Cultures with a High Baseline of Respect & Virtue Create Bullshit & Horror; Low Baseline Cultures Create Bullshit & Horror; The Middle Path Also Creates Bullshit & Horror; Yet, High Baselines Constantly Pressure People to Reform, Even If They Are Hypocritical & Corny
I am a firm believer in what Plato said in The Republic:
Good laws cannot make bad men good, nor do bad laws make good men bad. But the
argument would go on to say that… a series of good laws can make society more
efficient and high-functioning, and it can at least make mediocre people behave
outwardly like good people. Maybe it sucks that the guy is insincere, but I am
a 40 year old man. I am no longer a teenager. Authenticity is between God &
Me. It’s also between That Guy and God. But I also think appearing good is part of the job description when it involves
serving my wife & daughter, and I want you to get the same things for
yourself and your family.
Plus I think Plato would have added to this by saying that “Good
laws sometimes make mediocre people good, although some mediocre people just
become hypocrites, but that’s okay… I don’t actually really care what those
people think, anyways, since they are made of bronze and I am made of gold.*”
Plus people are forgetting something else Plato said: Fake it till you make it.
The greatest problem that conservatives face is the fact
that they cannot actually produce a ‘1,000 year reich.’ Cultures just don’t
decay, but they suffer from the hypocrisy of the imperfect people who live in
them. So all of the antagonists and critics ask… what’s the point? Why have any standards? Why not just have pure,
unadulterated liberty as opposed to living in an uptight community where we are
all judged by hypocrites?
You can call this argumentum ad Harper Valley P.T.A.:
Conservative society is a bunch of hypocrites giving virtuous hussies a hard
time about their clothing. Conservatives are only good at being superficial, while those who openly defy
the gilded & cheesy externalities of virtue actually possess true virtue,
and this is why they are so attracted to tearing down conservatism… They bring
down a corrupt, pretentious edifice, and they reveal that true virtue is
unassuming and hidden, and they like to show up dressed as the people who the
Pharisees condemn. This position is not entirely without merit, but it is a
very stale and shallow position that fails to account for the fact that bullshit & horror persists even when the
Middle Class stops acting like Pharisees and starts acting like aristocratic drug-sucking
fuckpigs.
Bullshit & Horror
Bullshit always exists. It never doesn’t exist. Bullshit
trails behind humanity like it trails behind a herd of cattle – whatever we do
is inadequate and often poorly executed. The shitty boss in the suit insists on
formalities and ring-kissing that is all a bunch of bullshit. The shitty boss
in shorts and a tee shirt will do all the same bullshit & only respond
positively to ass-kissing but he doesn’t even wear a suit and tie when he fires
you. The former is ugly because it is hypocritical, the latter is ugly because
it doesn’t even benefit from a veneer of propriety that comes with formality.
Horror is created by three things:
-
Poverty, because it makes people very desperate
and desperate people do horrible things.
-
Poor upbringing, because it fails to inculcate
values in normal people who then become more apt to do horrible things when
mingled with a little desperation. This isn’t that relevant to either high,
middle, or low since the low actually are right in these terms: values can be
conveyed through a variety of vehicles to kids. It doesn’t matter how dressed
up or stuffy it is.
-
Genetics, because some people are just born with
terrible impulses & inclinations and lack the cognitive bandwidth to
control these impulses or realize just how bad they are.
Culture does not really actively counter these things. It
can potentially create a good set of norms, but we all know how hypocritical
people are. These high standards perhaps do not actively recruit people because so many folks are hypocritical. They may
even result in discouraging people so much that they want to abandon these high
values, but I think that they also apply constant pressure through forcing
right decisions through their formalities and the perception of losing
prestige. Of course, some people will just try harder to suppress knowledge of
their darkness, but some of these people will fail to do this (and pay the
price) or they will be forced into accepting their circumstances and made to go
through the motions of virtue which may actually reform them by producing
reflection and compunction.
It is also the case that hypocrites will be negatively
impacted by high baseline cultures because they will be found out & eaten
alive by the vicious mob. It can be pointed out that the mob who shames the
slut and derides the drug addict is not necessarily that virtuous in itself,
but allow me to put on my own cynical smug face: “lol but why does it matter to
you what the executioner is wearing?! You’re DEAD ANYWAYS..!”
(You could even point out that the sword of tactical
nihilism that selectively abolishes meaning can also be wielded by the
conservatives, and has been by guys like Leo Strauss – maybe God isn’t real,
maybe Virtue isn’t real, but it makes society more efficient & functional
when the metaphorical Inquisition metaphorically burns people at the stake, so get
over it..!)
(I can also point out that, in addition to not eliminating bullshit
& horror, the low baseline cultures have not done away with the Inquisition
– it just persecutes people now for different behaviors.)
In short, high culture & high virtue societies at least
encourage reformation of the people in between
virtue and vice through constant pressure, even though that pressure often
comes from imperfect institutions and is dampened by the collective hypocrisy
within the society. I call this “Crooked
Teachers Can Still Encourage Virtue with A Crooked Stick.” (This phrasing
is inspired by the reaction to the Donatist heresy.
And it also provides a means for pulling down debauched elites & sub-elites. I call this “Crooked Teachers Can Still Beat Crooked
Students with A Crooked Stick.”
So the thesis is very simple: we need a high baseline
culture to benefit those who are neither vicious nor virtuous but can be pushed
towards a higher calling, and fill this vocation partially (as hypocrites) or
fully. Some of these people will become
GOODER FASTER – meaning, those men who eventually realized they should not have
abandoned their family when they turn 45 and their kids life is fucked up would
have given their right arm if you could turn back the clocks & force them to be fathers instead of
deadbeats.
Bullshit and horror I cannot fix - but I can transform small acts of vice into
virtue or at least “high functioning hypocrisy.” Low culture cannot fix
bullshit & horror, either, but they are far less likely to transform small
acts of vice into virtue or high functioning hypocrisy because they abandon the
mechanisms that can enforce that.
* This is the origin of the rapper’s gold chain – signaling to the peons that they are of gold. The chain, though, represents slavery to a media mogul.
