Thursday, May 26, 2016

The Fraying

     This piece will be somewhat out of the ordinary for a Fran Porretto essay here at Liberty’s Torch:

  • It won’t link to any news stories.
  • It won’t embed any illustrative videos.
  • It won’t present a reasoned analysis of contemporary events.
  • It will vibrate with unpleasant emotions, particularly anger and fear.
  • It will probably contain more profanity than my usual helpings of verbiage.
  • And with luck, it will be “out of my system” and not to be repeated...at least not soon.

     You have been warned.


     There’s a great and terrible evolution in progress in the world. You know it; I know it. Yet we do our best, day by day, not to take notice of it. We have to; if we were to allow it to impinge upon our consciousness, it would probably freeze us in place.

     Men are becoming beasts once more.

     No, not literally – and here I will pause to regret, briefly, my opening pledge not to embed a video, as the “Of Mice and Men” Monty Python sketch would be fully appropriate – but in terms of the mental and spiritual characteristics that distinguish us from the lower orders.

     Man’s mental and spiritual advantages can be summarized thus:

  1. He can reason out the causes of things through observation, inference, and judicious experiment.
  2. He can inhibit himself from action on moral and ethical grounds.

     Both faculties are experiencing a decline in employment. Don’t ask me for the examples I have in mind; you can find plenty for yourself. Besides, I’m bloody tired of amassing links to stories about people claiming to be the wrong sex, or puppies, or the possessors of the secret to effortless riches, or holders of a “license to rape.” Such stories are everywhere. The violence and insanity have mushroomed near to the point of being no longer exceptional.

     The blood-dimmed tide has been loosed.

     Beast-men don’t look at one another and see opportunities for collaboration or trade. Beast-men don’t seek like-minded fellows with whom to develop or advance a set of social or political ideas. Beast-men don’t create art of any kind. Beast-men are incapable of maintaining a complex technological civilization, much less advancing it.

     And the numbers of the beast-men are growing more rapidly than the numbers of the sane and civilized.


     Brace yourselves, Gentle Readers. I’m about to do something that will shock you. Something the bien-pensants will say is intolerant and disrespectful – of them, mostly. Something that will probably get me banned in Boston.

     I’m going to define.

     In recent years, sanity has been regarded as whatever state of mind conduces to survival within one’s chosen environment. I dislike that definition; it’s relativistic and therefore not useful to one who looks and sees widely rather than provincially. By my lights, sanity is that state of mind which accords with the reality around one.

     A sane society is one whose laws, norms, customs, and institutions align with reality and are maintained thus by the overwhelming majority of the participants.

     Civilization is a tougher nut to crack. Here’s a typical swing at it, from Princeton University’s WordNet:

     Civilization n: a society in an advanced state of social development (e.g., with complex legal and political and religious organizations.)

     I call bullshit. A civilization is a society whose ruling norm is civility: a state of affairs governed with the irreducible minimum of violence. Complexity is no way to measure civility. Indeed, it’s no way to measure anything but complexity itself.

     Sanity and civility are both retreating from American society. It should provide no salve to our self-regard to observe that we’re still doing better than the rest of the world. We’re losing what our forebears achieved and passed on to us, mostly by refusing to defend it against the lunatics and the thugs.

     While we huddle behind locked doors and distract ourselves with “Survivor” and “American Idol,” the lunatics and the thugs are taking our country from us.


     Part of our devolution can be attributed to the nice-guy trap. Today’s adult is less likely than ever to defend reality, civility, or common decency, in part because “common decency” has been redefined to include never uttering a sound that might offend or disturb someone else, however deranged he might be. Today’s youngsters are ruthlessly conditioned away from asserting themselves in the face of lunacy and thuggery. Against such feeble defenses, even a weak aggressor can score victory after victory.

     But part of it – possibly the larger part – arises from cowardice about one’s own perceptions and convictions: the willingness to concede even an iota of plausibility to those who blatantly contradict the realities around us. That cowardice has been nurtured in us by the Left. Having conquered the educational, journalistic, and media structures of the West, Leftists have exploited them to purvey a relativism that goes all the way to the demand that we deny the evidence of our senses rather than cause the slightest of commotions.

     Never before in human history has such a philosophy gained significant sway among men...but never before has it had the law and all the prevailing customs on its side.


     Feel free to ignore this tirade. I’m venting and I know it. Indeed, I told you right up front that I’d be venting, so no refunds.

     But I take some solace from the small but growing numbers of men who do call a spade a spade...when they’re not so completely exercised by the bullshit that they’re moved to call it “a fucking shovel.” I take some solace from the even smaller numbers of those who, even at risk to themselves, will stand up to the bullies and thugs, beat them back, and (in the cases I find most heartwarming) beat them down.

     I’m an old man, and an unhealthy one. I have little to contribute to the righting of our nation other than words. Hopefully my words are worth something, but I don’t delude myself that words are all it will take. The time for talk is behind us. The time for an uprising of the sane and civilized is at hand. The men remaining among us must gird themselves for battle. Unless they can beat back the beasts, confine the lunatics and definitively expunge the thugs, the already frayed rope of American civilization is guaranteed to snap.

     That’s enough for the present. It’s time for Mass. Have a nice day.

13 comments:

doubletrouble said...

Nail, meet hammer.
Your last line, "It's time for Mass.", holds a major clue as to why you recognize this and the greater part of "civilization" doesn't.

Linda Fox said...

Take care of yourself, particularly maintaining/improving your health. After the collapse, your knowledge will be sorely needed.

Anonymous said...

I agree wholeheartedly which is why I support Trump and why I'm confused as to why you don't.

This is long but interesting:
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/03/29/an-establishment-conservatives-guide-to-the-alt-right/

I think that some of what you see as incivility is actually a strangely modern internet version of play. I remember in college I had friends that insisted professional wrestling was real. They would never admit it wasn't. They did this for fun. It was fun.

MB

Col. B. Bunny said...

Great post, Fran. Not calling a spade a spade covers a lot of territory. Collectively, Western man is like Igor the Hunchback (Marty Feldman) in "Young Frankenstein" when Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) asks him how he got his hump. Igor replies, "What hump?"

Name one area of public life that isn't saturated with "thinking" that represents a wholesale flight from the most obvious facts imaginable.

Stop bombing Syria, stop arming and funding al Qaida and ISIS in Syria, and provide for refugees in place? Hah. The war against Assad (for secret reasons) must continue and millions of primitives must be transported to the European and American homeland.

Admit that the civil rights revolution has lead to utter disaster for America? Hah. Call down the wrath of the gods on the white (racis') patriarchy for even suggesting such an obvious fact.

Close the border to stop the inundation of white America by the third world? Jamais! Whites lead the charge to keep it open.

Think in your heart of hearts that you're a giraffe? Celebrate our diversity!

Col. B. Bunny said...

. . . led

Bellator Mortalis said...

Here is my perspective on what is happening in America today based on the Lord of the Rings. From LoTR: the city contains the GOPe, the mainstream Republicans, and the "conservatives".
The orcs are the left - the SJWs, the BLM, La Raza, and all the other "identity groups", the communists, socialists, and globalists.
The riders of Rohan are the forces of Trump, American nationalists, and the alt-right.
The giant elephant battle beasts are the Main Stream Media. With that as context, now watch these 2 clips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmTz7EAYLrs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1uhAz9_v9A

Manu said...

Your words are a worthy contribution, sir. I wouldn't be half the pundit I am without having spent years reading your screeds here and at the old Eternity Road.

The courage of one serves as inspiration to others to find their own.

Unknown said...

I’ve re-read and re-re-read your Thursday blog, and I discover I have neither the acumen with words, nor the wisdom to add to it. To me, your words are gifts of confirmation. And I see you received some really good comments.
But let me say I think you fudged just a little bit with “…luck it will be out of my system.” That could be taken to mean you lay down your arms in the face of the enemy as it continues to debauch our society and culture. That’s not Francis I’ve come to know by his words and obvious Faith.
I have a friend, John, from New Jersey …a tough individualist, a true American. For fifteen years we worked side by side. Recently he said, “Nothing will keep me away from Mass every day.”
Sometimes the tough guy waxed poetic when he opened up his heart to me.

Exring said...

I am not young but not dead, yet. I understand what you are saying. The real issue starts with, the ONLY way to deal with a "bully" is "fight back". That is the ONLY thing that stops them. I recently watched a very "SAD" movie on Netflicks that was about a teen (probably in Detroit, where it was filmed, part of the Communist/Socialist State of MI). I kept talking to myself about how we have been prohibited from being "Parents" and religated to "Friend" status. The "Legal System" has managed to "steal" our children from us by giving them power over their Parents. As I went through childhood, I remember NO suicides of young people and no children being beaten to death (or a pulp) by their parents. There were no killings of others in our schools. Then Parents were "removed" from influence. This has happened incrimentally and steadily. It appears to be a very successful "divide and conquer" approach. Bullies need a "bloody nose" not counselling. The "feel-good" approach has failed miserably.

It is OUR COUNTRY and WE must stand up. The real issue is where and how does this start? I will fight but have NO desire to be a martyr, to no end. How does this start? I am not a real enthusiast of Mr Trump but will back him, whole heartedly. Should he lose, the system will have been "fixed". The only others in the Field are either a Criminal (I don't accept that she has NOT been idicted as a cover) or a Communist/Socialist (this is an honest description of what the others are). If he does not do what he has said, perhaps, that will be the final "blow" to OUR system. Will that be the "igniter" of the PEOPLE that want to be FREE? Enough!

Workingstiff said...

Grimly well put. Our society has become so soft and decadent, that it can no longer be satisfied with just the opportunity and freedom to succeed, but now childishly demands its wants be gratified now! Worse, it is bored with the current blessings of materiel abundance, that our forebears could only dream of. Too many now want their deviant lusts be publicly accepted and applauded--After all, it's ALWAYS about THEM.

Grandpa said...

As always, dear brother; you shine with the light you reflect from the Son. So much of this is Spiritually ascertained, the gift of which is given to those who seek - with their whole heart. This nation led for many years as a shining light, and then; arrogantly, turned its back on God. Squandering its blessings, and the undeniable gifts of so many wondrous and varied things and thinkers; the nation began to think itself god... following its lead, much of Christendom did the same. As was ever thus, Scripture provides those with eyes to see and ears to hear, a solution that I wonder will be 'discovered' by the lost, in time to save what is remaining, and perhaps rebuild...
"If My people who are called by MY Name, (1) will humble themselves and pray, and (2) seek my face and (3) turn from their wicked ways...
THEN...I will hear them from Heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land..."
Of course, eventually we get to the part about "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess..." Perhaps that is why we have the verse in Matthew, regarding the narrow gate.
Thank you for sharing brother. You are not alone. Thankfully, reading this and the replies, reminds me I am not either.

Capt. Kranky said...

Excellent view on today's world and the USA. I have thought for some time that good men and women rising against the tide of destruction that has descended upon our country will be the only way to turn the tide back to normalcy and civility. Our political processes have failed, our leaders have failed and that only means God respecting people who know right from wrong need to stand and fight the tide. God Bless those of us who will fight for our beliefs and country because dark days are coming.

Anonymous said...

Can I hear an 'Amen!' Old guy here too. The window of revolution is closing for me and I fear for this once-great Republic. The vast majority of Americans have done nothing to prepare to protect themselves or their loved ones. They are totally absorbed in chasing success (as defined by others) and frivolous pursuits (texting, cell phones, selfies, sports, TV, Facebook, Twitter etc.).

I've been praying for years and will continue. But I fear God may have already passed judgement on this wicked nation.