OF IDEALS AND DELUSIONS: PART 1 - THE FALL

Today, the imposter calling himself Zhuge Liang, courtesy name Kongming, believes the above post and the attached reply, is worthy of discussion in long form. Don's belief and his detractor here are at the core of what I have come to think of our collective uncertainty, The Time of Chaos.

"It is such a quiet thing, to fall. But far more terrible is to admit it."

Much has been made of America as the so called "city upon a hill". But this is a myth. It is a mangling and distortion of history. The speech itself was forgotten for almost two centuries until published again by the scholars of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1839. I am not the first to tell you that the idea of American exceptionalism is both false and a story woven from a deliberate misinterpretation of an old sermon. So why then, do the liberals, their political leaders and sycophants of high and low status, cling to this narrative?

The hint lies in that reply "A nation that refuses to reckon with its history," indeed, the myth of Forward, Not Back is Everywhere in our cultural consciousness. Kennedy, Reagan, and many others all speak of a citizenry baptized by the Star Spangled Banner. But the great devil Trump has upset this myth. He has told the world that the city upon a hill has no light left for any but those he deems worthy.

I do not regret telling those who believed in Winthropism via Kennedy, that myth was never alive. Your empire was already decaying, the tyrant has merely dealt the final blow in a series of final blows.

"To be united by hatred is a fragile alliance at best."

Sakai in SETTLERS (who I will quote directly at times, but mind, that he uses outdated terminology that many among the First Nations consider disrespectful) reminds us how tenuous the bonds of brotherhood actually were among the English when they came to prospect and conquer:

"At first, according to the rules of their faith, they farmed the land in common and shared equally. Soon their greed led them into fighting with each other, slacking off at assigned tasks, etc., until the Colony's leaders had to give in to the settlers' desires and divide up the stolen land (giving "to every family a parcel of land").(1)

This is typical of the English invasion forces. A study of roughly 10,000 settlers who left Bristol from 1654-85 shows that less than 15% were proletarian. Most were youth from the lower-middle classes; Gentlemen & Professionals 1%; Yeomen & Husbandmen 48%; Artisans & Tradesmen 29%.(2) The typical age was 22-24 years. In other words, the sons and daughters of the middle class, with experience at agriculture and craft skills, were the ones who thought they had a practical chance in Amerika."

We hear almost every week now since the tyrant seized the capitol of his lust for tariffs (to be examined in full in another part), but also of how a portion of his base, the yeomanist petty bourgeois farmers, the Big Ranchers, constantly complain and petition him for relief. Some of these people may not be Republicans, but most certainly are - even where they own little land. We will speak of the burgeoning alliance between yeoman and indigenous people later, which allies may be surprised to hear is neither an isolated phenomenon nor a sudden opportunistic relationship.

It is land that builds a nation, and a nation that builds upon the land.

We peer through the illusion of reactionary smoke here and find that while many true believers in the tyrant are willing to suffer any hardship, the delusion they live under, is a self inflicted genjutsu of generations in order to cope with the reality of a "stolen inheritance", yes the Lost Cause is alive and well in more ways than one. Again, from Sakai:

"Then, too, many English farmers and artisans couldn't face the prospect of being forced down into the position of wage-labor. Traditionally, hired laborers were considered so low in English society that they ranked far below mere failures, and were considered degraded outcasts. Many English (including the "Levellers", the anticapitalist revolutionary outbreak of the 17th Century) thought wage laborers should lose their civil rights and English citizenship. Public opinion was so strong on this that the early English textile factories were filled with Irish and Welsh immigrants, children from the poorhouses and single women."

In the 21st century, every White knows a Good Immigrant. Those who called for the installation of the tyrant into power believe their desires and his were one, because his lies have the cadence of their lies. Trump employs Kash Patel at this time, whose father is a Ugandan immigrant of Gujarati descent. To the settlers, there is no contradiction here. These people are Good until they are not or the Good King deems them Criminals. Contrary to the liberal perspective like Don Moynihan, this is not any different from how it worked in previous administrations.

"If you are to truly understand, then you will need the contrast, not adherence to a single idea."

The "city upon a hill" was not Manifest Destiny, it was a warning to the Puritans - sin against God, and God will strike us down. In the tradition of America and Her exceptionalism, this meaning has been perverted. Why was this done? What is there to be ashamed of? The President tells us all the time of the greatness of this country and the liberals seem to agree, but aghast at his rhetoric. Horrified that he honors the death of a mere "debate bro" that the media can't seem to quote in his exact words.

Let us hear again from Sakai who speaks of these myths the Whites deal in regarding "empty lands" waiting to be plundered by failsons of the European continent:

"It is telling that this lie is precisely the same lie put forward by the white "Afrikaner" settlers, who claim that South Africa was literally totally uninhabited by any Afrikans when they arrived from Europe. To universal derision, these European settlers claim to be the only rightful, historic inhabitants of South Afrika. Or we can hear similar defenses put forward by the European settlers of Israel, who claim that much of the Palestinian land and buildings they occupy are rightfully theirs, since the Arabs allegedly decided to voluntarily abandon it all during the 1948-49 war. Are these kind of tales any less preposterous when put forward by Euro-Amerikan settlers?"

Those who believe in the Idea of America and the American Dream are refusing to Remember. They will invoke tragedy where they see fit, or even warp history for the honor of war criminals, but it is all the same kind of genocidal delusion. To admit that the land was raped and Her peoples murdered and pillaged is to admit culpability, how little or great, and to demand reparation. Yet denying responsibility is not the only reason these delusions continue. There is a real promise behind this Idea. We will explore it at length in the next post but I leave you to meditate on vampires: what does it mean to be "immortal"?