More and More Ugly Questions
How much “diversity” can the West absorb before it is no longer the West and thus ceases to be a haven for people escaping their own non-Western "cultures"—which they bring with them?
When and why did the critical shift occur in American mentality that caused “scholars” and journalists to stop reporting facts, events, and conditions observable in the world around us and concentrate on reporting their feelings about an imaginary world?
Is the servitude of Africans that existed in North America from the early 17th century to the mid-19th century really the greatest crime in history, as is frequently stated these days?
Did you know that the civilised tribes of Indians held black slaves?
Was Richard Weaver right when he wrote that the more decadent a society grows the less it has the power to discern its decadence?
Did Russell Kirk perhaps have a lesson for American conservatives when he observed that they too often mistook “the acquisitive instinct” for the very different “conservative disposition”?
Was Solzhenitsyn right when he said that an evil regime’s pervasive distortions of the truth are even worse than its physical oppression?
What did M.E. Bradford mean when he suggested that it was perilous for Americans to continue to worship Lincoln?
Should a federal judge have ordered taxpayers to provide weight equipment for imprisoned felons so they could get more muscular and be better able to resist arrest the next time?
Whenever you read of someone being arrested for a horrible crime, you usually learn that this person had been convicted several times previously for violent crimes but was still walking around free to commit more. This is so commonplace that we hardly even notice it any more. What is wrong with this picture?
What would happen if real issues were actually discussed in a presidential campaign instead of phony posturing and meaningless competitions? (A good guess is that the media, candidates, and party rulers would go postal and pull out all the stops to suppress any appearance of real issues.)
Once more, what is wrong with this picture?
Entries(RSS)
Dr. Wilson,
Your words: "Was Richard Weaver right when he wrote that the more decadent a society grows the less it has the power to discern its decadence?"
Our decadence takes many forms. Mr. Weaver seems to be right even when the topic is food. The modern man has no reference in his taste for a yard egg or what are now referred to as heirloom tomatoes. He cannot recognize banality and tastelessness of the faux hybrid because he has never known the authentic.
This is off topic but I could not wait to offer you kudos on your ,"Society Before Government:Calhoun's Wisdom" in the July "Chronicles" Issue.
Man oh man, was that ever fantastic and bracing. Where else but in "Chronicles" could one read such a magnificent piece?
God Bless you, Sir. That sets right so many conventional wrongs that you should anticipate misfortune to visit you (although I pray it doesn't) because no good deed goes unpunished.
Dr Wilson,
I think Weaver foresaw in advance something we are observing today. People dont know they are decadent, or at least they dont understand just how decadent they are, and if you point out the general decadence of our times, they will often smirk and tell you 'it's always been this way', as if your knowledge of more morally responsible ages is but a delusional fantasy of your own warped imagination, thus revealing not only the fact of their own ignorance, but also the fact that they wish to wallow in it. They dont want the knowledge because they prefer their own delusions to scary reality and it's terrifying implications. Besides, nobody likes being told they are degenerate and sub-human, not even if you are very delicate and nice about it and tell them only in an indirect, round about way.
Mr Peters,
Cherokee Purples and Brandywines grow in my little garden, with crookneck squash and okra (and lots of hot peppers, which unfortunately haven't done well this year). Once you try the older varieties, there is no going back.
I really hate squash bugs.
I like to imagine that one of the principal designers/advocates of the policy of mass immigration into Western countries would respond, in a moment of honesty, that only when whites 1) are no longer a majority in their populations and 2) no longer hold a disproportionate amount of jobs, money, and resources over the non-whites living amongst them, will a moratorium on non-white/Western be acceptable.
Slavery a crime? Not in the least bit, let alone the greatest in history.
Bradford, the wise fellow he was, meant that Americans were bowing down to the figure who bears the most responsibility for permanently forming and cementing the all-powerful totalitarian American state that we know today. What has recently frightened me, due to reading a few political tracts from the time, is that the partisan Yankee elites of the Federalist Party back in the late 18th century were planning and wishing for such a government FROM DAY ONE.
Ron Paul, as flawed and imperfect as he is, already has brought up a few real issues, in at least one public debate, no less. And you don't have to GUESS that the tactic of suppression would be the establishment's reaction, Dr. Wilson. It has already happened, and continues as we live and breathe.
Speaking of heirloom tomatoes, etc. - but really not straying too much off topic - I'm again growing Large Reds in my Middle Tennessee garden that have been cultivated in this country since before 1850. They're juicy and sweet, a pleasure on a salad or sliced for tomato sandwiches. Additionally, I have pole beans (Blue Lakes), squash, herbs for cooking and companion planting to keep the bugs at bay, recently dug Irish potatoes, peppers, etc.
I work my three raised beds with pleasure, but it is work, what with the weeding, composting, cultivating, etc. My relatively modest efforts compared with working a full-fledged farm have reenforced all the more Jefferson's and other traditional conservatives' contention that agrarian folk tend to be the most stable, peaceable, and responsible citizens. Simply put, if you're working your farm and livestock, you don't have time to pursue abstract nonsense like making the world safe for democracy or meddling in others' affairs in general.
So many of today's "Americans" are so far from these simple truths, indeed, so decadent, that we may as well be speaking a foreign language.
'Was Solzhenitsyn right when he said that an evil regime’s pervasive distortions of the truth are even worse than its physical oppression?'
Perhaps Solzhenitsyn was thinking of the long term results of distortions of the truth and how they damage a culture, and how this affects behaviour, domestically as well as in foreign relations. Edgar Lee Masters said that he thought the Lincoln myth had warped the American character. Yes indeed, and that was one of the things that made Woodrow Wilson so stupid and idealistic, which is one of the reasons we got Versailles and it's results. That warped American do-gooding character was meddling in European wars to America's own detriment as well as Europe's.
The World War II 'good war' myth and Churchill worship were brought into play for the Gulf wars and Afghanistan, as the Hitler bugaboo was brought forth on Ho Chi Minh, Saddam Hussein, and others. We're always looking for new Hitlers to destroy, or inventing them, till now we have ruined ourselves.
Look at the myth of the 'innocent' Soviet Union in 1941, as if Stalin were just a peaceful 'Uncle Joe' suddenly attacked by the vicious dog Hitler with no provocation. Today, the 'Great Patriotic War' myth, in which the glorious Soviets 'Liberated' Eastern Europe and Eastern Germany (another transparent lie on the face of it), is used by the current regime to warp the character of modern Russians, and there's no telling how that will affect future Russian conduct for the worse.
Of course it's wrong to call all these distortions 'myths', but that's the commonly used terminology.
I wonder how the 'war on terror' will be built into a myth of it's own and used in the future to effect great evil? It will join the wicked Southerners distortion, the Civil Rights Era/MLK distortion, the 'oppression of women' distortion, the 'evil Christianity distortion', and the 'evil crusaders murdering helpless muslims' distortion, to name just a few.
Mr. Wilson,
The distortion of truth runs very deep indeed. It is only in recent years that I have begun to learn how the theological and doctrinal positions of antebellum Southern Baptists were "successfully" reconstructed by the waves of Northern Baptists who came South to enlighten us: revivalism, temperance to the nth degree, the Jesufication of secular liturgies brought into the local community of faith, etc. This shows itself in resolutions of Southern Baptists condemning their Southern Baptist ancestors for slavery and, most recently, in Southern Baptist essentially endorsing the legalization of illegal aliens and call those who might such oppose "nativists" and then labeling that as "evil."
In a recent Christmas program, Galatians 3:28 was quoted:
The King James translation reads: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
The quote in the play was: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
Obviously, "there is neither bond nor free" was left out. One must suppose that the authors of the canned text of the program have not yet utterly degenerated into egalitarians; therefore, they understand that the statement does not mean that the Jews and Greeks and males and females will not, in Christ, cease to exist as such. However, when one applies that understanding to "there is neither bond nor free," they seemingly had a problem because the modern/post-modern mantra demands that the subordinate relationship of bond and free can no longer exist; so they left it out of the program.
So is the truth distorted.
"will not" should read "will"
Dr. Wilson,
Although only an idiot would argue that the topics you write of are ugly indeed, the questions themselves are not.
Dr. Wilson, this is an off-topic question but would you happen to know what the status is for the Works of John Taylor of Caroline from Alethes Press? I have been saving up to purchase the set when it is complete, but the website for Alethes Press has not been updated for some time.