If I Were King of the Forest

 

Here are a few examples of how those in charge in the world today are screwing up:

1. Most importantly, just as so many in our culture are yearning for tradition and religious conviction, just as there is a general collapse in meaning leading to skyrocketing suicide, drug addiction, and mental illness, the powers that be in the Catholic Church are aggressively rejecting tradition, abandoning the field. We should be in a renaissance of faith, and the Vatican and the hierarchy seem to be doing whatever they can to prevent it. It makes no sense that mass is licit in any language except Latin, and in any number of liturgical forms is permitted—except the traditional form of the Latin mass. The Vatican has become the sworn enemy of tradition, when tradition is its raison d’etre and what the world now most especially needs and craves.

2. There is no coherent reason for Canada to be fighting a trade war with the US. There is no coherent reason Canada needs to be a political jurisdiction distinct from the United States. If the US wants us, we should be happy to join. If the US has demands in order to trade, we should turn the other cheek. The last thing we can afford to do is pick fights with the US, ten times our size and considerably more than ten times wealthier. This is suicidal.

3. The pursuit of mass immigration by Western governments is also suicidal. It is not just that the immigrants in such large numbers are likely to terminally change the cultures. It is not just that they cause the collapse of social cohesion and make life difficult for everyone. The initial premise for mass migration itself is folly. The claim is that an influx of new workers is needed to fund the retirements of older workers. At best, this only delays the problem and makes it larger—it is a Ponzi scheme. These new workers will retire in turn, and the taps will have to be opened wider until it all collapses horribly. Yet robotics seem likely soon to replace much human labour. The imported labour is likely itself to soon be unemployed and a burden on the state—if it is not, on balance, already.

4. Carbon taxes, subsidies for alternative energy, and such green measures make no sense, because the atmosphere knows no borders. All such measures in one jurisdiction simply drive industry to another, impoverishing us and worsening the environment due to greater transportation needs and worse environmental regulation. The solution, if there is one, is to allow market forces and engineering advances to develop “clean” energy sources that are cheaper than oil and gas. Only when the alternative sources are intrinsically cheaper can we expect world-wide compliance.

Catcher in the Rye

 

I have the privilege currently of teaching the novel Catcher in the Rye. A friend from college never recovered from reading it. He identified completely with Holden Caulfield. I can see how easy that is to do; many have.

For me, more the opposite; I was appalled by Caulfield. I would have cuffed him upside the head.

He shows no guilt for letting down his parents, his history teacher, his fencing teammates. He is perfectly amoral.

He does not credit Pency Prep with having good intentions, or his history teacher with good intentions, only with salving his own conscience. He shows no gratitude to his older brother who is looking after him, only seeing him as a sellout for writing for the movies.

He lies to his history teacher.

And all this in just the first four chapters.

Caulfield is right, of course, to see everyone else as a phony. But he fails to take the next step, of seeing that he is a phony too.

And we need to ask the next question: if all of this is phony, compared to what? What is real?

For Holden, it seems to be his own impulses. Therefore he is justified in not studying ancient Egypt; it does not interest him. Therefore he suddenly puts his roommate in a headlock while he is shaving. He simply felt like it. On impulse, he buys a hunting cap.

This is the worship of self: the path we have wandered down. We must “be our true selves,” not be “repressed,” “do our own thing.”

This is infantilism; this is narcissism.

Holden Caulfield needed to find religion.

I do not know, but I think Salinger, author, did. I like his later stories, which do involve religious themes. I wonder if the fact that so many took Holden Caulfield as a model horrified Salinger. Might it have been why he stopped publishing?

Or perhaps he stopped because he did not find religion; and therefore fell into a permanent depression like Holden Caulfield has.

 

Gloria Steinem Is Dead

I have not commented much on feminism. It is too dangerous. But there are two problems with modern North American women, influenced by feminism:

1. They see themselves as in competition with men, not in partnership.

2. In any competition with men, they must be allowed to win, otherwise they are being oppressed.

This makes any healthy male-female relationship impossible; and this collapse of the family makes a healthy society impossible.

Feminism, through abortion, has also now killed more people than all human wars combined; more than all former genocides combined. Feminism is causing global depopulation, and the collapse and disappearance of ancient nations. The crimes of feminism are directly comparable to the crimes for which Canaan and Carthage were destroyed.

New Hope for the Stupid

 The average person of only average intelligence. And half of us are below it.

This is an abiding problem. Stupidity causes great suffering, many ruined lives, many deaths. The folly of the world has always troubled me, and in my old age I have grown reconciled to the reality that this will never change. Stupid people are not smart enough to recognize wisdom when they hear it. Like the Duning-Kruger effect, if you are not intelligent, you lack the very mental equipment to recognize intelligence.

To get a sense of how much it matters, compare life in Japan, where average IQ is slightly higher than the world average, with life in Sub-Saharan Africa, where it is lower. Japan: 106.4. Somalia: 67.7. You can see the result in GDP, in general social order, in quality of life.

Or compare how Jewish Americans have fared since the Holocaust, with how African Americans have fared since the Civil Rights Act, not to mention since slavery. The Jews came from a lower base line, attempted genocide, and rose quickly to a position of great wealth and social prominence. African-Americans are still in deficit. People avoid saying so, but the most probable reason is IQ.

Even without formal democracy, unfortunately, everything devolves towards the mean. This world is built for average people: there are so many of them.

It occurs to me that we may actually be about to break through this barrier, thanks to AI. Experts predict that within a few years, machine intelligence will greatly outpace human intelligence. Surely even stupid people are smart enough to take advantage of such advice? Even if they don’t understand it. They might resist listening to smarter people, out of envy and pride—the perennial cause of anti-semitism. But if the average person is getting the advice from their smartphone, this may not apply.  

At least there is hope. The world might quickly become better, and everyone’s life more livable.

Canadian Guilt

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that Canadians are misguided in feeling any guilt over slavery or the Indian residential schools.

Slavery was never recognized in Canada. In the lower 13 colonies, laws had to be passed permitting the institution. Common law does not recognize the right to own another person. In Canada, as in the UK, there were no such laws. This means slavery was, by default, always illegal. There was no reason or need to pass any specific law prohibiting it. Although Upper Canada, aka Ontario, did so in 1793.

All a supposed slave needed to do in Canada, was to run away. The government and the authorities would not support the slaveowner in any attempt to recover his property. If he went to court, the court would declare the enslaved man free. 

There was slavery, granted, everywhere else in the world. But not here, except among the “First Nations” beyond the reach of the law.

I also believe Canadians have nothing to apologize for regarding the Indian residential schools. There has even been an attempt to make that statement illegal and punishable by up to two years in prison. There would be no need were it not a true statement. I have read the Truth and Reconciliation Report. Despite it being their mandate to dig up all the possible dirt on the residential schools, they found nothing. And there were no mass graves.

No doubt there were some predatory individuals in the schools, as there are in any school. But the structure of the residential schools was designed to reduce this risk to a minimum. No doubt some children died in their care. Children often died young a century ago. No doubt some schools were short of funds, and cut corners. As happens with bureaucracies everywhere. The bottom line remains: the intention to educate was a noble and a charitable intention, and one called for by treaty and by the First Nation themselves. If getting educated is an attack on one’s culture, what does that say about your culture?

You may argue that the schools suppressed the native languages. After all, they forced everyone to speak English or French.

Just like any language school today. Immersion is the best way to learn a language.

What is the purpose of language? To communicate. On average, an aboriginal language in Canada has about one thousand speakers—and, having no written form, no literature. One thousand people with whom you can communicate. Compared to English the practical value of knowing that language is infinitesimal. Why spend class time on it, especially since, arriving at the age of six or above, the student is already fluent in it, more fluent than the teacher.

These schools took in students from a variety of tribes or “nations.” The students themselves could not communicate to one another in any language other than English or French.

Were the schools designed to suppress Indian culture and force assimilation to the mainstream? Perhaps they should have been, but they were not. Just the opposite. Were assimilation the intent, there would have been no Indian schools—the children would have been sent to the regular provincial schools with everyone else. Residential schools preserved some sort of Indian separateness, cultural distinctness. They trained for skills thought useful for a life on the reserve, not for success in the broader society.

Canadians will need to look harder for something to feel bad about. Might I suggest in this regard, for more suitable contemplation, our chronic anti-Americanism? Our turning away from religion? Our unrestricted abortion, and now euthanasia? Our arrogance on the world stage?

The Broad and Level Synodal Way

 

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"Mars Attacks" Is True

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