Butch Leghorn (nee Legolas) is writing the book on Neoreactionary Triangles this week: First Significant Triangles in which the heretofore unobserved link between the Spandrellian trichotomy and the “Three Estates” model is made explicit.
Then in a Part Deux tour de force, Butch’s punchline is Triangle: Human Drives, in which we find the trialectical model explaining the very depths of human psychology. I cannot do this work justice in summary. Read the whole thing. Both of them.
So…. What else happened this week? … Welp, there was this:
“On 5 August 1968, Mao received the Pakistani foreign minister Mian Arshad Hussain, who brought with him a basket of golden mangoes as gifts for the Chairman.” Click here to find out what happened next. Spandrell points us here for the source, and I agree it is a fascinating read.
Spandrell continues on the subject here: Explaining the Cultural Revolution: signalling arms races as bad fiat currency. It’s a story of politics, the sort of politics arise most prominently in demotic systems poorly prepared for them. Stalin died in 1952. And Khrushchev says Cults of Personality were now forbidden. Good. Now maybe we can finally get rid of our silly Cult of Mao here in China…
But wait. If I say this in the next Politburo meeting, Mao is gonna be pissed. I need everyone on my side before I can go against Mao. But who will agree with me? This guy is friends with me, and he hates Mao. But this other guy… I’ve seen him whine about Mao and call him a dumb asshole, but then he fawns on him everytime he’s around. So if I approach him he might sell me out, and Mao could get me sacked. Mmm can’t risk it. You know what, fuck this. If the fucking bureaucrats want to send telegrams and poems, and make Mao parties every weekend, well let them. Who gives a shit. We’ll just take care that Mao doesn’t grab too much real power in the Politburo.”
And so the cult went on, snowballing undeterred because nobody could form an alliance against Mao with the assurance that they wouldn’t get sent to a Gulag.
Spandrell, brilliantly, likens the trade in increasingly obsequious, pious, and public acts of devotion to Mao to a breakdown in a nation’s currency. Hey, social currency is as valid a currency as any other commodity. It’s just a whole lot harder to measure accurately. I don’t know if this analogy is original with Spandrell or not, but it seems instantly meme-worthy in neoreactionary circles.
Anomalyuk awakens from a long e-slumber to opine, with supreme boringness, the Movie Book that Shall not Be Named.
Scharlach says to expect Apocalypse Delayed even as Nick Land seems to be enjoying the Suspense.
Athelron makes another, in what is becoming a more regular occurrence, appearance at More Right with a note on Death Note, which appears to be almost universally acclaimed by young reactionaries these days.
Peter Thiel has pointed out the remarkable fact that aside for some very brief, very contingent points in history, inventors of new technologies have captured almost none of the value that they created through those technologies. Even though science itself is a powerful force, and innovation extraordinarily valuable, it’s a mistake to assume that individual scientists and innovators are themselves powerful. Mostly, they’re withdrawing from overt contests for power and influence, whether at the corporate or political level, and dreaming that they will quietly change the world through their inventions, publications, and anonymous blog posts. The tragedy of Light [the protagonist of Death Note] shows how much they’re leaving on the table.
Legionnaire has, in view of Fat Tuesday, some apposite remarks in What Dreams May Come:
What happens if we decide to take that path? A permanent Carnival that we can retreat to at any time? The internet already is such a thing. What happens if turn it in on itself and create an Inception of Carnivals and free ourselves from the burden of being known by our masks?
The Carnival takes over. The status system of the Carnival supersedes the status system as people find themselves unable to separate the excesses of the Dionysian rite with whatever order they claim to uphold outside the mask.
The development of super-stimulus was probably inevitable. Whether the development of human souls can keep up with the development of technology may be the greatest question of this age. Also from Legionnaire: Bleeding Hearts and Weeping Martyrs and Friday’s Fragments.
Serving as inspiration for a few of those fragments was Mitchell Laurel’s piece: Against America Now, For America Tomorrow, which gets the supposed anti-Americanism of neoreaction precisely right:
I am against American now, I am against the West now, because they do not embody the principles that fueled the great engines of European culture and brought the world beautiful things. The America now, the West now, runs the same machine, the same engine. But it is running on a different fuel, a darker oil, a slimy, sticky, coarse and vile, corrosive and corruptive mixture, a destructive mercury that steadily erodes the parts of the machine till they begin to fail. This is where the West of Now finds itself, with America at the center of the eroded machinery.
But sizable damage does not preclude the possibility of revival in the case of many machines, and the West is no different. The West is capable of revival. The odds are slim, and the cost will be high, but it remains a possibility. There can be an America of tomorrow, a West of tomorrow, and it can be beautiful.
Mitchell also tells us how and why The Euro Crisis Lets Greece Throw Heavy Punches. He is convinced Greece has little to lose and much to gain by throwing them, and predicts they will. Also a smart bit of analysis on ISIS and the West in Blinders Of Political Naivete with a contender for quote of the year: “Politics is a great game in which there are no unintended moves, though many unintended consequences.” Related: Stop Scaremongering: Remember Libya.
And as usual, Mitchell has also been hard at it keeping us up-to-date on Ukraine and Novorossiya.
The dialogue between Ash Milton and GK Chesterton continues: Thomas Carlyle enters the room.
Hurlock pens the Idiot’s Guide to Natural Economic Growth. This is especially valuable for folks like me, who know just enough to qualify as an idiot on the subject! Also, Hurlock takes some notes on Calvinism, Scholasticism, and Value Theory, in which the Protestant-Catholic divide rears once again its cleaving head.
Jim thinks the weak (progs) have it coming to them. I think it is uncontroversial, at least, that they deserve it.
Wesley’s notes on recent South American missionary activities strike quite near to my own spiritual patrimony. My Baptist spiritual father (tho’ Baptists don’t officially have such things) was a close fellow and contemporary to Jim Eliot, late first husband to Elisabeth Eliot, who died with Nate Saint at the hands of the Auca people.
… so what was up at Social Matter mag?
This Week at Social Matter
On Monday, Bryce brings us Humility and History—a sober look the current, and likely inexorable, decline in the West:
Europe is, apart from a few bastions of light, being rapidly overrun by barbarians. The natives have lost the will to defend and perpetuate themselves. What there once was to be proud of the accomplishments of Europe is no longer present. I do not mean to be a pessimist, but it is worth considering what has occurred before, what others most likely tried in their attempts to stave off this future, and to set aside actions destined to futile ends. This is not a time to preserve an old race; rather, it would be better to start a new one.
Henry Dampier talks about The Cultivation of Political Hatred and how tightly bound it is to failures of states to enforce justice.
The next installment of the Ascending the Tower podcast, featuring Based Grerp is up.
John Glanton sings The Red-and-White Blues. Especially the white variety:
When Washington decides that it’s time to throw open the borders and flood the nation with cheap labor and cheaper votes, conservatives (it’s especially important here not to confuse DC Republicans with conservatives) have to engage in all sorts of proxy arguments to object to their own forthcoming inundation. We have to make economic arguments, to harp on epidemiological concerns, to appeal to currently existing (and ritually ignored) immigration laws (the tried-and-true “But you’re not playing by the rules!” tack). We have to engage in these sophistries because the most obvious and immediate argument against immigration, i.e. “mass immigration will further strain, displace, and distort the America our grandparents intended for our grandchildren,” is unavailable to us. And against all these prodigies of intellectual effort, our opponents merely have to appeal to the welfare of the ethnic groups they’re importing. “Look at these poor people. They deserve a spot at the table.” When you observe the lopsidedness of these rules of engagement, the fact that we’re losing doesn’t seem so surprising.
This Week in Henry Dampier
In A Yuppie Culture, Minus the ‘Uppie’ and the ‘Y’ Henry Dampier notices the fact that there’s not a whole lot of upward mobility going on anymore, and that the young are more disadvantaged than most in achieving it. And loose monetary policy, as loose morals, bears much of the blame.
On Monday, Henry tells us Why Historical Perspective Matters. The historical perspective is not so much learning the lessons of history so as not to repeat its errors as it is a low pass filter. The historical perspective cuts down the noise of the now and tyranny of the urgent, and helps us focus on what is truly worthy of our attention. It helps identify and amplify long term, low frequency patterns that often lie buried under the 24/7 social media attention cycle. And in doing those things, the historical perspective may well yet help us avoid the doom or repeating the errors of history.
What Makes Someone #Conservakin got a fair amount of attention on The Twitter. It’s a humorous take on the serious problem of a lack of seriousness in the vast unwashed mass of center right politics. That reminds me, Chuck Norris and Superman had a fight and the loser had to wear his underwear on the outside of his clothes.
On Wednesday, Henry has a Tip for Writers: No One Cares About You. Well, at least they shouldn’t.
On Thursday, Henry reviews Men on Strike. “It’s better than average at diagnosing the problem,” he says, “but not terribly good at suggesting a workable solution.” He then goes on to evaluate whether what men are “on” may really be likened to a “strike”. The root problems, Henry suggests, strike a lot deeper than academic psychologist Helen Smith, Mrs. Glenn Reynolds, is willing to go and remain in polite company.
Runaway Signaling Inflation takes note of Spandrell’s excellent work (mentioned above) and Henry lets him do most of the talking.
In The Striver Progressive, M. Dampier examines the psychology of on knowing what side your bread gets buttered on.
Henry closes out the week with some thoughts from (and on) Gottfried on Alan Bloom and the Straussians. Three protestant ministers, a Catholic priest and a rabbi walk into a bar…
Gottfried (himself Jewish) tongue-lashes Catholics for allying with another group against another which they have had historical conflicts with. Why should this be surprising? If we were speaking about a foreign country, seeing the mutual enmity would be easy.
But in America, we are all supposed to throw up a facade of tolerance, to pretend like we are all in this project together, which we aren’t. The Know-Nothings arguably understood this, but the weight of democratic incentives outweighed that understanding.
Hey, we don’t need to drive out the Catholics; we just need to deprogram their children. The reason American pluralism and religious tolerance has lived so long and attained such a powerful grip on the imagination of the Western world is that it has always been an illusion. Those who see through that illusion are bound to sound pretty “Anti-American”.
This Week in Son of Brock Landers
SoBL begins the week with an expansive geopolitical piece: The Orchestrated Attack on Russia Failed. It’s the Cold War all over again; and it isn’t merely John McCain’s understandable, if not quite forgiveable, bellicosity to blame.
Next up, he points out The Pain to Social Security if Shale Busts. Low oil prices are no doubt a problem for Russia, but don’t forget America is a major world oil producer as well. And arguably just as fragile as the former Soviet Bear.
SoBL tells us How to Resurrect a TV Series. Better Call Saul featuring Bob Odenkirk, whom some say I sound like, gets a mention. It seemed, from the beginning, an improbable Breaking Bad spin off—a series I consider to be as near the Platonic ideal of TV drama as I’ve ever seen. In a rare feat of managing to stay au courrant, I can proudly say I watched the first episode of Better Call Saul. I’m reserving judgement for now, but I can report that it didn’t suck as bad as I expected.
In Wednesday’s Gold and the Strong Dollar Illusion, SoBL outlines all the reasons to ask “Why isn’t there a speculative bubble here?” I.e., in gold. That’s a very good question.
Sex, Booze, Teachers and Guns details an Indiana teacher’s penchant for teenage bad boys. It’s illegal and icky and an abuse of power, yada, yada. But it’s never very clear for me in these cases (older female teacher, 17 year old male student) who seduces whom. I doubt the “victims” were too broken up about it.
In A Note on Ellie Goulding and Florence Welch, SoBL waxes eloquently on the one true power that women can and do wield over men, and why we don’t really seem to mind.
This Week… Elsewhere
Welp… Neoreaction appears to have a dictionary now. At a pretty primo domain name too. Seems pretty good. Not sure how well the WP template is going to scale though.
Nick Land catches Michael Anissimov being magnanimous and tweeting #OffNRxPos (Official Neoreactionary Position) on The Twitter. Next time, we may hope that this sort of event is not newsworthy.
Malcolm Pollack has much to say, and little in favor of, This Thing All Things Devours. Net Neutrality! It’s a code word for… like… ya know how we haven’t landed men on Europa yet? Well… Net Neutrality seems a lot like that.
The Right Stuff hosts Another OvenSide Chat with Mike. Therein, Michael Enoch explains why he doesn’t consider himself a “Neo-Reactionary” (well, the hyphen’s yer first problem). Most of Mike’s concerns center on the short, and wholly inadequate, shrift given by Moldbug to the destabilizing effects of ethno-religious minorities. I gave the bulk of my answer on ask.fm. In short, there are many good reasons not to be a neoreactionary, but I think an enforceable, doctrinaire philo-semitism is not one of them.
Free Northerner has some useful advice for women If a Man Talks to You… Loved this bit:
Signal something unique: Signal something that makes you stand out, particularly for the kind of man you are looking for. If you are looking for an physically active man, wear something that indicates you participate in a sport. If you are looking for a bookish man, carry a book. If you are looking for a traditional man, look traditional. If you are looking for a family man, coo over your friend’s baby. If you are looking for a player, show your cleavage. If a man sees you share something in common, something particular that interests him, or that gives him an easy in to open, he will be more likely to approach you.
Please, daughter(s), read the whole thing.
Atavisionary asks: Why are there no conservative comedians? Who knows? Maybe when not knocking over apple-carts becomes funny again, there will be.
Speaking of the Atlantic Piece, here is Heartiste’s take on it. Now if you read that, and didn’t know Heartiste wrote it, what prominent neoreactionary would you guess wrote it? (I’m interested in your answer for purely pseudo-scientific reasons. If you’ve heard my guess on The Twitter, please don’t spoil it for other players.)
You’ve heard of Atheism+. Well this is a story about Porn+. OK. Not exactly. Not yet. But that’s how the mainstream media will present it.
Filed under New-to-Me: Some guy, Kyussopeth, has been blogging for a while over at Mesoreactionary. He sounds as mad as hell—which is just about how we expect anyone to sound who’s been paying attention. Haven’t read enough to classify or give a Nihil Obstat, but Conservatives shouldn’t be allowed to vote and The Heartland Theory of Neoreaction seemed to me to be well within the intentionally occulted boundaries of neoreactionary thought.
This should be interesting to realists of all sorts. Over at The Orthosphere, Prof. Bertonneau says The Structure of Reality is the Structure of Revelation. This was a side note, but both humorous and apposite:
The occasion in honor of the intellectual crusader [who’d gotten “creationist” and “intelligent design” material banned from a library], sponsored by a faculty of professional rationalists, resembled nothing so much as Revivalist anti-liquor meeting or a Blue-Stocking rally to keep that wicked pool hall out of town. One half-expected a hysterical penitent to emerge from the audience, throw himself at the good doctor’s feet, and confess out loud that he had once fleetingly felt up the heresy—whereupon might he please receive absolution from “Sister Science” for his sin? That the audience could not see itself in such a light suggests that its constituent members had descended from intellectual commitment to a set of propositions, whose persuasiveness they would still be willing to debate, to emotive espousal of a Manichaean dispensation that consists only of true-believers in the righteous cause and the great unwashed.
Speaking of The Orthosphere and realism, Kristor also has a major contribution to make to the discussion of Teleology (Bitchez!) in Reversion to the Mean. He gets right to the point:
If there is a real world, and if it is consistently ordered, and if this consistent orderliness extends to the living portion of that world… then there must be some basic set of policies best suited to the lives of humans as we find them in the world as it is. Such is the proposition at the crux of philosophical Traditionalism, and of all the unconscious chthonic traditions that arose of old and organically from the practice of life, and were one day noticed and then taught by priests and sages. It is obviously true; it cannot but be true.
Speaking of teleology, Bryce says not only that but Teleotheology, Bitchez! “If religion is going to re-establish itself it must bring cosmic enchantment back into the life of society.” Amen to that.
Our antipodean brothers are loving them Radish Meme Posters!!
Over at Losing the Creek, Skyagusta, all traditional Southern modesty aside, is doing a great job of steering the discussion on Southern Reaction (#Srx) in fruitful directions. First, a big quote from Richard Weaver. Here he invites discussion on the Differences Between Southerners. And finally he delivers a magnificent, magisterial I think, part one on The Roots of Modern Southern Leftism: The Novelists.
The Kakistocracy takes note of the fact that reactionaries tend to be neither ants nor armadillos. Also a review of sorts of the movie we wish no one was talking about.
Welp… That’s all I got time fer. I’m sure I missed a ton of good stuff out there. Keep askin’ me questions on The Ask. Since I’m taking a partial break (work hours) from The Twitter during Lent, you might even get better quality answers. Keep on Reactin’. Til next week… TRP, over and out!!
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