Civilization Takedown: “Populism”

Posted by James Bowery on Wednesday, 19 January 2011 18:01.

“Populism” is a term that has always made me bristle due to its anti-yeomanry connotation. The frequency of the term in books began exponentiating in the late 1950s (having first appeared upon the closing of the American frontier to homesteading):

A book originally published in 1962 titled “The Populist response to industrial America: midwestern Populist thought” by Norman Pollack speaks to this bristling midwestern yeoman’s “discontent” through this illuminating passage concerning the term itself:

Ignoring what came before, proponents of this framework adopt the following line of reasoning: Populism did not adjust to industrialism; hence, the movement occupied an untenable historical position. And because it looked backward, its long-range solutions were, by definition, unrealistic. This meant that by not comprehending the basis for its discontent, Populism was forced to search for simplistic explanations and, ultimately, scapegoats. The result is a cumulatively deteriorating position; as protest becomes more emotinal, it bears less resemblance to reality. The final image is that of a movement of opportunists, crackpots, and anti-Semites, whose perception of the world conforms to the dictates of a conspiracy theory of history. The over-all consequence of this image is that Populism has been denied its traditional place as a democratic social force. Rather, its significance for American history is altered so greatly that it has come to stand as the source for later proto-fascist groups, McCarthyism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and anti-intellectualism. One senses the proportions of this denigration process when it is seen that the very term “populistic” has passed into the working vocabulary of many intellectuals as an epithet, signifying the traits just enumerated.

I lived through the corporatizaton (in truth the consequence of “industrialization”) of the last of the family farms in Iowa—my family among them—and can attest to the vicious role “intellectuals” played by failing to think deeply enough about the roots of our “discontent”—roots drawing from the agrarian foundations of civilization itself—on the one hand, and the offering up of corporatization as a kind of “inevitablism”, on the other.

UPDATE: Extending the date of publication forward to the present, it is apparent that the demented screaming about “populism” peaked at about the same time that the potential fertility of white females was declining most rapidly due to the entry of baby boomer females into menopause. If so, this would continue the trend in other such correlations, such as the peak in mortgage interest rates at the same time that boomer females were graduating from college and choosing between committing to being mothers and committing to a money-making career. This bracketing of female boomer fertility makes sense if one’s goal is to first destroy the white population via its females and then contain the backlash as those females (about to be “downsized” out of their careers as corporate concubines) realized they had betrayed themselves, their ancestors and their racial interests. With their power of youthful female fertility removed and their financial power removed as they were “downsized” out of their careers, their transition from useful idiots to the trash-heap of history would be complete without incident.

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Posted by James Bowery on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:52 | #

It is interesting how “in-sync” the anti-population “intellectuals” were with Jewish television producers such as Fred Silverman as evidenced by the Occidental Observer cite of this Wikipedia article:

The “rural purge” of American television networks (in particular CBS) was a series of cancellations between 1969 and 1972, the majority of which occurred at the end of the 1970-71 television season, of still popular rural-themed shows and shows with demographically-skewed audiences. It is commonly referred to as “the year CBS killed everything with a tree in it,” a phrase coined by Pat Buttram, who played Mr. Haney on CBS’s Green Acres.
Contents [hide]
1 Instigation
2 Popularity of canceled shows
3 Replacement shows
4 Shows canceled due to the purge
5 References
[edit]Instigation

The purge was instigated by CBS executive Fred Silverman in the late 1960s, following research highlighting the greater attraction to advertisers of the younger urban viewer demographic and the institution of the FCC’s Prime Time Access Rule, which led to the loss of a half-hour of network programming each night. While it is most commonly associated with CBS, ABC and NBC also followed a similar pattern. The numerous cancellations prompted Pat Buttram (“Mr. Haney” on one of the canceled shows, Green Acres) to make the oft-quoted observation: “It was the year CBS canceled everything with a tree—including Lassie.”[1][2][3]
The first rurally-themed show canceled by Silverman was Petticoat Junction. In September, 1970 The Mary Tyler Moore Show premiered on CBS. All in the Family premiered in January 1971 as a mid-season replacement. Both series provided the urban demographic and ratings that CBS sought. These ratings successes prompted Silverman and the network to cancel Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Mayberry RFD, Hee-Haw, Lassie, and The Jim Nabors Hour at the end of the 1970-71 season. The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour lasted until the end of the 1971-72 season.
Non-rural themed shows canceled included sitcoms Family Affair, and Hogan’s Heroes in 1971, with the long running My Three Sons ending in 1972. Variety shows that had been around since the late 1940s and early 1950s such as The Jackie Gleason Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show were canceled in 1970 and 1971 respectively. The Red Skelton Show was canceled by CBS at the end the 1969-70 season only to be picked up by NBC (the series original network) for one more season. NBC would also revert Skelton’s show to its original half-hour format in place of its more familiar hour long format on CBS. By the end of 1972 Lucille Ball remained the only long time television star from television’s golden era to still have her own show. Ball’s show, Here’s Lucy, still rated in the Nielsen top ten and would continue to pull in high ratings until its end in 1974. (Gunsmoke, another carryover from the early era of television, also remained on the air until 1975; TV westerns were another genre that was fading in popularity, though most of the shows in the genre, other than Gunsmoke and Bonanza, were already off the air for a few years at the time of the purge, and only one Western, NBC’s The Virginian, was canceled in 1971. Westerns had already been targeted for cancellation after concerns of violence led to pressure from parents’ groups to tone down violence in television, and by 1969, no new Westerns were debuting.[4])
ABC was also looking for younger demographics, and in May 1971 canceled shows that skewed toward rural viewers (such as The Johnny Cash Show) or older viewers (Make Room for Granddaddy and The Lawrence Welk Show). NBC also targeted rural and older oriented programs in its cuts, eliminating long-running programs such as Wild Kingdom, The Andy Williams Show and The Virginian, all of which ran nine seasons or more.
Syndication would prove to be a haven for many of the canceled programs. Welk’s program, a mainstay of television since the early 1950s, immediately moved to first-run syndication, where it would enjoy an additional 11 years before Welk’s retirement in 1982 (Mr. Welk was, by this time, 79 years young). Reruns of the show began almost immediately afterward, and continue to this day on PBS. Wild Kingdom, Lassie, and Hee-Haw would also continue in first run syndication after their cancellations in 1971. Lassie ran until 1973, while Hee-Haw was to have even greater success, lasting until 1991. Wild Kingdom primarily aired reruns but continued to produce occasional new episodes in syndication through 1987.
[edit]Popularity of canceled shows

The validity of canceling so many shows sparked controversy as many of the programs were still highly rated at the time.
Gomer Pyle USMC was the first of the rural based shows to leave the air. However, this wasn’t due to its rural theme, but instead to Jim Nabors’ desire to move to something else, ‘reach for another rung on the ladder, either up or down’.[5] Mayberry RFD, itself a direct continuation of The Andy Griffith Show which Gomer Pyle had spun off from, finished #4 for the year and was renewed for two more seasons.[6] The first of the confusing cancellations was The Red Skelton Show which had finished the 1969-70 season as the #7 show when axed by CBS.[7] The show’s move back to NBC and its altered format drew away its viewership, thus it fell out of the top 30 by the end of the 1970-71 season. What made these cancellations puzzling were the fact that they had come prior to 1970, at a time when CBS had yet to air any of their more “sophisticated” shows and gauge their popularity with the television audience. The success of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, and newer variety shows such as The Flip Wilson Show and The Carol Burnett Show in 1970 would allow for the mass cancellations of most of the now “undesired shows” at the end of 1971 despite their high ratings and popularity. Both Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies had fallen out of the Nielsen top 30 by the end of the 1970-71 season, yet both shows had continued to win their respective time slots and had a loyal following, warranting renewal for another season. Other shows that were still pulling in even higher ratings when canceled included Mayberry RFD which finished the season at #15, Hee-Haw at #16, and The Jim Nabors Hour at #29; The Beverly Hillbillies sat at #33.[8] Nevertheless, the course had been set by the networks and the shows were cancelled to free up the schedules for newer shows.
The inclusion of demographics into determining a series’ worth to its sponsors meant that high ratings alone did not necessarily warrant a series for renewal. Series such as ABC’s The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family rarely made it into the top 30 of shows; however, both series appealed to a younger demographic and thus were renewed for several seasons.
[edit]Replacement shows

Silverman replaced much of the canceled programming in 1971 and 1972 with urban-oriented, “relevant” fare. Following All in the Family was its many spinoffs including Maude and The Jeffersons. The program Good Times, a spinoff of Maude, had the dubious distinction as a third generation spinoff of All in the Family. Following the success of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the series production company MTM Productions would develop the popular The Bob Newhart Show. M*A*S*H was added to the network in 1972 remaining constantly in the top fifteen of shows for the next eleven seasons.
Under Silverman’s watch, game shows returned to the network’s daytime schedule during this period as well (unlike NBC or ABC, CBS had not carried a daytime game show since To Tell the Truth ended its run in 1968, instead opting for reruns of 1960s prime-time sitcoms such as The Lucy Show and Gomer Pyle, USMC, both of which had left the air by that point). Among the first group of game shows in 1972 was The Price Is Right, which debuted in September 1972. Gambit and The Joker’s Wild, the latter created by formerly disgraced game show producer and host Jack Barry, would also debut the same day and have relatively long runs.
Despite the relatively large number of “old guard” variety shows cancelled in the purge, Fred Silverman would actually continue to create new variety shows to replace the ones he canceled; one of the first was The Sonny & Cher Show, which debuted in February 1971. It lasted three seasons before the couple divorced, but the two reunited for two more seasons, finishing its run in 1977. Silverman would later commission Donny & Marie for ABC five years later; that show lasted three seasons and was particularly popular among younger viewers until co-host (and teen idol) Donny Osmond got married. He would also, with far less success, commission Pink Lady and Jeff for NBC in 1980.
[edit]Shows canceled due to the purge

Note: The following shows were canceled at their end of the respective seasons. Some shows did not have a rural theme, but were perceived to appeal primarily to rural audiences or had a low youth/urban audience.
1969-70 season
Petticoat Junction (CBS, 1963–1970)
The Red Skelton Show (NBC, 1951–53, CBS, 1953–1970, NBC, 1970-71. Canceled by CBS renewed by NBC).
The Jackie Gleason Show (CBS, 1962–1970)
The Hollywood Palace (ABC, 1964–1970)
1970-71 season
Green Acres (CBS, 1965–1971)
The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS, 1962–1971)
Mayberry RFD (CBS ,1968–1971)
Hee-Haw (CBS, 1969–1971, first run syndication 1971-1991)
Lassie (CBS, 1954–1971, first run syndication 1971-1973)
Family Affair (CBS, 1966–1971)
Hogans Heroes (CBS, 1965–1971)
The Jim Nabors Hour (CBS, 1969–1971)
The Red Skelton Show (Cancelled for good by NBC)
The Lawrence Welk Show (Locally in Los Angeles 1951-1955, ABC, 1955–1971, first run syndication 1971-1982)
The Johnny Cash Show (ABC, 1969–1971)
This is Tom Jones (ABC, 1969–1971)
The Governor & J.J. (CBS, 1 season)
The Headmaster (CBS, 1 season)
The Interns (CBS, 1 season)
Storefront Lawyers (CBS, 1 season)
The Tim Conway Comedy Hour (CBS, 1 season)
To Rome With Love (CBS, 1 season)
Make Room For Granddaddy (ABC, 1 season, revival of the earlier Make Room for Daddy which had run from 1953 to 1964)
The Virginian (NBC, 9 seasons)
The Andy Williams Show (NBC, 10 seasons)
Wild Kingdom (NBC, 9 seasons)
1971-72 season
The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (CBS, 1969–1972)
My Three Sons (ABC, 1960–65, and CBS, 1965–1972)
[edit]References

^ Clark, Jim (March 26, 1999). “Ken Berry Enjoys Taking Astaire Way to Mayberry and Beyond!”. Official Website of Ken Berry. Retrieved 2009-05-22.
^ Harkins, Anthony (2005). Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon. Oxford University Press. p. 203. ISBN 0195189507. Retrieved March 23, 2009.
^ Lassie actually survived the initial rural purge, but its time slot (Sunday, 7 p.m.) was changed due to the access rule, and the show was canceled in 1973.
^ “TV Cowboys Bite Dust in Nets’ Fall Line-Up,” Chicago Tribune, March 13, 1969
^ Jim Nabors finished with Gomer
^ http://www.classictvhits.com/tvratings/1968.htm
^ http://www.classictvhits.com/tvratings/1969.htm
^ http://www.classictvhits.com/tvratings/1970.htm

Posted by Leon Haller on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 22:39 | #

Posted by Robert Reis on January 22, 2011, 11:08 PM | #

Must read for Americans:

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2011/01/student-loan-scam.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/voxpopoli+(Vox+Popoli)

What kind of leftist shit is this? Of course, they do admit what is right at the end (“save”, “live frugally”, etc). Why should all these student loans get deferred or defaulted? Why should those who worked and saved for college, or who got loans and paid them off, now effectively subsidize today’s students?!

Bottom line: college is unnecessary and a scam, but more of a cultural one than anything foisted on ordinary people by politics. The US economy cannot support all the college graduates at the level they think they deserve, which is a joke anyway, beyond the top 50-100 colleges (out of around 1800+). Most people are not “college material”, and should go to trade schools, or straight into the world of work upon maturity. The advanced knowledge allegedly required in our modern economy should be supplied by business on an industry-specific basis.

Posted by Leon Haller on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 22:43 | #

“One dramatic sign was the big influx of Jews.” Perversity resulted from that fact that “the old elite used to get on fairly well with the country it was set over. Members of the old social upper-crust elite were richer and better educated than the public at large, but approached life on basically the same terms.” The new, heavily Jewish elite, Gelernter argued, is not only different from the non-Jewish masses, “it loathes the nation it rules.”

It loathes the nation it rules. That sentence perfectly describes this damn country. (Reis)

Yes, it does. Very well observed. I’m surprised a neocon Jew like Gelertner would say this, though.