And I admit that when I first read his post, Cuisine and Symbolism, I thought to myself "boy, he's really stretching it." Boy was I wrong! I don't have an explanation for why that was my attitude after a first reading of the entry, but I can tell you that after having read it again it's definately not my attitude now.
In a comment to the post I mentioned that I'm bothered by the growing number of "European looking, squared off organ donors" that I'm seeing on American highways these days. But why does this bother me? If this is what some people want to drive, it's no skin off my nose is it? Maybe it's that deep down I understand that there's a fundamental change (not for the good) taking place in this country, and I'm associating the tendency toward this aesthetically ugly, cheap, foreign looking vehicle, with the degradation of our values and mores, which it seems to me have become themselves cheap and ugly and foreign.
Anyway, do be sure to read John's post. And do not neglect to read the comments, which are very good. And if you have a mind to, see if you can come up with a term to replace "emty-shellism." John suggests "vacuism," but for some reason that I can't quite put a finger on, I don't think it works. I think what might be required is to come to some sort of an agreement on what constitutes the West's "fundamental nature." I know there's a school of thought out there that says the fundamental nature of the West is to continually improve or get better, i.e., evolve (this is the school of thought that says that the U.S. Constitution is a "living, breathing document" and whatnot). Thus, the addition of certain ingredients which were formerly incompatible with the West (due to its comparably primitive evolution) are now become compatible through chance occurance and random mutations. Proof positive that the West's fundamental nature (which can't be changed, only adjusted in scope) is indeed to improve or get better, and that any resistance to it is not only wrong, but futile. Or something like that.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
I have to hand it to John Savage
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3 comments:
Terry, thanks for the compliment. I think you are fundamentally on the right side here, with your wariness about adding any foreign ingredients. This is a time of threat and we should be responding with heightened awareness, which is something that's not happening.
I suppose I will start using "vacuism" unless anyone else improves on it. I hope someone will.
Terry, you have to see this:
"Dalrymple's comments show more than ever his vacuity that I've noted for years. I've always said, "He's so big on gloom and doom, he positively wallows in a sense of impending civilizational disaster--but what does HE believe in?" And it turns out: not much of anything. Restaurants and ethnic diversity. [emphasis added] The prophet of gloom is ready to throw aside his nation for conversation with cultivated foreigners. He's an empty suit--as ALL neocons are."
The ethnic restaurant is the Trojan horse of Western demise.
John, the compliment was well deserved, but you're welcome.
To paraphrase a scripture verse, "the invisible things of the world (around us) are made plain by the visible." I had never thought to apply that scripture in this way before I read your article and the discussion that ensued, though I have said many times that what we see on the surface gives us some indication of what lies beneath. But it fits, don't ya think?
Re vacuism: Is there anybody who truly believes in his heart of hearts that America is or ever was an empty shell? It's hard for me to believe that people are (really) that ignorant and foolish.
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