In the foundation and perseverance of any nation there is a sense of mystery, an idealism permanently imprinted into the minds of its children that push them to trudge onwards, with dreams of times long gone and aspirations for the establishment of their future. A nation exists as a unique interpretation of the gift God has given all men – a development of a people through the minds and abilities granted by the Creator.
In American society today, there is no concept of a nation, ideals, or mystery. Everything to the modern man is precisely how he sees it, for him there is nothing beyond the physical and nothing greater than self-pleasure. In this desert of the soul, it is difficult to remain hopeful for the existence of our nation as Southerners. Even amongst our own, especially the younger, but not to them exclusively, Northern cosmopolitanism has destroyed any sense of a shared Southern nationality. In this time of crisis, for us it becomes apparent the need for a drastic revival in the traditional Southerner’s mindset. If he wants to preserve his nation, the Southern man must have lofty ideals, dreams, and aspirations towards beauty. He must appreciate that which cannot be seen and strive toward goals that do not simply please the body. The Southern man is called to be a man of the spirit, stubbornly carrying the torch of his people, no matter how small the flame has become.
How is this to be done? How do we simultaneously look backwards to our history and look forwards to preserving the Southern people of today? In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon writes, “Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.” There is no virtue in lamenting over daydreams of the Old South. If God has granted us life, and if our ancestors granted us our lot today, who are we to sit and suck our thumbs wishing things would only improve?
Firstly, we must establish the conviction in our people that Dixieland still exists. Many today believe that there is nothing of the South to be preserved, they are distraught and tormented that all has been ravaged under Reconstruction and molded into a Dollar General and McDonald’s riddled plastic hell. I would encourage the Dixians of our age to realize that as long as your ancestors and culture have given you this ideal, one imprinted into your consciousness of what you could be and what your people once were, it is far from dead. Though the current state may seem grim, rejoice that, unlike much of America, our people have a concept of what they could become and who they are now as a collective. It is this same trait that has preserved countless European identities from being eradicated under the hegemons lording over them.
I would point at the successful revival of certain Celtic languages, such as Welsh and Breton, as instances of a collective consciousness of a nation not only preserving but strengthening the vitality of their culture and identity in modern times. For those who are unsure of what that concept of self-identity is, immerse yourself into the music, art, and writings of your people. Read the folktales told in the mountains, listen to the stories your great grandfather has told you countless times sitting in his recliner. Document all of these cultural anecdotes and celebrate them as distinctly Southern. While culture is indeed ubiquitous, in the modern age the Southern man must make a deliberate effort to preserve his own. On this note of identity and self-preservation, I would recommend the 1930 book I’ll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition.
And so, in this struggle, not for the definition of our nation but the strengthening of it, let us not lose faith in these ideals etched into our psyche. Don’t be dismayed when Northerners tell you your aspirations will be fruitless and that your people no longer exist; rather understand that they do not have a concept of a nation and reject the mystical nature of it. Remember, gentlemen, that as long as even one of us possesses these dreams of Dixie and is working towards them, she has not yet died.
-By Dixie Anon
O I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am. For this “fair land of freedom” I do not care at all. I’m glad I fit against it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.
Good stuff. This article has the same spirit as that quote “Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire”.
Well said. The South still has a soul connected to the origins of Western civilisation. “America” has no soul, as becomes more evident every day, only materialism and presumptuousness. Our ancestors understood this well as the Yankee character.
“understand that they do not have a concept of a nation and reject the mystical nature of it.”
Not quite. They understand the concept of a nation, but are hell-bent, contra God’s designs, on the miscegenation of all nations but their own, so they can become masters of a mankind that’s become leaderless.
“It is true, every nation is of God and rests in God, but it is not God. … One must, therefore, free one’s self from the ideal of mankind which ruled the period of the Enlightenment. Mankind, thought of as a union, is an entirely empty conception. It acquires reality only when one regards it as the totality of the nations. All culture draws its power from the peculiar quality of the nation only. But on the other hand, this view admits that it requires all nations together “to fashion a garment for the godhead.”
Werner Sombart, ‘Towards a New Social Philosophy’
Nicely done, well said.