By Hunter Wallace
Editor’s Note: For future reference, I am going to knock out my thoughts on this subject and post it at the top of the sidebar.
As individuals, I believe we are all ultimately responsible for our own actions. I have my own moral beliefs. I’m sure you have your own thoughts on this subject. Generally speaking, I don’t think it is my place to preach to you about right and wrong. That’s a realm which I think should be left to your relationship with God, your relationship with your church, or your relationship with your favorite philosopher.
Unfortunately, we live in a time in which our country is in an advanced state of moral and cultural decline. Due to processes beyond our control, Americans no longer share a common culture or a common morality. Instead, we have seen a rapid disintegration of our common moral tradition which has been steadily eroded by the advances of Enlightenment liberalism. In his book After Virtue: A Study In Moral Theory, the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre diagnosed our present moral condition which he has labeled “emotivism.”
In his opening “A Disquieting Suggestion,” MacIntyre compared the present state of Western morality to a hypothetical scenario in which a fanatical movement has seized power and destroyed science and its heirs have been left to reconstruct the scientific tradition with only incomplete knowledge:
“Imagine the natural sciences were to suffer the effects of a catastrophe. A series of environmental disasters are blamed by the general public on the scientists. Widespread riots occur, laboratories are burnt down, physicists are lynched, books and instruments are destroyed. Finally a Know-Nothing political movement takes power and successfully abolishes science teaching in schools and universities, imprisoning and executing the remaining scientists. Later still, there is a reaction against this destructive movement and enlightened people seek to revive science, although they have largely forgotten what it was. But all that they possess are fragments: a knowledge of experiments detached from any knowledge of the theoretical context which gave them significance; parts of theories unrelated either to the other bits and pieces of theory or to experiment; instruments whose use has been forgotten; half-chapters from books, single pages from articles, not always fully legible because torn and charred.
Nonetheless all these fragments are reembodied in a set of practices which go under the revived names of physics, chemistry, and biology. Adults argue with each other about the respective merits of relativity theory, evolutionary biology, and the phlogiston theory, although they possess only a very partial knowledge of each. Children learn by heart the surviving portions of the periodic table and recite as incantations some of the theorems of Euclid. Nobody, or almost nobody, realizes that what they are doing is not natural science in any proper sense at all. For everything that they do and say [used to] conform to certain canons of consistency and coherence; [but now] those contexts which would be needed to make sense of what they are doing have been lost, perhaps irretrievably. …
What is the point of constructing this imaginary world inhabited by fictitious pseudo-scientists and real, genuine philosophy. The hypothesis which I wish to advance is that in the actual world in which we inhabit the language of morality is in the same state of grave disorder as the language of natural science in the imaginary world which I described. What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We indeed possess simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have – very largely, if not entirely – lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.”
What’s the point of sharing this?
The point is that I shouldn’t have to articulate the notion that murdering random people is immoral, or that you should refrain from raping people, or that it is a good idea to brush your teeth, etc. The basic concepts of morality and hygiene are something which should have been instilled in you from birth by your family, your peers, your church, your community, and countless other institutions. Ideally, “Thou Shalt Not Kill” should be an unchallenged moral assumption in our culture.
Just so we are clear, I am not encouraging you to murder random people or even people you know. That’s certainly not what I believe. I’ve made that clear on numerous occasions here in the past during previous meltdowns. I don’t support fanatics or psychos who repudiate basic moral precepts and ignore their conscience for the sake of their political ideology.
If you would like to learn more about my religious and moral beliefs, then feel free to ask me or check out Alasdair MacIntyre and the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. I would also recommend you do some research into classical virtue ethics which runs through my approach to moral questions on this website.
I believe, for example, that honesty is always a virtue. Integrity is another virtue which I prize. This is why I cannot stand political correctness. I can’t in good conscience say things or conform to notions which I believe to be false. It would be dishonest and immoral for me to do so. As our founder Martin Luther put it in his famous words, “I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”
I believe in classical virtues such as prudence, justice, temperance, and courage. I believe in Christian virtues such as faith, hope, and charity. There are many other virtues which make up the moral life and contribute to sound character: honor, loyalty, moderation, perseverence, generosity, kindness, compassion, etc.
I don’t believe that racism, sexism, nativism, patriarchy, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Eurocentrism, homophobia, heteronormativity, transphobia, white privilege, discrimination and other sins against modern liberalism constitute moral failings. My ancestors who settled the Southern states would not have recognized these moral failings either because they simply did not exist at the time.
Murder is immoral. There are many people who strongly believe that “racism” is immoral, but I can’t find any compelling reason in either religion or philosophy to believe this is the case. Indeed, the greatest theologians and philosophers in Western history were completely oblivious to the idea that “racism” is a moral failing. Jesus Christ himself never thought it necessary to identify “racism” as a moral failing.
Moving forward, this is the framework in which I will continue my work. It has always been implicit in my writing, but now I have made it explicit. Even if it means taking the time to read every comment, which can be an arduous chore, I will also try to clamp down on the comment section which can get heated at times.
Note: I will also add here that what people say in the comment section reflects their own beliefs. Obviously, I do not agree with or endorse everything that appears in the comments. Everyone has their own point of view and I have traditionally given commentators a wide latitude to speak their minds.
Part of this is an inevitable consequence of what Tom Wolfe called in reference to the 60’s “the great unlearning.” Large amounts of tacit knowledge — stuff everyone knows without explicit reasoning — fell out of socially pervasive existence. To cite a simple example, people once knew without being told ten individuals sharing the same toothbrush is not a good idea. Hippies had painfully to relearn this and other once common places of good living. Thanks to the left’s across the board assault on the traditional understandings of American (white) culture, the moral basis of a good life is something else that will have to be relearned by all too many, but probably not before much suffering and social dis-function. Touching on this theme, William Lind has, under the name Thomas Hobbes, written a novel on the future in which this occurs: “Victoria: a Novel of 4th Generation War.”
The wrath of God is nigh. Revelations comes to mind.
Thank you for this, HW.
Hunter,
The fact that you even had to write such a thing as this is indicative of the depths and disintegration to which we have sunk. We still, alas, have much, much further to go. We have only begun our Civilizational descent. Our enemies, and may of our so-called “friends” are completely disconnected from basic biological reality. The Unlearning has already occurred. Those of us that survive these times are going to endure a DREADFUL re-learning.
Tremble in fear and awe.
I am middle-aged. You and your wife are young. Your child is a toddler. I send my prayers and good wishes for your safety. Dangerous lunatics are in power, and dangerous lunatics stalk our land.
America is the new Titanic. Get your passports in order.
Anybody who hasn’t read MacIntyre’s After Virtue – it will shake out the Enlightenment-derived moral presumptions you weren’t aware you even had.
If you want to understand morality, look to the ancients and their Medieval successors.
Yes, I suppose that is the reality of the times in which we live … I am compelled to “weigh in” on this, or stand accused of “inspiring” and “radicalizing” anonymous people who I have never met and who do not share my beliefs on morality.
I saw a segment on the Tsarnaev boy the other day. I don’t intend to endorse what he did. But I see a man possessed of moral convictions and the courage of those convictions. He was a man on a mission and stuck it out, whatever the consequences. He says that he prays for the victims and their families. But he does not apologise for what is, after all, the waging of war. Contrast this with the Bostonians, who expected him to grovel and cry and were shocked by his deep, masculine voice. His strong character and conviction went over their heads. So did his faith and prayers. These
people, the Progressive/Marxist/Neo-Puritans, are operating in a world were their pseudo Morality and weak characters simply have no currency outside of the few bits of geography they control.
‘America is the new Titanic. Get your passports in order.’
When I read this, I immediately recalled Dr. Hill’s recounting of how he had been admonished, some time back, to go to Mexico, by various friends. He said, lest memory fails me : ‘My Home IS Alabama, my home IS in Alabama, and I am NOT goin’ anywhere.’
Well, that sums it up for me. I am a North Carolinian, and if it goes down, I prefer to go down with it. With all due respect and best wishes to everybody everywhere else, I don’t want to live in Maine, Hawaii, Finland, Chile, or Israel.
Re: Spelunker
I had been planning to knock out the above essay all week. Jack has also been itching to share his thoughts, but I have been busy.
Virtue or any sort of moral beliefs are a facade to make people appear to be better than they really are. The flesh is evil and when it is discarded we will all be pure spirit and float up to the heavens as Angels.
You’ve got a tiger by the tail. Leadership is always hard and knowing where to draw boundaries and set limits is a judgment call that defines you and your followers.
As White People, we don’t have any real leaders. None. Donald Trump emerges and it’s like Jesus has returned and not because Trump is good but because the GOP is so very bad. The more I examine and consider Trump the less I like him. But still, he may inadvertently help Whites or he could intensify our woes.
I empathize with your struggle to improve your site and posters. Something that I never perfected. I always hated anonymity but who today is willing to be a Martin Luther?
The problem is two fold. Lack of leaders and lack of followers. My grandfather said, “You can’t cheat an honest man.” When people return to being honest then and only then will we have the necessary followers and maybe a genuine leader will emerge.
In the mean time, Hal Moore said it best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGNxHMFjigA
Most importantly, trust your instincts. And my instincts tell me that developing and promoting Cuckservatives is our very best option at present.
Very well said, Hunter. The misnamed Enlightenment was anything but. All that has been built on its rotten foundation will come to ruin, which is what we witness today. What cannot last, will not.
Truth, beauty, and goodness are transcendent and eternal.
“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”
? Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Keep up the good work.
Deo Vindice
The Fort Smith Arkansas school board voted to replace “Dixie” as the fight song of the Southside High School. “Dixie” and the Confederate Battle flag were staples of the school competitive spirit for 52 years. To his credit, the principal, Mr. Wayne Shaver, opposed this pusillanimous action. “The Wabash Cannonball” is being recommended to replace “Dixie” as the fight song , how stirring.
Some background: the State of Arkansas largest newspaper, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette began a anti South campaign against the school several years earlier. The school was chided for having cheerleaders known as the “Rebelettes”. The Confederate fag was on the school lunch trays. There was not much follow up, but apparently Southside High didn’t buckle at that point.
Some historical background: the original founder and publisher of the Arkansas Gazette, William E. Woodruff, was trapped in Fort Smith in late 1863 when the city was occupied by the U.S. He requested permission to leave Fort Smith to return to Confederate Little Rock. Woodruff was granted permission in April 1864, but his property was confiscated by the U.S. Army as punishment. Fort Smith was occupied by Kansas troops – students of the War know what swine Kansans were. A brave young lady by the name of Cecilia De Jeune was arrested by U.S. troops in Fort Smith in February of 1864 for boldly proclaiming her loyalties to the South. She was reported to have delighted in Southern victories and U.S. defeats. Miss De Jeune was turned over to her father, who lived in Van Buren, Ark, inasmuch as he was a proclaimed “Union” man.
America sending its queer couples out as diplomats.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-02/meet-vietnam-s-gay-power-couple-u-s-ambassador-and-his-husband
Good article. The ‘Western Marxist’ theories which drive the War on Whites state that ‘morality’ is simply a tool used by the ‘hegemony’ to oppress the ‘proletariat’. I think it was Antonio Gramsci who originally developed this idea most fully, and it was taken up by the Jewish intellectuals of the so-called ‘Frankfurt School’ and transferred to America in the 1930s where it grew and grew. After WW2 it turned into the anti-white hate campaign which wants to destroy European culture.
Out of interest, you might wish to consider the traditional European morality concept of the ‘seven deadly sins’ or ‘vices’. Although developed in early Christian culture, these are essentially a universal secular philosophy. (The corresponding traditional ‘seven virtues’, are of course Christian.)
Avarice, Lust, Pride, Anger, Sloth, Envy and Gluttony: It seems that the culture war fought by the Ethnic Left has transformed all of these from the vices we once held them to be into the celebrated sins of modern culture.
I also don’t see any incompatibility between Christianity and racism. Nobody thought the two were incompatible until the liberal media machine of the 1960s said they were.
The war on our white culture has been waged by the Jews since the time of the Apostle Paul if not before. They co-opted the Reformation in the form of John Calvin ie Cohen who put forward the un-Christian idea of Predestination and turned Baptism into a meaningless ceremony.
The Jews co-opted Philosophy which had beforehand been dominated by the Classics and the Medieval/Renaissance religious teachers and philosophers such as Aquinus, Sir Thomas More, Erasamus, etc. Baruch ie Benedict Spinoza, a Portugese Jew living in Holland began planting poisonous ideas about GOD in our psyche in fact his ideas were so poisonous even his own Jews excommunicated him. Spinoza led to the French Philosophers and their anti-God crap, to Hegel and eventually to Marx himself.
The Enlightenment was the single WORST thing that happened to our people and I believe the Founding Fathers of the United States were basically dupes who had bought into this garbage. Jefferson refers to the Creator ie Natures God in the Declaration which goes back to Spinoza and Madison gave us a Secular Anti-God Constitution.
The Religious Revival that swept Dixie starting in the 1790’s and ending in the 1920’s effected every level of society from the Aristocrat to Poor Whites and Slaves. This led to an effort culminating in the Confederate Constitution to re-enshrine Jesus Christ firmly in the Public Discourse. If you will read all the documents from the 1700’s lots of mention of God almost zero of Jesus. Of course the Confederate Constitution stopped short of mentioning Christ and was criticized for this though it did mention the Almighty God.
This was accompanied by the death of Christianity among the Northern Elites. Let us remember this point. The average Yankee tended to be religiously devout but their leadership was not. As anyone who knows Scripture understands you will eventually become what your leaders are. As I said before to understand Lincoln’s remark in his Second Inagural Address about praying to the same God understand it this way as it is only a half-truth.
In the South, everyone from the wealthy to the paupers bowed their heads. In the North the commoners bowed their heads while the Harvard elites and wealthy laughed at them as Puritanical old fashioned religious buffoons.
Now do you understand?
No nation can exist in a state of perpetual immorality It is often said that one cannot legislate morality but that does not relieve us of the responsibility to prosecute immorality. I expect that to one of the duties of the State in any future Ethno-State we establish.
Very well, I agree. However, I would point out nature knows only one rule for superiority and morality. That which is superior is that which survives. That which is inferior is that which does now. In that regard survival is the ultimate morality.
Dear Occidental Dissentisaurs: There is no WN “extermination” or “genocide”. WN is committing suicide. Expiring. Going extinct. Simple. WN denies the truth and deludes itself. So simple. WN are not cooperating, so WN cannot compete. So very simple. WN are Abel, Others are Cain. Cain evolved, Abel expired. So very, very simple. Natural Law, God’s Law & US Constitutional Law are not false. Your interpretations of them are. Ockham’s Razor, you see. As plain as the N noses on your rationalising W faces.
“Looked at from this point of view the apparent insanity of our government’s foreign policy is revealed as a piece of shrewd calculating logic, put into effect in order to promote the Jewish idea of a struggle for world-mastery.”
~ Mein Kampf, The Right to Self-Defense
Morality and any associated ideal is rooted entirely in the presupposition some higher power defines what is correct for human behavior.
The whole article is illogical.
There is no “pure” morality. Morality is a human social construct. It can never be perfectly “logical.”
I suppose you’re begging the question: Is there a system or morality superior to what the editor espouses? If so, what?
Clarence you are obviously seeing the truth. It may be painful for some people to admit but there is no greater power telling us how to live our lives. Religion is a construct of the Jews to control populations and hold power. To protect our people and our purity there is no means which we should not consider to protect the end goal. Murder for pleasure is wrong, murder for the preservation of our people is no different than “stand your ground” laws.
88 my brother
ultimately for all species, what is moral is whatever keeps the species alive.