To trim the already over-long title I have omitted a few words. “Cultural Perversion & Disorder As Psychological & Philosophical Impediments For The Individual”.
These problems have come to light in personal experience. Having witnessed attempts to cope by close family & friends-people of superior intellect, I have longed for a strategy or manner of attitudinal approach for avoiding the more common reactions: alarm, disgust and revulsion over the atrocious events and circumstance which lately, daily delude us all, and truly degrade our lives. Such difficulties blossom into further distractions.
Some classical thinkers, and more modern classically trained thinkers have addressed the issue of how best to deal with the authentic perversion of a balanced culture, resulting either from flaws in the political system or in the character of leaders. It may be the ultimate personal difficulty, once the ordinary vicissitudes of life have been accommodated. Classical considerations will be addressed here in good time-but lets first consider some more recent examples and carefully look to the potential & real field of fire.
A prerequisite definition of ‘cultural perversion’ might first address the evil result of defective political processes, such as the paradigms of the left-socialism & Marxism with their attendant atheism , unchecked authoritarianism-aka: totalitarian systems, &etc. Alternative or ancillary definitions should no doubt also include the results of so-called bad leaders-people who, for whatever reason(s), may have run rough-shod over the populace-whether their powers be ‘legitimate’ or ‘ill-legitimate’ products of the political process.
Contemporary American culture has its predominate origins in Europe, & it is especially rooted in English history, including the inputs of Scotland, Wales, & the experiences of the British in Ireland-as well as the British experiences and colonial actions concurrent to the pre-revolutionary American colonies. England is our Mother Country for far more than political reasons.
Before this screed is dismissed as entirely too personal, or labeled simply pedestrian, my concept of a balanced culture might be addressed by example for instance by consideration of the formerly agrarian based culture of both rural & small towns in the Southern United States-and the Northern states as well-up to about 1960, as viewed in light of the definitive paradigms & historical interpretations presented by Ortega de Gassett (Revolt of the Masses)and Petrov A. Sarokin (The Crisis of Our Age), as well as the more recent & prolific ruminations of the late Mel Bradford (Remembering Who We Are, The Reactionary Imperative, et al). The industrialization & population increase was surely pervasive by 1960, having greatly altered the larger culture and overshadowing the agrarian base.
Be especially careful of the modern reflexive, obligatory and even perfunctory tripping over the word Southern. Drop the dark lens & learn.
One might best begin to understand the Southern situation by reading a rather brief but all encompassing & highly detailed tour of one very ordinary family plantation, from its earliest days, up to its modern demise in the mid-20th century-by Kibler, Our Father’s Fields. Consider as well, that the small towns, both North & South in America, are of course renowned for their decency, order & ease of life. They are, in the period referenced, by and large the best place to find a happy existence for ordinary folk. Tolerance of eccentricities of personality and philosophy abound there, as a product perhaps of the freedom they may have offered. I refer of course to the ‘norm’ of the small town or village, and not the extremes-which might have been dominated by singularly oppressive regimes of powerful families or commercial interests. Even small towns & villages had some manner of centralized power structure-to a greater or lesser degree, but surely one might agree that the lesser degree was predominant, and thus we still concur on the more wholesome manner of life in that not so distant past.
Modern academics- Marxist specifically, will be instantly repulsed by all of this, and that is anticipated. They have their own special burdens-please see Mel Bradford’s essay, The Strange Career of C. Vann Woodward (in light of Woodward’s diatribe, The Strange Career of Jim Crow). Walking on the Marxist side of the street has a heavy price, and it has led to an authentic perversion of the academic culture-such that reading any history published after approximately 1920 is most likely very difficult. One must interpolate all modern data, as well as conclusions, as if running into an oblique headwind, which constantly pushes the vessel to the left. Marxism dictates that philosophy triumph over reality. Smiling, we are prone to say in the South “Bless their hearts ( with the utmost of genteel intent ), they just can’t help themselves.”
To Be Continued . . .
