by Deconstructing Leftism
You probably thought you were just as good as anybody else, regardless of who you are. Everybody is really equal, right? Everybody believes that.
(This is a modified version of a post on my Christianity blog, here if you are interested.)
Bruce Charlton talks about how the Church of England has been “hollowed out” like all other institutions in leftist England. This is the inevitable result of the idea of equality, the basis of modern democracy, socialism and populism. The toxic nature of equality came up in one of the many dissident blogs I read recently, but I can’t find the reference.
The truth is people are not equal. People are different, some better in some ways and some in others, some worse in some ways and some in others. OK, you will admit to that, but isn’t everyone equal before God? Obviously not. Some people are particularly good, and some particularly bad.
“Pride” is the feeling or belief you are superior in some way. “Hubris” is a Greek word that was used to describe some especially bad crimes that resulted from excessive or inappropriate pride, such as aggravated assault or rape. “Nemesis” was the god that punished hubris, which has come to mean simply excessive pride, arrogance or the behavior that results from this. “Humility” is the belief you are not superior. “Modesty”, in its older English meaning, is not being arrogant or boastful about the ways you are superior.
All these are very important concepts. Modern society is based on the idea that everyone should feel good about themselves, even if there is objective reason for them not to. This has been a disaster, as great masses of people have or need to convince themselves they are wonderful, when they know they aren’t. It’s a great boon for sociopaths, who don’t even need to pretend to be humble, and can turn up the charm to an 11.The problem with equality is that if you’re equal, so is everyone else. That’s what equal means. Once you say that others are not equal to you, you have admitted you are not equal to others. Having been offered, and greedily accepted, the idea of “equality”, you’re in the monkey’s fist trap. Unwilling to let go of something, you lose not only the bait but everything else.
Democracy and socialism put Europeans in this trap in the 19th century. Having that all of them should be equal, then why weren’t non-Europeans equal to them? Isn’t everybody equal? Hadn’t they assented to that when it benefitted them? Hadn’t it benefitted society? Wouldn’t it then be just and beneficial to extend equality to non-Europeans in the colonies, and even let them come and live as equals among us?
Pride was the basic value of pagan civilizations. If you were a great warrior, or champion athlete, or rich you were proud of yourself. If you were poor or a slave you were ashamed of yourself. The very special were like junior gods, and could even become gods on death. Some people let this go to their heads and decided they were actually gods while they were alive- the Roman emperors Nero and Diocletian I believe. Pride leads to a lot of fighting over who is the best, within and between societies. The defeated are oppressed, which leads to bitterness and rebellion.
The modern liberal view- shared by people as widely varied as Charles Dickens and Ignacio Ellacuria, is that communist revolution is simply a normal human response to the oppression of traditional societies- implicitly defined by them as not under English control. Communist revolution is actually an infection planted by outsiders, but that actual process, rather than the bogus idea of equality itself, is another topic.
If we aren’t ruled by people objectively our superiors, who are we ruled by? By people who proclaim equality the loudest, unequal in their advocacy of equality. As a practical matter their inequality and fitness to rule is indicated by education at top Ivy League universities and membership in certain ethnic and religious groups and cultures.
Beyond being ruled by people who regard themselves as our superiors based on their superior proclamations of equality, we are afflicted with the pretense of equality for people who are not equal- the pretense of equality of the races, which leads to integration harming whites, the pretense of the equality in ability of all children, which leads to a lot of money being wasted on education, the pretense of all races and both genders being able to perform all jobs equally, and so forth. None of these pretenses affect the elite, who are not equal to us, despite what they say about the equality for all.
The “hollowing out” Charlton talks about comes from the need to pretend everywhere and all the time that things that are not true, are true. By far the simplest and most effective solution to this problem is to just stop pretending people are equal, and go back to the old method of appreciating and understanding that people are different, have different skills and abilities, and different contributions to make.
We are offered the “false choice”- a turn of phrase our own Dear Leader likes to use- between vicious feudalism and modern enlightenment. The trouble is that under “modern enlightenment” people are becoming stupider, fatter, lazier, and sicker. The inferior have a false sense of equality and entitlement, which they know is false, however stupid they are, and the truly superior are expected to grovel.
Only nationalism deals with the reality of human nature and provides dignity in society for people across a wide range of roles and abilities. People who are superior in some way should be modest about it, and not engage in hubris. People who are inferior in some way should be humble about it, and not indulge in bitterness and resentment. Society must manage relations between the classes and between individuals to achieve harmony and strength.