Posted on 07/30/2020 3:36:06 AM PDT by Kaslin
Cultural suicide used to be a popular diagnosis of why things suddenly just quit.
Historians such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee cited social cannibalism to explain why once-successful states, institutions, and cultures simply died off.
Their common explanation was that the arrogance of success ensures lethal consequences. Once elites became pampered and arrogant, they feel exempt from their ancestors' respect for moral and spiritual laws like thrift, moderation, and transcendence.
Take professional sports. Over the last century, professional football, basketball and baseball were racially integrated and adopted a uniform code of patriotic observance. The three leagues offered fans a pleasant respite from daily barroom politics. As a result, by the 21st century, the NFL, NBA and MLB had become global multibillion-dollar enterprises.
Then hubris ensued.
The owners, coaches and players weren't always racially diverse. But that inconvenient truth did not stop the leagues from hectoring their fans about social activism — even as they no longer honored common patriotic rituals.
All three leagues have suffered terribly during the viral lockdown, as American life mysteriously went on without them. And they have almost ensured that they won't fully recover when the quarantine ends. Many of their often-pampered multimillionaire players refuse to honor the national anthem. In the NFL they now will broadcast their politics on their helmets. They will virtue-signal their moral superiority to increasingly turned-off fans, as if to ensure that their sources of support flee.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
I’ve been hearing a lot about Spengler lately, don’t know much about him to be honest. May need to look into him.
I am unfamiliar with him and also the other guy.
VDH’s analysis is spot on.
I didn’t know he is a classicist. Most of my old classics faculty are a bunch of raving, leftist lunies. How has he managed?
That was a great comment piece; it’s worth the read.
Thanks for posting it! VDH always has something interesting and insightful to say.
My guess is that he’s more likely an Aristotelian than a Platonist.
All three leagues have suffered terribly during the viral lockdown,and will suffer more because of thier pandering choices
Read Oswald Spengler’s “Decline Of The West.” It was written by him during The Great War even as he saw his beloved Germany collapse around him. He correctly predicted the ensuing unravelling of western civilization and its modes of decline that has occurred over the past hundred years. It was the original apocalyptic porn before it was cool. In fact, Spengler made it cool.
Spengler is famous for his statement “Optimism Is Cowardice” which is just about the most cynical assessment of the future as one could have.
[”My guess is that he’s more likely an Aristotelian than a Platonist.”]
He’s more an empiricist than an idealist?
I thought this short analysis helpful.
I can appreciate this final paragraph.
According to Aristotle, states may be classified according to the number of their rulers and the interests in which they govern. Rule by one person in the interest of all is monarchy; rule by one person in his own interest is tyranny. Rule by a minority in the interest of all is aristocracy; rule by a minority in the interest of itself is oligarchy. Rule by a majority in the interest of all is “polity”; rule by a majority in its own interest—i.e., mob rule—is “democracy.” In theory, the best form of government is monarchy, and the next best is aristocracy. However, because monarchy and aristocracy frequently devolve into tyranny and oligarchy, respectively, in practice the best form is polity.
Plato’s Republic would be a wicked, tyrannical oligarchy.
bump
Just stop playing the national anthem before games. It just gives these jerks the opportunity to parade their stupidity. It stops people from booing these dolts, because most people wish to remain silent and respectful during the anthem. If the anthem were not played, then what they do to signal their wokeness? If they kneeled in silence, that would give fans (if there are any) the chance to voice their displeasure.
Boycotting Marxists works? Who knew, right?
PING!
They’re putting social justice slogans on their uniforms. So, I guess we can skip the national anthem and also only do audio broadcasts as long as the commentators promise to not describe all the political messages.
At least then fans could boo them. During the playing of the national anthem, most people remain quiet.
I’ve given up on sports altogether. I’m a 4th generation STL Cards fan and I won’t watch any of their games, if they even play. I’m still holding out hope for college football, but if they pull this crap, I’m done.
They also feel immune to leadership, taking the ideals of freedom a bit too far. I see an unnatural reaction to leaders lately. Not every leader is a fascist. Usually, they're the best we got, and always they're all we got.
Combined with oikophobia--the hatred of the familiar, or the desire to always move on to what is novel--this is a dangerous trend. It's loved by anyone trying to sell anything new but has crept into our politics.
Our system is based on rule of law, and elected leadership is part of that law.
It's not all political opposition. When people turn on the ones they themselves voted for, we're in cuckoo territory.
There is an Arthur Herman book, “The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization”
Its s good read.
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