Posted on 05/29/2023 2:05:10 PM PDT by ChessExpert
Modernism is a reactionary culture, a fact that I demonstrated by pointing in detail to the works of a dozen leading Modernist figures including T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Pablo Picasso, and others. In all of these writers and artists, there was a similar rejection of all that is truly modern: a democratic capitalist society in which ordinary citizens seek freedom and opportunity for themselves and their families, including economic, religious, and political liberty.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Anyone with a brain would understand that.
God does not exist—religion in science is an absurdity, in practice an immorality and in men a disease. …Looks a lot like the political (and social) left, yes? All from when Mussolini was in power as a fascist.
— Mussolini, 1924
Fascism establishes the real equality of individuals before the nation… the object of the regime in the economic field is to ensure higher social justice for the whole of the Italian people… What does social justice mean? It means work guaranteed, fair wages, decent homes; it means the possibility of continuous evolution and improvement. Nor is this enough. It means that the workers must enter more and more intimately into the productive process and share its necessary discipline… As the past century was the century of capitalist power, the twentieth century is the century of power and glory of labor.
— Mussolini, 1935
When the war is over, in the world’s social revolution that will be followed by a more equitable distribution of the earth’s riches, due account must be kept of the sacrifices and of the discipline maintained by the Italian workers. The Fascist revolution will make another decisive step to shorten social distances. …
— Mussolini, 1941
bkmk
Roughly one out of 3 people are your enenmy.
Have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
Not sure if this article is trying to remove T. S. Elliot from conservative ranks but it should not happen.
“The world is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time; so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and to save the world from suicide.”
T.S. Eliot, Christianity and Culture
the author doesn’t know anything about Eliot.
Eliot is a true synthesis of the greatest of our traditions and modernity (esp in his poetry). He didn’t really care about politics; in fact he despised it. A completely different character than Pound.
Eliot felt deeply the loss of a common European Christian culture. And that pain and his contemplation of all of that is set forth in his poetry.
Russell Kirk wrote a very fine biography of Eliot. Anyone interested should read it.
At least don’t turn your back on anyone.
Elliot was not the main focus of the article.
I suspect it’s not all or nothing about Elliot any more than it is about Jefferson or Lincoln. FDR on the other hand ...
Eliot is profoundly and deeply and wonderfully civilization affirming, conservative, traditional, etc...whatever good adjectives you want to apply to apply to him.
To criticize Eliot at all in this way is to cut off one of the most important thinkers/creators of culture in the 20th century....which was of course an especially horrific time.
He’s different from Lewis. But just as important.
Distaste with, dissent from, and reaction against the crudity and shallowness of modern culture is a common feature of conservative and traditionalist thought. It can easily be compatible with pro-free market and pro-capitalist political views.
I should have excerpted differently!
Fascism began when certain socialists became disillusioned that the Revolution could or would happen. They woke up from Marx’s fairy tales but still wanted what Marx promised. Whet the socialists may call them killing the landlord’s butts was just them moderating in hopes of getting more of the well heeled chattering classes on board and with that get some of the goodies.
Fascism is the Left. It always shared the same underlying assumptions. It still does even though the real fascists, all still Leftists, want to call anyone they disagree with fascists.
Fascism compares with Gramsci’s efforts, for he too gave up on Marx’s proletariat and changed his focus onto the commies in the chattering classes, who Stalin called useful idiots, hoping for the top down crap we are presently fighting.
Well Fascists who joined The Communist Party, that is.
Kissing the landlords butts ... darn typos
I'm partial to Eliot's Four Quartets. Absolutely brilliant!
The introductory paragraph:
“During a seminar on Modernism, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, I delivered a presentation linking modernist ideas with fascism; communism; and other anti-democratic, authoritarian political systems. My presentation was not well received by the seminar’s director, a left-wing professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. What he especially objected to was my evidence that Modernism is an inherently reactionary, anti-modern cultural movement and that deathly figures such as Hitler and Mao were modernists in their cultural tendencies.”
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