I haven’t been completely inert over the past few months.
I have resumed my research into late 19th century / early 20th century intellectual history. I traced the roots of our current cultural decline back to this period a few years ago.
There is a tendency in our circles to blame everything on the Jews or to blame it all on the Yankees or to blame it all on liberalism. We should take a closer look though at the Northern WASP elite who triumphed in the War Between the States and who ruled the country until around the Great Depression. They were the ones who fumbled the ball and lost control of America in the days of Madison Grant.
How? Why?
The following excerpt comes from the chapter “The Intellectual Counterattack on Caste” in E. Digby Baltzell’s book The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy & Caste in America
“The rise of the New Social Science paralleled the development of the Social Gospel, Settlement House and political reform movements during the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Many of the early sociologists, like William Graham Sumner, started out to become clergymen. In describing his own intellectual development, the sociologist Charles Horton Cooley recorded his debt to “Jane Addams and other philanthropic writers.” Both Charles A. Beard and John Dewey were at one time associated with Hull House. The alliance between reform and the New Social Science was nicely symbolized when the National Institute of Social Science awarded its Gold Medal to Lillian Ward in 1912. And finally the close relationship between the Social Gospel and the New Social Science was brought out when the American Economic Association was founded in 1885. Washington Gladden and twenty-two other ministers were among the charter members of the Association, whose original platform, drawn up by Richard T. Ely, declared:
“We hold that the conflict of labor and capital has brought into prominence a vast number of social problems, whose solution requires the united efforts, each in its own sphere, of the church, of the state, and of science.”
The need for institutional reform on the part of both the church and the state, as urged in the platform of the American Economic Association, was a basic assumption of the New Social Science which was outlined in the works of such leaders as William James and John Dewey in philosophy and social psychology, Frederick Jackson Turner in history, Thorstein Veblen in economics, Lester F. Ward and Charles H. Cooley in sociology, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., in the law, and Franz Boas in anthropology. All were opposed to racism, Social Darwinism, imperialism, and all forms of hereditary determinism; and all assumed the malleability of human nature which was capable of responding to improved social conditions; Dewey stated the aims of the New Science in very much the same terms as the Social Gospel movement when he wrote that “there must be a change in objective arrangements and institutions; we must work on the environment, not merely in the hearts of men.”
It is important to emphasize the fact that most of the prominent leaders of the New Social Science, like the leaders of the Social Gospel and Settlement House movements, came from within the old stock and Protestant establishment. Thus Veblen’s bitter assaults on the establishment may have been partly grounded in his position as the son of Norwegian immigrants at a time when “Norskie” ranked with “kike” and “dago” as a sneer word; and Boas might have been influenced in his thinking by the fact that he was a German Jew. Yet, on the other hand, Holmes was an impeccable Boston brahmin; Beard’s father was the First Citizen of Knightstown, Indiana, where he owned the local bank, the newspaper, the mill, and land which spread out to the horizon; Cooley’s father was of old Yankee stock, for twenty years a member of the Michigan Supreme Court, first chairman of the First Interstate Commerce Commission, first dean of the Michigan Law School, and one of the First Family Founders of Ann Arbor; and John Dewey, of solid middle class Yankee stock, grew up in Burlington, Vermont. “Where I was raised,” he once remarked, “the Hoovers and the Mellons would have had a hard time passing for Americans.”
As it illustrates so well the relationship between ideas and social structure, it is significant that this New Social Science took shape at the height of the Spencerian vogue within the establishment, and that its most important ideas – which still lie at the core of social science today – were worked out and published before the First World War. Thus Holmes’ Common Law came out in 1881 and Dewey made his first philosophical contribution the next year; James’ famous Principles of Psychology was finally completed in 1890; Turner published his essay on the “Significance of the Frontier in American History” in 1893; Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class and Dewey’s most widely read book and the earliest statement of his theory of progressive education, The School and Society, were both published in 1899; James’ Pragmatism came out in 1907; Cooley’s Social Organization, in which he developed the idea of the primary group, appeared in 1909; Boas’s most influential book, The Mind of Primitive Man was published in 1911 and Beard’s notorious Economic Interpretation of the Constitution in 1913.”
I’m sure many of our readers are familiar with Franz Boas and the contribution that he made in anthropology in the shift away from hereditarianism and toward cultural relativism. Boas was hardly alone in sowing the seeds that undermined hereditarianism and Victorian morals though.
Note: Baltzell was a sociologist, historian and a cheerleader for the decline of his own social class. If you read his book, you will get a lot of insight into how WASPs lost control of America.
To paraphrase Nietzsche …
One does not refute liberalism. One does not refute a disease of the eye.
@John…
In fairness, Liberalism has brought us many things that most Americans would be loathe to do without.
Social Security, Medicare, Workman’s Comp’. etc, etc…
Liberalism also freed women from thinking that the only they they have to do is serve other people.
Service is good, but, you do have a self and you do need to tend to it.
Moreover, Liberalism brought us Al Smith’s way of thinking about life, which FDR repackaged as his ‘New Deal’. (see the first line)
The New Deal brought the greatest prosperity and opportunity to Rural America that it had ever know, especially The Impoverished South.
So, I think we have to thank Liberalism for a lot.
That said, Liberalism, is like salt – if you keep pouring it on and on, the food is no longer improved, it is ruined!
In this area Conservatism (The Southern/Midwestern think) has failed America, because it never found a way to stop Liberalism’s march.
Liberalism has had so many of what most Americans regard as victories, that it has kept marching on.
In essence, it is now time to find a balance, and doing that means taking an axe to what current Liberals are embracing, while not ridding ourselves of many of Liberalism’s advances, taken over the previous century.
Lastly, I will blame us, Southerners, for unsuccessfully defending our civilization against Northeasterners.
We have never articulated what stability (anti-progress/anti-mobility) is, and why it, within Constitutional bounds, is very desireable for all humans.
Instead, we have quietly allowed ourselves to be absorbed by The Northeast, and Northeastern thinking – progress and mobility.
It is my firm belief that, until Southerners, as a whole, reassert our way of life, this nation, either as a whole or in parts, will languish, and painfully so.
Northeasterners, particularly New Englanders, are without a doubt the brightest (thinkingwise) area in our nation, but, that said, they have a mania for hypotheticals and abstracts that, if left unhindered, as they have been, can become very destructive.
Case in point?
Massachussetts has gone from housing untold numbers of illegal migrants in hotels to asking residents to take them in.
Given the way New England is, it is not hard to imagine that, oh, let’s say, 10 years from now, Massachussetts simply starts requisitioning private residences, in order to follow their beloved theories of self-perfection.
Already New England is trying to stifle the South in this matter, by preparing the way to allow this new illegal underclass to vote us under, this by issuing them I.D.s and next voting rights.
Southerners must respond, and vigourously.
Yet, this may impossible, this because out entire intellectual class, such that it has ever been, has been entirely co-opted by Jew England Yankee think.
Be well!
There’s no meeting liberalism half-way, Ivan.
That’s the dilemma, Dear John, or, at least, the current manifestation of Liberalism – something which belies the name.
No, at this point, I would say that Liberalism has begun to more resemble Totalitarian Lunacism.
“tendency in our circles to blame everything on the Jews ”
How about 90% ?
@Arrian…
LOL!
“…tendency in our circles to blame everything on the Jews…”
It’s often said that we blame the Jews for everything. That’s a damn lie we only blame them for getting us into WWI and WWII, the Federal Reserve, killing Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy. Lies about the Holahoax. The destruction of Russia, Germany, Spain, England, Egypt, US, all of Eastern Europe and many other countries(many). The opium trade into China. Bringing slaves to America. Bringing in all the people after the 1965 change in immigration laws and all illegal immigration. The present flooding of the country with aliens who may very well be here to attack and murder us. The murder of many Citizens by these legal and illegal immigrants. The overwhelming cost of all these legal and illegal immigrants and invaders. The corruption and abuse of the asylum system to flood the country with refugees. Destruction of the studies of anthropology, psychiatry, social sciences and knowledge in general. Destruction of art and the constant pushing of vile, pointless and evil, so called, art. Destruction of the school system through uncivil rights for Blacks. Mass murder of Whites by Blacks due to uncivil rights laws and dumbing down of the school system. Destruction of all our major cities. Destruction of competence of government employees by uncivil rights laws banning effective testing. Destruction of the culture by mass media, just a few of which are print, radio, TV, movies and music. Widespread tensions between Men and Women due to their pushing of a Man hating version of Feminism and attacking Women. Psychological warfare by portraying White Men as evil, corrupt, deranged and serial killers. Police committing widespread murder due to Jews training the police. Corruption of the government by media influence, bribery, blackmail and when that doesn’t work murder. The reason we have so many shitty people in the government is the Jews directly motivate, fund and use all means at their disposal to put horrible, anti-White and psychopathic people in power. Murder of people to cover up corruption. Corruption of many of the nation’s coroners to the extent that someone can be shot to death with a nail gun, twice, and have it ruled a suicide. People can supposedly hang themselves with red scarves off of door knobs and still have it ruled a suicide. Epstein can be declared a suicide. Destruction of truth through distortion of the education system and mass media. The lowering of morals through pornography and evil behavior in print, film and TV. Sexual degeneracy and illegal forcing of Women and Men into trading sex for work. Pedophile attacks on girls and boys in Hollywood, and everywhere else they can. Sexual servitude to get parts in movies, music and media for Women, Men, boys and girls. The pushing of communism and socialism. The destruction of the livelihood and pensions of many, many people by taking over their companies, stealing their pension money and offshoring their work with fiat money they control. The buying up all of the productive businesses with fiat cash lent to the Jews then destroying the long term capability of the companies due to hollowing them out to fleece as much cash as possible before they collapse. This is being followed by the same technique in land, food and housing by the same bunch. The movement of manufacturing to China. Widespread theft of military secrets and subsequent selling of those to the USSR , China and who knows who else. The banking collapse and subsequent bailout. Running a fraudulent FED currency scheme. Securities fraud in the bank bail outs and Mortgage backed Bond business. Blowing up our buildings and killing our people on 9-11 and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Multiple false flags where Americans have been murdered. The war in Ukraine. ISIS. The murder of Lebanese and Palestinians. Organ smuggling. Drug smuggling. Falsifying data to get people hooked on pharmaceutical drugs. Corruption and contamination of the vaccine system and it’s products to unsafe levels. Lots and lots of business and bank fraud. The enslavement for sex trafficking of children especially used to blackmail politicians, clergy, police, judges and others of influence. All the corporate support for faggotry, trans and other vile things such as cutting the breast off of young girls and the penises off of young boys. The drugging to alter children’s sexual characteristics and the Jew owned corporations support for this. The utter destruction of the space program as they received over $40 billion to make a new launch system and didn’t launch a damn thing until Musk showed they were doing nothing but ripping us off. The SEVERE depletion of military power and poor, high cost equipment that we now see are nothing but shit and will greatly lower our defense capabilities for decades. The Smiley faced murders, (don’t have any evidence for this one but it’s the Jews). There’s more but that’s a few of the major ones.
The Jews are nothing but one big ass dysfunction amplifier. Every problem you have, they ramp it up to volume 11. All Jews may not be psychopaths, but if a bunch of Jews move into your territory, there is no discernible difference between them and a tribe of psychopaths moving into your country.
@Sam J.
“The Jews are nothing but one big ass dysfunction amplifier. Every problem you have, they ramp it up to volume 11. All Jews may not be psychopaths, but if a bunch of Jews move into your territory, there is no discernible difference between them and a tribe of psychopaths moving into your country.”
All Jews, indeed, most Jews, are not pyschopaths, not even close. Yet there cannot be any denying that what you say about the cumulative effect of having many Jews on any territory is going to bring about prohibitive damage.
This is why Gentiles had rules for limiting Jews in Gentiles lands, for more than a millenia.
It’s like putting a fence around a Kudzoo or Wysteria vine that cannot be entirely cut out.
You may remove that fence, and congratulate yourself for doing so, but, in the longrun you will rue it, this as the Wysteria overtakes every other good plant in your ornamental garden.
This is the problem with the Jewish creative impulse – many fantastic individual achievements in so many fields, and yet : it comes at the price of overwhelming any society which hosts a lot of Jews, without restraint.
Jews think outside the box, and you cannot maintain a society that is constantly outside the box, to the point of even obliterating the box.
“They (wasp power elite) were the ones who fumbled the ball and lost control of America”
Yes, i agree.
I’ve always questioned, why didn’t ford, the DuPonts, Hughes or Fricks move in and buy all the networks, studios and major press syndicates ?
Is their some hidden power that operates with greater control that just cash ?
Hell, the DuPonts bought General Motors with pocket change !
Yes, exactly. Ultimately the American system proved a failure. We don’t live in the fantasy world of your mid 20th century civics class. Life has always and will always be a dangerous “game of thrones.” Looking back on all the scrutiny the Elizabethan and Jacobean regimes had on the culture, on various writers, all the powerful men with their own agenda, etc. There is a very definite reason they were doing this even though it seems cruel and tyrannical by the standards of the fantasy world we used to live in until quite recently. There really WERE other powerful men who very much wanted to run things for their OWN agenda…and if they got the upper hand it would not work out very well for those who let them have it. America utterly failed to protect the culture, the feeble last minute attempt by Joseph McCarthy was too little, too late. And now you have hulking male perverts prancing around in women’s clothing exposing their genitals to young girls in YMCA locker rooms and the powers that be are supporting them and “cancelling” the school girls who complain about it. Yes, America is just another failed experiment for the dustbin of history…and it failed much more quickly than Rome.
lel
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/02/rediscovering-e-digby-baltzells-sociology-of-elites/
>Perhaps the most optimistic short-term scenario is that competition from China forces the American elite to reinvest in building institutional competence.
Hard to believe Ely and Gadden didn’t believe in the era’s anglosaxonism.
The elephant in the room is that Women got the vote in 1919. Do you think that changed the electorate? If only Women voted today every state would go Democrat. Socialism is a feminine construct. Women evolved over millions of years to share things that Men produced. They want to nurture every 3rd world immigrant on earth by forcing their Men to support them with the welfare state. Women are behind the Trans cult. I could go on.
Who permitted this madness?
The trans cult is an attack on women and families and it was started by jews. Magnus Hirschfeld in Weimar Berlin, the father of transgenderism. The “Nazis” burned Hirschfeld’s books and shut down his “Institution”. Jews remain very prominent in the current cult.
I encourage you Hunter to continue this historical narrative series that began in August-October 2020 before the election happened and Biden became President. Lots of good gems. I wish to see how the narrative unfolds into the 1930s and 1940s.
In regards to the WASP establishment that won the Civil War in the 1960s and ruled American society until the 1930s, I’ve got a couple of thoughts:
-While Jewish Critique as articulated by Kevin MacDonald played a role in their collapse, they also lost faith in themselves. And apparently, that loss of faith happened early on. As early as the 1880s.
-The WASP establishment was always on a shaky foundation due to its support of anti-racism and anti-whiteness during the Civil War. They may not have been ideologically anti-racist themselves, but by aligning themselves with the Abolitionists in a turf war/power struggle with the Southern Planter class, they arguably set the seeds of their own eventual demise.
-Insofar as they were True Believers in the Social Gospel and in Christianity in general, they felt a moral compulsion to make their country, society, and civilization as egalitarian and leveled as possible, which is exactly what happened here.
In short, the WASP establishment wasn’t worth ruling. Whatever worthy values they had can be reconstituted by us, but as a ruling class, they didn’t have what it takes.
“True Believers in the Social Gospel and in Christianity”
They didn’t believe in Christianity, they don’t care about Christ or the Resurrection or any meaningful interpretation of the history of Christian Civilization.
When the general population still revered the Bible and believed in Divine Judgment, the New England Yankees cloaked their crypto-bolshevism in sanctimony.
“His Terrible Swift Sword” is literally a reference to John Brown hacking the men of a Catholic Tennessee family to death.
My own belief is that Abrahamism – which is to say, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam – is a disease from the Middle East that must be removed and eradicated for the White Race to secure its future. Islam hacks Whites to death, Judaism conspires to destroy us, and Christianity enslaves our souls. There is no freedom or hope to be found in it.
DP84 ” My own belief”, well thank you, for sharing your belief, you don’t have too bother with it anymore, though, it’s not necessary……
JPS,
I did not know that about John Brown. I knew Brown was a freak but an anti-Catholic atrocity being treated as wonderful is deranged. That is part of the song Battle Hymn of the Republic I am pretty sure.