One reason I see things clearly is because I see them from what Aleksander Solzhenitsyn in the Gulag Archipelago called “an individual point of view.” Few readers and no intellectuals understood what he meant by this.
Up until his time in the Gulag, Solzhenitsyn adhered to the established religion of his country, Marxism-Leninism. He thought Stalin was a thug and said so, which is what got him into the Gulag. But he considered Lenin the greatest man in history and it was his life’s work to write the definitive biography of that Saint.
What Solzhenitsyn meant by an “individual point of view” was what he later became: a Russian, not a Marxist. He saw himself as an individual with a, repeat A, meaning ONE, personal point of view: “an individual point of view.” Only then was he able to observe THE REST of the world accurately.
If you are part of the established religion, regardless of what that institution may be, you are not a part of the world or the people you are analyzing. You look down on others in the light of your own Final Truth.
Everybody is a provincial, but you cannot understand anything about real people unless you face the fact that you are a hick, too. The people who cannot understand reality at all are those who THINK the INSTITUTION they are part of does not have a “point of view.”
Those who have an institutional view analyze everything as a step up or down toward their Final Truth. They are the most extreme form of provincial. They possess a hickdom no real hick could even imagine.
And, unlike a normal hick, the institutional hick cannot imagine that he IS a provincial.
#1 by Dave on 10/09/2009 - 11:55 am
Fear, even when it is delusional, has an object grounded in reality.
That’s what makes fear very reliable.
Then there is faith (that’s calmly standing there watching the rock hurdle toward you that the hoodlum has thrown at your head in the conviction that the rock will miss), which isn’t even necessary.
So what’s left?
The ability to see fate’s emissary standing there in the shadows, guardian to a secret storehouse of weapons.
That is why Aldous Huxley said, “Don’t ever tell me WHAT to achieve, without first telling me HOW.”
The hordes of our nonwhite enemies don’t see this at all. The armies of the Politically Correct are blind to this fact.
They believe in their theories, “martial artists” who think their victory is ordained.
They don’t stand a chance against our kind.
#2 by backbaygrouch4 on 10/10/2009 - 7:10 am
This has several levels of insight. Existential – you are alone. True tolerance – others exist separate from you. Egalitarianism – no other is superior to you.
To overly identify with an institution subordinates your being to a concept. This is the opposite of liberty. One becomes an ant or a hive dweller.
White European Christians, and Christianity alone among major religions exalts the worth of individuals, have evolved a society that progresses. It is a society different from other societies because its members are different from the members of other societies. They understand and value liberty. This is what we recognize, celebrate and fight for.
#3 by Dave on 10/10/2009 - 4:24 pm
Backbaygrouch,
Those were great insights.
Semantics is the study of the relationship between the word “CAT” and that furry four legged product of nature over there.
An institutional point of view has an operational manifestation, the relation between ideology (words) and the procurement of the surrender of rights (a product of nature).
The institution’s stock of justifications is without limit. Any justification will do, as long as it procures the result it seeks, the surrender of rights.
Guns are a very poor means of self-defense though they work well for offense.
But it doesn’t matter.
What matters is a principle is upheld (regardless of how that principle justifies itself) that if that “police officer” over there gets a gun, I get one. He is born with one head, two arms, and two legs, same as me. His uniform doesn’t mean the fecal matter he emits has suddenly become fragrant.
The Establishment has failed to prevent the American people from being heavily armed. This is a bright light of hope in the world and evidence that America remains the freest country in the world.
The “police officer” in America is deterred. There is a leveling of the playing field that is dismaying to him. He MUST respect the public, like it or not (and rest assured, he doesn’t like it).
He is reminded of true relations. His “official status” is much diminished.
This is freedom.