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Why the Hatred? (Oikophobia in Modern Times)
It is of course a standard conservative cliché to mention that Black Lives Matter isn’t about Black Lives but that it’s about Marxism. That it is an unoriginal cliché doesn’t make it any less true.
What the tearing down of statues is about is a hatred of one’s own society. BLM only focuses on blacks who die at the hands of either policemen or whites. Blacks killed by other blacks or blacks who die from heart disease or blacks who die from drug abuse don’t matter to them because their deaths can’t be used to condemn American society, conventional bourgeois values, and capitalism.
We all know this. But why? Why do so many hate American society and history so much? America, according to surveys, is among the least racist nations on Earth. Americans in poverty are considered middle class by the standards of China. (I lived in China.) American society is a bit more violent than I would like but the most violent parts of our society are inner cities filled with young black men and Wokists never talk about that. So why do BLM and Antifa and the college that I went to so deeply hate what is by empirical standards, among the best societies that have ever existed? (If you think I exaggerate the goodness of America because of the recent July 4th, please listen to what Ayan Hirsi Ali has to say about the matter.)
They don’t hate America and the West because America is a bad country. They hate America because they are oikophobic. Roger Scruton defined Oikophobia as the “the repudiation of inheritance and home” and that it is, “a stage though which the adolescent mind normally passes.”
I must admit that I myself went through such adolescence. Christians were all hypocrites who went around harassing homosexuals* I thought. Everyone and everything were corrupt and I hated the society I was in. I studied Buddhism and Sufi Islam because it seemed more spiritual than the odd dogmas and stultifying conformity that surrounded me. (I’m still a fan of Buddhism and Sufism but I have renewed appreciation for Christian civilization and the teaching of Christ in particular.)
However, I was never into white guilt. This was because I read books about Asian, Middle Eastern and Native-American cultures. Turns out that war and bigotry were a universal constant in human history. Far from being exceptional, America was all too like other civilizations in its failures to respect human dignity. The American triumph over the rule of Kings and its love of individual freedom were the exceptional parts. (link to Calvin Coolidge)
This leads me to five theories about the Wokist movement. These five theories are not mutually exclusive and they all probably contribute to our current unpleasant predicament.
- They are deeply unlearned in history and the bigotry and slavery that has existed in every society ever. They are also unaware that terrible treatment of minorities, women, and homosexuals is usually worse in Communist countries.
- Colleges have fostered this nihilism for decades and now we are reaping a poisoned harvest.
- They are going through what I would like to call the “Screw you Dad,” phase of their lives and can’t accept that the world is unfair and that people are flawed.
- Humanity is incurably religious and without G-d people are turning to politics and identity politics as a source of meaning in their lives. (The Douglass Murray theory) Additionally, because families are so fractured now and the relationship between the sexes are so fraught, people are turning to the government and identity as a source of group belonging.
- There is something just dumb and evil in humanity that wants to tear things down rather than make things better.
I must admit that I am not addressing the best arguments of the left. I think this is fair because the left is… not into good arguments at the moment.
Also, people tend to believe in things because of emotional and superstitious impulses rather than logical argument anyway.
I cannot view what is happening in America right now as anything less than a nihilistic religious movement that is based on hatred of what came before them. Why is this movement suddenly so powerful so quickly when it is obviously bad for everybody?
P.S. If you think that I am being unfair to the Woke left, feel free to disagree with me and explain why.
Published in General
I like your post, Henry. I also believe that this insanity is due to the unrelenting desire of the Left to achieve an ideal state. The only way to do that is to destroy everything, completely, and start all over again.
It’s politics and the 2020 election. The BLM movement is avowedly Marxist even if they don’t understand the Marxist principles.
High schools too. Even grade schools teach kids that America is the cause of all the evil in the world.
Penalty, 5 yards for psychoanalysis. Repeat the down. They are wrong. They are objectively wrong on the facts. They are in gross violation of everyone else’s civil rights and civic order. Case closed. Lock them up. And fire the tin Hitlers that enabled them.
Leave it to the Commies to diagnose and reeducate. It helps mark them for the Totalitarian bozos they are. And if I ever hear the postfix -phobic in a political discussion again I will hurl great rancid chunks. Just saying.
Outstanding post.
These children have been shielded from this fact by the very nature of this country’s founding, the freedoms it brought, and the Christian attitudes that prevail, for the moment.
I will be sad, and afraid, when this country is destroyed, but I am very well aware that it will be horrible.
Because I know the world is unfair, and people are flawed.
Wonderful!
I’d add another 6). “They are supremely confident of their own goodness and revel in displaying that for all to see”. These yard signs I see everywhere: ‘Hate has no home here!’, “Science is Real”, “Black Lives Matter!” – is there a Conservative equivalent?
An American flag honors the nation, her principles, her people – not the person flying that flag.
The smug virtue signaling of these Lefties would be comical if not so tragically self-unaware.
Please avoid vomiting Sisyphus. It’s bad for your throat, it’s wasteful of food and it is unpleasant for those around you.
Less importantly, I will defend psychoanalysis. It is not enough to understand that they are wrong on facts. We need to understand why they don’t do facts and arguments. I have come to conclusion that people are on the whole (yes even good classical liberal conservatives), believe what they believe for largely irrational reasons. Thusly, in order to make rational arguments effective we need to understand irrationality and emotion. Ayan Hirsi Ali is fantastic at this. I linked to her interview with Peter Robinson in a large part because she addresses the feelings of people and the proceeds with facts that address their feelings. Women tend to do a much better job at this than men.
I really wish humanity could be like Thomas Sowell or Larry Elder and just do facts facts and more facts. But that ain’t how humanity do. There is a reason why Thomas Sowell so frequently complains how little evidence matters to people. People are moved by stories told with emotions and not facts. We have to talk to people in the language they listen to. Sadly.
Susan, really?
I gotta ask… What about them suggests an unrelenting desire to achieve an ideal state? Do you really believe these lefties have the slightest notion of what an ideal state would even look like? Or that they could put together a set of political mechanisms that would tend toward that goal?
These are the same folks whose number one concern is systemic racism in a country that just had a black president.
These are the same folks that assembled Chazistan, with summer of love approval of the mayor of Seattle, and it immediately had the highest murder rate of any state ever.
I’m not stupid.
They have an idea, but absolutely no foundation for it. And definitely not a thought out plan.
The first grader’s idea of a plan. Maybe.
This is why I think Wokism is distinct from other forms of Marxism. Marxists had hope that things could be better. In The Brother’s Karmazov, one boy asked another what socialism was.
There was a time when socialists believed that and they were willing to fight and die for it. Wokism is nihilistic. It hates Western culture and our history more than it hates bigotry and poverty and it hates white heterosexuals more than it loves blacks people or homosexuals. If it was based on the love of folks who have it rough it wouldn’t hate white heterosexuals who want thing to be better for blacks and gays and everybody else.
There is some part of most Wokists that know that the world they want can’t exist but they want to try to struggle for it anyway. It’s a religion that they simultaneously believe in and don’t believe.
To refer to a previous comment, this is why I think contemplating human psychology in all it’s irrationality is actually necessary for rational arguments to win.
Indeed. I recently quoted the Fabian socialist Sidney Webb (circa 1920s) on the benefits of what he called the Machine Age:
Unlike their predecessors, (today’s workers) spend only half their waking hours at the task by which they gain their bread. In the other half of their day they are, for the first time in history, free (and, in great measure, able) to give themselves to other interests, which in an ever- increasing proportion of cases lead to an intellectual development heretofore unknown among the typical manual workers. It is, in fact, arguable that it is among the lower half of the manual workers of Western civilization rather than among the upper half, that there has been the greatest relative advance during the past couple of centuries. It is, indeed, to the so-called unskilled workers of London and Berlin and Paris, badly off in many respects as they still are and notably to their wives and children that the Machine Age has incidentally brought the greatest advance in freedom and in civilization.
Pretty different from the views of today’s Progs, wouldn’t you say? One indicator: both the American Left and the Russian Communists *loved* hydroelectric dams, viewing them as harbingers of progress and better lives for the masses of people. Many American Progs want to tear them all down.
(Longer version of the Webb quote at my post here)
Oikophobia…that’s an interesting term. It’s very real. I think it’s based in the fact that being able to see and criticize one’s own faults—as opposed to the faults of others—is generally regarded to be a sign of moral maturity. Therefore, when you are a misguided adolescent or even adult who lacks the consolations of religion, you desperately need to prove to yourself that you are virtuous. So criticizing your own heritage is a cheap way to do that. And that means looking down on those who who hold their own heritage in high regard and are therefore morally immature. And eventually it devolves into what we have now: mobs tearing down statues for literally no other reason than that it upsets and antagonizes those morally immature people. Like children getting their kicks from teasing and bullying other kids.
Good points, Henry.
I think that resentment is a big part of the problem, and may be the root cause. It’s Cain and Abel.
There is also the fact of innate differences between people. I mean individual differences, not differences in group distributions. Some people just seem to be smarter, or better looking, or bigger, or stronger, or more musically or artistically gifted. All such characteristics can be developed to some degree, or not developed, but I think that much of the distribution is innate.
This doesn’t seem “fair,” if you’re inclined to believe in what Dr Sowell calls “Cosmic Justice.” This may be the source of much of the resentment.
Oikophobia is an important factor, but not the only one. I identified some of them in my post The Phobia(s) That May Destroy America.
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I think there’s a Reason no. 6 which would be affluence and ease: affluence; parental coddling, with a lack of responsibility; and the lack of transmission of autonomy, wealth, and unheard-of ease to the youngest generations; and resultant petulance.
They just don’t want to grow up. And their problems are Trump’s fault.
The Pharisee and Tax Collector
9 And he spoke this parable to certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote on his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.
I have known Christians who were much like Pharisees in how they scorned other people while proclaiming their righteousness. I made a big error in thinking that such selfish love for one’s supposed decency is particular to Christians. As recent events have shown, self-righteousness is a universal human failing to be wary of.
Tearing down statues is a cheap and easy way of saying that I am better than everybody else without actually having to help anybody. Actually the Pharisee in Jesus’s parable is more admirable than the leftists destroying our cities and culture. The Pharisee controls his sexuality, gives to the poor, and doesn’t collect taxes unjustly. In an important way, it makes sense to prefer the Pharisee than the publican. After all, “By their works shall ye know them is one of the most useful phrases uttered in any language ever.” The works of the Pharisee are good but the works of the publican are corrupt so why should the publican be justified. The publican is a by his own admission a jerk who collects taxes unjustly but is somehow justified?
For awhile I have found this passage confusing because my heart is with the publican but my logic said that the Pharisee is the better man. I think I get more of it now. (continued)
(continued from previous comment)
The publican loved G-d and sought his forgiveness. The Pharisee loved himself and sought exaltation. This pride corrupts men. Even if men do good things, if they do them out of pride, eventually that pride will eat away at their goodness.
Love can make a publican quite collecting taxes and enable him to work honestly to help the poor. Pride can make men follow rules but it traps people in themselves.
White leftists say, that they act out of love for Black People but they tend not to know many black people and they don’t care about the violent crime, drug use and fatherlessness that really hurt poor black communities in America. White leftists will pay extra taxes to show off that they love the poor but they love the poor from far away in gated communities and tend to avoid black bars and churches. Their proclaimed love of black people is all too often a way of proclaiming their goodness.
Black leftists are likewise more motivated by a sense of the victimhood than a love for the people that suffer in their community and desire for fairness and equality. Notice how black BLM always seek to condemn whites and conservative blacks more than they seek to develop and enrich impoverished black-Americans. Movements based on real love and compassion don’t burn down businesses owned by the people that they proclaim to love.
In Jesus’s parable, the publican has a chance to become a better person and the Pharisee is going to be a jerk to people and dishonor G-d and his fellow man. This is why Wokism is so destructive. It’s based on hatred and not on love. At the risk of sounding rather simplistic and hokey, humans are at their best when they are filled with love and at their worst when they are filled with hatred. Love for one’s country, one’s community and your fellow man builds up a good society regardless of your particular color or creed. When humans are filled with hatred, things can go bad really quickly and again and in a parallel fashion, color and creed don’t seem to matter too much when you are obsessed with tearing things down.
So in conclusion, lets love each other and build stuff.
P.S. Forgive the lengthy nature of my comment. As Abraham Lincoln once put it, once I start writing I get too lazy to stop.
It’s simple: The “ideal state” would be the one where they were in charge.
This is a good video on the question; justsomeguy isn’t conservative (as is evident a couple of times), but neither was George Orwell, and this could be another good video to show someone who distrusts conservative sources:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/ScevY554YQ5q/
Showing the Bitchute version because Youtube has age-restricted his original video. I’ll need to track down the book that serves as the basis of the video.
Here’s a repost on Youtube without the images contained in the original:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/video-russian-origins-black-neo-marxism-frontpagemagcom/
This is on-point and I only want to nitpick a tiny thing: The education system is rotten to the core, from primary on up. That’s what makes me fearful for the next generation of kids. I’m reading the biography of Alexander Hamilton and the requirements for what applicants had to know is so off the charts I don’t think graduates of Masters programs in Princeton could have gained admission back then. We’re not only dumbed down and educated against everything we once stood for.
That reminds me of something I read years ago: an Italian communist, fleeing Mussolini and Hitler, was granted asylum in America (mistake) and settled in California. He hated it: all the people were so cheerful and open and friendly. Instead of loving the America that saved his life, he pondered how to destroy it.
A large part of the problem is that they don’t even know the faults of other civilizations, and therefore think that slavery, racism, etc. are uniquely American/Western evils.
They don’t know that most of the slaves brought to the US were captured and sold to American traders by other Africans. Never mind that slavery has been a constant throughout almost all of human history.
They don’t know that the Aztecs were brutal warlords who practiced gruesome forms of human sacrifice, and that many of the subjugated tribes sided with the Spanish in order to put a stop to it. They are left believing that those greedy Spanish destroyed a peaceful, near-Utopia.
For that matter, many of them believe that there was no war in the Americas (never mind slavery) before the white man came.
They don’t know that the Han Chinese are among the most racist people on Earth. To this day the term the Chinese use for their country translates to “Middle Kingdom.” As in they consider their country to be the center of the Earth.
There are too many other examples for me to continue, but the point is simple: When the faults of other civilizations are glossed over as they have been, it’s easy for them to conclude that our faults are unique.
In Susan’s defense, it is possible to hold a longing for some vision of “an ideal state” while having not the vaguest clue what it would really entail. The lesson of “The Cloak of Anarchy” has not been taught to much less learned by the folks currently tearing down statues, pillaging, looting, murdering and raping at will in cities that have bowed to the political demands of Antifa/BLM/name your violent leftwing group.
So this is the doctrinal source for Joe Biden’s announcement to Americans of African descent that ‘if you don’t support me you ain’t black’.
Jayden Grayson, one of the leaders of CHAZ/CHOP movement: “You cannot rebuild until you break it all down.”
Interviewer: And then what?
“The unraveling that happens to that system is also exactly what will fuel the black minds in the black bodies that will recreate a new world.”
There is a utopian goal, it’s just inchoate and wordlessly aspirational. There is no vision or definition to the goal, just misplaced blind faith.