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[The post below was first published in 2007 on the original AWOL Civilization blog. It should be mentioned that Scruton passed away in 2020.]
It is unusual in our day to find a philosophical work that is profound, erudite, and oblivious to current intellectual fashion. I have just finished reading such a work: An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture, by Roger Scruton. First published in 1998, it is a thoughtful attempt to explain the demise of Western culture. Scruton takes on all the familiar antagonists: deconstructionism, contemporary art, the youth culture, and much more. They scatter in disarray before his mighty pen. For example, discussing the role of artists in contemporary society: "Art is no longer a reflection on human life but a mechanism for excluding it." As for the more vulgar varieties of pop music: ”We witness a reversal of the old order of performance. Instead of the performer being the means to present the music, which exists independently in the tradition of song, the music has become the means to present the performer...it has a tendency to lose all musical character. For music, properly constructed, has a life of its own, and is always more interesting than the person who performs it.” I particularly enjoyed his debunking of deconstructionism, the best such effort I have seen. Scruton traces the development of this exaltation of nothingness, showing how it is intimately connected with the culture of repudiation, that phony pose of our self-styled intellectuals who claim to be in a permanent state of rebellion against the authorities. He shows how deconstruction became a quasi-theological underpinning of the culture of repudiation, enabling people to believe that they are in the opposition, even as they are being swept up by the dominant wave: “The subversive intention in no way forbids deconstruction from becoming an orthodoxy, the pillar of a new establishment, and the badge of conformity that the literary apparatchik must now wear. But in this it is no different from other subversive doctrines: Marxism, for example, Leninism, and Maoism. Just as pop is rapidly becoming the official culture of the post-modern State, so is the culture of repudiation becoming the official culture of the post-modern university.” Scruton delves into a thorough analysis of the Enlightenment and its aftermath, tracing the main lines of thought through the 19th century to Modernism, Post-Modernism, and finally the morbid state of collapse in which we now find ourselves. He presents several interesting hypotheses, including the notion that art, in its post-Enlightenment sense, stepped in to fill the void left by the collapse of religion as a guiding force in the West. Explore these fascinating insights when you read the book in its entirety.
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The Left has been ruling America for so long that everyone pretty much takes it for granted. Their grip on the country’s institutions is so ingrained and so extensive that it is almost impossible to escape its clutches. Trump 1.0 couldn’t pry loose even one finger. Trump 2.0 is undoubtedly an improvement, but the stranglehold remains largely in place.
When a particular ideology and set of behavioral patterns are entrenched over the course of multiple generations, it becomes the norm, the default setting. No one alive today was around when America was a constitutional republic. During the first few decades of the twentieth century (some would argue earlier), the original republic was replaced with a cantankerous democracy that at least purported to operate under the rule of law, and with an overall sense that adults were in charge. This was, however, an increasingly flimsy arrangement that drew its last breath around the 1990s. The younger generation today cannot even conceive of what that society looked like; their entire lives have been lived in a steadily ratcheting tyranny based on Progressive ideology, as normal to them as the sun rising in the east. One reason why Trump 2.0 has been unable to break the mold is that it cannot attain legitimacy. Admittedly, any challenge to the rule of the Deep State would lack this quality from the get-go. If you presume to govern in place of whom everyone—consciously or unconsciously—assumes to be the default rulers, then ipso facto you are an upstart. The current Administration has not been able to transcend this perception. The reason is simple: If one fails to knock the Left decisively off its pedestal, and to crush their inevitable attempts at usurpation of power, legitimacy can never be attained. Right out of the gate, it looked as though Trump 2.0 would comfortably settle into the White House, and finally bring sanity to America. A prime example: the closing of the border, and the dramatic ICE raids around the country. But it was never a complete and thorough assertion of power. Witness the arrogant boasting by several governors that they are defying the federal government, continuing to give shelter to illegals, thus aiding and abetting the commission of felony crimes. Equally threatening is the scandalous episode of the rogue judges. The fact that this power grab continues unabated, and that the authority of these traitors to seize control of the executive functions of the president is acknowledged by those in government, is a huge blow to the Trump Administration’s legitimacy, prestige, and ability to govern. It has emboldened the Left, and demoralized the supporters of reform. Thus we have the visits to El Salvador, a direct outcome of this weakness. Another blow is the failure to prosecute anyone involved in the crimes of the Biden regime: the stolen election, the poison-jab mandates, the January 6th witch hunt, Mueller, the Russiagate hoax, etc. Remember all that? The perpetrators are walking around free, awaiting the return to their desks. If the new Administration cannot avenge that orgy of criminality, why should anyone take them seriously? Legitimacy is also lost by kowtowing to the propaganda organs of the Deep State. One self-inflicted wound to the presidency is the spectacle of the never-ending press conference. This ritual drags the President down to the level of the omnipresent Leftist hacks (the “media”) who represent the Deep State. Whatever Trump says or does, they are right there to state their opinion. It doesn’t matter that he responds well to their infantile blather; they have the opportunity, almost every day, to spit in the President’s face. And the spitting is rebroadcast and regurgitated endlessly by the propaganda organs. Once again, they are emboldened. Trump and his associates believe that they are overwhelming the gaggle of Leftist scribes (and their supporters at home) with stories of “winning,” of great victories for America. But the little woke slimebags couldn’t care less whether America is coming out ahead; all they care about is the next opportunity to get Trump. The whole spectacle resembles Louis XVI being dragged out to the guillotine, every single day all over again. Their goal is to destroy him by any means necessary, and restore The Party to its rightful place as the legitimate and permanent ruler of the United States. They call this “saving our democracy.” (On the topic of relations between the federal government and the Deep State’s propaganda organs, see my Feb. 24 post Banish the Apparatchiks.) What is needed is distance, not proximity. When the sovereign holds court, the only ones present should be the decision makers themselves, along with guests whose input is needed. Governing should be conducted behind closed doors. After policy is determined, an announcement can be made through a variety of channels, an easy task in the Age of the Internet. If necessary, a lower-level functionary, such as the press secretary, can deliver the news in person. From time to time, the President can make a speech, or conduct a fireside chat. The propaganda organs should never be present. If you are going to stage a revolution, then you better go all the way, and fully replace and discredit the tyrannical regime and its lackeys. Especially when that regime has the unquestioned support of half the country’s population, and of the lion’s share of the chattering classes. “It is now impossible, and has been impossible for over fifty years, for anyone to make a building which is beautiful or even agreeable. Whatever may be the reason for it, this is simply an historical fact; like the impossibility of travelling abroad nowadays without a passport, or the fact that no one could make a television set in the twelfth century. No one likes to look at a modern building, let alone live or work in it, and hardly anyone even pretends nowadays that they do like to.”
—David Stove, circa 1985 The Trump Administration has taken steps to block federal funding to Ivy League universities; for example, the freeze on $2 billion worth of payments to Harvard. One could desire more vigorous action, but this is a good start. Combined with a few other power plays, such as deportation of foreign agitators, the withholding of funds at the very least puts a dent in the chutzpah of these “prestigious” institutions of higher “learning,” which in reality function as ideological incubators for the colossal Leftist ecosystem of fraud and subversion. The message is clear: America no longer wants to bankroll its own demise.
Speaking of bankrolling our own demise, that $2 billion taxpayer subsidy of Harvard’s shenanigans is small potatoes compared with the student loan mess, now sitting at around $1.7 trillion in outstanding debt. Imagine how many lectures on “white racism” were funded with that pile of cash. The scandalous transformation of American universities into brainwashing factories is matched by the junior-varsity team of Progressive indoctrination: the nation’s public schools, which purport to engage in primary and secondary “education.” Total spending on this monstrosity is running about $1 trillion annually. Yes, we spend a trillion dollars per year to churn out masses of illiterate, sickly, ignorant, confused morons who don’t know which sex they are. Couldn’t this prodigious feat be achieved for, say, half a trillion? The skool racket is funded in large part by the immense swindle known as property tax. On my last property tax statement, the municipal authorities informed me that 25 percent of my payment was destined for the public schools. I should be happy; this figure is actually lower than the national average, which is about 35 percent. Property tax is an outrage on multiple levels, beyond the forced funding of the K-12 Leftist indoctrination camps. It is an affront to private property. It is taxation of unrealized gains. It is disruptive to the building of stable communities. It is bankrupting numerous homeowners, and making home ownership increasingly unaffordable. Not to mention the fraud involved in the valuation process. If this weren’t enough, additional money is shoveled into the babysitting grift via federal subsidies, local and state programs of all sorts, and the issuance of municipal bonds. And still they howl for more. We are truly digging our own grave. There is so much institutionalized fraud in this country, it is difficult to name a front-runner. But the property tax/public school scam is surely one of the most pernicious and devious ways the citizenry is fleeced by the government. "If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian [in 96 AD] to the accession of Commodus [in 180]."
—Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire This past Friday (4/18/25), the boys at The Duran released a good podcast exploring the current transformation of Europe into an open-air insane asylum. The 25-minute discussion nicely summarizes the situation.
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution has several components, some more accepted than others. Natural selection/survival of the fittest is generally seen as a reasonable template for explaining gradual change, at least among animals in the wild. But speciation—the appearance of entirely new species—has always been more elusive. Scientists have had to work hard in this domain; speciation events are seldom discovered, and when they are, they tend to be found among the lower orders of the animal kingdom, and for minimal biological variation.
I think it is possible that such an event may be taking place right under our nose, and for a most unexpected species. The other day, at the supermarket, I beheld two women who apparently were vying for the Most Obvious Lesbian Couple of the Year award. They would certainly get my vote: testosterone-laden tubs of lard with the most vulgar tattoos and piercings, green crewcuts, and mean, repulsive mugs. The question arises: If such cases of extreme divergence from the norm continue apace, will these creatures at some point become a new species? If so, we will have a front-row seat for an historic development in human evolution. But, you may protest, hasn’t it always been like this? Haven’t we always had people who are outliers in body form, intelligence, sexuality, etc.? Yes, we have always had outliers, but this is different, in quality and quantity. Members of the potential new species exhibit many or all of the following traits: — Physical defects: disproportionate body parts; lack of symmetry; overall repulsiveness; body weight at either extreme (usually obese). — Declining intelligence. This has been a trend for a very long time, but for these people it seems to be falling off a cliff. — Static facial expression; blank stares; inability to communicate effectively both verbally and non-verbally; aversion to jokes and spontaneous banter; difficulty performing tasks that involve any level of complexity. — Antisocial behavior; self-mutilation; resentment; nasty disposition. — Low or nonexistent sex drive; disappearance of clear dimorphic (male/female) sexual characteristics; atrophy of secondary sexual characteristics. Many elements in the list above, taken separately, could be explained by environmental factors. The deviants could be modifying their behavior to better adapt (at least in their eyes) to life in our dysfunctional world. Also, constant exposure to electronic stimuli certainly takes its toll. But when the traits consistently manifest as a cluster, and when these deep alterations are both behavioral and physical, a genetic explanation becomes more plausible. The shift could have iatrogenic causes, such as the wildly excessive childhood vaccination schedule; mRNA-based genetic "therapies," such as the Covid injections; and a host of other pharmaceutical concoctions fed to the population from cradle to grave. And none of this shows any sign of letting up. Now we are faced with the prospect of Neuralink and other “brain-computer interfaces.” This opens up further pathways to fundamental modification of the human being. It would not be a stretch to assert that genetic profiles could be irretrievably altered. Moreover, I am certain that the likes of Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, Albert Bourla, and their minions are busy cooking up ever more ingenious ways to defile the human genome. In sum: The data are strong enough, in my opinion, to support the hypothesis that a significant genetic divergence is underway. But the question remains, is this the prelude to speciation, or merely to a new, degraded subspecies or race of homo sapiens? "Just as the observance of divine worship is the cause of the greatness of republics, so the disregard of divine worship is the cause of their ruin, because where fear of God is lacking, that kingdom must either come to ruin or be sustained through fear of a prince who makes up for the shortcomings in its religion. Since princes are short-lived, such a kingdom must quickly fail when it loses its exceptional ability....The salvation of a republic or a kingdom is not, therefore, merely to have a prince who governs prudently while he lives, but rather one who organizes the government in such a way that after his death it can be maintained."
—Machiavelli Trump did this, Trump did that. The Trump Effect. Trump is purposely collapsing the economy. Trump is saving the economy. The tariffs will lead to war. The tariffs will lead to peace. Trump is sticking it to Wall Street. Trump is working for Wall Street.
Many observers, pro and con, are assuming a tight causal linkage between two events: the implementation of the tariffs and the wild fluctuations in the financial markets. As the commentariat bloviates on the situation, they forget that correlation is not causation. President Trump and his associates are not causing anything. On the contrary, they are struggling to keep pace with a rapidly changing landscape that is mostly beyond their control, and for which the die was cast well before the advent of Trump 2.0. Like a person sinking into quicksand, the Administration will grasp at any stick within reach. Here is the quicksand they stepped into: The mother of all bubbles, an agglomeration of bubbles such as the world has never seen. A financial bubble. A debt bubble. A real estate bubble. A bubble of lies and fraud. A bubble of Progressive ideology, of Keynesianism, of central control, of fake science, of media propaganda. Of pure idiocy, of hypocrisy, of insanity. This megabubble is at its bursting point; a balloon in search of a pin. The tariffs are related to the bursting bubble, but not in the way that many think. Sure, they might advance or postpone certain aspects of the bursting, but those aspects are baked into the cake. Looking at the big picture, the imposition of these trade restrictions is an attempt to outwit processes that are already in motion. The Trump policy is not causing the stock market to be unstable, nor is it causing the demise of free trade and the Bretton Woods economic order; it is rather a reaction to the crumbling of the order and its constituent parts, a movement that has been accelerating for several years. The post-World War II international order, led by the United States, is dead as a doornail, with or without tariffs. The West is bankrupt, financially and in every other sense of the word. The financial system is a house of cards. NATO has been defeated in Ukraine. Europe is ruled by shrieking hags and ghoulish fanatics. Meanwhile, the BRICS countries are severing their connection with the Western system of global economic fraud. They no longer want to play the game of make-believe. Thus the frantic accumulation of gold, the anti-bubble par excellence. (The BRICS may end up with their own fraudulent system, but it will be their fraudulent system.) The tariffs are a reaction to this massive realignment. The Titanic is sinking, and this is a handy lifeboat, albeit one that has been in mothballs for a while. Will it really help rebuild manufacturing in the U.S.? I certainly hope so, because the extreme market volatility is only the start of the Great Bursting. The phony-baloney financialized economy, along with its ecosystem of institutionalized grift, is disintegrating before our eyes. When it’s all said and done, the only edifice left standing may very well be manufacturing, energy, mining, and agriculture, and the networks that surround these sectors. [SERVICE NOTICE: For the foreseeable future, I am going to publish one article per week, every Friday. There will still be a smattering of other quick posts, such as quotes, and links to interesting posts on other websites. But Friday will be the day for the real "thought pieces."]
In my post of 3/24/2025, I discussed Conquest’s Second Law of Politics, which states that any organization that is not explicitly right-wing, sooner or later becomes left-wing. Part of my analysis revolved around the question of high versus low culture, and the difficulty in maintaining the higher form, which is a bedrock of civilization. The entropic forces in society, always present, tend to drag us down to the level of low culture, which is one of the symptoms of Leftism. In the article below, first published on the original AWOL Civilization blog just after the 2008 presidential election, I examined this issue from a somewhat different perspective. * * * So it finally happened: a bonafide neo-Marxist has been elected President of the United States. He will have a sympathetic majority in both houses of Congress, along with a choir comprising the judiciary, the press, academia, the cultural “elite," and the most hardened enemies of America at home and abroad. This is not a macabre scene from a dystopian novel. It is our reality. In order to grasp the full significance of the catastrophe that has enveloped America—and indeed, Western civilization—we must cast our intellectual net far and wide, so that it encompasses the great thinkers of the past. They can guide and inspire us as we confront a phenomenon with which we, in America, have no experience. They can help us re-examine our approach to politics, the arts, education, and a host of other realms, a task that is part and parcel of salvaging and reinvigorating our culture. We can start by reconnecting with the thinkers of the ancient world. It is there, in the literary masterpieces of Athens and Rome and Jerusalem, that one finds clues to the riddles that present themselves to us. It is there that one sees how people prevailed in the face of upheavals that defy the imagination. In this spirit, I would like to present two ancient literary references that have been in the forefront of my mind in recent days. The first is from the Bible, the second is from the comic theater of Athens. In Genesis 25:29-33, a moving scene occurs between Esau and Jacob, the sons of Isaac. Esau sells his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of pottage (a type of stew): “And Jacob cooked pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint, and Esau said to Jacob, Give me to swallow, I pray thee, of that red pottage, for I am faint…And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am going to die, and what benefit is this birthright to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day, and he swore to him; and he sold his birthright…” The American people possess an impressive birthright: Living in a land of liberty, with all that is necessary to pursue their dreams. All the accoutrements are available: natural resources, a beautiful landscape, vast spaces, a noble history, brain power, and a deep tradition of opportunity. But we have sold our birthright for the slick visage of Barack Hussein Obama, our latter-day bowl of pottage. The moaning, self-proclaimed victims have thrown away their heritage. What good is it? they ask. “Behold, I am going to die," so just feed me and clothe me, and let me forget the rest. The second reference from the ancient world is The Frogs, a comedy by the great Athenian playwright Aristophanes (c. 450 – 388 BC). The play was written in 405 BC, as the Athenian empire stood on the brink of destruction. Dissension was rife in the city, and defeat at the hands of the Spartans was nigh (it occurred in 404). The plot is simple. Dionysus, patron of the drama, descends into Hades (the underworld) to find the greatest Greek playwright. The intent is to bring the champion back to the land of the living, to Athens, where he might be able to rescue the city’s decomposing culture. The selection process for best playwright boils down to a contest between Aeschylus and Euripides, in which each attempts to demonstrate that he is the greatest practitioner of the art of tragedy. Dionysus acts as moderator of the debate. Aeschylus (525 – 456 BC) represents the old world, with its fine manners, its gymnastics, its piety, and its honor. Euripides (484 – 406 BC), by contrast, is presented as the poet of decadence, sophistry, and philosophical relativism. Euripides accuses Aeschylus of using highfalutin language, of ignoring romantic love, and of being an elitist divorced from the taste and temperament of the people. Aeschylus, for his part, accuses Euripides of contributing in no small measure to the downfall of the city: “You have taught boasting and quibbling; the wrestling schools are deserted and the young fellows have submitted themselves to outrage, in order that they might learn to reel off idle chatter, and the sailors have dared to bandy words with their officers…Of what crimes is [Euripides] not the author? Has he not shown us procurers, women who get delivered in the temples, have traffic with their brothers, and say that life is not life? ‘Tis thanks to him that our city if full of scribes and buffoons, veritable apes, whose grimaces are incessantly deceiving the people…” Then there is the following exchange between Dionysus and Euripides, almost creepy in its applicability to our current predicament: DIONYSUS: And you, Euripides, prove yourself [fit] to sprinkle incense on the brazier. EURIPIDES: Thanks, but I sacrifice to other gods. DIONYSUS: To private gods of your own, which you have made after your own image? EURIPIDES: Why, certainly! DIONYSUS: Well then, invoke your gods. EURIPIDES: Oh! Ether, on which I feed, oh! Thou Volubility of Speech, oh! Craftiness, oh! Subtle Scent! Enable me to crush the arguments of my opponents. We learn that Aeschylus used only heroes and god-like figures in his plays, whereas Euripides invented every sort of vulgar character imaginable. Euripides explains that his intent was to “please the people." Moreover, he says, “I introduced our private life upon the stage, our common habits…I did not burst out into big noisy words to prevent their comprehension; nor did I terrify the audience by showing them Cycni and Memnons on chariots harnessed with steeds and jingling bells. Look at his disciples and look at mine. His are…all a-bristle with long beards, spears and trumpets, and grinning with sardonic and ferocious laughter, while my disciples are [the effeminate and loquacious] Clitophon and the graceful Theramenes.” Euripides democratized the theater. He catered to the popular desire to portray the vulgar, the seedy side of life. Often, his characters were beggars dressed in rags. Theater was now for everyone, and about everyone. It is tempting to speculate: How similar was the situation in the Athens of 405 BC, the year The Frogs was written, to the America of today? Could one not easily think of a contemporary Euripides, some best-selling author or popular screenwriter, succeeding handsomely here in our dumbed-down victimocracy, with its effeminate and sophistic king, crowned by the rampaging mob? Which great cultural figure would Dionysus bring back to help save us? We cry out for our Aeschylus—who would it be? [Quotes from The Frogs taken from Aristophanes, the Eleven Comedies, vol. 2, Immortal Classics republication of the 1912 London Athenian Society edition, pp. 227, 245-46, 235, 239-40.] |
Dystopian literatureWelcome to the blog! While you're here, check out the six dystopian novels by Gary Wolf. His latest is The Cubist Supremacy. 
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