The ‘Heroicist’ case for cultural pessimism

Posted by Guest Blogger on Saturday, 07 March 2009 11:40.

by exPF

Note: this is a response to Skeptical’s comment in A religious image:

To wantonly cast aside so many centuries of European Man’s development simply because Christianity has a remote, Jewish origin is nothing short of narcissism. The barbaric ideal is just another romantic fiction that creates more problems than it can solve.

I’m going to give this particular quote a long response. This will ultimately be a restatement of previous arguments in favor of ‘cultural pessimism’. It is a view that I have consistently advocated on this blog, which amounts to essentialism relating to blood in spite of varying levels of civilizational advancement and the ups and downs of prosperity, learning, culture, etc.

The development of European man’s civilization is not the same as the development of European man.

I refuse as too simplistic the notion that European man has ‘developed’ into some kind of higher, superior form viz-a-vis his former self. Advantages - spiritual, physical, mental - which accrue to us a result of our historical development, are not the same as essential traits which become part of our nature through natural selection.

I have always been skeptical of using metrics of civilizational development in assessing the viability of a race or nation. This is because most of these metrics are based on refinements in memes, and work done by the upper 1% of thinkers and scarcely understood by the rest - mostly they are refinements of mental modules and toolsets which, grand as they might be, are ultimately phenotypic rather than genotypic. The wealth of accumulated cultural inheritance has grown so great that it leads us to continuous hubristic over-evaluation of our own merits and abilities both as individuals and as nations.

Those who judged by civilizational metrics alone would have placed great confidence in Western civilization circa 1900—consider the advances in chemistry, in physics, the large crowds attending Beethoven concerts, the preponderance of philosophy, the curing of diseases. A rare handful of thinkers, Nietzsche foremost among them, declared modern man to be empty on the inside - “he has no ribs” - i.e. nothing can be generated from within him. What bankruptcy they actually meant was not clear until later, but subsequent events have certainly vindicated these assertions - and confirmed the near uselessness of civilizational metrics as indices of ‘development’ in the soul of European man.

It is not enough to apply realism to the evaluation of memes, standards and policies, and bequeath these to the future, expecting them to somehow persist unadulterated into the future, free from revision and hijacking. That was one of the ideas of classical political philosophy, producing something like the Constitution of the United States, which after a successful run was hijacked after public character fell below a certain level of realism and fortitude. One has to procure a source of self-renewing realism which will arise anew with each generation and take a fresh and honest look at circumstances - one has to have a renewable source of realism, manliness and fortitude built into the culture. One requires a mechanism to consistently generate a manly and realist ethos.

It appears that the only motive which consistently gives birth to the highest grade of passionate endeavor and realism, is the will to survive. Existential threats give birth to realism and impassioned effort (assuming they are not overwhelming, in which case they may only bring forth despair). The absence of existential threats is clearly corrupting and allows each of the psychological mechanisms required for defense and existential maintenance to be jettisoned for incurring opportunity costs. You can see this in modern western culture, where people frequently lament any precautions and caveats as a restriction on their lives - which, were it not for those of us with qualms, would be one never-ending party.

Its for this reason that I view a heroic culture, i.e. one that demands its male participants recurrently face death in the name of preserving it - as the ultimate generator of realism. For the plain reason that a culture which makes such demands on its people is not going to be able to do so without holding itself likewise to the greatest scrutiny—when every male fit for service faces death each summer in the name of the collective, they are going to bring the greatest possible realism to bear in their scrutiny of leadership, policy, and decision-making, because they are maximally invested in the res publica. This was the case for the Germanic tribes up to and beyond the period of Roman settlement.

Heroism means facing death for the collective. Working in this role tends to solidify the masculine character and give it a firmness which can never be attained through civilian life. That the great mass of average men should receive this imprint on their character - and regularly, in the case of the ancient Germans going to war every summer - is the only conceivable way in my view to practically maintain a virile and ferocious character amongst a people otherwise intelligent enough to secure their own comfort and safety.

The barbaric ideal is just another romantic fiction that creates more problems than it can solve.

If barbaric is just a synonym for pre-civilized, than no people on earth is free from the application of that label at one time or another.

All I have said is that manliness and realism reach their highest point in heroism, and societies which, as a result of their historical position, are forced to commit to a culture of heroism, will become infused with masculine and realistic character.

I would point to Serbia today, among many other nations, as a country which exhibits this character - so there is no need for it to be an ‘ideal’. Its just a fact that these processes engender the emergence of certain psychological traits.

To wantonly cast aside so many centuries of European Man’s development simply because Christianity has a remote, Jewish origin is nothing short of narcissism.

In fact I think its narcissistic to assume that, because of a few centuries of chanting hymns and reading scripture, we are somehow on a higher level than our heroic ancestors. Here we sit, crouching and begging that some percentage of our countrymen have the wherewithall to speak up against their dispossession by foreigners. Its a position which, could our ancestors be brought to understand it, I feel it would be completely beneath their contempt. After all, they risked their lives fighting for incursions far lesser than that which we concede daily to foreigners. We’re accustomed to a lack of rigor through centuries of no longer living on the knife edge, so our fuzzy thinking permits this to happen. For a further discussion of how Christianity contributed to the spiritual decay of Western man, see Nietzsche’s “The Antichrist”.

Civilizations function by attending to the needs of man - the first of which is to remove himself from danger. Thus civilization inadvertently works for the destruction of the mechanism through which the heroic ethos comes into existence. This is the problematic nature of civilizational ‘development’ and its corrupting influence on character.

Tags: Political Philosophy

Comments:

Posted by skeptical on Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:36 | #

exPF,

A well written response. Naturally, I feel compelled to reply seeing as how you’re responding to me.

The development of European man’s civilization is not the same as the development of European man.

One of the singular insights of nationalist thought is that there is an essential connection between the organic man and the civilization he creates. That the scope and achievement of the latter is intrinsically bounded by the former.

Remember, it is the liberal who says that we can divorce considerations of one’s civilization from man himself, that organic man is so much raw material to be molded in order to form whatever society we might desire. Hence, from the liberal perspective, it follows as a corollary that much of advanced Western civilization can be recreated with negros. Clearly, a mistake.

I refuse as too simplistic the notion that European man has ‘developed’ into some kind of higher, superior form viz-a-vis his former self. Advantages - spiritual, physical, mental - which accrue to us a result of our historical development, are not the same as essential traits which become part of our nature through natural selection.

I agree with this.

...
A rare handful of thinkers, Nietzsche foremost among them, declared modern man to be empty on the inside - “he has no ribs” - i.e. nothing can be generated from within him.
...
Heroism means facing death for the collective. Working in this role tends to solidify the masculine character and give it a firmness which can never be attained through civilian life.
...
All I have said is that manliness and realism reach their highest point in heroism, and societies which, as a result of their historical position, are forced to commit to a culture of heroism, will become infused with masculine and realistic character.
...
After all, they risked their lives fighting for incursions far lesser than that which we concede daily to foreigners. We’re accustomed to a lack of rigor through centuries of no longer living on the knife edge, so our fuzzy thinking permits this to happen.
...

First let me reiterate what is most unobjectionable:

(1) The modern world has left European man nearly devoid of essential heroic qualities. This has come about, at least in part, by the fact that we no longer live on the knife edge and that our thinking has grown soft.

(2) A heroic society that required regular [heroic?] sacrifices in the name of the collective generates realism among its participants (realism that most of us sorely lack). Serbia provides something of an example.

So far so good, but now the hard part, what (or who) is responsible for the debilitating energies within modernism? Christianity? Enlightenment philosophy? The Jews? The necessities of so-called “civilization development”? I could even argue that science itself is primarily responsible, seeing as how its attendant technological advances have taken so much of the “knife edge” [-realism] out of ordinary living. In either case, I think you have to give a more complete response to this question.

A rare handful of thinkers, Nietzsche foremost among them
...
For a further discussion of how Christianity contributed to the spiritual decay of Western man, see Nietzsche’s “The Antichrist”

You do know that Nietzsche wrote, “The Antichrist” between bouts of sheer agony?

While Nietzsche is philosophically interesting, seeing that his work alternates between coherent writing and opaque parables, I think we’re discussing matters too serious for him. Consulting Nietzsche about the modern world is a little bit like consulting Nostradamus about the future, more is revealed about ourselves in the exegesis than the germs of truth that can be teased out of the primary source.

Here we sit, crouching and begging that some percentage of our countrymen have the wherewithall to speak up against their dispossession by foreigners. Its a position which, could our ancestors be brought to understand it, I feel it would be completely beneath their contempt.

Romantic nonesense. We can no more stand in judgement of our heroic ancestors than they can to us. They worried about securing provision, we have to worry about atom bombs and cell phone technologies that coordinate through space.

Civilizations function by attending to the needs of man - the first of which is to remove himself from danger. Thus civilization inadvertently works for the destruction of the mechanism through which the heroic ethos comes into existence. This is the problematic nature of civilizational ‘development’ and its corrupting influence on character.

So then, how does Serbia, your example of a modern world with heroic elements, survive as an exception to this generalization?

Aside from that thought, I found this part to be well written.

Posted by danielj on Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:05 | #

Consulting Nietzsche about the modern world is a little bit like consulting Nostradamus about the future, more is revealed about ourselves in the exegesis than the germs of truth that can be teased out of the primary source.

Plus, Nostradamus was a Jew

So, if you were asking about futures markets I might advise you to consult him, but not on the future.

Posted by Oppose the Judaeo-Christian Usurocracy on Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:33 | #

“An old nun in hospital had a good deal of trouble in digesting the fact that I wasn’t Christian, no I wasn’t; thank God, I wasn’t a Protestant, but I wasn’t a Catholic either, and I wasn’t a Jew, I believed in a more ancient and classical system with a place for Zeus and Apollo. To which with infinite gentleness, “Z’è tutta una religione.” “Oh well it’s all a religion.” ” - http://www.yamaguchy.netfirms.com/7897401/pound_ezra/jeffmuss.html

Posted by WAKE UP WESTERN MAN on Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:48 | #

exPF: “It appears that the only motive which consistently gives birth to the highest grade of passionate endeavor and realism, is the will to survive. Existential threats give birth to realism and impassioned effort (assuming they are not overwhelming, in which case they may only bring forth despair). The absence of existential threats is clearly corrupting and allows each of the psychological mechanisms required for defense and existential maintenance to be jettisoned for incurring opportunity costs ... Its for this reason that I view a heroic culture, i.e. one that demands its male participants recurrently face death in the name of preserving it - as the ultimate generator of realism. For the plain reason that a culture which makes such demands on its people is not going to be able to do so without holding itself likewise to the greatest scrutiny—when every male fit for service faces death each summer in the name of the collective, they are going to bring the greatest possible realism to bear in their scrutiny of leadership, policy, and decision-making, because they are maximally invested in the res publica.”

“ Bombe, bombe, bombe per svegliare questi dormiglioni di ‘pensatori’ Italiani, che credono di essere ancora al tempo del Metastasio,” citation from letter received this morning, February 8, anno XI, headed Rome. A letter from a man I met a few years ago still carrying Austrian shell fragments in his system and still crushed. The nitroglycerine he wants is purely verbal nitroglycerine. “Bombs, bombs, bombs to wake up these sluggards, these eyetalian ‘thinkers’ who still think they’re in the time of Metastasio.” - http://www.yamaguchy.netfirms.com/7897401/pound_ezra/jeffmuss.html

Posted by Fred Scrooby on Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:03 | #

398. Alboin Gewinnt Ticinum

Drei Jahre und etliche Monate hatte Alboin Ticinum( * ) belagert, eh es sich ergab. Als nun der König durch die Johannespforte an der Ostseite der Stadt eintritt, fiel sein Pferd mitten unter dem Tor hin und konnte durch keine Streiche dazu gebracht werden, wieder aufzustehen. Da sagte ein Langobarde: »Gedenk, o König, deines Gelübdes und brich es, so wirst du in die Stadt eingehen, denn es wohnt auch Christenvolk darin.« Alboin hatte nämlich gelobt, das ganze Volk, weil es sich nicht ergeben wollte, über die Klinge springen zu lassen. Hierauf brach er nun das harte Gelübde und verhieß den Bürgern Gnade; alsbald hob sich sein Pferd auf, und er hielt ruhig den Einzug.

398. Alboin Wins Ticinum

Three years and some months did Alboin lay siege to Ticinum( * ) before it capitulated. As the king entered through the St. John’s Gate on the eastern side of the city his horse collapsed right underneath the gate and, though everything was tried, there was no way anyone could get the animal back on its feet. Then up and spoke a Langobard: “Think, O King, of thine oath and break it, so shalt thou enter into the city, for therein also are Christianfolk dwelling.” Alboin had vowed to put all the townsfolk to the sword because the city had refused to surrender. Hereupon broke he the cruel oath and promised to spare the townsfolk; up got his horse immediately, and his entry into the city proceded without further incident.
______

From Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, Zweiter Band
______

( * Pavia)

Posted by Judeo-Christian Universalism on Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:56 | #

Christianity promotes universalism, internationalism, tolerance, globalization, and the wholesale breaking down of ethnic boundaries; as such, it is antithetical to strong pro-White/all-White countries:

“For many Christians, the life of Jesus signifies the birth of a new kind of God, a God of universal love. The Hebrew Bible—the “Old Testament”—chronicled a God who was sometimes belligerent (espousing the slaughter of infidels), unabashedly nationalist (pro-Israel, you might say), and often harsh toward even his most favored nation. Then Jesus came along and set a different tone. As depicted in the Gospels, Jesus exhorted followers to extend charity across ethnic bounds, as in the parable of the good Samaritan, and even to love their enemies. ... The more familiar Jesus, the one who stresses tolerance and interethnic charity, shows up in the books of Matthew and Luke, which seem to have been written a decade or two after Mark—about half a century after the Crucifixion. ... What, after all, would have inspired early followers of Jesus to invent the idea of a brotherhood that knows no ethnic or national bounds?”

Posted by John Grimes on Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:38 | #

Christianity promotes universalism, internationalism, tolerance, globalization, and the wholesale breaking down of ethnic boundaries; as such, it is antithetical to strong pro-White/all-White countries…

Their text certainly and unequivocally does. Paul said (in his letter to the Galatians) that in Christ there is “neither Jew nor Greek”.