Monday 19 October 2009

A Vibrant Corpse. — No aim strikes the latter-day European as more sinister, or is likely to fill him with more loathing, than that of the preservation of his own race, or just of its particular homelands and peoples. It seems to him the greatest taboo and the most forbidden sin — to him who revels in the breaking of taboos, so long as they are healthy; to him who scoffs at the forbiddance of sins, so long as they are to his pleasure! — and the pious observance of the defilement of his own race makes him feel washed of sin. At the passing, or the threat to the survival, of Bantu tribes, Tibetan customs, snow leopards, rare butterflies, elm-trees, and so forth, he can become justly regretful, and even spurred to action; but to the plight of his own race, customs, societies, and so forth, he is quite indifferent, and to any counter-measure, quite hostile. Has anything ever been observed that compares to it? Does it not show at least the withering of a survival-instinct, and perhaps even a diseased will to self-destruction, wherewith he is afflicted? Could it have been guessed even a hundred years ago that Europe would face its defilement and death in the most shameful and ignoble way? Certainly, great upheavals were felt to be coming, fire, blood, destruction; and come they did — but the pious acquiescence to the passing of Europe: could this have been imagined in quite the way that it is occurring? The latter-day European is even too weak to confront his sickness face-to-face. Just that itself would be a sign of healthiness in him. He must meet it as though it were a hopeful opportunity. The sickness of Europe is taken by its deadly microbes, its celebrants, to be a sign of health and a promise of a thriving — nay, “vibrant” — future; and so it is for them. Every sickness is a sign of health, that is to say, of the disease itself, and every corpse teems with life.

4 comments:

Bruce Charlton said...

Yes, yes, and yes - but what about the Elms? You slipped them into the list just a little too glibly, I am afraid.

I don't think it is possible for an Englishman to exaggerate the significance of the loss of the elms. They were woven into our magical fabric. C.S Lewis's Logres, Tolkien's early concept of faery, and all that.

Maybe the loss of our elms had something to do with our present plight?

In fact, I still cannot let myself dwell on this subject, so if you will excuse me...

Deogolwulf said...

Ah, fair enough; “justly regretful” doesn't quite express it. Either I am a great misanthrope, or a great arborophile, but I would sooner see a stretch of elms than a crowd of my fellow men.

The 27th Comrade said...

My Dear Deogolwulf,

My Significant Other is of your lands, a Scotswoman of the first water, and I am myself proudly of the Bantu tribes to which you allude (mixed richly with the Nilotics of the Equator), and she has been lamenting the death of her culture, and the frailty of it, where it remains.

I guess a certain envy can't fail to over-take you, if you live in these our lands and see how proud people are of their inherited culture; and this pride is normal and healthy. Those who don't have it are like the people in your lands: ready to do things that are destructive to all in the long run, even if beneficial to them in the selfish short run.

It took a bit of work - especially on her part - to undo the knee-jerk guilt that results from one of your people being proud of who he/she is (European, White, Scot, Brit, whatever). It had been labeled all kinds of things, "racist" being the first of them. What makes it particularly bad is how it weakens you people even further. What the drugs, the selfish styles of government, and loss of Christianity failed to achieve, this will achieve[1].

I think she is happier being a full and fulfilled human being; with roots and proud of them. I'm happy about that[2].

[1] I don't have much hope for you, and I don't have a reason to want the best for you - we are rival tribes, so to speak.
[2] The only real fault of such pride, as is the case of all things, is swinging to the extreme. Racism against other peoples shouldn't be the (main) result of being proud of one's own race. It seems that those who see the sensible range are few and far between, such that even among those who are getting the identity pride issue right, many are getting the humanity issue wrong.

Deogolwulf said...

My dear Comrade,

“I guess a certain envy can’t fail to over-take you, if you live in these our lands and see how proud people are of their inherited culture; and this pride is normal and healthy.”

Envy in the non-malicious sense of the word, i.e., wishing that Europeans possessed it too rather than wishing that Africans lacked it, and wishing it merely as a healthy condition, as you say, one necessary for survival.

“I don’t have much hope for you, and I don’t have a reason to want the best for you — we are rival tribes, so to speak.”

Fair enough.

“The only real fault of such pride, as is the case of all things, is swinging to the extreme. Racism against other peoples shouldn’t be the (main) result of being proud of one’s own race.”

Certainly.