There may be a collapse. It could happen. It could happen
tomorrow. Vengeful gods could hurl boulders from the sky, cleansing the earth
with fires and floods. There could be blood in the streets and gnashing of
teeth. A plague of locusts or killer bees, some Chinese flu, or the Zombie
Apocalypse. Your debit cards might run empty and your “smartphones” might
get real dumb. We may be forced to band together in primal gangs and fight
for survival. We may be forced by circumstances beyond our control to
rediscover lifeways more familiar to our species—to our ancestral brains—than
this endless, banal sprawl of corporate parks and shopping malls.
Or you may just get that one day as a lion, to die like you
were born, kicking and screaming and covered in someone else’s blood.
It has a certain appeal.
But while any or all of that could happen (and it could all
happen tomorrow), it is also possible that this broken, corrupt system could
limp along for a very long time.
Yes, it should fail catastrophically. It deserves to
fail. But no matter how much the world needs a reckoning or a reset button,
it’s a lot easier on a day-to-day basis for people at every level of society to
keep patching it together and doing the best they can until they run out of
duct tape.
So . . . until that day comes . . . until everyone runs out
of duct tape . . . Until then, almost everyone, even American leaders, seems to
agree that America is in decline.
And during that decline, we can expect to
see more of what we’ve already been seeing. For most people, that
will mean a progressive ratcheting down of quality of life, and the lowering of
expectations.
What we won’t see is some “great awakening” or a
dramatic change in leadership or direction. The people who run America aren’t
going to “come to their senses.”
As America
declines and becomes a failed or failing state, the corporations and
businessmen and bureaucrats who run it will continue to preach globalism and
multiculturalism and feminism.
They will continue to condemn anything that could be considered
racism or tribalism—especially among whites—until they are safely in the
minority. They will continue to condemn “male sexism” and continue to
promote any kind of go-girl female sexism that emasculates or devalues
men. They will continue to promote reverence for their own academic priest
class while condemning as “extreme” any religious belief that challenges the
moral authority of progressive beliefs. They will continue to promote
dependence on the State for security and income and healthcare—for life itself.
And, no matter how many “conflicts” they escalate or how
many people they kill or imprison or how militarized their police state thugs
become, they will officially continue to condemn “violence.”
They will continue to do all of this because it makes
perfect sense for them.
If you were the rulers and toadies of a nation in decline,
whose people were bound to lose wealth and status and you wanted to protect
your own interests and keep your heads, why would you not want to keep those
people separate, emasculated, weak, dependent, faithless, fearful and
“non-violent?”
Figureheads may come and go, but I see absolutely no reason
why the message will change.
Many of you may see yourselves as civilized, sane men in an
increasingly insane, vulgar and barbaric world.
But you’re wrong! You are the new barbarians.
The official message will continue to be that:
• If you believe that all men are not created equal
• If you believe that free men should have access to
firearms
• If you believe the government cannot be trusted to
regulate every aspect of your life
• If you believe that race means blood and heritage —
not just “skin color”
• If you see that men and women are different and
believe they should have different roles
• If you believe that men should act like men
• If you believe that gay pride parades and gay
marriage are ridiculous
• If you believe in some “old time religion”
If you believe any or all of those things, then, according
to the State and corporations, the Academia and the media, you are a stupid,
psycho, hillbilly, Neo-Nazi, woman-hating, wife-beating, homophobic throwback,
reactionary Neanderthal.
You know it. Dance to it. Make it a techno remix. Because
make no mistake: you are dangerous, traitorous and quite possibly seditious.
Well, I’m reminded of the words of rapper Eminem:
I am whatever you say I am
If I wasn’t then why would I say I am
I’m the paper and the news, every day I am
Radio won’t even play my jam
If I wasn’t then why would I say I am
I’m the paper and the news, every day I am
Radio won’t even play my jam
It doesn’t matter what you think you are. You are
whatever they say you are. They control the message. No matter how
reasonable you think your message is, the radio is not going to play your
jam. No matter what you think you are, to them, you are the
barbarians. So own it… be it. And, if you’re going to be the
barbarians, then start thinking like barbarians.
What does that mean? What does it mean to be a
barbarian? Classically speaking, a barbarian is someone who is not of
the State, of the polis. The barbarian is not properly civilized —
according to the prevailing standard of the State. His ways are strange and
tribal. The barbarian is an outsider, an alien.
How must a man’s thinking change, when he is alienated by
the State of his birth?
How does a man go from being a man of the polis to
an outsider; a barbarian, in his own homeland?
These are important questions because if you see no viable
political solution to the inane and inhuman trajectory of the progressive
state — and I don’t — then any meaningful change is going to require a lot more
than collecting signatures or appealing to the public’s “good sense” or
electing the right candidate.
What you need is to create a fundamental change in the way
that men see themselves and their relationship with the State. Don’t worry
about changing the state. Change the men. Cut the cord. And let them be born to
a state of mind beyond the state.
Show them how to become barbarians and break the sway of the
state. How do you do that? Well, that’s something I’m going to be thinking and
writing about for the next few years.
But I can offer four lines of thinking that I think could be
helpful.
1. SEPARATE “US” FROM “THEM”
This conference is about the future of identity. Which
identity? Who are we talking about? Who is we? When I talk to guys about
what is happening in the world right now, they’re quick to tell me what we
should do about it, but who is this we?
You and the corporations that sell you garbage food, ruin
your land and outsource your jobs? You and the “expert” shills who turn your
values into “psychological problems?” You and the paid-for media that mocks
you? You and the Wall Street bankers who financialized the economy for their
own short-term gain? You and the bureaucrats who want to disarm you and
micromanage every aspect of your life? You and the politicians who open up the
borders and fall all over themselves to pander to a new group of potential
voters instead of working for the interests of the actual citizens of the
country they swore to represent?
That “we?”
Americans, especially, are used to speaking in terms of “We
the people.” But there are 300 million people in the United States
and that’s a lot of “we.” Be more specific.
Be more tribal.
One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever got was
this: never say “people” when you mean “men.” Well, my advice to you is to
never say “we” when you mean “they” and never say “us” when you mean
“them.” Stop using democratic language. Stop pretending that we are all on
the same team, because we’re not. And we don’t have to be. Decide who you
really care about. Figure out what you have in common. Define your boundaries.
Decide who is in and who is out. The people who are in are “us.”
Those people are “we.” Everyone else this “they.”
2. STOP GETTING ANGRY BECAUSE THINGS DON’T MAKE SENSE!
Almost nothing you read or hear in the news today seems to
make any sense at all.
People get so angry, so frustrated, so betrayed. It’s like
“our leaders” are crazy or stupid, or both. It doesn’t make sense to put women
in the infantry. That’s obviously crazy! It doesn’t make sense to
encourage kids to take out college loans they’ll never be able to pay back. It
doesn’t make sense to invite people into the country when you cannot afford to
care for the people who are already here. That’s nuts!
It doesn’t make sense to start wars and then say you’re
trying to “win hearts and minds.” War is not a good way to win hearts and
minds! And worrying about hearts and minds is not a good way to win a
war!
It doesn’t make sense that bankers and CEOs get golden
parachutes and go on vacation or get jobs in the administration after knowingly
and intentionally destroying companies, jobs, lives, the environment — whole
segments of the economy!
But if you realize that they — the people who run the
country — are doing things to benefit them and not you, everything makes
perfect sense.
Consider the possibility that America’s leaders really don’t care
if American soldiers live or die. Consider the possibility that American
colleges and bankers don’t care if you live the rest of your life in debt to
them. They’d probably prefer it. Consider the possibility that American
politicians care more about keeping their jobs in the short term and looking
good in the media than they do about what happens to the people of their
country in the long term. Consider the possibility that “you” are not part
of an “us” that “they” care about. I promise that if you meditate upon this,
things will start to make a lot more sense.
If you let go of the idea that these people are supposed to
care about you or the country, and you allow yourself to see them as gangs and
individuals working to further their own interests, you can relax and
appreciate their crafty strategy.
Let go of foolish expectations about what these people
should be doing. Step back and see them for what they are. Don’t be mad. Don’t
be outraged. Be wise.
As Nietzsche recommended: be carefree, mocking, and violent.
3. DE-UNIVERSALIZE MORALITY
3. DE-UNIVERSALIZE MORALITY
Men who were raised with American, Egalitarian,
“Late-Western” values want to be “good men.” They want to be fair and
just, and they want to be just to everyone. This can be absolutely
paralyzing.
It really creates an internal conflict for men—good men—who
are especially athletic or who have some kind of military or police background.
They were taught and they believe in good sportsmanship and equal justice.
They want to do the “right thing,” no matter what. They want
to be Batman.
However, it is also in the nature of these men—even more
than other men— to think vertically, hierarchically, tribally, to think in
terms of “us” and “them.” To evaluate others naturally, primally, by the
masculine, tactical virtues of strength, courage, mastery and honor.
But as soon as the football game or the superhero movie is
over, progressive America
goes back to hating and punishing those virtues. Progressive America goes
back to hating and punishing men who act like men. These “good guys”… these
guys who want to be heroes get blamed and played and dumped on and treated like
garbage.
No matter what the progressive American message is, when it
comes to men who act like men—especially white men—no one really cares if they
get treated justly or fairly.
Still, these “good guys” don’t want to exclude women from
anything because it seems unfair they have sisters and mothers and they want
everyone to have a chance. But women—as a group—don’t care when men feel
excluded.
In fact, when men object to anything, groups of women are
the first to call them “whiners” and “losers.” “Good” white guys as a group
care about what happens to black people as a group. They want to make sure that
blacks are being treated fairly and equally and they go out of their way to
make sure they aren’t “discriminating.”
Do black people as a group care what happens to white people
as a group? Does a Mexican dad with three babies care whether or not
some white kid from the “burbs” can get a summer landscaping job?
The problem with these late Western values is that they work
best as intra-tribal values.
They only work when everyone else is connected and
interdependent. Fairness and justice and good sportsmanship promote harmony
within a community. But at some
point, you have to draw that line. You have to decide who is part of that
community and who is not.
You cannot play fair with people who don’t care if you get
wiped off the map. You don’t have to hate everyone who isn’t part of your
tribe, but it is foolish to keep caring about people who don’t care about you.
These heroic types are the natural guardians of any tribe,
but their heroic natures are wasted and abused when they are asked to protect
everyone, even enemies and ingrates and those who despise them.
If Western Barbarians are going to hold onto any portion of
their western heritage and identity, they need to resolve these moral
conflicts.
They don’t necessarily need to abandon morality or moral
virtue, but they need to pull in their aegis and become, as in
Plato’s Republic,
”noble dogs who are gentle to their familiars and the
opposite to strangers.”
Be morally accountable but only to the tribe.
If they are going to prosper and endure in a failing nation,
the New Barbarians must give up the tragic, misunderstood hero routine and
realize that they aren’t Batman. Why would anyone want to be?
4. BECOME INDEPENDENT FROM THE STATE, AND
INTERDEPENDENT BETWEEN EACH OTHER
The United
States of America and its parent
corporations offer a wide range of products and services. All of them have
strings attached and the more you depend on them, the easier it is to control
you.
It is not really much of a threat to them if you get online
and “like” a naughty page or vent your lonely, impotent rage, so long as
the rest of your identity folds neatly into the bourgeois American
lifestyle.
So long as you still go to a make-work job at some big
company and keep yourself busy for 40 or 50 or 60 hours a week so you can
purchase their wide range of products and services.
And then, in the time you have left, you go online and you
get to be Orthodox guy or Roman guy and post cool pics of Vikings and
Centurions and Crusaders.
But that’s not a real identity or a real tribe or a real community.
By all means, use the Progressive State and take whatever you can from it while
there is still something left to take, but if you truly want some kind of
“alternative lifestyle” to what the state has to offer, if you want to maintain
some kind of tribal identity that can endure America’s decline and
collapse—also known as a sudden absence of adequate products and
services—instead of “community organizing” on the Internet in your underwear or
retreating to a country compound with the wife and kids, bring some of those
Internet people close to you and live near each other. Take over a neighborhood
or an apartment complex, start businesses and provide services that people
really need.
It’s great to have writers and thinkers, but you also need
mechanics and plumbers and seamstresses. Serve everyone, but be loyal to people
“in the family” and make them “your own.”
It doesn’t have to be some formal thing. Don’t issue a press
release. Just start quietly building a community of like-minded men and women
somewhere, anywhere.
Don’t worry about creating some massive political movement
or recruiting thousands or millions of people. Don’t worry about changing the
state. Barbarians don’t worry about changing the state. That’s for
men of the state, who believe in and belong
to the State.
Shoot for 150 people; A small, close-knit community of
people working together to become less dependent on the State and more
dependent on each other.
Recent immigrants, many of whom are literally “not of the
State”, can serve as examples. It wasn’t long ago that the Irish and Italians
lived in insular communities. Think of Russian parts of town.
Look at places like Chinatown in San Francisco: every few blocks, you see
these buildings marked. Something . . . something . . . something . . .
“Benevolent Association.”
Sounds nice, right? Could be a front for Triad Gangs. Could
be there to help Chinese schoolchildren. I have no idea. But I am sure that it
is for Chinese people. There are also doctor offices and law offices and repair
shops and grocery stores. There is a whole network there of people taking care
of their own people first.
There is a community there of people who are exclusive,
insular and interdependent. They go to each other first for what they need.
They are harder to watch and harder to control. They are less dependent on the
State and more dependent on each other. And when the collapse comes, they’ll
take care of each other first, while everyone else is waiting for the state to
“do something.”
Whoever your “us” is, whatever your “tribe” is, it’s just an
idea in your head until you have a group of truly interdependent people who
share the same fate. That’s what a tribe is. That’s what a community is. That
is the future of identity in America.
Land belongs to those who take it and hold it. And this land
is no longer your land or my land; officially it’s their land. You
may not be able to reclaim it, at least not just right now, but you can become
and live as happy Barbarians, as outsiders within, and work to build the
kinds of resilient communities and networks of skilled people that can survive
the collapse and preserve your identities after the Fall.
No comments:
Post a Comment