untethered

The present state of American politics, in which a powerful elite cultivates the resentments of the lower moral classes–gays, trannies, minorities, anyone with a grudge against normality–to wage war on the hated middle class, what Steve Sailer calls the “high/low against the middle”, is a dangerous perversion of a practice nearly as old as the emergence of the bourgeois as an alternative.

The elite takes allies wherever it finds them. American democracy has so perverted things that it now finds them among the disaffected and alienated. This is altogether new.
Middle class power is democracy channeled through material and communal interest. Our current individualistic populism,”people power” in the old sixties phrase, is democracy channeled through individual ambitions, desires and resentments.
But the durability of the triad–like so many things, a trinity–of two classes combining against one is striking.

From Manners, Customs and Dress of the Middle Ages by Paul Lacroix:

In no case could a community [civic bodies of middle class citizens] such as this exist without the sanction of the King, who placed it under the safeguard of the Crown. At first the kings, blinded by a covetous policy, only seemed to see in the issue of these charters an excellent pretext for extorting money. If they consented to recognize them, and even to help them against their lords, it was on account of the enormous sacrifices made by the towns. Later on, however, they affected, on the contrary, the greatest generosity towards the vassals who wished to incorporate themselves, when they had understood that these institutions might become powerful auxiliaries against the great titular feudalists; but from the reign of Louis XI., when the power of the nobles was much diminished, the kings turned against their former allies, the middle classes, and deprived them successively of all the prerogatives which could prejudice the rights of the Crown.

Mainte fleur épanche à regret
Son parfum doux comme un secret 
Dans les solitudes profondes.
–-Le Guignon, Charles Baudelaire

These flowers exhale one long lament
Their unique essence a secret spent
On profound solitude’s witness
–Ill Fortune, (my translation)

Modern life means you can reject the world and still live in it. You can check out of society easier than ever and, say, live alone without starving. You might even thrive, after a fashion. It’s a viable option, and I wouldn’t be surprised if marketers have a name for it.

You can arrive at the solitary life by degrees, out of absent-mindedness. The momentous choice is obscured by the fact it comes on centipede legs, in the form of countless aggregated trivial choices, little minor retreats. They get easier and easier.

Isolation itself is now loud and lurid. Endless petty distractions and pleasures lure and then keep the isolate in his little den waiting for death, the denial of which drove him there in the first place. He’s cornered. There is no point facing up to it at this point. Insulated in the glow of electronic light he creates a simulacrum of a life, one more to his taste, if bitterly false.

Lost in the dread is the moral decision made in checking out. The isolate is a miser who hoards and wastes his essence, because he doesn’t like the price it will fetch. In our atomized, individualistic society there is no pressure on him to join in; his choice is as valid as any other. But is it? Or rather should it be?

Nature is indifferent; society shouldn’t be. But for our unprecedented personal liberty we pay the price of an indifferent society.

It’s exacted via the absurdity of the unshared experience. The isolate has no witness to his life but himself. There’s a gnawing suspicion it matters–but it shouldn’t (maybe he thinks), because, if God doesn’t exist for one He doesn’t exist for two. His retreat from society is a retreat from death. Other mortal beings remind him of his own mortality and physicality–with its attendant illnesses and degradations.

In choosing to face mortality alone he must come upon beauty alone. This is his curse. He piles up the moments whereupon he’s moved, and he’s alone. Now he sees the price. Beauty is gelded by melancholy.
He has a companion after all, regret. Don’t let it happen to you. If you have to, run out into the street and collar somebody.
“Listen to me, you bastard!”

Spend yourself fruitfully.

Google Hangouts was buggy from the start today so there are three separate broadcasts. But Vivian was here so that makes up for it. Casey lurked in chat. Today’s reading is Parasha Shemot (Exodus 1-6).
I’ve put the entire chat transcript, which Luke always helpfully includes on his blog, below the fold. Our viewers are very few but sharper still.
I join Luke in the second broadcast.

Was the abomination that has become of the Catholic Church inevitable due to its celibate order?

Was the abomination that has become of Christianity generally also inevitable due to the preponderance of gay ministers?

My impression is the priesthood and the secular ministry alike attract gay men. Ritual and aesthetic devotion appeal to the same sensibility that produces the gay aesthete. The rites appeal to gay male congregants as well for the same reason. The repressed gay Catholic can sublimate his homosexual desire in a ritual order that has meaning and beauty.

It was inevitable that gay men would come to preponderate (I suspect dominate) not only in the priesthood but in its upper reaches. Behind the scenes there’s probably a struggle between a gay and a genuine celibate faction, between competing gay cliques.

But what it can’t have is a family faction, of men with children who have the same concerns as their parishioners. The Church has no skin in the game.

Obama rose to prominence and eventually the presidency on the basis of a platitudinous and dishonest speech given at the 2004 Democratic political convention whereupon he, to a joyous reception, declared old America was dead and a new, multicultural but united America had risen in its place. Rapturous Democrats believed against all reason.
Once in office, he forgot all about unity and, as he saw what he could get away with, gradually turned up the demagogy, leaving us with the nightmare of Black Lives Matter and a nation more divided than ever. If Obama’s presidency sought “unity” to call it a failure wouldn’t be fair–it’s more like a con.

The other misconception regarding Obama was the assumption of ability. A sort of premium is added to black achievement. Individually whites eager to prove their anti-racist bona fides gush over the barest signs of brilliance. Organizations needing to avoid discrimination litigation promote second-rate black talent ahead of its worth. It’s become a running joke. Neil DeGrasse Tyson becomes “Black Science Man” and Barack Obama’s hand-job of a speech becomes “transcendent”.

It’s otherwise reasonable to assume anyone who reaches the presidency is a high-achieving, high-energy sort, because of what it takes to get there. Barack Obama was propelled to the presidency by forces largely beyond his control (but certainly not his approval). His predecessor was carried along by the institutional corruption of the Republican Party. He was carried along by the cultural corruption of the Democratic Party. Both have demonstrated a successful presidency doesn’t depend on competence or energy, but on a compliant media and political parties. Either administration can be seen as very successful politically and very bad overall for the nation, each in its own way.

The individual Obama acolyte is never going to think this. They assume that outside the office he’s still this powerful intellect and force, whose motivations and reasons we mortals can only dimly sense.

Also sighted: suspicious white male abusing a team of reindeer while delivering culturally inappropriate toys genderizing and otherizing innocent children. Possible Christian extremist.

Today’s reading is Parasha Vayechi, Genesis 47:28–50:26.

Seeing death approach, Jacob requests to be returned to Canaan to be buried among his own. Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh, and his own sons. Typical Old Testament hierarchical division of roles occurs as the Twelve Tribes are created. Jacob is buried at Macphelah (Hebron) where Jewish legend holds he remains today in the Cave of the Patriarchs on land Abraham bought to bury Sarah.
This is the shortest of the Torah portions.

[transcript of broadcast recording, c 2048]

And now a holiday message from President Thanyear Feltwine He-Him.

Good evening my fellow Newmericans. Tonight Vice President Tal-Numina Xe-Xir and I begin by acknowledging the Nacotchtank people, upon whose stolen land this capitol stands. We acknowledge the Algonquin people who are the traditional custodians of this land and pay respect to elders past and present of the Algonquin Indian Nation. Nici sigi psach ke-yin, Dich m’djel mieol wagh nuch

Alt Right Torah Talk will broadcast at its usual time tomorrow, 9 AM Pacific.