On a recent trip to a more rural section of my native state, still full of monuments and historical homes, I was called out by one of my travelling companions on how much I was waxing nostalgic on the history and heritage of the South. She was asking why I was so “into” and seemingly fixated on figures, events and ideas from the past. The question was a genuine one and not malicious, and I think one worth asking. Why care about tradition? What I said to her at the time was that I focus on the past so that I can be better prepared for the future. That by examining the lives and actions of my people throughout history, I can make more informed decisions in my own life and provide guidance to my own posterity.
I felt pretty good about that answer which largely summed up my feelings on the matter, but something kept bothering me about her need to ask in the first place.
At the time, I was caught off guard by the question because it didn’t naturally occur to me that any Southern person would be indifferent to the history of their people and family. I have certainly seen plenty of people who do not show any particular interest in their history, but I have usually chalked that up to their preoccupation with their own lives, rather than a deliberate breaking from their heritage. I suppose that I held the assumption that given the time and opportunity any man would want to know and honour where his family had come from and what his people had done. But, the more that I have encountered Yankees and their reconstructed compatriots in the South, the more I have come to realize that this is not necessarily the case.
For a number of reasons many people today in the South are rejecting their own cultural heritage and adopting the culture of the modern industrialized world. Some have been subtly (and not so subtly) fooled into giving up their birthright through the influence of the progressive system of education and media, while others have willingly sacrificed it for selfish and temporary gain of favor from Baal. From the simple act of ridding themselves of their accents in order to get a better position in a corporation, to decrying their cultural symbols and their forefathers’ perceived “racism” and “cultural insensitivity,” they erode away every right and honourable connection to their heritage. They feel the need to signal their virtue constantly on every issue and obliterate their past in order to show the world that they align perfectly with accepted global opinion.
Many have adopted the Yankee nation’s patriotic pseudo-culture with its revised history and all of the despotism that comes with it. They have accepted and never think to question such foreign injections as the “melting-pot” and the “proposition nation.” They have never thought of the U.S. Constitution as a compact between the States, and suspect such things as State Sovereignty as being somehow inherently “racist.” These people sell their brothers and history down the river at the drop of a hat in a vain attempt to please a system which will hate them anyway. In their dedication to the cause of progressivism, they become the system’s own police, censoring everything about themselves and their kind.
All of these people are hollow men whose facile roots are constantly being torn out from under them by the tide of perpetual progress so that they can never stand firm on any ground for long, but must always shift to where the flood will take them. Their guidance on right action only goes so far back as last week’s talking points which they must always be checking themselves against, lest they be called out and “cancelled.” Can any people continue to exist on such shoddy foundations?
The way that I have looked at it, a man can know best that what he is doing is right by comparing his actions and choices to the traditions of his people. After all, these people and their traditions lead directly to our very existence. Our people of the South were scholars, pioneers, builders, warriors and statesmen. They carried forward the best traditions of the Old World which they were heirs to, and further developed and refined them to create rich and unique cultures of their own. Through these principles and practices they obeyed the commandment and achieved the goal of raising families and multiplying. It stands to reason that we would follow in their footsteps if we wanted to achieve the same. We must recognize that every good thing that we enjoy today comes from God via our ancestors. Fortunately for us, we do not simply sprout from the earth without support or guidance. Instead, we are born to parents and to a people who have lived to have successes and make mistakes and were themselves born to those who had done the same, and so on. They pass on their wisdom to us and make us better for it if we will listen.
That wisdom and those traditions are the fire that we must carry forward if we, as a people, are to survive. They are part of what makes men whole and are our solid foundation.
So, that is why I care about tradition, why I study and learn from the examples of great men from my people’s history. That is why I respect the landmarks that my fathers have set. That is why I keep family traditions no matter how small, and why I keep and honour the symbols of my people.
-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.
I think I would have turned the question back on her: “Why are you so indifferent to your noble ancestry and their history?” Sounds like she needs to think on that for a bit. But your answer was a good one in any case. As others (not necessarily Sourthons) before us have noted, ‘he who does not know where he came from, does not know where he is going’; or, to quote a short passage from a little book entitled The Confederate Cause and Conduct in the War Between the States: “Wiser statesmen have known with Macaulay, that “a people not proud of the deeds of a noble ancestry will never do anything worthy to be remembered by posterity.”
Nice post!
This is a must read. Thank you.
Not all of our traditions inherited or foisted upon our people are good! Problem is, is that the institutional church is controlled by those who control the global usury [usury biblically described as an act of war against another nation, and globally operated means an act of war against ALL nations in the classical traditional definition] monetary system, …and they will do everything in their power including destroying nations and their ancient traditions to keep control of their private extra-national ponzi thieving monetary system alive … Go luck with sending your children and kin back into those church institutions of Critical Theory/Cultural Marxist religious indoctrination all toward the progressive goal of global despotic communist messianic monarchy!
As The Southerner from Virginia, Thomas Jefferson pointed out “ The story of the American political order, at least to this point, is the collapse of the influence and autonomy of the local into a consolidated [global] political and financial order, what Jefferson’s people called monarchy. This order is not merely political, it includes cultural, social, RELIGIOUS, and political mores and habits global in their scope and often emanating from institutions closely aligned with the centers of [private] economic power [for global private hegemony over the nations].
Great work! I’m blessed to have had parents who taught me my heritage and passed on these traditions. As a new father, I’m looking forward to teaching my own children. It’s a sacred responsibility that so many parents today have neglected. And they wonder why their kids are immoral, rootless, and rebellious.
Your words have made my day, Mr. Vaughn. Thank you for sharing that!
Tradition is an artificial intelligence that allows us to learn from the past in aggregate, to maintain a log of successes and failures from which to gain wisdom for our current dilemmas, and to remind us that we aren’t alone in the world but are links in a chain longer than we can see.