08-26-2016, 05:39 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-26-2016, 06:19 PM by Eric the Green.)
Reading that interesting article, I am struck by this paragraph:
Hmmm. I'm reading this article because I am curious about this new unfamiliar term "alt.right" and the ideas and people it represents...... I don't know, it might be better for me to be wary.
Hmmm, I can agree there, but....
I totally disagree, as someone who thinks that the quality of cultural expression is to some degree objective, and that good and bad culture exists. I disagree with Taramarie and others on this. But just as I as a white person can appreciate some black jazz artists and Motown and other black musicians, and the elaborate designs on Muslim mosques, and the amazing spiritual power of Buddhist and Hindu arts and temples, and the colorful weavings of Mayan artists, and so on and so on, and am influenced by them and want to preserve them, I am sure that Asians and Africans and Muslims and Latinos and whoever can appreciate Bach and Beethoven and Chartres Cathedral and Michaelangelo, etc., and want to preserve and be influenced by them and perform them and support them, and so on.
Separation is not necessary for distinctiveness at all. In fact, you trace the history of any culture back far enough, and you find other cultures at their roots. And cross cultural stimulation is often what creates the best culture. No, I prefer kumbaya; although specifically I would not choose it as one of the best songs ever
Or "Imagine" either, for that matter. But I like the sentiments expressed!
War, such as the alt-right thinks is the natural result of non-separation, results from their own attitudes of tribalism. It's this that causes war, just as it did 60 and 100 years ago, as if these alt-righters seem to have forgotten the most unforgettable and horrible history.
No, the real trend of today is toward one people on one earth, and it's silly and foolish to resist it. We are each inheritors of all the traditions of humankind. That's exactly what makes our age special.
And the best culture is not a product of race, or of separate, distinct peoples. It's the product of spiritual inspiration, and/or physical energy, and/or heart-felt emotions (IOW, "Oooh Eee OOh Ah-AAH" read my page if you don't get the meaning). Another special quality of our time is how much more freely more people are open to and receive these inspirations than in past times when most peoples' noses were strictly confined to their grindstones. Or, at least, such is the case during or near to the times of Awakening/2T periods.
Quote:"The conservative instinct, as described by Haidt, includes a preference for homogeneity over diversity, for stability over change, and for hierarchy and order over radical egalitarianism. Their instinctive wariness of the foreign and the unfamiliar is an instinct that we all share – an evolutionary safeguard against excessive, potentially perilous curiosity – but natural conservatives feel it with more intensity. They instinctively prefer familiar societies, familiar norms, and familiar institutions."
Hmmm. I'm reading this article because I am curious about this new unfamiliar term "alt.right" and the ideas and people it represents...... I don't know, it might be better for me to be wary.
Quote:"For natural conservatives, culture, not economic efficiency, is the paramount value. More specifically, they value the greatest cultural expressions of their tribe. Their perfect society does not necessarily produce a soaring GDP, but it does produce symphonies, basilicas and Old Masters. The natural conservative tendency within the alt-right points to these apotheoses of western European culture and declares them valuable and worth preserving and protecting."
Hmmm, I can agree there, but....
Quote:"just as they are inclined to prioritise the interests of their tribe, they recognise that other groups – Mexicans, African-Americans or Muslims – are likely to do the same. As communities become comprised of different peoples, the culture and politics of those communities become an expression of their constituent peoples.
You’ll often encounter doomsday rhetoric in alt-right online communities: that’s because many of them instinctively feel that once large enough and ethnically distinct enough groups are brought together, they will inevitably come to blows. In short, they doubt that full “integration” is ever possible. If it is, it won’t be successful in the “kumbaya” sense. Border walls are a much safer option.
The alt-right’s intellectuals would also argue that culture is inseparable from race. The alt-right believe that some degree of separation between peoples is necessary for a culture to be preserved. A Mosque next to an English street full of houses bearing the flag of St. George, according to alt-righters, is neither an English street nor a Muslim street — separation is necessary for distinctiveness."
I totally disagree, as someone who thinks that the quality of cultural expression is to some degree objective, and that good and bad culture exists. I disagree with Taramarie and others on this. But just as I as a white person can appreciate some black jazz artists and Motown and other black musicians, and the elaborate designs on Muslim mosques, and the amazing spiritual power of Buddhist and Hindu arts and temples, and the colorful weavings of Mayan artists, and so on and so on, and am influenced by them and want to preserve them, I am sure that Asians and Africans and Muslims and Latinos and whoever can appreciate Bach and Beethoven and Chartres Cathedral and Michaelangelo, etc., and want to preserve and be influenced by them and perform them and support them, and so on.
Separation is not necessary for distinctiveness at all. In fact, you trace the history of any culture back far enough, and you find other cultures at their roots. And cross cultural stimulation is often what creates the best culture. No, I prefer kumbaya; although specifically I would not choose it as one of the best songs ever
Or "Imagine" either, for that matter. But I like the sentiments expressed!War, such as the alt-right thinks is the natural result of non-separation, results from their own attitudes of tribalism. It's this that causes war, just as it did 60 and 100 years ago, as if these alt-righters seem to have forgotten the most unforgettable and horrible history.
No, the real trend of today is toward one people on one earth, and it's silly and foolish to resist it. We are each inheritors of all the traditions of humankind. That's exactly what makes our age special.
And the best culture is not a product of race, or of separate, distinct peoples. It's the product of spiritual inspiration, and/or physical energy, and/or heart-felt emotions (IOW, "Oooh Eee OOh Ah-AAH" read my page if you don't get the meaning). Another special quality of our time is how much more freely more people are open to and receive these inspirations than in past times when most peoples' noses were strictly confined to their grindstones. Or, at least, such is the case during or near to the times of Awakening/2T periods.