Posted on 02/27/2002 8:04:51 PM PST by GeronL
Thank you for treating us to this piece!
This is the sort of thing, which more people SHOULD be reading and responding to, as opposed to things like : what's your favorite 80's rock band, your favorite movie line, why everyone but people who live below the Mason - Dixon line are horrid and shouldn't be allowed to live, and the like.
Rousseau is the patron saint of Third Worldism
No kidding. The Rousseauian "Cult of the Primitive" has generated more human misery in the last 200 years of "civilization" than the previous 6000 years of barbarism. To wit: Rousseau begat the French Revolution, which begat Marx and Engels, which begat world communism, which begat over 100 million dead in the 20th century alone. The lure of "tribalism" is not some esoteric, academic malady -- it has serious, real world consequences.
BTW, the book mentioned in passing above, Paul Johnson's Intellectuals, is to be highly recommended!
Man without technology isn't a noble savage: he's a dead, naked, and hairless ape.
Having had to live through the stupid Hippy " BACK TO NATURE " and the elevation of the primative stuff, I can tell you that that IS exactly what led to the " diversty junk of today ... same crowd; just as WRONG today, as they were back then.
Courtesy of the Marine Corps, I often lived at one with nature.
The concept is vastly overrated.
“the enchanting music of departure.”
“designer tribalism.”
Compassion ceases if there is nothing but compassion, and revulsion turns to insensitivity. Our “soft pity,” as Stefan Zweig calls it, is stimulated, because guilt is a convenient substitute for action where action is impossible. Without the power to do anything, sensitivity becomes our main aim, the aim is not so much to do anything, as to be judged.
Too bad he didn't mention Franz Boas who was responsible for the advancement of this 'all civilizations are good' nonsense.
I found this particularly outrageous:
In Australia, policies inspired by the Culture Cult have brought the illiterization of thousands of Aborigines whose grandparents could read and write.
I also agree completely, with your post.
Great reply ! Yes, a dead, naked ape, indeed.
Yes, it's one of the best. Also check out http://www.aldaily.com/ which highlights at least three new links daily. It's not entirely conservative but they've featured New Criterion articles more than once.
I now see that you did. As they say, great minds ....
The Australian anthropologist Roger Sandall does not mention The Tears of the White Man in The Culture Cult, his [1] new collection of essays. But his discussion is everywhere informed by the same spirit of salutary impatience. What Bruckner criticizes as Third Worldism, Sandall castigates as “romantic primitivism” and (marvelous phrase) “designer tribalism.” What is romantic primitivism? In the words of Arthur O. Lovejoy and George Boas, it is “the unending revolt of the civilized against civilization.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.