Sunday, December 24, 2017

Merry Christmas



Firstly, I'd like to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

It's been a year of mixed blessings and I must admit that some of them have put me in a bit of a funk. Over here in Australia, the country overwhelmingly voted in favor of the legal recognition of Same Sex Marriage. The Euthanasia Laws were passed in my home state and the lack of any coherent response by the "Right" reinforced its impotence. Right "victories" were non existent.

Globally, the war in Syria seems to have taken a turn for the better with the intervention of Putin, but on the other hand there wasn't much else. Trump hasn't really been doing much "winning", the U.K. still hasn't left the EU. Poland is being hassled by Germany the EU, Europe's demographic disaster continues. North Korea continues to develop its nukes with China's covert blessing and a showdown there is eventually going to happen. As for the the economy of the West...tick, tick, tick.

Culturally, the Dissident Right seems to have lost some of its steam with neoreaction going particularly quiet. From my perspective the Dissident Right seems to be aimless and drifting at the moment. On the bright side,  the cabal sympathetic to Richard Spencer seems to have lost a lot of its clout and presence on the dissident forums. This is a good thing.

I'm all for slogging things out when the going is hard but the lack of meaningful victories is demoralising and I suspect that this may have contributed to my chronic writer's block. Though I haven't written, I've tried to be productive in my reading. I've particularly gained an appreciation of the Protestant author Grant Havers and his concept of Political Charity, more on this in later posts. I'm also really enjoying Eugene Weber's histories late 19th C.  France, especially the process of its "Modernisation". They've changed my thinking with regard to the nature of the Managerial State...it's not going away. And I've just started Corelli Barnett's, The Collapse of British Power and its seems very, very good.

Correlli Barnett's, Audit of War was hugely influential in my thinking and its surprising to myself that I've not read more of his work. Barnett is not Aspergy and is not looking for the "one thing" that explains it all, recognising that other factors are important. Still, something things are more important than others and its surprising that a military historian such as Barnett lays most of the blame of Britain's collapse ultimately at Evangelical Protestantism, and its atheist offspring, Enlightened Humanism:

It follows that a study of the decay of British power between 1918 and 1940 and of its collapse between 1940 and 1945 cannot be adequately conducted within the confines of military history, nor, for that matter, of political or economic history. This book therefore ranges from religion to technology; from education to foreign policy; from literature to grand strategy. Yet throughout the narrative the standpoint remains the single one of strategy — not, however, strategy in the limited sense, but total strategy: strategy, that is, conceived as encompassing all the factors relevant to preserving or extending the power of a human group in the face of rivalry from other human groups. From this standpoint, a topic like religion, for example, appears in a perhaps surprising light as a strategic factor of no less significance than first-line air strength.

The Collapse of British Power.

Barnett is onto something much bigger than just the collapse of British Power and provides a diagnosis that can be applied to much of the West.

I think that many people on the Dissident Right have been reluctant to acknowledge this angle explaining the Western decline primarily because of their own hostility to religion but I'm sensing a vibe in some of the more intelligent blogs that a restoration of religion is going to have to be entertained as a purely political or technocratic solution is not enough. How this is going to happen or how to implement it on a nation wide scale I don't know. However, I hope to do my own bit, and after I finish this post, I'm going to head off to Midnight Mass and bend my knee to the infant babe. I suggest you do the same.

Once again, Merry Christmas to you all and I hope that 2018 brings a few victories to the table.

15 comments:

North Northwester said...

I think that, per Bruce Charlton, you have to start with you and recognise that if it's not a spiritual awakening the politics can go hang. It might take a while, or fail altogether because the devil wins a lot in this earth, but the earthly church of Christianity started with the 11 surviving apostles and other disciples wondering what to do next.
Meantime, I suppose, read old books, live right, become worthy and lay in stores. And talk to friends.

Jack said...

Headed to Mass in a short time. As North says above, this will take time. I too had hoped for greater haste.

In the U.S. and Trump think: judges, judges, judges. We've had good appointments, great appointments.

Headed to Mass presently. Snow and wind here now.

Merry Christmas!

Jack

Jason said...

Just curious, which Weber book are you reading? Fin di siècle France or Peasants into Frenchmen? Anyway, modernization is an interesting topic, which I'd be curious to get your and other's thoughts on. I'd point out simply that the state, strictly speaking, is not always a bad thing. Indeed, in a limited sense it's quite necessary for human flourishing, a case I'd posit of something that is a good servant but a poor master.

Hope you have a good new year doctor, with your practice and family.

The Social Pathologist said...

@North Northwester.

Agree.

@Jack

A belated Merry Christmas Jack, and yes, I'm aware of his judicial appointments.

@Jason

I'm currently reading both! Weber's technique of devoting a chapter to each subject makes it easy to flit from one to the other. The other book which is sitting bookshelf waiting to be read is Action Francaise and I'm also hoping to get his "Hollow Years" book as well.

With regard to Modernisation, I hope to write about it in the new year. What's really impressed me with Weber is his "bottom" up approach of history especially as it pertained to the common man. I think his depictions of rural peasant life would be a real eye opener for those of a traditionalist bent who tend to have a rather idyllic view of the past.

As for the state, well I agree with you, it's not a bad thing per se, but in the wrong hands it becomes a thing of enormous destructive potential.

I hope you had a happy Christmas and best wishes to all of you in the new year.

MK said...

Merry Christmas! FWIW, 2017 was one of the best years of my life in every aspect. Trump must be the first crack in the liberal boomer hegemony in 40 years. The dam is broken, the center cannot hold. Been waiting my whole life for this. Praise God. It's all different from here on out. Change is good.

Meantime, I suppose, read old books, live right, become worthy and lay in stores. And talk to friends.

Not aggressive enough. A time for action if there ever was a time. Act while the iron is still hot. Marry, have kids, raise them without apology. Fight the state. Work two jobs; hell, work for yourself, build infrastructure, institutions, networks. Heh, you can tell I'm an American...rebellion and hope is in my blood...

Sylwester said...

@North Northwester

As someone who speaks English as a third language, could you explain what "lay in stores" means? Are you saying to gathering supplies?

Jack said...

To 'lay in stores' means gathering supplies, yes.

Demographi said...

What do you think could stop Europe's demographic decline?







Demographi said...

Or have something more like reasonable borders?

If Europe were like Japan a declining demographic should benefit the younger generation and things would naturally re-set.


The Social Pathologist said...

@Demographi

What do you think could stop Europe's demographic decline?


Before we start this conversation how about you read this paper. It's written by a "moderate" Feminist and I think some of the insights are valid.

http://www.unav.edu/matrimonioyfamilia/observatorio/documentos/Hakim_PDR2003_Fertility-patterns.pdf

MK said...

The Dragon awakes! This lurker awaits convo. Have read essay. Notes:

P2: One notable feature of current research in demography...is the absence of any central guiding theory on the relative importance of childbearing in women's lives.

P3: Where fertility rates have fallen in the past...largely a consequence of male decisionmaking. After the contraceptive revolution of the 1960s, female control of fertility replaces male control.

P6: Fertility expectations have only a small negative effect on young women's work plans, whereas work plans exert a powerful negative effect on young women's childbearing plans

P8: Preference theory...explaining and predicting women's choices between market work and family work...historical...empirical...prospective rather than retrospective...applicable in all rich modern societies

P9: Five historical changes in...labor market...new options...for women...do not necessarily occur in all modern societies...cumulative...
1...contraceptive revolution...
2...equal opportunities...access to all positions, occupations, and careers....
3...equal access to housing, financial...public services...posts...
4...expansion of white-collar occupations...more attractive to women...
5...jobs for secondary earners...


Comment: Interesting slant but rather ethnocentric (thus boring) by ignoring how women susceptible to enough "five historical changes" are (by definition) so pathological they are the dustbin of history. So who cares? Just another Darwinian bump in the rocky road of evolution, like alcohol or atheism. But expected; like Sailer’s Law of Female Journalism, we needs a corollary "Law of Female Researchers" :-).

Demographi said...

MK, thanks for reading it so I didn't have to.

Upon reflection I would have deleted my first question.

I don't think there's a real problem with demographic decline, just a problem with how to mimic the Japanese having low or no immigration so European identity is maintained.

Demographi said...

"European identity is probably going to explode soon enough"

I've heard that before.

Things shouldn't have gotten remotely this far.

It is a problem of mind.

MK said...

Demo, Things shouldn't have gotten remotely this far. It is a problem of mind.

One of the reasons "whites" don't band together is that genetic diversity is large among Caucasians. For example, there are only 3 Y-chromosomes in all of Africa, while there are something like 20 in Europe.

Meanwhile, you brought up Japan: that's basically one large extended family over the whole island. Much like China. That's real genetic unity. Whites, for better or worse, have different strengths and weaknesses. Lack of unity is one of those weaknesses (and strength under different circumstances) so won't be overcome anytime soon, even to extinction. It's part of the landscape.

Demographi said...

MK, I meant more like just regular European identity for people in general and specifically for their country, not a "white" movement. Just plain normalcy.

I see from the comments an invasion has occurred at this blog!