More or less all my “thinking life” I have wondered at the third component in that little phrase in the American Bill of Rights, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  How, I asked myself, could serious people raise happiness (the pursuit of), a product of many factors and passing circumstances, most of them not within the gift of politicians, to the status of an existential absolute?  If one needed an explanation of how we children of the liberal age, when given the choice of wealth or goodness, choose wealth, choose materialism, hedonism, nihilism, it is pretty much enshined in those four words.

To my mind, happiness as an abstracted and singularised human purpose leads away from itself.  It does it by creating in the mind of the subject a cheap and cheapening, easily met standard for itself.  For example, civic nationalists are satisfied with the lowest-hanging of political fruit - a few gestures in the direction of la patria, a flag, some symbols of military power, a bit of back-slapping with perfect strangers over some feigned shared value ...  It means nothing.  It is nothing compared to the sum at which the true nationalist prices the human meaning and worth found in the familial and in kind, in brotherhood, rootedness, belonging, trust, love, and the good of his people.

These are, in reality, the psychological essentials. But, politically, they belong to another universe, a nationalist universe too discreet for non-nationalists to penetrate.  Even ones who are psychologists.

From a study published earlier this month in the Association of Psychological Science:

National Pride Brings Happiness—But What You’re Proud of Matters

Research shows that feeling good about your country also makes you feel good about your own life—and many people take that as good news. But Matthew Wright, a political scientist at American University, and Tim Reeskens, a sociologist from Catholic University in Belgium, suspected that the positive findings about nationalism weren’t telling the whole story. “It’s fine to say pride in your country makes you happy,” says Wright. “But what kind of pride are we talking about? That turns out to make a lot of difference.” The intriguing—and politically suggestive—differences they found appear in a commentary in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science.

Reeskens and Wright divided national pride into two species. “Ethnic” nationalism sees ancestry—typically expressed in racial or religious terms—as the key social boundary defining the national “we.” “Civic” nationalism is more inclusive, requiring only respect for a country’s institutions and laws for belonging. Unlike ethnic nationalism, that view is open to minorities or immigrants, at least in principle.

The authors analyzed the responses to four key questions by 40,677 individuals from 31 countries, drawn from the 2008 wave of the cross-national European Values Study. One question assessed “subjective well being,” indicated by general satisfaction with life. Another measured national pride. The other two neatly indicated ethnic and civic national boundaries—asking respondents to rate the importance of respect for laws and institutions, and of ancestry, to being a true . . . fill in the blank . . . German, Swede, Spaniard. The researchers controlled for such factors as gender, work status, urban or rural residence, and the country’s per capita GDP.

Like other researchers, they found that more national pride correlated with greater personal well-being.  But the civic nationalists were on the whole happier, and even the proudest ethnic nationalists’ well-being barely surpassed that of people with the lowest level of civic pride.

The analysis challenges popular feel-good theories about nationalism. “There’s been a renaissance of arguments from political theorists and philosophers that a strong sense of national identity has payoffs in terms of social cohesion, which bolsters support for welfare and other redistributive policies,” says Wright. “We’ve finally gotten around to testing these theories.” The conclusion: “You have to look at how people define their pride.”

The findings, he adds, give a clue to what popular responses we might expect to “broad macro-economic and social trends”—that is, millions of people crossing borders (usually from poorer to wealthier countries) looking for work or seeking refuge from war or political repression. “It’s unclear what the political implications of the happiness measure are—though unhappy citizens could demand many politically dangerous, xenophobic responses. Ethnic nationalists, proud or not, appear relatively less happy to begin with and more likely to lead the charge as their nation diversifies around them.”

The publicity machine for Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, has cranked into gear.  The line is that this love story across the ethnic and religious divide of the Bosnian war is stirring passions among those who lived through its three pitiless years.

Murat Tahirovic, who heads an association of ex-prisoners of war, added: “This film is deeply moving for the victims who experienced all of these things.

“It is completely objective and it really tells the facts of what happened during the war. She succeeded in telling the story of the whole war in her film and to show… situations that detainees faced - mass executions, rapes, [being used as] human shields and all the other horrors.”

But Branislav Djukic, who heads the Bosnian Serb Association of Camp Prisoners, had a very different reaction after seeing a trailer. He said that the film “is showing lies” as it depicts only Serbs as rapists during the war and called for it to be barred from cinemas in the autonomous Serbian half of Bosnia. “We’ll do our best to ban the film,” he said.

A commenter on the (at present, very short) thread writes:

A Croatian friend said something that made me think when I was over in Zagreb this summer, whilst discussing the conflicts he said “There are no good guys in this region.”

There is a sense in which the appreciation of the Serb role in the conflict as “no-good guys” but also as victims marks the break-down of the Establishment narrative.  Jolie is still telling it, of course, and she will win all the usual plaudits and probably an Oscar or two.  Coincidentally, another false narrative had an airing on BBC2 this evening.  But the “evil Serb” may not prove as enduring as the “evil Nazi”, and one small light on that may be thrown by the Telegraph comment thread.  So far, it’s hearteningly balanced.  I shall watch it with interest.

Well, I didn’t expect it.  Like most people, I think, I had David Cameron down as electable Mr Bland, a wax-work dummy from Madame Tussauds carefully placed in the leadership of the Conservative Party to follow the internationalist, neoliberal script.  And perhaps he would have done so, turning his back on national interest as every other British Prime Minister has, finally, over the last thirty-five years.  But, it seems, Sarko and his mandarins, possessed as they are of a vision for Europe on a Napoleonic scale and a horrible suspicion that Anglo-Saxon skulduggery is undermining it, made it impossible for him, wearing the colours of Arch-Defender of Financial Services, to sign on fiscal Europe’s bottom line.

Now we have a situation where seventeen eurozone states and nine EU member but non-eurozone states are going to make lovebird sounds to another, while totally ignoring the will of their respective peoples.  One other state is, as they say, “isolated”, though it is a rather smug and relieved isolation at the moment.  If Cameron calls a snap election now, or if the LibDems collapse the coalition (which they can’t, of course), he would scoot home.  Even with all the austerity.

But ... what does it all mean from a nationalist perspective?  Has anything changed for us?  Well, two things for starters.

First, the definition of a Eurosceptic has been expanded.  Cameron’s veto has made the beast mainstream.  Meanwhile, the ante has been vertiginously upped for supporters of joining the Euro.  The old argument about being at “the heart of Europe” to protect our interests is defunct – we are not going to be at the heart of Europe ever again.  Now Europhiles have to argue that agreeing to German oversight of UK taxation and spending policy and practise would be in the national interest.

Cameron’s veto will have an immediate effect on UKIP and on British nationalism, forcing a focus on the perfect nonsense of belonging to a club of 27 which 26 have left, and the half-life Britain will now increasingly inherit as the 26 develop their union.  The argument for independence therefore becomes one of re-definition and regularisation.  It has lost much of its power.

Second, notwithstanding our signature to the existing EU treaties (including Lisbon which effectively abolishes the nation state) the intergovernmental process of de-sovereignisation has come to a screeching halt for Britain.  The sole remaining interests for the British government in the EU are the preservation of (i) the Single Market and (ii) the unregulated status of the City of London.  The project has now become a neoliberal one, not an internationalist one, and that will require a more nuanced critique from nationalists.

In this respect globalisation presents a particular challenge.  It continues to exercise its baleful influence upon us and to be fully supported by the political mainstream.  But it is nebulous, and the power of corporations does not pack the same punch as a political target as the power of Brussels.

A lot has changed today.  We do not yet know how all the pieces will fall finally.  But nationalism didn’t make much impact when the ideological times were good.  They just got tougher, and I am none too confident that we can rise to the challenge.

From the Daily Mail.  Comments off.

‘Woman on a tram’ to spend Christmas behind bars ‘for her own protection’ after court views video of alleged racist rant

A woman accused of launching a vile racist rant on a tram is to spend Christmas behind bars after she was remanded in custody for her own safety.

Magistrates took the decision to refuse Emma West’s bail application after they heard she had received death threats and that her address had been circulated on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter.

There were outbursts from supporters of Miss West, who shouted ‘treason’ as she was denied bail at Croydon Magistrates’ Court.

Miss West, a 34-year-old mother from New Addington, appeared before JPs charged with a racially aggravated public order offence in connection with a video that was heavily circulated on YouTube.

The former dental assistant bowed her head and sobbed as three magistrates watched the footage, which has now been seen more than 11 million times online.

When Miss West was arrested her partner told police that had been a number of death threats made against her, Eka Ike, prosecuting, told the court.

Magistrates chairman Ian McNeal said during the hearing: ‘We are told that your address has been widely circulated on Facebook and Twitter and there has been numerous death threats.

‘This case has attracted a high degree of public interest as evidence today. For these reasons we are remanding you in custody for your own protection.’

Miss West’s supporters shouted ‘treason’ and ‘we love you Emma, be strong’ as she was led to the cells.

Earlier, after the foul-mouthed video was played to the packed court, the court clerk asked West how she wanted to plead.

‘Not guilty,’ she said.

Wearing a blue blouse and a black cardigan, she wiped tears from her face during the hearing.

For most of the time the video was played, around two minutes and 20 seconds, she was doubled over, out of sight from the public gallery.

Friends and family gathered to give her support.

The hearing had been adjourned until 2pm to give time for West to prepare reasons for her not guilty plea.

When she returned to the court room, her earlier plea of not guilty was rescinded due to an administrative error. Court records were amended to show she has not yet indicated a plea.

West was arrested on Monday last week for her own safety after the footage was posted on YouTube on Sunday by LadyK89 and viewed more than 10,000 times.

She had been remanded in custody after he first appearance at Croydon Magistrates’ Court last Tuesday.

Miss West has elected to have her case dealt with at the crown court. She will next appear at the same court on January 3 via a video link.

So, we now know that Emma has had some mental issues, and that her disinhibition may have been linked to that.  Instead of being given police protection she is imprisoned awaiting trial.  Her two children have been taken into care.  She has been broken by the system which will pass judgement upon her.

That system, meanwhile, demonstrated the nature of its compassion in this judgement, again reported in the Mail:

READ MORE...

I had just spent a pleasant ten minutes sampling the anti-white racism of the liberal classes when, on checking the Telegraph opinion page, I found the first “right-wing” article about the Emma West video.  I say “right-wing” but it is written by a white female journalist who, it transpires, has Asian in-laws.

My first comment was also the first on the thread, and the 250+ that have followed demonstrate that, at the Telegraph at least and on threads specifically relating to the race issue, the only opinion that counts is our opinion.  The opinions of anti-racists and foreigners are almost wholly lacking.  But, and this is the significant thing, so too are the opinions of civicists, “respectable” conservatives, or anyone, frankly, close to the kind of view that the Telegraph itself puts forward on race matters.

This represents a real change.  To what extent it is the product of the kind of truth-speaking at which nationalists excel I can’t say.  It would be nice to think so.  But perhaps there is just a general drift towards the polarisation of opinion, which is fine too.

At any rate, I mark that one down as an objective achieved.  The next one is to effect the same kind of shift on threads not directly related to “the question” - on which I shall report later.

Does anyone know if a concerted effort is being mounted to plant Bob’s mantra across the MSM?  I happened to encounter a lot of it on this Telegraph thread about the short-lived racial segregation at Bjerke Upper Secondary School in Oslo.  Then at BDF I came across this quite powerful video, which is the work of a mantra-phile.

Anyone know anything about this?

And here’s another one:

Quite a few references to “the professional” Bob Whittaker, which I found superfluous but a target audience might not, I suppose.

A Pee-Cee news report, with comments switched off, is here.

Alexander has launched an e-petition on the Downing Street website proposing the end of the private fractional reserve system:

Abolition of credit creation by private banks

Responsible department: Her Majesty’s Treasury

To remove the power of credit creation from private banks and place it in the hands of either the Treasury or the Crown so that all credit for public spending shall be issued debt-free, and if necessary for Britain to withdraw from the Treaty of Maastricht with particular reference to Article 104(1) and its prohibition of debt-free government credit creation.

This constitutes an attack, in Britain at last, on the third great pillar of globalisation - the enslavement in debt of all the European peoples.  I hope you think it is worth disseminating knowledge of the petition wherever appropriate and worth signing yourself, of course.