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On the dissipation of confidence
Now and then you read a piece that doesn’t just hit the bullseye, it produces paragraph after paragraph that cleave the arrows already quivering in the center of the target. Describing the enervated modern mind, Canadian essayist and poet David Solway says:
One detects a certain frivolity of mind, the readiness and even eagerness to capitulate to a prevailing orthodoxy, in effect, a superficiality of thought, a dwindling of intellectual range, a loathing for the things we ignorantly take for granted and a perverse desire to see them taken from us.
Exactly. The prevailing orthodoxy – at least the one that seeks to prevail – is not attractive or uplifting, and it does not even promise redemption, just a possible condition of diminished sinfulness. But its liturgy is easy to mouth, and its call-and-response portions of the service require no more than nodding.
A superficiality of thought: that seems hard to square with the wearisome complexity of CRT language, but all those words are just ornaments hung on a barren tree.
A loathing for the things we ignorantly take for granted. All the wonders of the modern world, all the things that make our lives easy compared to the experience of 99.95 of the people who ever lived, have become problematic. Thus, the perverse desire to see them taken from us. Perhaps not all of us. Air conditioning for me, but not for the developing world. A car for me and mine, but the bus for the rest.
In his recent book, The Decadent Society, Ross Douthat contends that in the midst of our presentiment of imminent cataclysm, we also paradoxically relish the approaching calamity as preferable to the sense of cultural disenchantment, “economic deceleration,” and affective sclerosis that silently afflicts us.
Few of the chattering and governing classes relish actual collapse. They have a vague hope for a short, sharp shock that instantly re-orders the Western mind to eliminate the -isms that prevent us from ascending the last few steps of the golden staircase. (More on this in a bit.) Some obsess over Climate Change to point of incapacitation, but if it wasn’t that, it would be something else. Nuclear Winter played the same role for that sort of person in the 80s.
Writing in American Greatness, Alexander Zubetov is of the same mind. We live in a decaying culture, fueled by resentment “against the great achievements of our civilization’s past,” which we can no longer emulate.
I think we can, but have chosen not to. There’s a difference. We are hampered from some things by regulatory nooses. Train projects that once could be built fairly quickly now take a decade to ensure that the breeding ground for the Striped Mite is not adversely affected. There was a time when we could emulate the great classical architectural styles, but we rejected them in favor of new modes that helped detach the pubic’s mind from history – and eventually the talents that could create the old styles were trained in other things, or too diminished in number. Now, if we wished, we could 3D print any sort of ornamentation for our public buildings – but we have chosen, or rather Father Biden has chosen for us, that the traditional styles are not be employed.
The convenient thing about CRT is its infinite applicability, its ability to poison any art, dismiss it, and insist on new criteria – not for the sake of art, for a new style, a new way of apprehending the human condition, but to ensure the correct political and social result in any endeavor. It provides good cover for the Salieris who burn inside when they hear the sublimity of Mozart, and, knowing they cannot produce its like, and knowing it will always be reminded of their mediocrity, seek to banish the good and replace it with something they regard as true, because it is ugly. If it is rejected by the old order, that is only additional proof of its truths, and of the necessaity of proclaiming it.
Despairing of retrieval, we create a wasteland, reducing everything to rubble out of petty spite and a deep sense of personal inadequacy. We welcome lockdowns, economic collapse, censorship and even an emerging police state that will change our lives, perhaps irretrievably.
Careful with that “we” here, mister.
I think he’s on to something, but I think there are other ways of looking at it. Most accepted lockdowns at the start. We chafed as time went on, dulled and numb to the waxing and waning of restrictions, unable to change anything. In this new state, the few who welcomed lockdowns thrived, and assembled authority and the mantle of virtue.
Few welcome economic collapse, except for the Marxists and Democratic Socialists. (The governing class, which is not as smart or devious as some think, may welcome the opportunities provided for the state by economic distress, but they are too accustomed to their status and pleasures to wish for the return of manual labor and the barter system)
Others welcome censorship, but have told themselves it isn’t censorship at all – how, they wonder, could any progressive believe in censorship? That’s the job of fascists and religious leaders. They just want Truth and Safety! The alternative would be the perpetuation of racism and white supremacy. Giving up hate speech to combat those vile ideas is hardly censorship. It’s commonsense Word Reform. Sensible regulation. 1A, 2A – cling bitterly to the worlds of old white slaveowners if you must, but don’t think we won’t notice.
even an emerging police state that will change our lives, perhaps irretrievably.
They don’t actual want police, because police are systemically irredeemable. They do want some form of civil authority that can ferret out and punish Hate – an elastic term they need not define, since its manifestations are obvious to all whose eyes and minds are correctly oriented.
One is also taken aback by the category of things some people are willing to surrender as a sign of their fortitude, thus furnishing a glimpse into the make-up of the progressivist personality, the objects it finds of unique importance, and the particular destitutions it is willing to undergo as it prepares for the emergent order of things.
He links to a Toronto Sun columnist whose Feb 11 offering was called “Prepare for the long haul — the pandemic is far from over.” Why? THE MUTATIONS. Oh, the restrictionists are practically priapic at the idea of the variants. What must we be prepared to accept?
It’s not enough to close all the barber shops for six weeks. What is needed is a permanent way to let hairdressers work safely.
As if life is merely a matter of how you get your locks shorn. Anything else?
Similarly, restaurateurs will have to come to terms with the fact that eating out is a luxury the world can no longer afford.
A luxury! A luxury the WORLD must foreswear. As Solway notes, it’s telling that the columnist talks not of museums, concerts, travel, any of the other things that make life grand and delicious. Haircuts and coffee shops, that’s it.
This thing is far from over. Those who think vaccines alone will miraculously solve our woes are whistling into the wind.
Better that we prepare ourselves for a grim future. Because that’s what we are likely to get.
The man is a coward.
There’s no other word for it. And that’s what it all comes down to: cowardice masquerading as prudence, cowardice in the raiments of wisdom, cowardice dressed up in the armor of bravery, cowardice emboldened by everyone’s silent, weary acquiescence, and insists it is actually brave to imagine a worse world and will it into being.
Because the old one, you know, well, it had its problems. Stripped of the burden of history, won’t we all stand up straight and tall?
(Editor’s note: we apologize for the ableist characterization that valorizes and privileges “standing, ” and have sacked the columnist. Our thanks to all the readers who wrote in with objections. Your bravery in speaking up against these hurtful words are an inspiration to us all.)
Published in General
Critical Race Theory. The Great Leveling on steroids.
Tacitus said of his fellow Romans “Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem apellant.” “They create desolation and call it peace.” Maybe we just replace pacem with cultura.However, we are doing it to ourselves, not the Carthaginians.
We’ve got France – France – warning us that this woke stuff is getting out of hand. I can remember when if you told a Leftie we were disappointing the French, they would weep tears of bitter shame.
The preference cascade against this dreck is going to be a tsunami.
The question is: what will it take? What will be the thing that tips it?
Hugo: “This magnificent art produced by the Vandals has been slain by the academies. The centuries, the revolutions, which at least devastate with impartiality and grandeur, have been joined by a cloud of school architects, licensed, sworn, and bound by oath; defacing with the discernment and choice of bad taste…It is the kick of the ass at the dying lion. It is the old oak crowning itself, and which, to heap the measure full, is stung, bitten, and gnawed by caterpillars.” Mr. Lileks, yours is a reflection of the people waiting breathlessly, hopefully, earnestly for the ship to come to port, only to finally have a rowboat arrive – with a message that the grand ship has been sunk for our own good.
I don’t know. Of all the things that might have lit Romania’s fuse, why would it be a Protestant assistant pastor in Timișoara losing his flat that should bring down Ceauşescu? The only predictable thing will be its unpredictability.
EDIT: it’s → its. I know better, and I still do it.
Wow – thank you for saying so eloquently what has been on my mind for the past year. And I am beyond tired of being led by this horrid cabal of cowards. We need to label them loudly and often.
A moose once bit my sister,…
Words that had to be said: “cowardice” and “priapic.” Delightful!
A child learns most of his adult vocabulary by the age of three. We only need ~3000 words to survive. However, we need another ~3000 to to make writing a work of art.
I was amazed and shocked by how quickly many of my colleagues embraced this perpetual shutdown. These are young and bright people ( 30’s engineers), but the ones comfortable speaking up on our Slack feed all were scared.
It was pretty clear by late April of last year that this virus, while devastating to geriatrics and people with comorbidities like diabetes, this virus for people younger than 40 was no more dangerous than the annual flu.
Even when they admitted that they were unlikely to die from this virus, they talked about “long term health effects”. Apparently none of these people had ever had a bad bout of the flu. It takes a long while to recover from the flu, you can be hacking up stuff for months, and spending days in bed destroys your fintness.
It is an attitude. They want/like the restrictions. It is as if in the world of complete license of sexuality and gender lifestyle they cling to this virus culture to provide some structure to their lives.
The residue of people who grew up with every moment of their lives under adult supervision. They must be told what to do.
The great longing for a revolution always come from those who have never lived through one.
Hmm. I don’t think I ever heard that part of the story.
For once, Wikipedia does a fair job.
The persons responsible for the previous credits have been sacked.
Dr. Michael Mina has expressed frustration that we haven’t been taking advantage of our knowledge of other respiratory to understand this one. Yes, covid-19 is a little different, but it’s not like we’re exploring some alien universe that has a totally different molecular structure. But some people seemed intent on not being able to understand this one, thus the fear about “long term health effects” long after we had a pretty good idea of what was causing the lingering effects that were being sensationalized for fear-mongering purposes. You could say the main long term health effect was the purposeful long-term refusal to apply our understanding of other respiratory viruses to this one.
Why do you think it’s going to tip? Just look at painting as an example. After the High Renaissance, what was to be done? How do you top Michelangelo? You don’t try. Hence Mannerism. You go off on your own. Personal style becomes dominant. Painting has been on a 600 year downswing ever since.
We have gone from this…
To this…
And things show no sign of tipping yet.
James – the problem is well understood, the question is how to deal with CRT and other ideas of the left with the outcome of seeing the culture and ideals that enabled America to rise to pre-eminence and the Pax Americana that resulted from that pre-emenince, be sustained. (Sorry for the poor sentence structure.) The solution requires that we conservatives take back the culture in important ways so that on a level playing field of ideas, we can show the CRT and the attendant restructuring of society is not a good solution for those who are the intended beneficiaries of CRT. Conservatives would win such a debate. This would be a good subject for an extensive dialog. Of course, to have a dialog requires that there is agreement on a basic set of facts with the proponents of CRT etc. Sadly, I do not see that as possible at present.
Rush called it the wussification of America.
I know libertarians fighting food labeling regulations as human meat hits the market stall will be the end of them.
But when it comes to the culture at large, we’ve accepted so much, I’m at a complete loss of what could surely outrage us enough to break out of our ennui? By the time the culture gets to child sex slaves, it will be so perversely packaged that half of us will be arguing “nothing to see here” while half of us scream “the sky is falling” and NRO will write the conservative case for lowered age of consent (to nil) and The next David French will be ridiculing us, for our theocratic tendencies to force our morals onto others is not the Christian way and the free market must have its way.
So true, but also comes from those who have seen the outcome when people don’t revolt. It is the most important cost/benefit analysis one must make. At the moment, the cost is worse than the benefit. I won’t bet that will always be the case. Time will tell.
The continued success of places that are open despite the attempts to continue the lockdown. Every day Florida/Texas/Sweeden stays defiant makes a mockery of the lockdowns.
Another thing I want to say, as a Canadian. We are probably the highest trust in government country on the planet. You must understand, we are fat happy and safe here, and we have never had to face a hard problem in a long time. Remember our government has never lied us into a war. The governments have been giving out basic UBI during the pandemic. We have universal but awful health care.
We also are descendent from the people who stayed loyal to the crown during the American Revolution. Except for Quebec, who are descended from people who never went through the French Revolution. This makes us more complacent and trusting of authorities.
Finally all our media, except for the Rebel, are now getting subsidized by the government. Even places like the Sun. I am curious who the writer of the article is. The Sun is very populist, its both left and right wing populist.
Talk about moving the needle. We need more people like this. Nigel and Mark that is.
This was done in less than an hour and a half.
Note: I believe this occurred in 2016.
Ah ha! Thats the problem. Its not the Toronto Sun. Its the Toronto Star. Or as we like to call it the Red Star. Your all but reading from Canadian Pravda. Its to the left of MSNBC.
I confess being ignorant of many thousands of words, so I had to look up priapic.
Wouldn’t orgasmic be a better choice, and have the advantage of being neutral? Maybe I missed the intent.
I hope this doesn’t make me pedantic. Though my ignorance probably excludes that possibility.
Absolutely terrific piece.
And this:
Some things, once imagined, can not be unimagined.
It’s always good to catch up to Steyn.
I’m still trying to use priapic and cowardly in a decent sentence.
That’s exactly the problem.