Editor-in-Chief
RSS Feeds
Authors
- Kerry Bolton
- Jonathan Bowden
- Buttercup Dew
- Collin Cleary
- Jef Costello
- F. Roger Devlin
- Julius Evola
- Gregory Hood
- Juleigh Howard-Hobson
- Greg Johnson
- Jason Jorjani
- Ward Kendall
- Anthony M. Ludovici
- Trevor Lynch
- H. L. Mencken
- J. A. Nicholl
- Andy Nowicki
- James J. O'Meara
- Michael O'Meara
- Christopher Pankhurst
- Tito Perdue
- Michael Polignano
- Spencer J. Quinn
- Savitri Devi
- Fenek Solère
- Irmin Vinson
- Leo Yankevich
- Francis Parker Yockey
Archives
- January 2021 (40)
- December 2020 (90)
- November 2020 (87)
- October 2020 (131)
- September 2020 (82)
- August 2020 (81)
- July 2020 (88)
- June 2020 (92)
- May 2020 (83)
- April 2020 (82)
- March 2020 (82)
- February 2020 (75)
- January 2020 (80)
- December 2019 (91)
- November 2019 (91)
- October 2019 (89)
- September 2019 (70)
- August 2019 (76)
- July 2019 (74)
- June 2019 (61)
- May 2019 (69)
- April 2019 (72)
- March 2019 (63)
- February 2019 (54)
- January 2019 (78)
- December 2018 (64)
- November 2018 (63)
- October 2018 (70)
- September 2018 (61)
- August 2018 (73)
- July 2018 (58)
- June 2018 (58)
- May 2018 (69)
- April 2018 (60)
- March 2018 (84)
- February 2018 (54)
- January 2018 (76)
- December 2017 (66)
- November 2017 (84)
- October 2017 (79)
- September 2017 (73)
- August 2017 (72)
- July 2017 (61)
- June 2017 (56)
- May 2017 (56)
- April 2017 (54)
- March 2017 (65)
- February 2017 (57)
- January 2017 (59)
- December 2016 (52)
- November 2016 (68)
- October 2016 (61)
- September 2016 (62)
- August 2016 (51)
- July 2016 (63)
- June 2016 (75)
- May 2016 (63)
- April 2016 (65)
- March 2016 (75)
- February 2016 (82)
- January 2016 (82)
- December 2015 (94)
- November 2015 (97)
- October 2015 (75)
- September 2015 (77)
- August 2015 (73)
- July 2015 (66)
- June 2015 (69)
- May 2015 (64)
- April 2015 (72)
- March 2015 (66)
- February 2015 (63)
- January 2015 (81)
- December 2014 (61)
- November 2014 (64)
- October 2014 (79)
- September 2014 (60)
- August 2014 (53)
- July 2014 (72)
- June 2014 (53)
- May 2014 (43)
- April 2014 (51)
- March 2014 (50)
- February 2014 (55)
- January 2014 (64)
- December 2013 (59)
- November 2013 (71)
- October 2013 (64)
- September 2013 (60)
- August 2013 (64)
- July 2013 (51)
- June 2013 (69)
- May 2013 (74)
- April 2013 (76)
- March 2013 (66)
- February 2013 (65)
- January 2013 (78)
- December 2012 (64)
- November 2012 (87)
- October 2012 (76)
- September 2012 (72)
- August 2012 (92)
- July 2012 (71)
- June 2012 (77)
- May 2012 (76)
- April 2012 (78)
- March 2012 (69)
- February 2012 (56)
- January 2012 (72)
- December 2011 (69)
- November 2011 (67)
- October 2011 (98)
- September 2011 (61)
- August 2011 (77)
- July 2011 (67)
- June 2011 (60)
- May 2011 (63)
- April 2011 (66)
- March 2011 (65)
- February 2011 (65)
- January 2011 (84)
- December 2010 (87)
- November 2010 (74)
- October 2010 (78)
- September 2010 (75)
- August 2010 (57)
- July 2010 (71)
- June 2010 (36)
Online texts
- Departments
- Contemporary Authors
- Beau Albrecht
- Michael Bell
- Alain de Benoist
- Kerry Bolton
- Jonathan Bowden
- Buttercup Dew
- Collin Cleary
- Giles Corey
- Jef Costello
- Morris V. de Camp
- F. Roger Devlin
- Bain Dewitt
- Jack Donovan
- Ricardo Duchesne
- Émile Durand
- Guillaume Durocher
- Mark Dyal
- Guillaume Faye
- Fullmoon Ancestry
- Jim Goad
- Tom Goodrich
- Alex Graham
- Andrew Hamilton
- Robert Hampton
- Huntley Haverstock
- Derek Hawthorne
- Gregory Hood
- Juleigh Howard-Hobson
- Richard Houck
- Nicholas R. Jeelvy
- Greg Johnson
- Ruuben Kaalep
- Julian Langness
- Travis LeBlanc
- Patrick Le Brun
- Trevor Lynch
- Kevin MacDonald
- G. A. Malvicini
- John Michael McCloughlin
- Margot Metroland
- Millennial Woes
- John Morgan
- James J. O'Meara
- Michael O'Meara
- Christopher Pankhurst
- Michael Polignano
- J. J. Przybylski
- Spencer J. Quinn
- Quintilian
- Edouard Rix
- C. B. Robertson
- C. F. Robinson
- Hervé Ryssen
- Kathryn S.
- Alan Smithee
- Ann Sterzinger
- Robert Steuckers
- Tomislav Sunić
- Donald Thoresen
- Marian Van Court
- Dominique Venner
- Irmin Vinson
- Michael Walker
- Scott Weisswald
- Leo Yankevich
- Classic Authors
- Maurice Bardèche
- Julius Evola
- Ernst Jünger
- D. H. Lawrence
- Charles Lindbergh
- Jack London
- H. P. Lovecraft
- Anthony M. Ludovici
- Sir Oswald Mosley
- National Vanguard
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Revilo Oliver
- William Pierce
- Ezra Pound
- Saint-Loup
- Savitri Devi
- Carl Schmitt
- Miguel Serrano
- Oswald Spengler
- P. R. Stephensen
- Jean Thiriart
- John Tyndall
- Francis Parker Yockey
Recent Comments
- Donald Thoresen on We Won
- Middle Class Twit on A Time for Intermarium
- Lord Luter on A Time for Intermarium
- John Carter on Remembering Mr. Gurdjieff (January 13, 1866/1872/1877–October 24, 1949)
- Autobot on The Melanincompoop Theory
- crazyduck on A Time for Intermarium
- Taylor McClain on The Melanincompoop Theory
- Grey Wolf on A Time for Intermarium
- Autobot on When Your Child Dies for a Cause
- Schneiderich on A Time for Intermarium
- Elenka on When Your Child Dies for a Cause
- Byzantium on When Your Child Dies for a Cause
- Bookai on A Time for Intermarium
- JW on When Your Child Dies for a Cause
- Frank Kembart on Remembering Mr. Gurdjieff (January 13, 1866/1872/1877–October 24, 1949)
“They’re All Rotten!”
Translated by Greg Johnson
This exclamation is probably a bit simplistic, but it sums up the feeling of revulsion spreading today throughout the fair country of France. When taxes were being raised to benefit various electoral constituencies, explosive revelations about the corruption of the minister in charge forced back the increase. This lovely scandal added to the rising anger of a large segment of the public against a clear intent to destroy them, as evidenced by mass immigration policy or the legalization of gay marriage.
Corruption and embezzlement by people in power, the politicians or officials of a bloated administration, is nothing new. Whole libraries have been devoted to the scandals of the successive republics. However, the Fifth Republic has broken all records since it was founded by General de Gaulle, a man of integrity who loved to be surrounded by rogues. It is not just that the temptations became more numerous, fueled by new financial powers granted to elected officials and huge windfalls to administrations, unions, and associations for this or that. No, there was something else.
The reasons for public corruption are manifold. Some are historical. I happen to remember that in the purge trials in the High Court, after 1945, against the ministers of the French State, otherwise known as the Vichy regime, it was impossible to identify a single case of enrichment through fraud or corruption, despite the strenuous efforts of investigators.[1] The men who held power then were certainly criticized in many ways, but, in general, they were imbued with a sense of almost military duty to their country trapped in a situation of extreme distress. No doubt they also knew they were being watched by the large surveillance corps established by the State. The idea of duty then evaporated in many of their successors, who without doubt profited from the real or supposed dangers they faced during the war years.
But, since I wish to invoke the mindset, i.e. the “representations” that we all know exist and determine our behavior, we must surely dig deeper.
Europe since earliest antiquity has always been ruled by the idea that each individual is inseparable from his community, clan, tribe, people, city, empire, to which he is linked by a bond more sacred than life itself. This unquestioned belief, of which the Iliad offers the oldest and most poetic expression, took various forms. Think of the worship of ancestors for whom the city owed its existence, or the loyalty to the prince who was its visible expression.
The first threat was introduced by the individualism of early Christianity. The idea of a personal god emancipated men from the hitherto unquestioned authority of ethnic gods of the city. Yet the Church itself reimposed the idea that the individual will could not order things as it pleased.
Yet the seed of a spiritual revolution had been sown. It reappeared unexpectedly in the religious individualism of the Reformation. In the following century, the rationalist idea of absolute individualism was developed forcefully by Descartes (“I think, therefore, I am”). The philosopher also made central the biblical idea of man as the master and possessor of nature. No doubt, in Cartesian thought, man was subject to the laws of God, but God set a very bad example. Unlike the ancient gods, He was not dependent on a natural order anterior and superior to him. He was the single all-powerful and arbitrary creator of all things, of life and nature itself, according to His sole discretion. If this God was a creator free of all limits, then why not man, who is made his image, as well?
Set in motion by the scientific revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries, this idea has no known limits. In it lies what we call “modernity.” This idea assumes that man is his own creator and he can recreate the world as he pleases. There is no other principle than the will and pleasure of each individual. Consequently, the legitimacy of a society no longer depends on its compliance with the eternal laws of the ethnos. It depends only on the momentary consent of individual wills. In other words, society is legitimate only as a contract resulting from a free agreement between parties who are pursuing their own advantage.[2]
If self-interest is the sole basis of the social compact, there is nothing to prevent us from satisfying our interests and appetites, including by filling our pockets if the opportunity is offered by our position. All the more so, given that market society, through advertising, tells us that we are obligated to enjoy ourselves, indeed, that we exist only to enjoy ourselves.
Still, despite this individualistic and materialistic logic, we have long maintained communal ties of birth and fatherland and all the obligations these imply. These ties have been progressively destroyed across Europe in the decades following World War II, while the triumphant consumer society arrived from the United States. Like other European countries, France has gradually ceased to be a nation (based on nationality, common birth) to become an aggregate of individuals united by their pleasures or the ideas they have of their interests. The former obligation to “serve” has been replaced by the general temptation to “serve oneself.” This is the logical consequence of the principle that founds society solely on human rights, thus on each individual’s interests.
And now, before our eyes, this repulsive logic faces a revolt from the depths. We are witnessing the unexpected awakening of all those who, through atavistic reflexes, feel deep down that unquestionable ancestry is what make a clan, a people, or a nation.
Notes
1. See my Histoire de la Collaboration [History of the Collaboration] (Paris: Pygmalion, 2002).
2. Rousseau understood that this was the fault of the social contract. He sought to remedy it by justifying the use of force to compel the reluctant to submit to a problematic “general will.”
Source: http://www.dominiquevenner.fr/2013/04/tous-pourris/