Now, the Left is easy and pretty open to work with in this regard. One of its most important tasks is to upend the Western tradition. Call it evil, wrong, dumb. Say we have been wrong about our history, our heritage, our heroes. Anything. Today labeling it with the unforgivable sin of colonialism, or imperialism, or racism, does the job since in our post-Christian age, forgiveness is passe. Call something those things and it's as good as saying eradicate them now.
But if you can't go that far, at least demand change, or say we ware wrong, the heroes were not, we've been lied to - anything that says the civilization we inherited is not real, is based on lies, was bad, whatever.
Enter Catholics. I've said the death of America began when we convinced ourselves that America had no right to be a WASP nation in terms of a common culture. Even a WASP nation trying to assure everyone was free and had equal opportunities wasn't enough. Apparently though China can have Chinese culture, and Japan Japanese culture, and Iran Islamic culture, and so on, America can't have a particular culture of its own.
That was the context of learning what WASP meant when I was in elementary school. There was a dark time in American history when America was a WASP nation - but then God said 'Let there be light', and our first non-Protestant was elected president! Hurray! One of the most significant events in American history, or so I learned in the day. Catholics I knew back in the day, and even now, repeat that celebrated observation with gusto. Often sprinkling it with allusions to old American Protestant bigotry against Catholics.
Of course sane thinkers realized it would take no time to move from WASP to WASC, then WASR, and finally WASS real fast. That's Protestant to Christian to Religious to Secular. The Anglo-Saxon being a big thing then too, as Italians and Poles and Greeks were considered every bit the ethnic minorities in our country as Indians or blacks. Of course today, as we chisel away at the remaining 'W' (white) part, anything from west of the Urals is part of White, and that has to go.
But this wouldn't be possible without the help of anyone not in the latest demographic designation that has to go. And among those are Catholics - conservative Catholics, traditional Catholics, Catholics opposed to modern secular progressivism. Because though they may despise and loathe and reject the Left's moves to overturn the West and America, they just can't resist at certain times of the year lending a helping hand.
I first encountered that when I began visiting St. Blogs back in the mid-2000s. It was heading into Thanksgiving that first year of my visits. Most of the Catholic bloggers I followed were what you would call right of center. But all of a sudden, I thought I was reading a secular progressive history book published by Pravda House. I had no idea how wrong we were about the Thanksgiving story, even though it had been trounced for decades by that time. I was stunned to see how worthless the Puritans were, or mean, or how those Protestants were really all about the slavery part, but a Catholic led the way. Or how it was really Catholics who deserve credit for he real first Thanksgiving.
And all those years ago, even then, I recognized the folly with this. Is it wrong to go for accuracy? To tell different sides of a story? Well, no. Depending on how you do it. And depending circumstances. But there is a time and place. I've said before there is nothing wrong with preaching against gluttony. But I wouldn't advise it if you're in an anorexia ward in a hospital.
In another age, if Catholics wanted to point out overlooked details, while not pulling the rug out from under the traditional story, celebration and events, no problem. But I wouldn't do it now. Because as I said, the Left is a patient and willing partner. The only thing important is that you have someone - anyone - saying what America inherited, what we valued, what we celebrated, was wrong. That's all. We can add the genocide and Nazi and racist filth later.
That's why it's enough that even people not inclined to agree with the Left admit that some part of America we learned about was a lie all along. Any part. There will be plenty of others saying the same thing about other parts of the Western Christian Tradition. And in the end, there will be quite a ledger of protests to justify the need to burn the whole thing to the ground - all signed by those who in most other cases are fighting like mad dogs to keep that from happening.
Later today, James Lindsay is going to release, "The Current Thing did not take place." The description of the video is:
ReplyDeleteThe issue is never the issue; the issue is always the revolution. The issue is never the issue; the issue is always the revolution. This is a core maxim of Marxist activist thought, and it explains so much. In the early 1990s, the French Postmodernist philosopher Jean Beaudrillard put it another way, though, in a sense. He provocatively published a book with the title The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (https://amzn.to/3QHprG9). What Baudrillard meant is that the Gulf War was an event that happened in the Persian Gulf, but what we call the "Gulf War" was a propaganda and media creation by Western intelligence communities and mass media to achieve specific political warfare aims with the public. In that sense, just like how the issue, whether Covid, BLM, Drag Queen Story Hour, Ukraine, "Palestine," or whatever else, is never the issue; each of those Current Things did not take place, in the Baudrillardian sense. In this provocative episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay explains the maxim and Baudrillard's point and uses them to reveal Leftist tactics as well as political warfare strategies and counters. Join him to understand.
Which certainly seems to echo your post here as well and my own observation and experience. Namely that the critique or praise or whatever the issue is - is never the actual issue. It's just a distraction to set up "the revolution."
That's about right. I mean, just for practical and realistic reasons, I think we can stop focusing 24/7 on the sins of the past. There are enough sins in the present to keep us busy (a cynic would think part of our willingness to continually blast the sins of the past is in order to avoid confronting the sins we might be able to do something about). But beyond that, it's obvious by this point that the continued emphasis on the past is being used to destroy the West. Unless that's the goal, the advice is stop at this point. Even if it's simply trying to shine a light on things not problematic in themselves.
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ReplyDeleteThe Catholic right has some hard cases, like the old Irishmen who thought "dirty Protestant" was one word or the ones who praise Franco, rather than simply concede he was the lesser evil at that time and place. I read some of that in the Remnant and even more (spoken with great sophistication) at Tradition in Action. Some just like to lick old wounds and have selective memories, like their counterparts in other denominations. Cdl Gibbons once noted (1922), that many Protestants who rail about Smithfield ignored Tyburn. That's arthritic tribal crankiness thus far.
But then you get the type who genuinely believe that America needs to be "refounded" as a Catholic confessional state, and these are like the Left in that they advocate a form of government under which none have lived nor demonstrate understanding of. They misinterpret Cdl George's or Pope Benedict's words about the Church needing to rebuild civilization from the ruins as if it means they should approve the ruination so they can get on with the rebuilding. No Father of the Church ever prayed for the Roman Empire to fall, even if he might anticipate it happening. St. Augustine might see the Goths and Vandals as punishment for Rome's sins, but he hardly prayed to their military successes.
Just like the Left, these ultra-Cats play with fire without seeming to recognize that fire is hot.
This dirty Protestant must be a bit fair to his Catholic brothers and admit that the tribal tendency to claim "my group" gets credit for all the good things while "your group" gets credit for all the bad things is universal among man and is a temptation for which even myself is hardly immune. We must be ever mindful that the Left preys upon these human weaknesses to tempt us into destruction. As you say, they entice us to play with fire in the hopes of burning it all down without getting singed.
Delete"they should approve the ruination so they can get on with the rebuilding"
DeleteThat's what "immanentize the eschaton" means in plain English.
When I first became Catholic, I was shocked to find that some in the Traditionalist community could be as brutal in their condemnation of this WASP nation as any leftwing pro-Lenin activist. What shocked me more, however, was so many who didn't go that far, but couldn't seem to resist the odd jab here and there at the expense of our largely Protestant dominated cultural heritage. Ironically, one of the things that began me in my journey to the church was a lecture I heard while in seminary. The theologian in question was arguing that evangelical Christianity could include many things - including Catholics. He also mentioned that by that point (1990s) it might be time to stop trotting out the 'look at the evils the Catholic Church did' (same with Catholics for Protestants) since even by then it was clear we were fast moving from post- to anti-Christian. And those with axes to grind would not hear Protestant v. Catholic, but merely Christians admit Christianity has always been bad, stupid and evil. I think he had a point.
DeleteIt’s funny, but I don’t actually see the above post the same way as you. It is an often forgotten detail that Catholics were here first on the continent. I don’t see this in any way usurping the Thanksgiving story or that it’s in competition with it. It’s certainly not the basis for Thanksgiving as we know it today, not will it ever be. And Squanto? That guy’s story was nothing short than a miracle of God’s Providence. I’m just sorry he’s not more well known.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, there is nothing wrong with bringing out details and facts that have been overlooked. Depending on time and place. Now is neither the time nor the place. But when I was in school (c. 1970s), we learned the 'Catholics were here first.' We simply took the Thanksgiving holiday as brought to us by a specific event that happened and inspired a nation. An old, dead nation. But a nation nonetheless. It's fine for Catholics to point out that, say, Squanto was a Christian. But keep the time and place in mind.
DeleteIs the author suggesting we should merely footnote (if not outright overlook) the ravages of slavery, forced conversions at gun point, theft of native lands, goods and resources, racial and gender discrimination, homophobia and all other bigotry that permeated this country from its founding up to very recent times? On balance, there is not much good to say for imperialism and conquest. That's just a reality.
ReplyDeleteThe author is noting that bringing up the issues you mention, typically out of context and with the assumption that they were unique to the first civilization that actually tried to end such things on moral grounds, is typically done to destroy that same civilization - not learn about it. The great coup of the age was the Left convincing people that the first civilization to abolish all slavery on moral grounds is the only civilization we will condemn for having had slaves, when slavery was a universal fact of the world. You see, that thinking is why we’re seeing what we’re seeing in Israel. We're seeing the torture and slaughter of Jews in the worst massacre since the Holocaust, supported by decidedly not-Christian, not-European, not-white and not-conservative activists. But we're not allowed to call it out. We have to couch it in 'generic antisemitism', make it about Hamas and nothing else, or simply ignore it altogether -since it calls into question the framework you describe for interpreting our past. Because your reading of the history of the West only works if somehow the West alone was guilty of such things, with no credit for ending them. When you have to downplay or ignore the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust to maintain a template for studying history, your approach to history might need reimagined.
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