The South did not become industrialized; she did not repair the damage to her old establishment, either, and it was in part because she did not try hard enough. Hers is the case to cite when we would show how the good life depends on an adequate pioneering, and how the pioneering energy must be kept ready for call when the establishment needs overhauling. The Southern tradition came to look rather pitiable in its persistence when the twentieth century had arrived, for the establishment was quite depreciated. Unregenerate Southerners were trying to live the good life on shabby equipment, and they were grotesque in their effort to make an art out of living when they were not decently making the living. In the country districts great numbers of these broken-down Southerners are still to be seen in patched blue-jeans sitting on ancestral fences, shotguns across their laps and hound-dogs at their feet, surveying their unkempt acres while they comment shrewdly on the ways of God. It is their defect that they have been driven a too easy, an unmanly bargain with nature, and that their aestheticism is based on insufficient labor.
But there is something heroic, and there may prove yet something very valuable to the Union, in their extreme attachment to a certain theory of life. They have kept up a faith which was on the point of perishing from the continent.
Of course it was only after the Civil War that the North and the South came to stand in polar opposition to each other. Immediately after Appomattox it was impossible for the South to resume even that give-and-take of ideas which had marked her ante-bellum relations with the North. She was offered such terms that acquiescence would have been abject. She retired within her borders in rage and held minimum of commerce with the enemy. Persecution intensified her tradition, and made the South more solid and more Southern in the year 1875, or thereabouts, than ever before. When the oppression was left off, naturally her guard relaxed. But though the period of persecution had not been long, nevertheless the Southern tradition found itself then the less capable of uniting gradually with the life of the Union; for that life in the meantime had been moving on in an opposite direction. The American progressive principle was like a ball rolling down the hill with an increasing momentum, and by 1890 or 1900 it was clear to any intelligent Southerner that it was a principle of boundless aggression against nature which could hardly offer much to a society devoted to the arts of peace.
But to keep on living shabbily on an insufficient patrimony is to decline, both physically and spiritually. The South declined.
John Crowe Ransom, “Reconstructed But Unregenerate”
I find Ransom’s addition to I’ll Take My Stand to be the most predictive and insightful of the Southern metaculture, as compared to the other wonderful entries in the book. I highly recommend our readers reserve a copy before it’s either purged from the public record or mutilated with increasingly anti-Southern, hyper-progressive introductions, forwards, and edits.
There is a great deal to digest from this snippet from Ransom’s chapter in the book. Providing commentary on the entire piece would result in several lengthy articles. But, the crux of today’s entry, both my meager analysis as well as Ransom’s, is the massive cultural and institutional failure on behalf of the South to look forward in its own success. A nation in decline always inspects inward, either to quickly destroy itself or wallow in its own pity. Neither widespread self-flagellation or embracing dysfunctional melancholia, misdiagnosed as peculiar customs and traditions, are the hallmarks of an emergent nation. And, the South has historically been hostage to her own inflicted paralysis. Today, she has moved from the Reconstructed and neutered “New South” and is now actively being subjugated via internal and external immigration, along with a multitude of various punitive measures from the American Empire.
Ultimately, inaction is immobility and stasis. The South cannot “Rise Again” if she is fully, and solely, obsessed with her own history, albeit a beautiful and tragic one. Replaying (or roleplaying) defeats on the battlefield does not equate to a positive, forward-thinking future. A lost cause is still a defeat; although, it is our charge to remain good stewards to the memory of our vanquished ancestors. The Romans were not warmly nostalgic over their defeat at the Battle of Cannae, their course was to ensure it was never repeated; this is unlike Dixie’s mind, where her sons safely reenact lost battles for independence and mutter dismissive regrets.
Ransom’s charge against the downtrodden, country bumpkin Southerner is not without merit. All one needs to do is visit a social media page, something likely misspelled and along the lines of “Rednecks Kountrywide” and “Country Folks 4 ‘Merica,” or patron your local county fair to witness the sad degradation of our people. While their lifestyle, or appearance of it, is genuine by some measure, especially when compared to the various sub-cultures within Heritage America, it is largely not something to be encouraged and canonized. A “country” accent does not make one a Southerner. In addition, sleeveless, camouflage shirts and faded blue-jeans do not make one the heir of the lost Confederacy. In fact, most of those valiant, long-dead men would be rather disdainful toward their modern posterity’s aestheticism, egregious warts and all.
Despite my critique of the common, country Southerner, the chief failure of the South lies in her middle-class and “depreciated establishment.” It is these two classes that the charge of dereliction of duty should be primarily attributed. By most accounts, the old, Southern aristocracy was destroyed with the end of the War of Northern Aggression. Their transition from agrarian, republican land-holders to commodity merchants operating within a nascent, imperial polity reduced the vitality of the old remnant. What was once a class of statesmen and visionaries, particularly during the age of the Republic, dissolved into mere seneschals serving imperial Columbia. All that remains of their ethical offspring are a marginalized fragment of ghostly and misunderstood Ashley Wilkes. Conversely, the “successful” posterity of the gentry fully embraced the “boundless aggression against nature” of America’s progressive class; there is little difference between them and a part-time barista working on the Upper West Side.
As for the venerated middle-class, they lack both the moxie of the Southern hardscrabble and the principles of the faded patriciates. These are a people keeping their heads stuck firmly in the sand and their hearts locked away. They completely understand the decay ravaging the country, as well as, the cultural genocide of the South. But, they are a deeply, deeply fearful people – fearful of their precious employment and reputation. As such, they can only mouth pitiful condemnations, if any, at the removal of our ancient landmarks, which thy fathers have set. Like the Yankee, their fanaticism is with capital and goods, not the land, their people, and their ancestral memories.
We, the valued shred of the South, remain unregenerate and still Unreconstructed. It is our charge to become the vanguard for our people and nation, and this demands a pioneering spirit. We cannot remain the recalcitrant specters of yesteryear, mulling over past failures. For our people and Dixie to prevail, we must adopt positive and peaceful actionism paired with unbridled optimism – there is no other choice, except for a South in perpetual decline.
The man who never was.
Forward! That’s the movement, dragging our people until they get up on their feet and walk alongside.
This is one of the best essays I’ve read here in a while.
Forming a network, party, and ultimately a colony/town of sorts are our only options left. That being said, it is important to think positively and prepare for the future.
The Boers were a minority in South Africa, even among whites, yet still commanded incredible power because they prepared for it. They didn’t sit around and wait. They even have Orania now; we have *nothing.*
You are excatly right, I bring it up often. The only thing I would disagree with is the assertion they are allowing it to happen, because as I’ve said before, this is being done to us, it’s not some choice they made. Unless we ourselves organize and take the correct counter measures, to act as a people, united as one, then of course when we look at our downtrodden people we cannot say “look at what they have chosen to become” . They did not choose it and thinking like that keeps us from developing any strategies to counter what is being done to our people, not what they have chosen, please everyone, stop thinking like that.
We still do not have a Southern curriculum! Every day I talk to people trying to figure out the whole online class thing, do you have any idea what a huge opportunity we have squandered by not having our own, by us for us? Did they choose not to have a curriculum of their own? We fought for decades to have homeschooling and then we did nothing with it once we won the right to have it. Now we just bring Yankee lies into our home, why? I never blame them for not having it, just like I don’t blame myself for being ignorant after being bussed to a Federal indoctrination camp and educated at the hands of my enemy. I don’t blame myself for that and we should not blame our own people either. It’s not their fault, they did not choose it, stop saying that.
As far as your claim of the middle class doing nothing, you are exactly right about that, they DID choose it, them you can blame. I call them the “worthless do nothings” or “gold star faggots” or since I found this site I called them “boat shoe faggots” you are right to blame them, but the blame lies in them doing nothing, not actively hurting us, but their inaction is tantamount to betrayal. If you read the book “Punished with poverty” then you already understand that resources are scarce and why. If you have the means to help our people and don’t then you are a traitor, inaction is a betrayal and fundamentally an act of cowardice.
When I first noticed this phenomenon I was in middle school and getting jumped by hordes of blacks was common place. During these incidents, one in particular that I still to this day recall when people touch upon what you are writing about the middle class worthless do nothings, we would form a half circle against the closest wall with the girls in the back and us in front fighting. During this particular instance I locked eyes with a “gold star faggot” and was the day I coined the term.
This kid had straight A’s, never missed a day, had money (which most of us very much did not) and never argued with the “teachers” as we did. He just agreed with whatever they said, just as long as they gave him his little gold star sticker on his work. While we were fighting he was running and I locked eyes with him as he as running away from us that day and all I could think was you better do something with those gold stars. If we are fighting here then you sure as hell better do something with those gold stars you are abandoning us for. I don’t know how he looked at himself in the mirror. Of course he probably did not do anything for our people with his gold stars and money, he probably had a great life of playing golf and being a coward. Saying whatever he was told to say, betraying us as needed. He probably joined them actually, I have noticed lots of cowards do it, I believe they do it so that they can look in the mirror, they blame us so they can delude themselves into thinking that they are not cowards, of course not, they are just good people and we are bad for fighting back, and THAT’S why they ran and never fought, not because they are cowards, of course not, it’s our fault for standing up for ourselves. That’s just one instance, I was bussed all over the place, and I noticed this many, many times. Cowards all. It’s part of our enemies plan, reward the cowardly and traitorous, punish the brave and loyal.
It’s another form of subversion. It’s how they choose who has our resourses and ability as opposed to us, I was just as smart as him, but I fought back, so I got no gold stars and shekels. If we had our own curriculum outside of their control to pick the winners, to educate myself instead then it would break their ability to dictate to us who got to be successful. They give the traitors a script, what I call the “viable excuse” it says we are traitors and racists, it gives them the words to use in order to excuse their cowardice while at the same time let them pretend they are making the right choice by being traitors. It’s how they select who among us is rewarded and punished. It’s subversion through a mechanism that I have seen them use countless times. But since we have no organization and leadership for me to go to with my insights, it just keeps working against us. We developed no counter measures and certainly don’t have the means to disperse them to our people.
Worthless do nothings, gold star faggots and boat shoe faggots. Traitors and they should be exposed and called out every time, don’t let them look in the mirror and not know what they are.
It bothered me for years, still does actually. I see “our” leaders etc. stab us in the back constantly. For instance Dale Jr. goes to New York and spits in our face, why is he still allowed to call himself a Southerner? What about Steve Austin “the Texas rattlesnake” who calls us traitors while sitting in front of the Yankee sky rag? They should be shamed publicly and often, never let them look in the mirror and lie to themselves about what they are, traitors, cowards. This all lead me to a concept I call “The Church door”. You see, our people don’t always know who has betrayed them. They will wave our flag and then ask Dale jr. for an autograph, never knowing he spit in their face for a gold star from the people who are killing us. The Church door is something I read about in the Sharpe series of books. In old England, if you ran from battle, then a solider went to your hometown and nailed your name and act of cowardice to the Church door. Everybody knew you ran. You would never be allowed to look in the mirror and pretend you were not a coward after that, your own family and friends would make sure you could not. Do you have any idea how many men that kept from running? They would rather die than have their name nailed to that door as a coward and traitor. We need that, I have already scetched out a website design to serve that purpose, I just need to be around other Southerners with the know how to implement it, but those people, as we are all starting to discover, are probably gold star faggots themselves. The subversion is working, they have separated the men with the fire and who kept the faith from the avenues of ability that they could make use of and replaced them with gold star cowards. Southern accent, Yankee spine.
We have to organize, it must happen. It must be just us, now while the generation that is skilled at spoting subversion is still here. We know their tricks, our children will not because we have not codified that knowledge in a curriculum and taught them. We must organize, we have to have Southern temples where only we are allowed a voice, free of the enemy selecting our leaders, free of gaslighting, free of lies about us, free of the world being privy to our every conversation. Then we must identify our people, weed out the reconstructed, raise up those that have kept the faith and raise them up. Our people did not choose this, we need a places in Every Southern county just for us to meet and organize. People who have devoted their life to our people and our cause. We have to figure out how to pay for it and compensate the people whose families will suffer for their fighting for us as mine family has and I am sure others as have as well. We have to come together, now, right now. We all need to be in a room together, putting the puzzle together, away from outside influence and eyes. Now is the time, please start devoting some brain cells to that, we have to have it, and soon or we will die. Essays and knowing will amount to nothing without action and action requires organization. If you only educated your children then you failed. We are a people and are attacked as a people, you doing something that does not benefit all of our people instead of just your family is worthless. We must come together and start acting as a people. Right now. That is all we should be talking about.
Sir, have you read Bill Lind’s Retroculture? I think there is something to his use of nostalgia to create a positive mindset of building something for the future, and perhaps this is really needed for Southerners.