Culturalism: A distinction

(Hope everyone has had a good Christmas and New Year, I'm currently mired in January Examinations for my part, sorry for the lack of activity)

I speak a great deal on this blog about the need for a solid and assertive national identity, however at times I find myself restraining from going overboard, from being too nationalistic and descending into the dangerous pit of nationalistic chuvanism. This is not to say I view all cultures as equal and that I should watch my words lest I offend my fellows. Certainly not, I describe myself as a Nationalist Monarchist for good reason, after all. What I mean is that we should neither seek to overly accomodate the cultures of minorities in our nation to the point of self-defeating sycophancy, for we have seen the failures of multi-culturalism in the practices of our neighbours' governments and the long, shameful displays of newstime entertainment they have provided on the airways trying to contain their race riots. However, I do not want to foster a form of nationalism on par with that of the rabid nationalism of certain groups in Europe and elsewhere that thrive on hatred and persecution of minorities, and, more to the point, driving out such groups from the nation. Because fundamentally, such hatred is un-Irish. Let me elucidate.

I am a Culturalist. Meaning I see the collective cultures, civilizations and histories of the human species as a grand, interwoven tapestry of colour that we can never fully see from a God's eye view. No culture is truly equal to another, just as some coloured thread is used more often then others in the tapestry's patterns. It is this inequity that tells the story of human existence and truly expresses the beauty and tragedy of the human experience. But while certain all cultures are not equal, cultures, like human life, have value. I enjoy spending my free time looking into a country from a certain time period and finding out their cultural mores and ways of doing things. Naturally of course there is values dissonance, as beautiful and elegent as Chinese culture could be towards the end of the Qing dynasty, I found the practice of binding womens' feet to be unconscionable and barbaric. But I have learned that while a true understanding of another's culture can breed respect for it, it can, when truly studied, breed a further respect for your own and a desire to make your own culture great. Let me give you the example of Tsar Peter the Great, in his travels of Europe he returned to Russia to seek to modernize it, while of course this meant the visible destruction of some ancient Rus traditions, he sought to use his understanding not to Change Russia into something it was not meant to be, but to change Russia into something it could be, the great Empire it was when he left it. Shining, terrifying, powerful and yet distinctly Russian, despite the innovations and influence of Europe. It is for this reason I would call Tsar Peter a culturalist.

I think its safe for you to assume where I am going with this, even if my words are not the best at articulating this concept. Compare this understanding of the inter-relationships of culture in the past to the modern socio-philosophical heresy of Multi-culturalism, where all cultures are equal and should be expected to co-exist side by side, whether they like it or not, and whether one culture is in the majority or not. This barbaric understanding of culture devalues all cultures, they are treated as commodities, a curio in the numbers book as the political class ticks off its checklist as to which bloc they can manipulate into class warfare so they can win the next election. Is it any wonder why this understanding has led to an insane paradox, where in places like Britain and France where minorities, whose youths feel entitled by their protected class status as minorities, abuse their fellow countrymen, usually natives or smaller minorities, while simultaneously losing sense of their old national identity and replacing it with one that porports a vapid "us vrs them" mentality. One in which they no longer care what their differences are and couldn't articulate it if they did they just know they hate eachother? This is the twisted genius of multi-culturalism and it is why it will always lead to national suicide, by forcing cultures to be treated equally socially, (nevermind legally), it has inadvertedly made the cultural differences mean less while at the same time emphasising the differences to further propagate the multi-cultural ideals, leaving a population divided by racial and ethnic hatred with nobody truly understanding why they hate the man down the street. This is not counting religious clashes of course, but here in the west religion isn't controlled or forcibly restricted by the state (yet).

Getting two groups of people in a city with differing cultures to co-operate at the least has, throughout the history of humanity, always been difficult, and multi-culturalism has utterly failed in this respect, and has justified things like nationalism in their assertion of national identities. Multi-culturalist point to examples such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire of the past as examples of functional mullti-cultural societies, or even the Ottoman Empire, pointing to things such as tolerance of other cultures within the city of Constantinople, or the Roman Empires of the Past. This is a failed interpretation of history, all of these examples have been examples of culturalist societies, not multi-cultural ones. In all of these examples, there is a clear dominant culture represented in the state and often a clear dominant national religion, and often all of the minorities take on characteristics of the dominant culture along with the remnants of their own minority identities. Nowhere in the past is there seen the destruction of national culture in the favour of a constructed non-culture that has resulted in the social confusion and chaos seen in the social democracies of Modern Europe.

Monarchists, especially European ones, will most likely identify with the culturalist model, especially after studying history of monarchies in Europe (which has never been perfect and there have been examples of social persecution of minority cultures), but it has always been hard to articulate this understanding without sounding like a proponent of secular multi-culturalism, or perhaps that may just be me.

So how does this relate to Ireland?

Throughout Ireland's own history we have been an example of a culturalist society, and a remarkably strong one at that, to the point where even those who conquered us were assimilated into our native culture, as was the case with the Normans who were so thoroughly assimilated into Irish culture that Surnames such as Fitzgerald are now indistinguishable in terms of Irishness to surnames such as O'Brien. They only thing that has ever proven effective at halting our ability of assimilating minority cultures peacefully has been religious differences. In modern Day Ireland, in true Irish Fashion, we have arrived late to the local meta-cultural storm that is Multi-culturalism, (This is actually something of a historical Anomaly, Ireland has always seemed to 'arrive late' to the dinner table of whatever fashion happens to be on offer, we 'arrived late' to the 60s to the point where the full force of the cultural upheaval was not as pronounced in Ireland as it was elsewhere), and despite trying its damnedest, the Irish state could not engender anything more then mild apathy to Irish national Identity when trying to promote multi-culturalism. Indeed I remember during my college days my geography teacher, while we were discussing a poster on the wall depicting Ireland as an amalgamation of hundreds of differing foreign flags representing the 'spoken languages in Ireland' (and before you ask, no, the Irish tricolour was not present), my teacher was trying to impress upon me Ireland was a multicultural society, at which point I recall myself posing the question; "How can we be a multicultural society if nearly all of those languages are being spoken by less then 8% of the Island?" Certainly I was not impressed at the time by the notion that Ireland was 'multicultural' and I didn't meet anyone who really was, except for later when the Lisbon treaty made the European Union an issue among students. However this remains a concern, Ireland still hasn't technically put a stop to its multicultural policies even after public announcements by the leaders of our neighbours about how such policies have failed their nations. And, in my rage against secularism and multi-culturalism I try to engender a deep abiding love of Irishness and a sense of national Identity I often have to stop myself.

Am I reacting in a fashion of a culturalist? Am I promoting Irishness and the need for public recognition of Irishness (Gaelige being spoken in the Dail, Gealige promotion in schools and Irish Media, an appreciation for ancestry and history and masculine patriotism, etc, etc) for the good it will bring? Or am I simply reacting in blind anger and engendering in my readers a fear or loathing of minorities in Ireland and potentially putting the blame of the destruction of Irish culture partially on them? I live in Northern Ireland, and people here know the dangers of tribal mentalities of two cultures that have existed for centuries in the same area, let alone foreigners.

Certainly I am in favour of a robust and assertive native culture and I'll break the jaw of the first man who claims I do not. But I do not want to create an oppressive Ireland where our minorities will live in fear of an assertive majority, instead I want to create an Ireland whose distinct Irishness is attractive enough to allow assimilation. That when people emigrate to Ireland, they do not tribalise but seek to integrate into Irish society and Irish culture, whatever their origins, not simply out of sheer economic attractiveness which many people seem to think is the only thing that matters these days. Even on top of all the other needs of Irish society these days, like being able to have University students honestly put forward 10 things they associate with Irishness, (our politics tutor gave us that challenge to prove a point in a seminar one day, sadly he proved his point well), and I feel we will need to articulate this difference better if we are to defeat the prevailing cultural attitudes.

Slan go Phoile

Happy Christmas!

Late, but I hope my readers had a Happy and Holy Christmas this year

The President's Christmas Address

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc_-V9NWd94&feature=share

Forsaking the obvious political undertones in what he is saying, and forgiving the fact that he is also rather obviously reading off of cue cards, (Which I can forgive because his delivery, annunciation and pacing was spot on so he had obviously practised the speech before hand and he is talented enough a writer that I can very well imagine he wrote it himself anyway), that I have to say I approve of much of what he is saying in this address, especially as he appeals to the Nation's sense of identity and extending solidarity to Irishmen and our extended family in the diaspora who will be less then joyful this Christmas season. Something I very much appreciate as I myself know a few families who are not going to have a joyful Christmas with the loss of loved ones.

The tone of the message was positive and encouraging trying to reassure the population of the economy will recover safely while acknowledging it has fallen. This is good statesmanship and I am glad to see it in our President even if I firmly oppose him politically and socially, and I can well imagine Higgens being remarked upon fondly even if his presidency does end up reigning over a dark time of Ireland's existence, (its not like he'll be responsible for our Government's failings to begin with unless he makes some kind of diplomatic faux pas that damages our prestige, but his party is doing that already so we cant really blame him for such a thing), one of the benefits a Politician in Ireland enjoys in such a figurehead position.

I will judge him more viciously however, in the coming months. What with this abortion debate seemingly trying to crop up, such as that ludicrous claim made in newspapers recently that over 50% of Irish Gynaecologists supported Abortion, which was thoroughly and rightfully dashed by an outcry from the public and members of medical professions. The secularist push for acceptance of Abortion will be hard in Ireland, because while the Irish public is becoming increasingly apathetic when it comes to lifestyle choices, there is a stringent anti-abortion streak in the Irish consciousness that will be hard to crack, (doubly so in the North as it is one of the view topics that will unite the two traditions here so vigorously that any and every cultural, political, social and historical difference and grievances are completely pushed to the side so that unity in pro-life opinions will shine through). How higgens responds, or what his opinion will be on this matter if it does become a constitutional issue (the Europhiles want Ireland to legalize abortion and the secularists desperately want to oblige), will be key in determining my final opinion on the man, even a socialist can do the right thing every now and again, when the moon is blue and the goats walk the opposite direction around a mountainside, lets hope he is such a man.

Friday: Operation Unthinkable

I hate blathering on about the eurozone criss precisely because it is an incredibly depressing mess and it is literally only getting worse day to day. And nothing represents that more so then the panicked course of Action Nicholas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel are taking their countries: Into a new reform treaty that gives more direct control and stricter regulation of Eurozone nations' economic policies.

With, I might add, a stated goal of denying possible referendums against the new treaty, (and we all know they are talking about Ireland when they say this). They are openly flouting countless rules of the Union in order to save what is clearly a failed project in the single currency, and they're so desperate to do it that they do not care if this means they will effectively create a 'two-tiered' Europe. With stark differences between those in the Eurozone and those outside of it.

Also it should be noted that this panicked week leading up to the summit on friday was kick started by an American company warning that many countries in the Eurozone will lose their Triple A credit status if they do not take drastic measures to restore confidence in European Markets. Ireland wasn't in the list I believe, but then again Ireland's problem was its banks not its spending policies, we're the most stable of the 'danger countries' in the Eurozone and can't really be compared to Italy or Greece, or Spain for that matter but that wont stop German politicians from deciding our budget now will it?

Back to the topic at hand however, it should be stated that should a new treaty come to pass and in the 'best case scenario' as far as saving the eurozone goes, it'll mean a substantial submission of national sovereignty, again, to the EU with regards to econemy and finance. I have no doubt something like this would occur had things continued on honky-dory for a good while, with the obvious preference of europhiles being all the countries of the EU becoming Eurozone nations to make centralization much more effective. (It always got on my nerves how they railed against 'right-whingers' and 'cave dwelling nationalist throwback reactionaries' about complaining about sovereignty being lost and how this was a stupid concern and how they celebrate when the sovereignty is actually lost)

The wild card, now more than ever, is Britain, with Cameron facing a very real, and very threatening Tory rebellion in Parliament, who want a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU and demanding clawing back national sovereingty. Forcing the Premier to reiterate Britain's interest to Germany and France meaning that one of the most powerful econemies in Europe that is not in the Eurozone effectively won't 'play ball' according to the Franco-German rulebook. And of course there is of course the chance that Germany itself will rebel against its Chancellor and vote against her wishes at the summit. The German people long since becoming sick to death of being Europe's Paymaster, and God only knows what the other nations will pull.

The problem of course is the threat of a very real economic apocalypse. And the best case scenario, effective vassalization of the Eurozone, at most postpones this armeggedon. Lets put this in context, should the summit fail, the markets will panic, confidence will be shot, investments pulling out, companies winding up en masse, countries losing their Triple A status, Greece and Italy become unsalvageable messes, the Eurozone will literally fall apart and and the Eurobond becomes utterly utterly worthless, a collapse in the Eurozone will spread crisis and panic in the non-eurozone nations who may not be as economically devastated, but who will no longer seek to remain in the Eurozone to protect their own market interests and we will likely see the vigorous, and dangerous re-establishment of armed borders regardless of the schenglen agreement to prevent 'economic refugees' and God knows how that will spiral from there.

But wait there's more! America trades heavily with Europe and Obama made the mistake of reaffirming that 'If the eurozone fails, it will affect America' and because he said that, thanks to how markets actually work, it means it more then likely will and not in a small way. With the economic armeggedon in Europe potentially spreading to America and reaping a mighty toll upon the belagured superpower, we could see America falling to its own knees struglling to cope and should it collapse, so too will the north and potentially south American Markets, meaning China will be essentially left alone holding 'the happy fun ball' of an economic super-apocalypse. And we don't want to know what happens should China hit a speedbump while holding that thing.

Happy Christmas.

"Sort out your countries - Or else"

I could continue on about the backlash An Taoiseach is getting over An Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore's childish attempts at political snubbing when he announced the closure of the Vatican City embassy, (Speaking from a purely objective standpoint as a political animal myself, Eamon, if you wanted to give a subtle snub at the Church, there were much better ways, and less embarrassing ones to the country I might add, that you could've done it, AND done it without doing something that will damage Ireland politically for governments to come), but events are moving apace across the world and I am still playing the 'wait and see' game with Irish politics to see just how FUBAR this current government will become.

About a week late for this but its still relevant, namely the appointments of the new Prime Ministers for Greece and Italy.

Now, I am no friend to Burlesconi, I am glad that man is gone, he was an international disgrace for Italy, and the installation of a technocrat in Italy to sort out the econemy is not a completely retarded move. Its just a ludicrously hypocritical one.

Now, fair is fair, the EU is 'correct' in saying that an election for a new PM in either country would literally solve nothing and only foment chaos. This is correct, it would only hamper efforts to save both countries' econemies, especially in Greece which is seemingly constantly on the verge of Anarchic revolt. Its just the EU literally does not nor should have such power as to appoint, or more accurately for what happened, 'force' the appointments of new PMs.

Now this would seem hypocritical for me to point out, as a Monarchist and as an Absolutist I believe the Sovereign should dismiss and appoint their own heads of Government for the good of the country in such crises scenarios such as the one Europe is currently in. Except it is not hypocritical for me to point this fallacy out, because the European Cmmission is NOT the sovereign body of all of Europe, we are NOT a sovereign nation as a whole. The EU Commission is NOT the King of Italy or the King of Greece, it legally does NOT have the power to effect 'regime change' in subject nations should said nations act illegally under EU laws, it has the power to dismiss them from the Union, certainly and to impose fines, but to do so would be to admit they were wrong.

The appointments of new PMs more in line with the humble jumble of EU/IMF/China economic shenanigens may, MAY stabilize the econemies of both nations on a temporary basis I am humble enough to admit since I do not know enough about them to doubt them as yet. I dont know these new men as well as I probably should and I am not sure how they'll play the game since the legislative houses in both countries effectively capitulated to their appointments, Watch this Space indeed.

It IS however, a naked outreach of the power of EU meddling in subject nations, and more and more euroscepticism is not only becoming more commonplace, but more mainstream and justified, the EU membership referenda in Britain may actually become a real thing and set a devastating precedence for the EU as a whole, especially with the Tories over there rebelling against Cameron about the right to allow the referenda to occur. Not to mention tensions between the coalition parties as well as the reckoning that is looming between the British PM and the German Chancellor. The EU is becoming ever more desperate, now if I was charitible to the EU (and I am not) I would say that a slow steady dismantling of the 'Eurozone' and a return to multiple currencies would be the Union's best bet to slow painful economic recovery (it being merely one step of many of course) and stability across the Union, that way economic failure in, oh, let's say Greece, wouldn't destroy Italy or bring down Spain in a terrifying domino effect.

I have a foreboding feeling events are coming to a head and the predictions I made in one of two likely de-unionizing events, one violent, the other velvet, are becoming scarily relevant and I fear for Ireland's own future in whatever hell this will all lead to.

And who knows, maybe Europe will sort out its shenanigens.

Then we'd only need to wait till China falls, and calls in its debts. Hope you guys fancy a repeat of the 20th century only cranked up to eleven, because its looking like the 'Great Depression' will be to whats coming as the Black Plague was to the Spanish Flu. or WWI was to WWII.

God this is depressing, here, have a puppy.

This bespeaks crippling arrogance

When the Irish Public voted in Micheal D Higgens as our President, I did not make a post speculating on what this could mean for the country, I opted to stay silent and see what would happen. I had not expected the poet would win it, nor did I expect his party to do well in the By-Elections. (my money was on Gallagher winning it, but it just goes to show you the Irish can be strange voters, opting instead to vote for the quiet man).

However, of course, I did not have to wait long for something to happen that betrays the second largest party in government's true intentions.

The last government, Fianna Fail, and today's Government, Fianna Gael-Labour, have very little difference between them in terms of how they act in government, and I already moaned about what I saw as a betrayal of its electorate that Fianna Gael handed over 'desireable' ministries to Labour as part of the co-alition even if it had been something of a campaign promise to cut back on, (public sector anyone?), their casual breaking of campaign promises and, of Course, Eamon Gilmore and Shatter's treatment of people opposing the Referenda which would have given the Oireachtas much more power then it should rightfully have betrays a hellish sense of statist elitism which goes beyond the usual political class' disdain for virtually everyone in the country.

But oh of course they're not done yet, feeling foolishly secure after their candidate had won the presidential Election, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore goes right ahead and announces the Closure of the Irish Embassy at the Holy See, and that the Irish Ambassador, well there and Tehran, Eamon Gilmore is giving a not too subtle hint as to what he thinks about the Holy See by this move.

I could go into a list of the reasons why closing the embassy is a politically foolish thing to do, and a historical insult given how the Holy See was the first to establish full diplomatic relations with Ireland back when we were still a dominion of the Empire. But we all know that this move is not motivated by political expedience, as hateful a cause as that can be, but rather by the utterly worse cause of symbolism. Eamon Gilmore is trying to further foment hostility in the Irish government, and the Irish public if it can get away with it, against the Holy See, and I don't think I have to explain why, they are Socialists, they answer should come easily enough.

This bespeaks crippling arrogance, Labour's position is not so secure it can try to pull diplomatic coups like this, nor can it tirade against the public when they dont get their way all the time on referenda, and expect not to have consequences for it. Higgins didn't win the election so much as Gallagher lost it, and they didn't gain seats in the previous Dail elections so much as Fianna Fail lost them, Labour's position is not so secure that it can continue acting this way without facing nasty surprises in the future, I do not expect the publicity stunt of closing the Holy See embassy to be what ticks the Irish Public off, but it will certainly help compound the overall effect. The Socialists will be facing a nasty surprise come the next elections if they carry on this way, hopefully one that obliterates their party's political foothold.

Election Day down south

Despite being a Citizen I wont be able to vote, stuck at Campus here in Belfast all week. Even with that said I do not envy the Conscience voters down south, what a miserable crop of candidates we have. From a Moral standpoint none of the candidates stand up, from a political expedience standpoint, all of them are compromises in the worst sense of the word for damn near everyone, and from a purely superficial standpoint well...

Lets just say, at this point in time, the best we can all hope for is a mediocre president who won't be a total failure. None of these people have 'real' Leadership qualities, most of their promises are hollow, plithy and really really REALLY don't have anything to do with the mire the Irish State is stuck in. The worst thing that can come from this is an embarrassment of a president who runs his/her mouth and ruins the prestige of the office (heh, like there was much left since the start of the race, no real fault to McAleese although I am not fond of her, Ireland has somehow become even MORE of a no-name in international politics since the crash).

I really hate to be a pessimist, it is unhealthy for me, for anyone. But there is literally nothing I can see that offers me anything resembling a light of hope for this country and nothing short of a miracle worker can save Irish politics from itself. And the same miracle worker would need to instil badly needed principles in the Irish people themselves for it to have any lasting effects.

That is not even touching upon the referenda that may or may not give the Oireachtas Inquisitorial powers depending on how votes go. Who knows? Maybe they'll decide the people voted 'wrong' if they don't get a result they want.

Happy Presidential election 2011 everyone. God Help us all.

State of the Republic: The Race for the Aras

Well, no two ways about it, welcome to the all Irish make-a-damn-fool-of-yourself-a-thon. I can safely say none of the candidates rub me the right way. And even with the very limited powers of the Presidency, I still don't want any of these people representing my Country as its head, regardless of how popular. Well, lets have an overview of the candidates:

David Norris, Independent:

I am no friend of Norris, he is easily the most socially liberal of the entire lot, and thats saying something. While I despise republican politics for its focus on smear campaigns and scandal hunts, I am glad his entire campaign imploded over the legal advice issue. I honestly don't expect him to win and I am glad for it.

Mary Davis, Independent:

"inclusion, empowerment and respect" Well hot damn, that sure tells us alot about your intricate oscio-political views doesn't it? Not to diminish her work with the disadvanataged, but she is not political leader, she is at best a social organizer a leader in 'change'. Basically an Obama Wannabe, only more intelligent and MAYBE a little less ego-centric. Although you wouldn't know that from her campaign site.

Sean Gallagher, Independent:

I will admit, I am not familiar with this business man. How ever his catch phrase of "I believe three things are vital for our country: self-belief, self-confidence and self-determination." is something that appeals to me on the face but I know he doesn't mean it the way I'd like it to mean. Another proponent for the ever vague 'Inclusiveness' platform that really REALLY offers us nothing for Ireland's current predicament. I'll keep an eye on him and see where he goes.

Michael D. HIggins, Labour:

I am tempted to write this fellow off from the get go, but you never know these days. He's currently a Senator. He promises to be a neutral president, (What, like the past two we have? I am calling Bull. Wolf in sheep's clothing), and not be a handmaiden of the governemnt. Which he'll conveniently forget if Labour ever gets a majority I'd wager.

Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein:

I must admit, I was REALLY surprised how well he is being taken down south. He wouldn't be the candidate I would put forward if I ran Sinn Fein, (and not for the reason you might suppose. Martin McGuinness is a famously bad speaker), I cant say much about his policies, but knowing sinn fein they'd at least keep up with the tradition of speaking gaelige as the traditional language of government. Hardly important in comparison to other nation threatening issues, but still a small mercy.

Gay Mitchell, Fine Gael:

Who? Yeah I don't think much about this guy.

Well thats the line up of prospective hopefuls. Although I won't hold my breath. This is the same nation who voted Bono as one of the top ten greatest Irishmen ever lived instead of small, insignificent people who contributed little to world cultural heritege like Yeats or something, so I would not hold my breath for them to pick any decent president to save their lives.

Now if you'll excuse me I have a few headache tablets to take.

Blogger tales

You can find some weird things in the Statistics section of one's blog, and when bored I often check on it to see what shenanigens has occured. No I am not ego-centric, why do you ask?

I kid of course, but it does lead to amusement.

Sometimes I find that most of my readers that week have dwell in Iran, other times I find myself being argued over on the Politics.ie board between feaces flinging wannabe political columnists. Truely the Internet is a strange place and i'd like to take an off-topic post exploring some of the more strange and wonderful places the statistics has lead me to:

1) A German Imageboard.

Don't know what imageboards are? No? Well, they are basically forum-like sites where one creates a thread with an image on the first post, and people respond, often with images, they are usually humorous or pornographic in nature, they are several famous ones on the internet, and almost all of them will give you Cancer. Trust me, i've been there. They're also commonly referred to as the gateway to internet hell and the name is deserved. (real internet hell is something much harder to get to and NOBODY goes there and comes back from it mentally unscathed. Those who know what I'm talking about can relate. Lets just say those black screens with green letters you see hackers in movies tap into to get under the radar of the CIA? That's real.) Anyway I found this strange purely out of novelty that a bunch of Germans on an imageboard had posted a link to this blog in one of their topics.

I cannot stress the strangeness of finding a link to one's blog in the same image thread that features various images of living dolls from some Japanese Anime doing silly things. And everything is written in a language you can't understand to boot.

2) A fascistic Polish Imageboard.

Same deal as above only more politically orientated, also Polish. Never did find which threads I was being linked to on these boards, but almost all of them that I did see dealt with History, militarism and politics. So its easy to reason some monarchist on those boards linked to one of my articles or something. I'm no fascist myself but I am flattered some people of a third-way persuasion had deigned to give my blog a once over. It makes a delightful change from rabid communists lamblasting me as a living anachronism. (Several of my readers have seen my thread on the internet game Nationstates where I went fishing for fellow monarchists, and have ended up taking part in the game itself with imaginary nations, and can share my pain with the over-presence of leftists there)

3) A Korean culinary forum

I have no words. There's just... what?

4) Gothise, risingtaste and other fashion or alternative fashion related sites and social networks.

I must have a few readers with considerably different dress sense then myself due to the amount of constant traffic I seem to be getting from these kinds of sites. Good to know I have such broad appeal, what with me being a Absolutist Nationalist Monarchist with just a tad bit of Papism on the side.

I joke of course. Its good to know I can tap into such a broad spectrum of people. Its just kind of surprising.

4) Multiple facebook and Deviantart comment threads I can never seem to find.

Seriously, there must be one hell of a debate over this blog on some facebook topic I cant get into due to facebook's back tracking system. There was a two month period where I got a metric tonne of traffic from the site. Hardly the strangest nor most amusing source of traffic, but one of the most mysterious.

5) Several Feminist blogs and forums.

Its good to know I can inspire rabid hatred in these sexists by my mere existence. Even though I have never actually made a post addressing feminism yet.

6) Numerous Monarchist links from various countries.

Check out Promonarchii sometime, they do a good coverage as a news source for most European Monarchies and Monarchy in general, just make sure google translate is on. That goes for the rest of my fellow Monarchosphere bloggers. Keep up the good fight!

7) A Neo-Druid forum.

Yeah they kinda sorta just linked to my blog out of the blue. I couldn't understand half of what was being said in the thread itself. And they were typing in English too so that was saying something.

8) A Russian porn site.

Yeah. I was completely unprepared for this. Sometimes its better not to click a link with a questionable name in your traffic sources. Who knew?

9) Software and Hardware enthusiasts

Apparently alot of people who like to tinker around with machinery and computers are very interested in Monarchism or something.

10) Equestriadaily

Well, I can honestly say this was a surprise. For those who dont know My Little Pony got an animated reboot and its kinda taken popular culture by storm. Being something of a connesuir for popular media I of course have my own opinions on the show, the franchise's legacy and the ABSURD popularity it has garnered among adults as a result of veteran cartoon creator Lauren Faust creative vision.

Apparently a few of the guys who frequent Equestriadaily, something like a news source for My Little Pony fans, (don't ask, it takes too long to explain and even longer to accept as real) also visit my blog straight afterwards, as is often the case with traffic sources. They'll be checking something of their interests then rewrite their URL bar to visit my blog straight afterwords.

And my little pony is the LEAST embarrassing things I find out about the interest of anonymous readers of my blog. Seriously fellas, just use a new tab or something.

Well there's a top ten list of the wierdest traffic sources I've garnered over the past two months. Seriously this is really entertaining sometimes. Has anyone else had some funny stories to share about their traffic sources?

Future monarchy, population control and a place in the sun

((Dont worry I'll comment on the presidential elections soon enough))

As I had pointed out in my previous blog post concerning intellectual posturing regarding the unknowable positions of alien lifeforms with regards to how humanity governs itself, I gave a few hints of some deeper thought I have given to the changes that inevitably come should humanity become an extra-planetary civilization and how the arrogant presumptions of many liberal minded academics and even entertainers in the realm of science fiction are woefully underappreciative of how the human mind works. Specifically with regards to government. Allow me to explain.

If you read my last post I point out how aliens will be expected (if the work in question spins an overall 'positive' view of the future, and provided they aren't being used as a heavy handed allegory to human movements or attitudes as they often almost always are) to have formed some kind of grand space federation of planets in one form or another, and it will mostly be some sort of democratic process analogous to the UN here on Earth. Inherent in this, is that whatever form human government will take, it will be more or less 'united' (but not always secularized to the point of human cultures ceasing to exist in terms of variety) and democratic to certain extents. If it is ever posited as anything opposed to democratic 'freedom' it will more often then not be portrayed as dystopic. "Democracy is the future, we know this because we told you so, and if it isn't, everyone is nazis, yay democracy!" The more nuanced works of course will try to avoid stale tropes and give more depths to all races involved but the common perceptions still reign.

The problem with this is no one really wants to admit that the only attempt at unitary governments of the world have become laughable failures at best and encrouching dictatorships at worst, (compare the EU, USA and the UN of today to the implications of their founding ideals to understand what I mean, criticising those alone would take a week), and that at levels higher then national levels, power plays and political football become so far removed from the People that the notion such organizations are inherently democratic is a laughable fallacy. So then, how in the name of all that is holy would an extra stellar Human Empire be democratic? As soon as humanity establishes its first colony on Mars or the moon or whichever rock we fancy sticking a flag onto we will be facing taxation and governing and policing problems that will make the age of exploration seem like a golden age of fast communication, and the likeihood of colony destruction or rebellion becomes astronomically higher the less we get things under control. The solution is of course to establish a local government loyal to the Federal government (can't use the word Imperial, that'd be too honest) and allow them democratic involvement in the big hippie space federation Humanity is forming, which still doesn't negate the fact that colony revolt is still likely once it becomes self sufficient, and that any peaceful acts of secession will be overruled by the majority of the federal government which of course will be doing so in the interests of humanity at large. Basically denying democracy in order to defend democracy. How democratic! Not to mention that any actual unitary world government would have the same democratic deficit problem of current supra-national states only cranked up to eleven. Democratic government will become an impossibility and a farce, we could call ourselves a democracy but we wouldn't be, any Imperial human government at levels above national will be de facto dictatorial in order to get anything done at all.

And it is this inevitability of democratic apathy and deficit that the future of Humanity will either be like its past and form some kind of Imperial monarchy, (dont ask me how, I honestly wouldnt know what form it would take) or a beuracratic dictatorship. Based on the service records of past versions of both forms of government, which do you think will be most likely in the long term to not slow to a cumbersome death? One thing is most certain, should humanity ever extend its reach beyond the shores of earth, the democratic farce will die.

Onto population control, for this is relevant on a likely incentive for expansion onto other worlds, the simple fact is the current liberal and secular ideals of population control and social formation are WOEFULLY under-suited both for the advancement of human exploration into space; as well as borderline stupidity in terms of raising the human population high enough in order to make such ambitions feasible. Again, allow me to explain. I do not believe in population control, by which I mean I do not believe in direct population control, the only real 'control' I recognise over the population's size is the four horsemen of disease, war, famine and death. These are what I call natural control over population size, none of them are desirable and when they occur they are nearly unavoidable by the majority of the populations affected. A such I hold an incredibly dim view of arguements for proponents of 'positive' or 'active' population control methods, primarily contraception, abortion and increasingly, euthanasia. As many of us in the west know, this has led to declining birthrates and 'population replacement' measures to bolster falling workforces or even just because of the now completely indefensible belief in europe that enforced multi-culturalism is healthy, and this is because the second portion of the demented social experiment by leftists has failed spectacularly. Leftists believe humanity's population needs to be controlled and lessened for x, y and z reasons, environment, resources, general asshatery, etc (I am being forgiving in that I am running this portion of the article ont he assumption that the majority of the proponents are genuinely deceived into thinking these are good arguments for the future of mankind), and then controlled to rise and fall depending on what the state needs and what it can handle. China is actually a poster boy for the most unashamed example of this mindset. The problem here in the west is that once the 'convenience' and 'contraceptive mentality' took hold of the majority or people and sex in the popular minset is about pleasure first and reproduction as an optional, expensive second, many people did not feel like having more children when the state finally wanted populations to increase, even with the carrot of incentives to reproduce more most European populations stubbornly refused to procreate to the desired level, this occurred in the nineties and we've all known the story since then. The values and mentalities populations relied on which maintained traditions and all sorts of things revolutionary types didn't like where largely destroyed or discredited and in so doing, could not enforce sufficient influence on popular mindsets to encourage procreation when it was convenient for the states. The liberals shot themselves in the foot. What this means is that the population cannot be subtly controlled by the state to rise and fall according to its whims and what this ultimately means is that the sheer manpower mankind as a species requires to make expansion across the stars neccessary or even feasible will be nothing short of impossible. How many times have you read a sci fi novel, watched a movie or played a game where mankind has formed a 'united government' and the population has increased to such a scale that the planet's landmasses are effectively giant cities? Did it never strike you as odd, when perusing these works that the implication being that the modern secular ideals prevail in those settings yet somehow mankind still became so overpopulated as to turn Africa into one huge New York metro line? How can that be, when the insurmountable contemporary evidence is that secularized populations engaging in population control actually fall dramatically?

Leaving aside that a world government formed prior to expansion beyond earth would ultimately hinder exploration efforts, because in case you haven't noticed, no one's really been keen on going farther then the moon despite the fact we are LITERALLY close to half a century from landing on the blasted rock. Half. A. Century. When the 'need' is outweighed by convenience mankind ultimately will choose what is convenient, or in less forgiving terms, we will won't be bothered to do something if others aren't bothered to do something. Europeans sailed west to search for a quick route to India because the silk road's position was inconvenient, America landed on the moon, because allowing the Russians to get there first would've been inconvenient (or worse), and now no one is really doing anything, because space exploration is inconvenient for the environment, or for world politics. For example, when the USSR fell, what did America do? did it continue moon landings? So long as convenience is favoured in the popular mindset over principles or needs advancement, real advancement of human society is farcical.

Getting to my main point on population control, overpopulation is killing our societies. And by that I mean the myth of overpopulation as it stands, as a planet we are NOT overpopulated, that is the most blatent of lies propagated in the popular consciousness. Countries are overpopulated individually certainly, Japan, for example has a REAL lebensraum problem, and Lord knows the large populations of China and India are going to lead to trouble, but as a world and as a species? No, we aren't overpopulated. However, say we did rid ourselves of the contraceptive mentality and reproduced to make up for lost time, sooner or later overpopulation WILL become a reality and a problem, in terms of living space alone if nothing else, and in actuality, in my opinion this will be a good thing. As mention prior, the convenience mentality is killing our God-given inquisitive drive to explore, so should all the world bicker and fuss over the environment and the ice caps and what have you, until humanity is on the brink of very real overpopulation, overpopulation will finally be used as the one real drive and push that will propel humanity to the stars and not the namby pamby liberal mentalities that encourage the idea that we will explore the stars 'in our own time' once we have terrestial concerns dealt with and not the tragically under utilised drive of wonderment, exploartion for exploration's sake, (AKA, the NASA mentality, no ideological pressure or politicising, going to space simply because in the long term, when you REALLY boil it all down, its just bloody awesome). Overpopulation will FORCE governments to do the only real thing they can to handle the overpopulation: Expand.

In the end ultimately, expansion is in my humble view the only truly moral solution to Humanity's population concerns. God willed us to be fruitful and multiply. Who here reading this article honestly thinks He intended us to disregard his command once our population got so large that there was not enough room for everyone in the world? Far more likely, when He made us stewards of His creation that once our population exploded, it is either in His will or more likely in His pleasure to allow, our species to expand to other worlds. Because why not? Earth of course will always be sacred to mankind, but that doesn't mean we cant live on Mars as well, as I had said previously, space is an ocean and other worlds are really just other lands. Of course our species' empire expanding beyond the solar system becomes laughably impossible until we find some legitimate workaround for Einstein's cage (Realtivity and faster then light travel), but I think the solar system alone is enough to keep us entertained for a few thousand years. Ultimately however, whatever excuse people have for not expanding and exploring, turns to ash in the face of the potential expansion gives us as a species.

But we need to sort out our resource problems!: There's plenty more resources in space

We have yet to fix global warming!: If we dont advance our technology to the point where we can leave the planet, we probably never will have the technology to fix global warming

But what about world hunger!?: Who says we cant turn the moon into one large farm colony?

Overpopulation!: Hurr durr...

This will probably be my last article on space exploration and monarchy when it pertains to the future of the human species (keep in mind what I have pointed out would still remain true even if world war III wipes out half the earth) but it should be noted that I am extremely pro-humanist (not exactly sure if that's the right term), as my opposition to antipathic movements such as nihilism and anti-natalism as well as more pressing troubles such as a secularization and population control informs my view of the future as well as the present. I may not be as eager as some of my more scientifically bent friends about the promises future tech will deliver us (actually on that matter I have gotten into numerous debates about transhumanism but that is a WHOLE other story), but I am very eager at the possibilities for the benefit of society. And as my views are quite honestly also influenced by my Religion, this has more often then not caught out and unnerved a few of my atheist friends when the discussion is brought up (the assumption that technological advancement and interest in space exploration is the purview of the irreligious never ceases to amuse me).

As I said my views can be summed up as 'A Cathedral on Mars', while it may not be time now for Humanity's expansion, one day it might very well be so, and I encourage ourselves as a species to seek out a place in the Sun.