features of Southern country fiddling is the frequent use of scordatura, i.e., non-standard tunings of the violin in other than the usual sequence in fifths, G-D-a-e. In baroque music scordatura is mostly found in South German and Venetian works, e.g., H.I.F. von Biber's "Rosary Sonatas" and Antonio Vivaldi's "La Cetra." How the practice found its way to the American South I've often wondered; my speculation is that it may have followed the Salzburgers who settled in Ebenezer, Georgia in Gen. Oglethorpe's time, as they'd have known it from its great master in their home town, Heinrich von Biber. Not being a professional musicologist I will have to admit I could be all wet on this point.
There was a comparable tradition of folk fiddling in the north of British America, as can be still be heard in Cape Breton. A recent recording by the group Puirt a Baroque shows the persistence of old tunes; a recent (c. 1950s) rendition of a tune called "Cottonwood Reel" is recorded side by side with a Scottish tune of the early 17th century entitled "Kinloche his fantasie." The subtitle of the latter piece is given as "Under the cottonwoods." The two pieces are recognizably versions of the same melody.
As an old hound man myself (Von Plotts) I often wonder what I am doing out on the trail also. I have been whipped under the porch a few times over the last 30 years. Most of these posts have good points esp. the cemetary reminisce but anyone taking Lee to task for his invasion decision needs to review what the South faced there and then for their survival before criticising.
As to the Jewish point I'm still scratching my head. Their societies have been rent by this post modernism as well as any others in America. To be sure there are differences in response and attitude in the various parts and there is a difference between Sephardim and Ashikenazi .
The blame game does not serve much purpose in reclaiming the game.
Here is the link to Dr. Wilson's essay on the Republicans: http://www.lewrockwell.com/wilson/wilson20.html .
By the way, I say that the Republican economics is laissez-faisons.
Re: #56:
What you are describing here, Ron, is a phenomenon that could be said to invite further attention; but your comment at #27 tells me that you are not the right fellow for that job.
I say this because that particular job requires an understanding of what "Jewish culture" and "Christian culture" respectively do, and do not, mean.
Whatever you may or may not know about Christian culture, I don't see how any one who had the necessary understanding of Jewish culture could have written your point #27 in the way you wrote it. Not only because of the nasty tone (which is more than obnoxious enough to call for someone to challenge it), but more importantly because you seem to assume that "Jewish culture" is unitary, consisting of the sort of modern, secular, materialist matter you see pushed in popular culture.
Focusing on a very limited sub-set of Jewish culture, which is by no means exclusively Jewish and which happens to be particularly unattractive (at least, presumptively, to readers here), and suggesting that is the totality of Jewish culture is, well, like I said, ugly, lazy, and distracting. American culture is sorely in need of help, in my view. And name-calling that lets 98% of the population off the hook for the culture it creates and supports is not the sort of help we need.
By the way, I am neither "young and stupid" nor, on this point, politically motivated. (I can deny the first charge on the ground that it is made in the conjunctive, and I am over 40).
I would have to agree with Dr. Wilson for the most part, but would add this caveat: to his statement that the only real folk culture left is in the small town and rural south I would add also in pockets of small town rural America that have been influenced by the south. Whenever anyone asks me where I am from I say "southern Indiana." Now, southern Indiana is not a state, but it probably should be. There are a number of counties in the southern portion of the state where there still remains southern influence. Most of the people who populated the area came from Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky. My own direct ancestor, Laughlin Flinn, came to Virginia from Ireland in around 1713. From there my folks journeyed to and finally settled in Lawrence County, Indiana. We said "you'uns" instead of "y'all" and were naturally not southerners geographically, but culturally there was and still remains an affinity. I grew up in a clan-like family of old with grandfathers, grandmothers, and lots of aunts, uncles and cousins very much involved with my life in many ways. My people were largely small farmers and factory workers (my dad worked for 30 years for the GM plant in Bedford, Indiana, but always thought of himself with his 40 acres (no mule) of land as a farmer. They had old fashioned notions of hard work and looking out for each other and, although I am a college-educated man (undergrad and law school), most of my real "culturization" was from family. We heard old stories about what great-grandpa did as a boy, about the brothers who crawled under a shed which contained barrels of whiskey and drilled holes in the floor and the bottoms of the barrels so they could get a free snort when they wanted one (I really like that story even if it is a bit far fetched), and about the antics of my grandfather who delighted in doing things to scare his boys (my father included) to death. My father also referred to making a house payment as a "place payment." I never realized the significance of that terminology until much later in life. Our family's understanding of a "house" was not just some place to live, it really was our "place" in the world. I can remember putting up hay for my uncles along with my father and delighting in watching the uncles offer their brothers pay for their help and invariably having it refused. There is still a lot of that which remains there. Sadly, however, like many other traditional outposts it, too, has been affected by the stupid and crass puritan civilization that has pretty well become the "American Culture." People there watch idiotic drivel like Desperate Housewives and American Idol just as they do elsewhere. My only hope is that enough of the old place remains to at least, as the motto of the McLeans of Dunvegan says, Hold Fast. I am not overly optimistic, but I do hope that there will be a re-awakening. That won't happen automatically, so Chronicles and other such publications will be needed for a long time to come. By the way, I hate to admit the truth of Dr. Wilson's statement about the generation that really screwed things up was that which came of age in the 1960's. That is my generation and as much as I fought it then and now, I have to admit that the screwballs pretty much won out. Still, the Benedictines began the creation of civilization out of the wasteland of barbarism so maybe there is hope. Of course, the barbarism of their time was much more civilized that the barbarism of today!