A Few Random Reflections

Race riots on the streets of Baltimore. Fun times. Much like when the Occupy Wall Street cretins were occupying parts of my beloved Gotham, I cannot help but think back to a more civilized and noble age, and dream of a more civilized and noble response to such blatant sedition.

Autophilia and the Puer Aeternus: the Twin Pillars of Modern Liberalism

"Conservatism is the negation of ideology: it is a state of mind, a type of character, a way of looking at the civil social order." - Russell Kirk
 
Ideologies can best be understood as secular religions. They are born when a person or people rejects God and Natural Law. As history reveals time and again, a people may divest a ruler of power, but they cannot eradicate power itself. Likewise, the history of ideas shows us that while a person or people may reject God and his laws, they cannot remove their instinctive need for religion. Enter ideology.

Some Dávila Quotes on Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy

As usual, Nicolás Gómez Dávila can convey in a sentence almost perfectly an idea that would take me multiple paragraphs to summarize, so here are some of his brilliant insights related to the topic of my latest post:

On Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy

 I am an aristocrat. I love liberty, I hate equality. - John Randolph of Roanoke

Of the many opinions I am wont to offer freely and unsolicited to my politically-inclined friends, the opinion which evokes the strongest reaction is easily my intense distaste for all things democratic. It isn't just the liberals, lefties and neo-cons, either: after stating my preference for feudal forms of government, plenty of libertarians, more mainstream conservatives, and even a disheartening number of paleo-conservatives have all looked at me as if I just suggested that setting fire to orphanages might be a fun way to pass the time.

Reflections on Ethno-Nationalism

There is much discussion amongst those on the alternative Right about race, nationalism, and tribalism. These issues are of crucial importance in the modern world. One cannot deny the unique influence of both race and ethnicity in shaping individual cultures and societies, and the more we learn about genetics and human biodiversity the more likely it appears that race and ethnicity may even be significantly important factors in individual human behaviour. However, whilst race and ethnicity are undeniably important factors in any community, relative homogeneity being arguably imperative for social cohesion, that does not mean that individual ethnic groups are or ought to be the only valid basis for state boundaries and political power.

Organic v. Contractual Society: Libertarian Assumptions Challenged

Social contract theory is a cornerstone of libertarian or classical liberal thought. In essence, this foundation myth posits that human beings, while in the "state of nature" - a time prior to the existence of any discernible society, first contracted with one another to form a civil society for their mutual survival and protection of their "natural rights" - life, liberty, and property - and then proceeded to agree to create the foundations of the state, a government which was contracted to act as a third party judicator of disputes between members of society, administrator of justice to those found guilty of violating the society's laws, and protector of society from foreign aggressors; in essence to prevent the violation of individuals' "natural rights" from threats without and within.

This fantasy tale is certainly more palatable than the completely abstract, modern liberal notion of "human rights". It reflects the existence of natural law, and is based at least on part on certain actual rights - namely those of the English people (and, arguably, by extension the Anglosphere). This of course is the first fact that belies the abstract notion of contractual government as classical liberals perceive it. All modern ideas surrounding liberty, rights under the law, and representative government are based firmly in the English political experience.