This is well worth a watch!
Highly recommended.
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The WestMarch 29th, 2023 |
 11 comments to The West |
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Preaching to the choir here; nice to see, but does anyone have a suggestion for getting it into the leftist echo chambers?
That is excellent!
Just a generation ago this could have been shown in schools and even broadcast on bbc 2 (ok, maybe 2 generations ago for the latter).
Nowadays your average western teenager would walk out or shout it down rather than have their set-in-stone beliefs questioned.
It is good – good on the rise of the West (which is what it is setting out to do – so fair enough).
But I do not believe that the makers of the series have truly grasped that the decline of the West is not a recent thing.
The state has been on the rise, in most Western countries, for at least 150 years (one and a half centuries) – so the decline of liberty is not recent. As for Cultural (societal) decline – the decline of the arts, including architecture, has been horribly obvious from the mid to late 20th century onwards (compare paintings, music, even buildings in towns and cities in the early 20th century with today – especially in the United States where the destruction of cities and towns can not be blamed on war), even such things as the family and fertility rates (having children and bringing them up in married households) has dramatically declined over the last 60 years or so – and is now clearly in crises. As for fraternal associations (the alternative to state provision and also vital for socialisation) they have been in decline even longer.
Why the West has been in decline for so long is a difficult question – but one must first accept that the West has been in decline for a very long time indeed before one can hope to come up with ways to reverse that decline.
This also has implications for foreign policy.
The first American President to believe that American values and culture should be spread around the world (for the United Kingdom and British principles it was probably Canning in the 1820s – but the example is not so clear cut) was Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt – ironically I would argue that the Gentleman did not believe in the foundational principles upon which the culture he so admired (and wished to spread) was based – but certainly the culture he wished to spread was a good one.
American families were strong, American churches and secular fraternal associations were strong too, American towns and cities were beautiful – and American industry was the most advanced in the world.
None of that is true today – none of it.
So the argument for spreading American culture (society) around the world (whether peacefully or by force) collapses.
And the same is true for other Western countries – including the United Kingdom.
It is only good to spread your culture, your society, if it is good – and it is no longer is good.
What are we to spread? Credit Money? Unlimited government spending? The replacement of all the basic functions of Civil Society “from the cradle to the grave” – from families looking after their children, to education, to health care, to old age, with the state? Endless regulations controlling every aspect of life? Mr Biden and the sexual mutilation of children? The latest perversions that Corporate Hollywood can create?
As for industry – the West today preaches “Climate Justice” (a mutation of “Social Justice”) whilst the People’s Republic of China dictatorship increasingly dominates manufacturing.
Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt was not the first leader to wish to spread Western culture and technological and societal achievements without believing in the principles that were the foundation of that culture (see T. Roosevelt’s openly expressed contempt for the Constitution and even for the Rule of Law) – the first leader to go down this road was Peter the Great – Czar of Russia.
Most certainly not a stupid man (like T. Roosevelt, Peter the Great was very intelligent) he was still not wise – he lacked wisdom.
Peter the Great admired the results of Western principles (and tried to copy those results in Russia) without understanding the principles themselves – and Theodore Roosevelt (two centuries later) was much the same.
Perhaps watching this series (this film and the later ones) would have helped him – I am not being flippant, it might have helped him.
For a clear example of a way that post Roman principles eventually (eventually) were superior to the principles of the Roman Empire – see the “Edict of Quierzy” in 877 AD – deep in the “Dark Ages”.
Here King Charles the Bald of France lists things he can NOT do – things that the state has no legal authority to do, limits of state power.
It starts with the freedom of the Church – just as the English Magna Carta does centuries later, the King may not interfere in the doctrines of the Church. It goes on to admit, amongst other things, that the King has no right (may NOT) take land from someone – either to keep it for himself or to give the land to someone else. And King Charles admitted hat the people have a natural right to use weapons to defend themselves and their neighbours – both against Viking and Islamic raiders (if you have any problem with the latter example, my dear friends at Central Office, take it up with King Charles the Bald – not with me), and against him, the King, if he breaks his word, and breaks the “old rights” (natural justice) and tries to violate the liberty and property of his subjects.
A Roman Emperor would agree to NONE of this – there was no limit to the power of the state under the Roman Empire.
Imagine going up to a Roman Emperor and saying “you have no legal authority to do this Sir” – his reply might well have been “what an interesting point of view” before having you crucified or thrown to be eaten wild beasts.
“Of course” the Emperor could declare on religious matters, or take land, or insist that the population be unarmed and helpless before his will.
This is how the Roman Empire to the West that developed (very painfully – and with lots of false starts and missteps) after it fell.
And just as a Roman Emperor, even a highly intelligent Roman Emperor, would not have accepted the principles of the West – neither would President Theodore Roosevelt or President Woodrow Wilson (see the totalitarian dream “Philip Dru: Administrator” written by his “Other Self” Colonel House) – and nor would Peter the Great.
Sadly although the governments of the West and Mr Putin disagree on some things (mostly on social policy – “LGBTQ++++” and so on) they AGREE that the state is unlimited – that there is nothing that the state is not allowed to do (Mr Biden does not believe in the Bill of Rights – no more than Mr Putin does, and neither do other government leaders), and nothing that is outside the concern of the state.
“Everything for the state, nothing outside the state” (Mussolini) is the moto of the modern world, east and west, north and south.
The spirit of the West as described by this film has been dying for a very long time.
John – absolutely this sort of film would, just a generation ago, have been broadcast on mainstream television stations and shown in schools.
It is clearly inspired (as the makers of the films openly state) on such series as “Civilisation” by the late Kenneth Clark.
Today the young may be highly intelligent – but they, mostly, have no knowledge of, or affection for, the principles of the West. No more than Theodore Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson had – or, for that matter, Harold Wilson had.
The West has always had many enemies – what is different about the modern age, is that now (now that it has been dying for so long) the West has few real friends – few people who have any understanding of, or sympathy with, its basic principles.
Because the basic principles of the West are no longer taught.
For example, the centuries of conflict between the Hapsburgs and the Ottomans is still taught – but, if anything, it is the Ottoman Empire that is presented as the “good guys” because, supposedly, it was more religiously tolerant “egalitarian” and “anti racist” (which would have come as a surprise to the black slaves who were castrated by the Ottomans – and to the black mothers who had the brains of their babies smashed out before their eyes), the difference between a limited monarchy and a despotism is not taught.
Or, if it is taught, it is taught as a bad thing – the Hapsburg Emperors being limited by the selfish interests of the landed nobility (boo-hiss) whereas as the Ottoman Despotism (like modern governments) was free to do anything it wanted for “the good of the people”.
Indeed two images capture everything the modern “Woke” world hates.
The German mercenaries emerging from the dust of the collapsed section of wall at Vienna in 1519 – there they stood on the rubble, that handful of evil white-straight-males with their money bags (right by a certain physical organ – making it look rather bigger) cutting the attackers in half with their Great Swords and Pole Arms – the attacking forces being driven forward with whips by their Ottoman slave masters, till they decided that being cut in half was rather worse than being whipped and turned on their overseers – in a rout.
The Ottoman Army fled – pausing only to mutilate (I will not give the details of the mutilations – but if I say that Mr Biden would approve – then you can guess what they were) and kill the women and children it had taken prisoner in the campaign.
The other image or scene is also at Vienna – but in 1683.
The old King of Poland arriving at Vienna like King Theoden of Rohan arriving at Minas Tirith (this is no accident – as Tolkien knew the event well).
All hope seemed lost, the only thing left appeared to be to take one’s own life – to avoid the horrors that seemed certain, but then came horns blowing in the morning as the Polish cavalry charged down upon the Ottomans – with the old King personally leading the charge.
“Follow me!”
very excellent video, we need many more of these kinds of things. Looking forward to the next one. Unlike Paul Marks, I am not going to blithely assume what the makers of this do or do not assume about the west until I’ve seen the whole series.
That was well worth the time spent.
Thomas Fairfax – I did not “blithely assume”, I have watched their discussions (in relation to the series – how it was made and so on).
The series was made in response to the systematic attack on the West that has been made by the “Woke” (the Frankfurt School Marxists – and their fellow travellers who are NOT, strictly speaking, Marxists) in recent years – via the “Woke” control of the education system, media, and other institutions (including the vast corporations).
In their discussions the people involved in the series DO understand that not all was well long before the recent “Woke” attacks – but they do, to some extent, underestimate the length of time the West has been under attack and how much it has declined.
Of course, there is more than one person involved in the making of the series – and they do not all have the same opinions (I fully admit that).
The decline of the West, that it has occurred over a very long period of time, must be understood if there is to be any hope of reversing it.
Although, yes, the decline of the West has accelerated in recent years – indeed decline (the rise of the state, the decline of the arts, the decline of families and every other aspect of society) may indeed be turning into collapse – I do not deny that.
In the meantime whilst declining, the west has become fabulously wealthy, militarily dominant & technologically ever more advanced. Sure, we got problems but that’s a hell of a decline.