by Neil Vodavzny

The particular is the alone distinction of merit, said Blake. This is a view held by bohemians down the centuries. It’s also a good definition of non-Enlightenment culture. What I think should be grasped with a degree of clarity is how our minds are kept in the dark by liberal culture. There is a Jefferson Starship track Dark Ages with the line:

Might be the Dark Ages
But we’re so happy
Happy to be here with you

Everyone needs a group, it’s the human condition. The original group being the family. To the ancient Greeks, adultery was punishable by summary execution for the reason it impuned the woman’s loyalty to her “protector” and the production of legitimate children. Rape, by contrast, was a trivial offence. Moderns are offended by violence, but deem dysfunctional families the norm.

Actually, both are a type of norm. To misquote Russell Brand, life isn’t always nicey wicey. The original dysfunctional families were obviously Sophoclesian, of which more later. Even if dysfunctionality is a type of norm, a family functioning as an institution will develop a milieu which enables it to cope. It’s like - Elektra may have been a case, but at least she had the servants and Chrysothemis to give her succour until Orestes returned from battle to do her bidding.

The foundations of (European) culture are the family because they provide both genes and the sophisticated milieu, sanctioned by dynasty. The legacy of Dylan Thomas, for example, was carefully harnessed by wife Caitlin, daughter Aeronwy, and granddaughter Hannah Ellis.  In the linked article Hannah repels criticism of her grandparents as “a cracked family of unstable megalomaniacs with no parenting skills and no desire to acquire them”.

There is a sense in which the place is the thing, and Hannah recalls Aeronwy’s stories of living with Dylan in a boat house in Laugharne. A family is not an institution to be dictated to by psychotherapists; it is the foundation of a unique heritage. There is more culture in Dylan Thomas’s family than the entire liberal establishment, for the reason it’s unique and indigenous to Welsh places (Under Milkwood).

Why did Robert Crumb (prev) decamp with his family to a small town in the south of France? Because he found his milieu. He is the face of white peasant culture harnessed by a loyal family base. The fact that Aline is Jewish doesn’t really figure; Crumb is the “golden egg” as they are wont to say.

Crumb doesn’t just talk the talk he walks the walk. With the Serenaders East River Strings they recreate an ambience of tinkling sophistication. There’s a limit to what talking can do; sometimes you have to be active and play an instrument, define your own space and time.

Both Crumb and Dylan were philanderers. It means nothing. They head a dynasty (Kantner expressed shock he turned out to be a good father – it’s called experience, Paul). This got me thinking if Freud is in fact the liberal’s psychoanalyst. I got talking, in the artist’s quarter here, to a French sculptor with Viennese connections, Frank Magnus-Hirshfield, who seemed to find Freud’s popularity equally implausible. Philanderers have no control. Frank’s place is full of nudes and women visitors.

None of this affects the explicit harmony of a family-oriented milieu. If liberalism is to do with lack of control, the right-wing Jungian symbolism sees beyond these surface attributed to a universal. In this respect, capitalism is a Freudian manifestation of libido. We, as right-wing Europeans, need to specify our adherence to a quasi-anarchic ideal of family, dynasty, even aristocracy.

Europe in the Middle Ages wasn’t run by nations; it was run by powerful families. The Medicis, Borgias and others are responsible for the glories of Venice. European culture in the non-Enlightenment sense is a family institution. We have to bite the bullet and put the family at the heart of a European revival; because everything that appertains to race has its origin there. The sophisticated milieux that develop are artefacts of culture.

Going by observation here in the South-East, eastern European immigrants have no sophistication. Maybe they have in their own milieu, not here where they are set-up and mainly shop. Therefore, they can only contribute to the vaguity of liberalism as human flotsam.

Now, there is a direct contrast with small business owners, often Indian, Turkish who are sophisticates and can harmonise with relative ease. It’s instructive to listen to Indians talking English as they tend to be so eloquent, so entertaining it’s a joy, like something from It Ain’t Half Hot Mum (is that, like, totally reactionary & historical?)

The Right is in danger of confusing a socialist state junkyard with an idea of Europe which is intrinsically cultural – you only defend one, not the other. It’s not as simple as a question of race. A family that is merely an adjunct of the Euro-state is not capable of harmonising; it’s a pure liberal invention. The distinction is family-oriented, provided the family has a willingness to exhibit sophistication, and thereby be a cultural institution.

Observation tells me Indians do and, by the way, they got to Mars before Europe. That by the way, I’m telling you it exists and is not something superficial (whether a hangover from Empire or whatever). By dint of their sophistication they retain their difference – and that’s the way I like it.

It’s like in America the Italians were all Mafiosi (just kidding Daniel). I’m not talking immigration policy, God knows, just the possibilities that exist in a society with a right-wing basis, as America was (and is, up to a point). It’s possible to harmonise provided things are sufficiently sophisticated; India is itself the best example of that in practice.

Here’s a lyric I may have linked to before (well, once a classic always a classic). A society which has an innate tendency to cope with difficulty has Good Tradition. A society which doesn’t is prey to deconstruction, Freud, liberalism.

There’s a good tradition of love and hate stayin’ by the fireside
An’ though the rain may fall, your father’s calling you
You still feel safe inside
An’ though your Ma’s too proud, your brother’s ignoring you
You still feel safe inside
Oh, was this solo?
Was this yesterday?
Was this true for you?
‘Cause while all the rest have taken time, this didn’t mean a lot for you
And the corners laced with memories
Tell you how it used to be
Your mother smiles, the children play
And all the bad things happen miles away
And strong feelings never bother you
You hold your head up while the rest of us try to
Oh, call the stations
Call the people
We all wanna know
‘Cause while all the rest have taken time, you don’t wanna know
Well, there’s a good tradition of love and hate stayin’ by the fireside
There’s a good tradition of love and hate stayin’ by the fireside
An’ though the rain may fall, your father’s calling you
You still feel safe inside.
An’ though your Ma’s too proud, your brother’s ignoring you
You still feel safe inside
Oh, was this solo?
Was this yesterday?
Was this true for you?
‘Cause of all the choices you have made, this didn’t do a lot for you