EU vs. Europe

The divide is clear enough, but Glenn Diesen provides a picture. Still and all, just as in the US, Simplicius’ point remains: Hoi Polloi Are Sick. Society has been reduced, largely, to a collection of atomistic individuals lacking the unifying principle of a culture rooted in a moral and metaphysical vision. That was Christendom, which seemingly is no more—replaced by the profit motive or, in our all embracing welfare New Deal, the plaintive cry: Where’s mine?

Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen

Europeans want negotiations to start and the killing to end. The EU elites in no way represent the opinions of Europeans. Orban represents Europe.

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Kaja Kallas @kajakallas

Jul 5

In Moscow, Viktor Orbán in no way represents the EU or the EU’s positions. He is exploiting the EU presidency position to sow confusion. The EU is united, clearly behind Ukraine and against Russian aggression.

Last edited1:55 PM · Jul 6, 2024

As things dwindle down to the wire, and the country is plunged into historic political divisions pitting one extreme against other, we’re dragged along in a frenzy of misdirected aggression. Paralyzed by limbic hijack, we resort to an imitation of each other’s motions—the wisdom of the crowds replaced with a teeming madness.

One of the simplistic ideals we’ve adopted in the heat of struggle is that the government is solely the problem, and that as long as we can uproot the worst of the klepto- and kakistocrats—those entrenched deepstate fungi wracking the nation’s liverspotted trunk—the country will be freed, to blossom anew like a springtime meadow. The ‘System’ as culprit: always the same faceless, nameless System, or its shadow twin of ‘the Man’—as long as we can dethrone them, victory is guaranteed, and America will be free.

But in those hallucinatory throes we ignore the increasingly larger plight: it’s not just the system that is rotten, it is society itself.

The Hoi Polloi Are Sick

Now you can argue that the system is responsible for society’s ailments. It’s true that the various imposed oppressions from the government and rentier class—via their social engineering projects—have created, or at least exacerbated, every fundamental social ill now spitting up like pus from a boil.

For many decades the elites have pitted us against each other to deflect our rage from its rightful target. But even recognizing this, the fact remains that this longstanding culture-destruction has warped society into such a toxic swirling drain that even defeating the Leviathan would not cure our ills, nor hasten any form of social restitution. The problem is not just the red herring of ‘evil government’, but that culture is intrinsically tied with governance by the link of civic virtue—and civic virtue has died because our culture has been poisoned beyond rehabilitation. Even if you were to clear the slate of techno- and bureaucracy you’d be left with the stupefied degenerate masses too gormless to be ruled justly and virtuously.

A new piece by Charles Hugh Smith addresses precisely this. He explores the concept of a ‘common good’ as key arbiter of health in society.

The single-minded pursuit of greed does not magically organize the economy or society to serve everyone's interests equally. As Adam Smith explained, capitalism and the social order both require a moral foundation, which in a free society takes the form of civic virtue: it is the responsibility of every citizen who is able to contribute to the social capital that serves us all to do so not in response to an oppressive state but of their own free will.

A functioning society requires a moral foundation …

Perhaps voting—now viewed as a moral principle rather than a practical mechanism—has become a demoralizing instrument of the ruling class. Since they now appear to control voting through money, control of information, and control of the process.