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Got to take issue with you; you presented this post as minor musings, but I think you are concise and on point in some very important ways, ie. The push-pull between the Fascists / Nazis v. the Bolsheviks is seldom mentioned; and yet without it, Hitler may have been just a footnote in history. Great post, I’d say Happy Thanksgiving but, you know. . .
Happy Thanksgiving. I get why many throw those terms around (because they're 'scary' and work with less-informed voters), but it's just so ridiculously over-used.
Two years ago my Ljubljana bartender said we Yanks should call it "Thanks-taking" instead of Thanksgiving. Guess he views everything through the Balkan land dispute prism.
The American gov't is still interested in colonialism except they just cover their ass by calling it "spreading democracy". The culture issues have become more and more important. Did you know that almost all countries that have liens on their economies by the IMF and World Bank are because the gov't won't conform to Western cultural norms?
What would you propose instead, Suzette? I used to think we need more parties, but then I look at Germany and think, no, just more parties is not the answer.
It is not the answer if there is no real freedom of speech. If differences in fundamental ideology is discouraged to keep out the baddies. That's what looks to be happening in France and Germany. You have parties under different names who all think the same when it comes down to it.
> The proletariat is a largely an illusion in the West, and is rendered all the more so a mirage in countries like the USA where the individual striver is more central to recent history and culture than collective bargaining. People want to escape from the proletariat!
And this is precisely why they wont escape - instead they'll be drawn into it, the middle class getting all the more squeezed, the working class being doomed, and slums a picture of the future.
One of the concepts/terms that has come out of the past 15 years that I like is "the precariat". I think it aptly captures the condition for most people these days.
Instead of a "dictatorship of the proletariat" it's now a catch-all "dictatorship of the downtrodden" or more specifically a dictatorship on behalf of the believed-to-be downtrodden.
The traditional "dream" of Western countries like owning a detached home and earning a middle class stable salary are going the way of the Dodo for many. Even forming a family of your own is disappearing for the young. What will come next with this atomization is hard to say but we have some examples drawn out in dystopian lit.
The demographic hit due to consumerism, narcissism, late state capitalism eating at people's time and focus, and precarity would make it an avalance of bad outcomes: unmanageble state debt, collapse of welfare systems, collapse of productive population (even for things that matter, let alone for the busywork and bs products we make today), will make 2010s Detroit look like Manhattan in comparison to what cities will become.
A one world government could implement a totalitarian system similar to communism or fascism. It could in principle do this on the basis of something like the "climate catastrophe". The nation state itself is so despised by our elites today that it is hard to see a command economy surviving in the traditional manner. Of course a worldwide system of governance would entail a tremendous amount of control over everything you take for granted now or did in the 20th century. Just spitballing here.
typo in the Mosley paragraph: should be “WW1” not “WW2”
And I disagree about whether illegal immigration is an ideological issue. Clearly the Dem plan was (and, once their regain their mojo in a few months, will continue to be) eventual naturalization for residents, no matter their legal status. That’s a decidedly ideological issue: should nation-forming peoples retain the ability to exclude? Should nations, as understood for hundreds of years, exist?
Mass immigration is not just a moral issue but an economic one. One one hand they act compassionate for outsiders and give to them - on the other they take away from citizens of said country who have lived their for generations by lowering wages and living standards. That seems to be the bargain of the elites.
My impression is that Mosley was not viewed as ridiculous, but more like a talented odd person with political potential until he chose sides badly. In some ways he seems like an enigma.
A little bit of both, I think. He was certainly viewed more charitably at the time than he is now - he was being interviewed respectfully on BBC programs as recently as the ‘70s. But definitely parts of the culture tried and perhaps succeeded in making him a figure of fun; PG Wodehouse first caricatured him as “Roderick Spode” in 1938, for instance.
I was going to add that to a longer more thoughtful comment (later), but since OliverCA brings it up, I recognized it instantly, having fled Maxfield Parrish country in '21. If Oliver is in the SFBA, I recommend checking out the Pied Piper in the bar of the Palace Hotel in SF on Market Street (watch out for feces & bums!), recently restored.
As my father told me several years ago when we got into a political argument about I can’t remember what now - “You’ve lived outside of America too long” … I think that’s probably true and find very little common ground with anyone on the American political spectrum. I agree with most of what you said - and sadly (mostly for myself) I’ve lived long enough in an authoritarian state to value its stability and safety, dragging me ever further away from whatever Americanness was left. I still bake a turkey every Thanksgiving though - and as a holiday I think it does manage to evoke the American spirit (whatever tiny spark of Anglo Americanness remains) 🦃🥧
I appreciate your good wishes, but I am not as optimistic as you about the inability of totalitarian ideologies to take root here in the US. And I must disagree about the relevance of the Roundheads v. the Cavaliers. I maintain that the US Civil War was in some ways a continuation of that conflict and that the progressivist/woke ideology is a lineal descendant of New England Puritanism: an implacable religion, shorn of Jesus but with the all the moral hauteur and intolerance intact. They invest their ideas with the meaning of eschatological fulfillment and invest their egos in their opinions, which is why they always express outrage at disagreement: it feels like disrespect and blasphemy to them.
I’m trapped in blue collar samsara here in the good old USA. Situation is bleak for many in this pocket of hell. I don’t like this holiday very much and i’d rather eat general tso’s alone.
Extreme individualism will kill the white man in the Anglosphere. There’s nothing wrong with a limited social democracy within a nationalist context. No one wants to eliminate the safety net for the unemployed, disabled, or elderly. What is being inflicted economically on western peoples is not something inevitable but of deliberately crafted policies and incentives in a certain direction over the past 50 years.
Do you see anything eventually replacing liberal democratic capitalism in The West? Are we headed towards illiberalism as Patrick Deneen and others are forecasting?
Illiberalism is already here. We have moved past equality into equity. To rejigger society according to race and gender and sexuality quotas rather than what is could for institutions both in private and public sector. Free speech and other liberal values are constantly under attack under the guise of "harm". I'm looking at this from a Canadian perspective but it is happening everywhere. Universal rule of law is being overturned for an identitarian one.
Interesting and as usual informative posting. As to the term fascism, I would be strongly tempted to say that many of the definitional features of fascism are part and parcel of the Democratic Party in the USA (authoritarianism, suppression of opposition, militarism...). Dems have a very cozy relationship with Wall St., Silicon Valley, the entire intelligence apparatus. Concern about this very item is what drove Marc Andreessen to support Trump. And what about that $6 billion of borrowed taxpayer dollars that Biden just donated to Rivian, a failing company, but one that is politically aligned with Democratic climate change nonsense.
Last photo is from the Riva, yes. Taken some time between the two world wars. Beyond that, I don't know much more about it. I have to assume that it was market day, and some peasants from the back country came into town.
Hit the like button at the top or bottom of the page to like this entry. Use the share and/or re-stack buttons to share this across social media. Leave a comment if the mood strikes you to do so.
And don't forget to subscribe if you haven't done so already.
Got to take issue with you; you presented this post as minor musings, but I think you are concise and on point in some very important ways, ie. The push-pull between the Fascists / Nazis v. the Bolsheviks is seldom mentioned; and yet without it, Hitler may have been just a footnote in history. Great post, I’d say Happy Thanksgiving but, you know. . .
Happy Thanksgiving. I get why many throw those terms around (because they're 'scary' and work with less-informed voters), but it's just so ridiculously over-used.
Nigga thinks this is youtube
Two years ago my Ljubljana bartender said we Yanks should call it "Thanks-taking" instead of Thanksgiving. Guess he views everything through the Balkan land dispute prism.
Remember, we occasionally have to humor those not under God's Blessing, or whatever we have here.;)
I prefer it my way.
The USA Republican Party is dead as should be two party governments.
DemoCRIPS and RepubliBLOODS
Both gangs that share territory and pretend like they'll protect you from the "bad one".
The American gov't is still interested in colonialism except they just cover their ass by calling it "spreading democracy". The culture issues have become more and more important. Did you know that almost all countries that have liens on their economies by the IMF and World Bank are because the gov't won't conform to Western cultural norms?
What would you propose instead, Suzette? I used to think we need more parties, but then I look at Germany and think, no, just more parties is not the answer.
It is not the answer if there is no real freedom of speech. If differences in fundamental ideology is discouraged to keep out the baddies. That's what looks to be happening in France and Germany. You have parties under different names who all think the same when it comes down to it.
> The proletariat is a largely an illusion in the West, and is rendered all the more so a mirage in countries like the USA where the individual striver is more central to recent history and culture than collective bargaining. People want to escape from the proletariat!
And this is precisely why they wont escape - instead they'll be drawn into it, the middle class getting all the more squeezed, the working class being doomed, and slums a picture of the future.
One of the concepts/terms that has come out of the past 15 years that I like is "the precariat". I think it aptly captures the condition for most people these days.
Exactly that. "You'll own nothing and be anxious"
Instead of a "dictatorship of the proletariat" it's now a catch-all "dictatorship of the downtrodden" or more specifically a dictatorship on behalf of the believed-to-be downtrodden.
On your behalf, for our benefit. In other words, business as usual.
The traditional "dream" of Western countries like owning a detached home and earning a middle class stable salary are going the way of the Dodo for many. Even forming a family of your own is disappearing for the young. What will come next with this atomization is hard to say but we have some examples drawn out in dystopian lit.
The demographic hit due to consumerism, narcissism, late state capitalism eating at people's time and focus, and precarity would make it an avalance of bad outcomes: unmanageble state debt, collapse of welfare systems, collapse of productive population (even for things that matter, let alone for the busywork and bs products we make today), will make 2010s Detroit look like Manhattan in comparison to what cities will become.
A one world government could implement a totalitarian system similar to communism or fascism. It could in principle do this on the basis of something like the "climate catastrophe". The nation state itself is so despised by our elites today that it is hard to see a command economy surviving in the traditional manner. Of course a worldwide system of governance would entail a tremendous amount of control over everything you take for granted now or did in the 20th century. Just spitballing here.
Spitballing is encouraged for this post as I was just sharing some random thoughts anyway.
typo in the Mosley paragraph: should be “WW1” not “WW2”
And I disagree about whether illegal immigration is an ideological issue. Clearly the Dem plan was (and, once their regain their mojo in a few months, will continue to be) eventual naturalization for residents, no matter their legal status. That’s a decidedly ideological issue: should nation-forming peoples retain the ability to exclude? Should nations, as understood for hundreds of years, exist?
Merci...will correct.
Mass immigration is not just a moral issue but an economic one. One one hand they act compassionate for outsiders and give to them - on the other they take away from citizens of said country who have lived their for generations by lowering wages and living standards. That seems to be the bargain of the elites.
My impression is that Mosley was not viewed as ridiculous, but more like a talented odd person with political potential until he chose sides badly. In some ways he seems like an enigma.
A little bit of both, I think. He was certainly viewed more charitably at the time than he is now - he was being interviewed respectfully on BBC programs as recently as the ‘70s. But definitely parts of the culture tried and perhaps succeeded in making him a figure of fun; PG Wodehouse first caricatured him as “Roderick Spode” in 1938, for instance.
@Niccolo Can you give the source for the first painting?
An American artist who was named Maxfield Parrish.
I was going to add that to a longer more thoughtful comment (later), but since OliverCA brings it up, I recognized it instantly, having fled Maxfield Parrish country in '21. If Oliver is in the SFBA, I recommend checking out the Pied Piper in the bar of the Palace Hotel in SF on Market Street (watch out for feces & bums!), recently restored.
Someone suggested that he was the influence behind the Nestle commercials of the mid-80s.
I hadn't heard that!
But he was an advertising illustrator, so makes sense.
I'll have to look up the Nestle ads, thanks.
Yes! The first image in this is a direct knock-off.
https://youtu.be/5YqXkoRwvwM?si=HyI0Hcog5ScELakg
As my father told me several years ago when we got into a political argument about I can’t remember what now - “You’ve lived outside of America too long” … I think that’s probably true and find very little common ground with anyone on the American political spectrum. I agree with most of what you said - and sadly (mostly for myself) I’ve lived long enough in an authoritarian state to value its stability and safety, dragging me ever further away from whatever Americanness was left. I still bake a turkey every Thanksgiving though - and as a holiday I think it does manage to evoke the American spirit (whatever tiny spark of Anglo Americanness remains) 🦃🥧
Happy Thanksgiving, Tracy
Be not afraid.
I appreciate your good wishes, but I am not as optimistic as you about the inability of totalitarian ideologies to take root here in the US. And I must disagree about the relevance of the Roundheads v. the Cavaliers. I maintain that the US Civil War was in some ways a continuation of that conflict and that the progressivist/woke ideology is a lineal descendant of New England Puritanism: an implacable religion, shorn of Jesus but with the all the moral hauteur and intolerance intact. They invest their ideas with the meaning of eschatological fulfillment and invest their egos in their opinions, which is why they always express outrage at disagreement: it feels like disrespect and blasphemy to them.
Tech-driven totalitarianism impulses will colour much of the events of the next few decades.
I’m trapped in blue collar samsara here in the good old USA. Situation is bleak for many in this pocket of hell. I don’t like this holiday very much and i’d rather eat general tso’s alone.
Happy Thanksgiving, William
Extreme individualism will kill the white man in the Anglosphere. There’s nothing wrong with a limited social democracy within a nationalist context. No one wants to eliminate the safety net for the unemployed, disabled, or elderly. What is being inflicted economically on western peoples is not something inevitable but of deliberately crafted policies and incentives in a certain direction over the past 50 years.
This feels like an apt addition to this post: https://youtu.be/-9afwZON8dU?si=ZaENoIrDUPNfiLqK
Currently reading “The Dawn Of Everything” and it makes the language in such articles feel quite dated (particularly the end).
Do you see anything eventually replacing liberal democratic capitalism in The West? Are we headed towards illiberalism as Patrick Deneen and others are forecasting?
Illiberalism is already here. We have moved past equality into equity. To rejigger society according to race and gender and sexuality quotas rather than what is could for institutions both in private and public sector. Free speech and other liberal values are constantly under attack under the guise of "harm". I'm looking at this from a Canadian perspective but it is happening everywhere. Universal rule of law is being overturned for an identitarian one.
Interesting and as usual informative posting. As to the term fascism, I would be strongly tempted to say that many of the definitional features of fascism are part and parcel of the Democratic Party in the USA (authoritarianism, suppression of opposition, militarism...). Dems have a very cozy relationship with Wall St., Silicon Valley, the entire intelligence apparatus. Concern about this very item is what drove Marc Andreessen to support Trump. And what about that $6 billion of borrowed taxpayer dollars that Biden just donated to Rivian, a failing company, but one that is politically aligned with Democratic climate change nonsense.
A quibble in another illuminating piece.
The cozy relationship between public and private sector is a part of fascism. Monopolies and duopolies controlled by the state in increasing way.
Don't forget COVID policy, forcing everyone to wear a symbol on their face and get the shots. But there is no precise definition of fascism ...
Dear neighbor, am I wrong in thinking that the photo is from the Split Riva? Could you tell me more about it?
Last photo is from the Riva, yes. Taken some time between the two world wars. Beyond that, I don't know much more about it. I have to assume that it was market day, and some peasants from the back country came into town.
Thanks