Posts Tagged ‘culture’

Western Civilization.

Saturday, January 24th, 2015

When I was a college freshman, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth in 1956, we had a class called “Man and Civilization.” That class is no longer taught, of course, just as “World History” is no longer taught in high school.

There is a good post on Ace of Spades today.

The first leg of the three legged stool that supports Western civilization came from the Jews, and it’s monotheism. The idea of one God as opposed to many different gods begats the concept of absolute right and wrong, which is necessary in order to have the concept of morality. Morality is what takes humans away from a world where might makes right.

The second leg came from the Greeks and Romans, and that’s the idea that the world has certain natural laws, that these laws are universal, and that they can be studied and understood and even manipulated. From this comes science, of course, but a better term for this would be reason.

Finally, from the Anglo-Saxons we got the concept of rule of law. Just as there are universal natural laws that govern nature, so too must man’s laws for governing man must be universal. Nobody is above the law, thus everyone is treated equally. Equality is the third leg.

I agree with this and a corollary from Robert Heinlein, the science fiction writer. In fact, it is #1 on my list of favorite quotes.

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded—here and there, now and then—are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as ‘bad luck’.”

– Robert A. Heinlein

Another bit from the Ace post.

Western culture is the only place that all three have gained equal ascendancy, and that brings us back to where we started, because leftist political ideology is dedicated to destroying all three of the legs upon which our society rests.

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Posted in personal, politics, religion, social issues | Comments Closed

Cultural dropouts.

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Victor Davis Hansen has another timely column today. This one is on dropping out of the popular culture. Some of this is age, of course, but one comment really struck me.

Dr. Hanson, you are not alone in your withdrawal from the post-modern.

I do not own a television, no longer read any print journalism, and the radio antenna on my car was snapped off three years ago by vandals and I haven’t bothered to replace it. The only reason I am even vaguely familiar with the current crop of celebrities comes from standing in supermarket checkout lines and glancing at tabloid magazine covers. In the recent Rush Limbaugh-NFL dustup, I was shocked to learn that the Rams aren’t in Los Angeles anymore. The only movie theatre complex in my community went under this summer, and I didn’t know it for months.

I watch old studio system-era movies on DVDs. I plug my iPod to my car stereo as I drive and listen to music no longer welcomed on a radio station’s playlist. I’m reading a lot more these days: histories, novels and poetry.

What makes this all slightly sad, slightly humorous is that I write for the entertainment industry (thankfully not the Hollywood portion of it). Only the fact that the verities of life are eternal even in fiction and that online social networking (Facebook, Twiter, etc al.) allows me direct contact with my actual audience affords me the ability to still function in near-isolation.

I feel like Edward Grey sometimes. The lights seem to be going out all over Western culture, and I wonder if they will be lit again in my lifetime. The boomers’ lifelong goal of completely obliterating their parents’ world is nearing completion.

It may be that people like you and I are doing the right thing by withdrawing. We are the monks cloistering ourselves in our monasteries with our Latin texts ahead of the coming darkness preserving the old knowledge for the better days that will surely come. And unlike those medieval monks, we have the world’s libraries at our fingertips and the samizdat of the web to connect us in our isolation.

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Wow ! I feel almost exactly that way.

Last night, I watched Red Dawn, the new super duper edition. I had always been annoyed at the ending of that movie. After the brothers, Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen, had been killed, the narrator’s voice came on and said “The war ended, as wars always do.” I thought that was a very weak and pusillanimous ending for a war movie. In the Collector’s Edition I watched last night, the ending is different ! The weak comment is gone. I suspect some studio wuss added it after the film was finished. Now it’s gone. Enjoy.

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Posted in education, History, media | 3 Comments »

More results of multiculturalism in Britain.

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

I have previously posted about my concerns over the British trends that mimic similar trends here in the 1960s. We wound up with cities that were unlivable and the movie “Death Wish“, which portrayed a man who becomes a vigilante after his wife is murdered by thugs in New York City, was greeted by standing ovations in movie theaters. The movie was so successful, it made a huge star of Charles Bronsan and spawned three sequels.

The Labour government has relentlessly pressed forward with policies that reward bad behavior and with education “reform” that removes the British culture and history from the society. I recently noted an absence of historical knowledge among tour guides at an historic castle in Britain.

The result of the Labour policies has been prosecution of protesters who oppose Muslim influence while Muslims attack government ministers verbally and collect welfare benefits for their many wives.

Although already married with three children and reportedly living off £700 a month in state benefits, the 31-year-old is seeking more wives, with the intention of fathering more than nine children.

The same courtesy doesn’t extend to non-Muslim protesters collecting petition signatures. The new law is called  the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill and illustrates a fact often unappreciated by Americans. Britain has no “First Amendment” free speech rights. The results are now becoming apparent. A new BBC poll suggests that Britons are worried about racial violence.

Certainly they have seen plenty of evidence recently.

The trial of the airplane would-be bombers.

The 2005 Underground bombings.

There are plenty of warnings. Are they being taken seriously ?

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Posted in education, general, History, terrorism | 3 Comments »