|
In one of my posts on the scamdemic (12/3/2024), I referred to the Orwellian phenomenon, “we have always been at war with Eastasia.” In other words, the astonishing capacity of the Left to reverse ideological positions at breakneck speed, and then act as if it had always been that way. Down the memory hole goes the old way of thinking.
In addition to the switcheroo on Big Pharma, who were upgraded from villain to hero, a prime example of this behavior is the treatment of the working class. Once worshiped by the Left, they were downgraded from heroes to Deplorables, and from there to Garbage. Below is a post that I wrote on this subject, on the original AWOL Civilization blog, in 2007. * * * The Redneck Paradox It has become common practice, in polite circles, to mock and deride a certain sector of American society. I am speaking of the ordinary working class, particularly those living far in the hinterland, and those with a strong attachment to traditional values. It is now de rigueur to launch blustering condemnations of this vague yet threatening tribe. People who would never dare utter a word of criticism against a minority feel perfectly at ease disparaging, often viciously, the enemy they alternately refer to as rednecks, white trash, Christian fundamentalists, holy rollers, or crackers. All of these labels blur into an image of the blue-collar guy in the pickup truck. Of course, the more that “tolerance" is preached as a general ideological position, the more vehement the condemnation of the working class. The blinders of political correctness have shut down the possibility of complaining about, or in some cases even perceiving, the real dangers and the really dangerous people. A substitute was needed at which to redirect the emotional energy. Not that there aren’t other targets; the same crowd inveighs against oil companies, Republicans, law enforcement, etc. The difference is that this particular target is composed of people who used to be the darlings of the Left. We’re talking about the proletariat! Who would have thought that the Working Man was destined to become an enemy of the people? But isn’t the Working Man supposed to be oppressed? Robbed of his labor’s surplus-value by greedy capitalists? One of the reasons for this twist of fate is that the Working Man represents one of the last bastions of traditional American values: he works, goes to church, has a family, owns guns, and believes in liberty (the horror). Also, he is less “educated," and thus less exposed and susceptible to the neo-totalitarian brainwashing that has rotted away the minds of much of our population. This resistance is resented by the high priests of collectivism. I realize that economic Marxism has been replaced by cultural Marxism, and local oppressed masses by Third World oppressed masses. But still, is it not ironic that our latter-day Marxists detest the proletariat? It’s the Redneck Paradox.
0 Comments
All eyes are on Donald Trump as he moves into the White House for his second term as president. Expectations are high that he and his associates will be able to resuscitate a once-great nation that has fallen into disarray. We are all breathing a huge sigh of relief, as if waking from a nightmare. No matter what Trump & Co. are able (or not able) to accomplish, we dodged a bullet. Even in the waning days of the Biden regime, the scoundrels demonstrated on a daily basis the depth of their depravity. Never has America been subjected to the rule of such wretched swine.
There have been signs of life in the body politic, as the nation shakes off its chains. One example is the shunning of Woke ideology in the corporate world. Another is legislative initiatives that seek to restore integrity to our broken election process. Despite the encouraging trend, we cannot be complacent. The road to recovery has only just begun. We must applaud whenever positive steps are taken by the new administration, but push back whenever they stray from effective tactics. Foremost in our minds should be the words of that shrewd observer of the political scene, Curtis Yarvin: “Progressives do not believe in the American system of government, only in power. Conservatives do not believe in power, only in the American system of government. Therefore, progressives always win and conservatives always lose.” Never forget this profound insight, not for a minute. The Left is all about power, and they will do everything and anything to attain and hold it. Unfortunately, too many Conservatives view them as the “opposition” (albeit one that is increasingly unhinged) with whom we engage in debate and rational discourse. Does anyone really think it is possible to “reach across the aisle,” to have a rational discussion with the lunatics that spearhead the Democratic Party? They are at war with European civilization, and view it as an enemy to be annihilated. To borrow a phrase from Nietzsche, we let them become our priesthood when we should have been building madhouses for them. If one side wages war, the other must respond appropriately or face defeat. I have previously written about several requirements of this appropriate response; for example, imposing severe consequences, especially prison time, as a punishment and deterrent for Leftist criminality and treason. I now wish to elucidate an additional requirement: the avoidance of blind alleys, rabbit holes, and wild goose chases. Our side has pursued many of these, and the Left is only too happy to assist us in this labor. “Point at a deer and call it a horse,” as the Chinese say. Following are a few of these counterproductive pursuits. Some are total fiction; some are half-truths; some are merely inconsequential. All are wastes of time, energy, and money. All prevent us from concentrating on the true sources and mechanics of Leftist power. Constant awareness of these traps is critical, as the Left will surely exploit every possible weakness in order to sabotage America’s renaissance. 1. The sky is falling. This category of wild goose chase includes UFOs, drones, spy balloons, chemtrails, and weather control. Sometimes I feel as if we’re living in a cheesy 1950s sci-fi flick. Does anyone remember these things more than two weeks after the initial huffing and puffing dies down? Classic fearmongering and don’t-look-here-look-there. 2. The man behind the curtain. Some among us think they are being sophisticated by insisting that, for any outrage from the Left, there is ultimately some small clique pulling the strings behind the scenes. The people you see, so goes the story, are merely puppets. Now, of course there are big fish and little fish, officers and soldiers, opinion-makers and useful idiots. But the argument is carried to extremes. Whenever you point to a powerful person who has caused significant damage, well, “he’s just a pawn.” No matter how high up the food chain, there is always an unnamed Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. The result of this line of thinking: We are hindered from focusing our efforts. A variant of the man-behind-the-curtain rabbit hole is “all wars are bankers’ wars.” When I hear this historically illiterate assertion, I can’t help thinking of two primitive tribes battling it out in the Kalahari Desert or the rain forests of the Amazon. The people who are mouthing this gibberish are usually well-intentioned folk who are overly focused on the financial and banking system. Once again, if you zoom in on a bad actor high up in the financial world, you'll be told that “he’s just a puppet; the central banks control everything.” No, they don’t. Powerful, yes; all-powerful, no. 3. The one percenters. This amorphous statistical entity is supposedly the cause of numerous ills. The allegations, however, are merely repackaged, reheated Marxist blather. In fact, whenever income percentile is cited as if it were some sort of ethnic group, the alarm bells should be ringing. It is a prime example of, to use the Marxist term of art, false consciousness. The Leftist Establishment does of course include plenty of ultra-wealthy individuals, but it also counts among its key personnel many who are not in that category. Conversely, many people with deep pockets are in our camp, or at least willing to “play ball.” 4. Q-Anon, “trust the plan,” 4d chess, etc. If, God forbid, as in Trump 1.0 things turn sour, may we have the strength to look reality in the eye, and not comfort ourselves by believing in fantasy worlds, some of which are of dubious origin. 5. Bitcoin. An enormous reservoir of anti-Establishment energy was squandered on the blind alley of crypto-currency. We all witnessed the endless parade of young “influencers,” with a twinkle in their eye, who tried to explain to us old geezers how their electronic messiah was going to usher in the Libertarian paradise. What can you expect from a generation that grew up with computer screens more familiar to them than their mother’s face? Anyone with a rudimentary command of logic could see that this paean to nothingness was going to end badly. Whether Bitcoin was a preplanned Deep State psy-op, or they simply hopped on the bandwagon, the early promise of an escape from government control has evaporated, leaving nothing but raw greed in its place. Let us hope that the pro-Bitcoin proposals coming from Mr. Trump were just so much campaign rhetoric, and soon will be shelved. Wowie-zowie tech stuff, such as muh Blockchain, is not going to defeat the Left. Stick to the basics. 6. Ultra-processed foods. Certainly, many ingredients and processes involved in food production are hazardous to our health, but going too far down this path deflects our attention from the immediate and drastic threats to our food supply. These are, first and foremost, mRNA-based genetic manipulation, as well as the destruction of livestock on the pretext of “bird flu” or some such hysteria. I trust that RFK Jr. and his lieutenants are fully aware of the situation, and will act swiftly and decisively. 7. Gain of function. One of the most difficult things for a person to admit is that he was played for a sucker. Almost all of our people realize that the secondary effects of the scamdemic were atrocious: lockdowns, destruction of small business, fiscal and monetary incontinence, masks, social distancing, etc. A smaller but still significant number acknowledge the lethal nature of the jabs. But far too few could resist the myth that some horrible new disease was spreading like wildfire through the population. The Left has gleefully exploited this propaganda victory, deflecting our potential scrutiny onto narratives of Chinese conspiracies, lab leaks, gain of function, withholding Ivermectin, and other irrelevant sideshows. Meanwhile, the perpetrators of the real psy-op, at the heart of the scamdemic, scurry off into the darkness. Consider for example the decision-makers in mass media, who dutifully disseminated, in lock-step, the fabricated “science” coming out of the Pharmaceutical-Industrial Complex. Their preemptive response to potential accusations of malfeasance: CHINA! LAB LEAKS! FAUCI LET THE COOTIES OUT! No, what Fauci did was to serve as the kind, grandfatherly face of what was possibly the greatest lie in the history of man. In order for Western civilization to extract itself from the bog of crises into which it is currently sinking, it must eventually come to terms with the intellectual rot that has permeated its foundations. One manifestation of that rot, less obvious than, say, Keynesian economics, is the pseudoscience of “psychology,” embodied in the Therapeutic-Industrial Complex (TIC).
The preaching and practise of psychology in the West, lo these last hundred years or so, is a natural outgrowth of Progressive ideology, which exalts the degenerate while attacking the productive and well-constituted. The TIC brings this maneuver down to the micro level, destabilizing and paralyzing the individual from within his own mind. Not satisfied merely with destabilization of the political and economic realms, the Progressives have infiltrated the most intimate chambers of our private existence. This is accomplished with the aid of two primary tools, guilt and inversion. Guilt is as essential to the TIC as debt is to the fiat-based monetary system. Wait a minute, you say; doesn’t psychotherapy release us from our burden of puritannical guilt, all that sexual and potty stuff? Perhaps, but that’s small potatoes compared to the guilt loaded onto us by the selfsame soul robbers. Guilt, guilt, guilt. The skilled pracitioners of the TIC construct an archeological dig within your memory banks, to find shards of ancient guilt that had been buried forever. And even if that shard cannot initially be reimagined in its original form, your friendly neighborhood ego-crusher will weave a wondrous tale, so that the image of the original full-sized mental pot or jug becomes crystal clear to the victim. If this sounds like witchcraft, that’s because it is. The more normal and sane you are, the worse the guilt weighs upon you. This is partially a function of conscience; better-quality people tend to be more self-critical. But it is also due to inversion, another major tool of the brain leeches. The natural order of society is inverted: normal is considered sick whereas mentally ill—the real kind—is considered perfectly normal. Ask your TIC representative how the American Psychological Association views transvestites, compared to, say, 1965. Now contrast this with the “treatment” of energetic and mischievous (i.e., normal) little boys. You’re sick, I’m sick, we’re all sick; the world is just one giant hospital (and they run it). You are guilty of all sorts of transgressions that you “suppressed” since birth. Don’t fret, says the TIC, there are ways to confront and process that guilt. Overwhelmed? That’s okay, we’re here to help! What are we to do with this parasitical class, this latter-day Carthaginian priesthood? Mao had the solution: send them to the fields! [Related: see my post of 12/13/24, Homeless Nation.] Among the many problems staring our society in the face is the imminent meltdown of the financial and monetary system. There are numerous facets: uncontrolled government spending and intervention; a looming sovereign debt crisis; the enormous, Byzantine derivatives complex; the insolvent banking system; the growing power of the BRICS countries; and on and on. Putting all the pieces together is a daunting task.
Standing ready to assist us in this labor are the great thinkers of the field. Among these must be counted the incomparable Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992). He is best known as one of the founding fathers of the Austrian school of economics, and the outspoken nemesis of John Maynard Keynes. Hayek demonstrates conclusively how Keynesian economics—that web of misconceptions and mythology in which the West is now trapped—is dysfunctional and guaranteed to fail. But Hayek goes far beyond this level of analysis. He goes deeper, burrowing into every rabbit hole of socialism and interventionism to expose the ideological and spiritual foundations of this perennial challenge, not merely to the financial and monetary system, but to civilization in its entirety. I am reprinting below a post that I wrote about him in 2007, on the original AWOL Civilization blog. * * * The Extended Order of Human Cooperation No blog on the deterioration of Western culture would be complete without a tribute to Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992), the great Austrian-born economist and philosopher. When one considers the breadth of his work and the acuity of his analysis, he may very well be the preeminent sociopolitical thinker of the 20th century. No one has been such an outspoken advocate for liberty, or such a devastating foe of all forms of socialism—what Hayek often calls "collectivism." In The Counter-Revolution of Science (1952), he deconstructs the illusions of the early socialist thinkers, notably the false doctrine of “scientism," the misapplication of scientific methodology to social phenomena, particularly history. History, Hayek explains, is not a real thing, subject to the methods of the natural sciences. If we are to undertake a study of zebras, we need not hesitate to employ these methods. We see before us a type of animal that is clearly distinguished from other species. There can be little doubt that a zebra is a zebra. Our subjects behave in accordance with the characteristics of their kind. They cannot change themselves, and there is no emotional or intellectual bond between researcher and subject. All this is completely different when it comes to human history. Our subjects do not behave in a predictable fashion, and they can remake themselves. There are many bonds (and enmity) between researcher and subject. But most importantly, the creation of history is itself a subjective act. The actors are implementing what they believe to be “their" history of the moment; moreover, each individual has a different perception of his own behavior, his neighbor’s behavior, and indeed everything else occurring in the world. To say that this phenomenon is subject to laws in the same sense as natural laws is a serious error. In The Road to Serfdom, written during World War II, Hayek demonstrates that Communism and Nazism are two sides of the same collectivist coin. He traces the careers of the National Socialist (Nazi) leadership, showing that they were socialist in every sense of the word. In fact, many were prominent “left-wing" socialists or communists who embraced the swastika as Hitler rose to power. Hayek thereby dismisses the influential myth that the Nazis were some sort of ultra-conservative movement. In The Constitution of Liberty (1960), perhaps his magnum opus, Hayek lays out a philosophical blueprint for a 20th-century society based on liberty. This book is the modern heir to the ideas of Locke and Adam Smith. The Fatal Conceit (1988) is a general critique of socialism, in which Hayek shows that “rational" planning is doomed to failure. The very first paragraph sums up much of his thinking: “This book argues that civilisation depends, not only for its origin but also for its preservation, on what can be precisely described only as the extended order of human cooperation, an order more commonly, if somewhat misleadingly, known as capitalism. To understand our civilisation, one must appreciate that the extended order resulted not from human design or intention but spontaneously: it arose from unintentionally conforming to certain traditional and largely moral practices, many of which men tend to dislike, whose significance they usually fail to understand, whose validity they cannot prove, and which have nonetheless fairly rapidly spread…” When I read Hayek, I am always struck by his vast command of history, culture, philosophy, and economics, as well as by his matter-of-fact tone. His attitude is distinctly non-ideological; he is never the advocate of a party or “program.” Hayek warned us about flirtation with the wily seductress that is collectivism. Will we take heed? "The egalitarian doctrine is manifestly contrary to all the facts established by biology and by history. Only fanatical partisans of this theory can contend that what distinguishes the genius from the dullard is entirely the effect of postnatal influences.
The presumption that civilization, progress, and improvement emanate from the operation of some mythical factors—in the Marxian philosophy, the material productive forces—shaping the minds of men in such a way that certain ideas are successively produced contemporaneously in them, is an absurd fable." —Ludwig Von Mises, Theory and History, 1957 |
Dystopian literatureWelcome to the blog! While you're here, check out the six dystopian novels by Gary Wolf. His latest is The Cubist Supremacy. 
Archives
January 2025
Categories
All
Interesting viewpointsAce of Spades |
RSS Feed