AMA, Weekly Open Thread and Links #1

Mencken on Bad housewife Cooks, McGenics, WASPS...

It’s time for a New Tradition;

A weekly open thread, short comments and link post.

Once a week I’ll be posting blog updates, short links and comments on interesting things I noticed which will generally be at least somewhat related to the theme of this publication. These won’t always be recent, in fact they’ll often be quite old. Feel free to comment on these, on any of my posts, ask me anything or talk amongst yourselves here.

Remember you can comment on anything you want, or ask me about anything.

— LINKS —

1) Have American women always been Terrible chefs?:

I recently discovered that H.L Mencken wrote a book in defense of women. It’s simultaneously a sexist masterpiece in the art of noticing, and, in the art of explaining away everything one notices as not having the implications it does. I found his passage on the American housewife’s culinary skills particularly amusing. Remember, he’s writing this in 1918.

“The American dinner-table, in truth, becomes a monument to the defective technic of the American housewife. The guest who respects his oesophagus, invited to feed upon its discordant and ill-prepared victuals, evades the experience as long and as often as he can, and resigns himself to it as he might resign himself to being shaved by a paralytic. Nowhere else in the world have women more leisure and freedom to improve their minds, and nowhere else do they show a higher level of intelligence, or take part more effectively in affairs of the first importance. But nowhere else is there worse cooking in the home, or a more inept handling of the whole domestic economy, or a larger dependence upon the aid of external substitutes, by men provided, for the skill that is wanting where it theoretically exists.” - H.L Mencken - In Defense of Women (Project Gutenberg)

2) The Death of The WASP

Deep Left Analysis writes about the slow but brutal replacement of the WASPS and wonders about what the American ruling class will look like next. Because he is well him, the article includes almost bizarre introductions like.

“The Directorium was published around 1320, and contains all the elements of European colonialism and the Pan-European ideal: a command economy, industrial policy, naval supremacy, the exploitation of resources, and a concept of the “White Man’s Burden” to conquer and civilize the world.”

On a sidenote, DLA actually appears to be genuine about being on The Left. But what an odd Left it is!

His ideology is best described I think by his Article on what he calls McGenics.

3) Leftism as MCGenics?

DLA thinks Cultural Leftism is good because by encouraging them to behave according to their nature it’ll wipe out… deviant-dysgenic scum; while the Christian Right or any soft Right Wing measures will keep them in the gene pool temporarily and cause inescapable deterioration. I think he’s wrong to be so optimistic. Cultural Leftism may have this effect on the masses, but it also selects for the victory of an elite that is completely devoid of dedication to principle - a creature with hypocritic immunity-if it were. The very opposite of British MPs dying disproportionately in WW1. A kind of creature so nasty that I think I’ll roll my chances on overthrowing the current order and trying Right Wing Eugenics instead.

Still I think this is a banger quote:

The conservative Christian, walking in the forest, comes upon a dead corpse. This dead body, rotting and decaying, disgusts him. He picks it up, brings it to the mortuary, and embalms and fortifies it with formaldehyde into a perfectly preserved mummy. He prides himself on saving the corpse from the feast of maggots and worms. But the conservative Christian is fighting the law of nature, and making humanity into a doll-house of corpses, meant for display with no higher purpose.

4) C.S Lewis Steelmans Christian love for the Enemy:

On page 62 (text), 70pdf of Mere Christianity.

““Imagine somebody will say, "Well, if one is allowed to condemn the enemy's acts, and punish him, and kill him, what difference is left between Christian morality and the ordinary view?" ll the difference in the world. Remember, we Christians think man lives for ever. Therefore, what really matters is those little marks or twists on the central, inside part of the soul which are going to turn it, in the long run, into a heavenly or a hellish creature. We may kill if necessary, but we must not hate and enjoy hating. We may punish if necessary, but we must not enjoy it. n other words, something inside us, the feeling of resentment, the feeling that wants to get one's own back, must be simply killed.””

This is all compelling to a believer I suppose.

And if a society is filled with too many of the kind of people who simply refuse to think of themselves as acting out of anger or hate; it seems like it might temporarily align them with the basic necessities of civilization.

“No I’m not acting out of hatred! I’m praying for his soul after-all”

Still I wonder whether there is a psychological and effectiveness cost to suppressing the hateful impulse that makes it far easier for evil to triumph.

5) Seikilos as a Round

Michael Levy who has long been challenging Academic myths on the development of musical harmony; reimagines the song of Seikilos as a round.

Mid if true.

—UPDATES—

I’m on X as FUTURIST RIGHT.

Have been for a while but am picking up a little bit more steam these days and will be using it more regularly, mainly to market or research or engage in spontaneous feuds with people far larger than me in which they reveal interesting things about their moral values.

This is not yet a massive blog. Or A large X account.

But I think I’ve done some useful things on both and am honored by your support.

See my Scott Alexander Rotherham exchange, if you didn’t catch my earlier post on it.

Comment Away!

Keep it civilized.