Category Archives: Individualism Vs. Collectivism

UPDATED (12/20): America: Aphorisms On Conformity

America, Critique, Culture, Economy, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Intellectualism, Pseudo-intellectualism, The Establishment

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Fred Reed, former Barely a Blog columnist, offers this insight:

“America has always had a strong economic back and weak cultural mind, being anti-intellectual and given to envy and resentment of the smart and cultivated.”

De Tocqueville, Mencken and others made similar observations. “Certainly Tocqueville in the 19th century, and Solzhenitsyn in the 20th, noted that conformity of thought is powerfully prevalent among Americans,” noted the inimical Clyde Wilson, political thinker and foremost scholar of the South.

“A glorious commonwealth of morons,” Mencken called America. “The American moron’s mind”—this “mob-man’s” mentality—is that of a “violent nationalist and patriot,” to whom ideas are a menace, and who would always opt “to keep his Ford, even at the cost of losing the Bill of Rights.”

These are all Mencken’s words, not mine. See: “H.L. Mencken: Misfit In 21st-Century America.”

UPDATED (12/20):  This Facebook reader has the right approach. Relax and enjoy The Difference. Don’t be an Enforcer.

* Image courtesy of Picture Quotes.

HARD TRUTH: Toward The Covid-Centered Anthill Society

Conservatism, Constitution, COVID-19, Democrats, Fascism, Healthcare, Individual Rights, Individualism Vs. Collectivism

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ON HARD TRUTH With David Vance and myself:  “Toward The Covid-Centered Anthill Society: Nobody Identifies & Defends The Individual Right Of Self-Ownership”:

… we have the ruling class, an example being New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, boasting about having created an additional two classes of people in her diabolical democracy, where might makes right: the unvaccinated underclass (villains all) and the vaccinated upperclass (virtuous).

In similar vein, an Austrian chancellor revealed his plans to place Austria’s unvaccinated under house arrest. Stateside, Noam Chomsky, a progressive “intellectual,” wants to see the unvaccinated underclass reduced by the state to a “Hunger Games” type fight to survive: sequestered, waiting until dark to scrounge for scraps.

Explore these and other Hard Truths with David Vance and ilana mercer:

“Toward The Covid-Centered Anthill Society: Nobody Identifies & Defends The Individual Right Of Self-Ownership”:

What Do You Like About Being White? Lily White Conservative: I’m Too Individualistic To Say

Conservatism, Critical Race Theory, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Race, Racism, The West

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“What do you like about being white?”

Christopher Ruso’s fluid, but flaccid, reply to this question, posed by Marc Lamont Hill, encapsulates what is meant by a weak, apologetic case for Western man.

I believe Rufo’s one reply was that he is too much of an individualist to say. “It’s an amorphous term,” he added, “a metaphysical category,” and he also rejected the categorization of individuals.

Lamont, however, countered forthrightly that he, on the other hand, can state quite clearly what he likes about being black. Indeed, Dr. Hill asked a plain question.

Rufo then proceeded to reject the great things associated with Western mannerisms and habits, universalizing these, instead.

This exact same Uriah Heep like obsequiousness I highlighted in October 2020’s “Wake Up. Systemic Anti-Whiteness Is Deadly. Witness South Africa.”

Going by the Federalist writer mentioned in this 2020 column, conservatives like Stella Morabito and Rufo refuse to even take credit for the “oppressive” culture for which Europeans are being berated. Ludicrously, they both universalize the Protestant Ethic.

Recall the “Smithsonian display on whiteness”? It condemned as “white” all elements of a civilized society, including politeness, hard work, self-reliance, logic, planning, delayed gratification, and family cohesion.

“None of those are ‘white’ values,” assured Morabito, the apologist from the Federalist, as she criticizes Critical Race Theory for framing them as white. Ditto Rufo.

Imagine being so obsequious and apologetic as to wash your hands of a really cool thing you invented, evolved or were born into: Western civilization.

Almost all these values are, moreover, most pronounced in the European culture. One might even pin them down to Western Europe, because the sanctity of a man’s word, the handshake, culminating in the legally binding contract—these are some of the cultural and religious values that allowed capitalism to take off particularly well in the Anglosphere. Arguably, these are not part of the East European ethos.

MORE.

Related to the Rufo apologia is news that Princeton has ended Latin and Greek requirement for a Classics Major, so as to “address systemic racism” Hint to Mr. Rufo, who failed to defend his white self: There is no “classics” without the West. The culture of Greco-Roman antiquity was foundational and spectacular.

READING:

‘Systemic Racism’ Or Systemic Rubbish?

Ethnocidal ‘Critical Race Theory’ Is Upon Us Like White On Rice
Critical Racist Theory Robs And Rapes Reality

UPDATED (6/21 FRIENDS): NEW COLUMN: Murray’s Empirical Wisdom Confirms ‘Into The Cannibal’s Pot’s’ Analytical Truths

Conservatism, Crime, Ilana Mercer, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Race, Racism, Reason

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NEW COLUMN, “Murray’s Empirical Wisdom Confirms ‘Into The Cannibal’s Pot’s’ Analytical Truths,” is currently on Townhall.com, WND.COM, The Unz Review, American Renaissance, and CNSNews, created by two conservative greats, Brent Bozell III and Terry Jeffrey.

Excerpt:

My 2011 book, “Into the cannibal’s Pot: Lessons For America From Post-Apartheid South Africa,” rests on two axiomatic truths, and I excerpt (pp 40-41 & 126-128, 2011):

“In all, no color should be given to the claim that race is not a factor in the incidence of crime in the US and in South Africa. The vulgar individualist will contend that such broad statements about aggregate group characteristics are collectivist, ergo false. He would be wrong.”

“Generalizations,” I continued, “provided they are substantiated by hard evidence, not hunches, are not incorrect. Science relies on the ability to generalize to the larger population observations drawn from a representative sample. People make prudent decisions in their daily lives based on probabilities and generalities. That one chooses not to live in a particular crime-riddled county or country in no way implies that one considers all individual residents there to be criminals, only that a sensible determination has been made, based on statistically significant data, as to where scarce and precious resources—one’s life and property—are best invested.” (“Into The Cannibal’s Pot,” pp 40-41)

In short, generalizations about certain group characteristics are, in aggregate, valid. These, however, do not contradict the imperative to treat each and every individual as an individual.

In his infinite wisdom, but with a different—strictly empirical approach—social scientist Charles Murray has ushered into mainstream this very same truth. In a luminous little book, “Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America,” Murray counsels precisely that:

“…when mean differences between groups are real, it is absolutely essential to resist generalization; it is essential to accept the reality of documented group differences but to insist on thinking of and treating every person as an individual.”

Next, in “Into the cannibal’s Pot,” I explained that we conservatives and libertarians who oppose affirmative action, set asides and quotas, because of our unfettered fealty for a merit-based, free-market based society are, sadly, promoting “half-truths,” as I put it. Here’s why:

“Free market economists have long since insisted that the rational, self-interest of individuals in private enterprise is always not to discriminate. ‘The market is color-blind,’ said Milton Friedman. ‘No one who goes to the market to buy bread knows or cares whether the wheat was grown by a Jew, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim or atheist; by whites or blacks.’ As Thomas Sowell put it, ‘prejudice is free, but discrimination has costs.’” (ITCP pp. 126-128)

Inherent in these arguments, I had argued, in 2011, is that, while not untrue, they are incomplete, mere half-truths: …

…“Arguably, however, [our] good economists … are still offering up a half-truth. Rational self-interest does indeed propel people, however prejudiced, to set aside bias and put their scarce resources to the best use. But to state simply that ‘discrimination is bad for business’ [and that a pure, free-market meritocracy would solve the problem of racial underrepresentation] is to present an incomplete picture.” …

… READ THE REST… NEW COLUMN, “Murray’s Empirical Wisdom Confirms ‘Into The Cannibal’s Pot’s’ Analytical Truths,” is currently on Townhall.com, WND.COM, The Unz Review, American Renaissance, and CNSNews

UPDATE (6/21/021): I am thankful for having quality readers. My writing has drawn wonderful people; giving, good people. Writes one such soul:

Ilana it’s a very brutal world for someone like yourself. When I said that you are alone, I didn’t mean that in the sense that you are banished to isolation or similar. I meant you are unique, you stand out, have value, yet the many are abject cretins, and will never comprehend you, couldn’t give a damn, and on account of their low level of culture will never encounter the likes of you till the end of time. This does not signify you should cease being the thinker that you are, for you must continue, whenever it occurs to you, to impart your intelligence to us. Your great worth will always find fruition somewhere with someone.

So kind and so soulful and, above all, giving. This is a giving person who really wants to impart strength, where he perceives that it’s waning. And he is not alone. “Musil Protege” is such a gem of a friend. Kerry Crowel, too, and David Vance: what a pro. Online, there are Matt Ray and Dissident Mama: good people who “drop by” to strengthen me and give of themselves.

I hope that these fine people find me as loyal a friend as I find them.