Cynical vs. Aristotelian martyrdom.

Diogenes chucking his cup, by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)

What do we sacrifice for today, collectively or individually? We’re all here to serve, but to serve whom? And to what end?

Every culture/civilisationi since the dawn of time has sacrificed a part of itself (and realistically the majority of its people)ii in the service of some aim, even when that aim is as muddy and ill-defined as it is today.iii Nevermind the Crusades or whatever other ideological battles of yore, in living memory we laid down our lives “For God and Country”… which then just became “For Country” because primitive secularism sounded more reasonable…iv which then inexorably devolved into “For Family”… and then “For Self”… only to completely collapse into the most extreme libertard form: “For Other,” which is an expression of self-immolatory self-eugenicide that Tibetan Buddhist monks can but applaud this most righteous form of protest. But what’s the protest all about anyways? And why?

“Why” is always a sort of grasping at straws, even though it’s often enough as enjoyable a sport as any other,v but perhaps the most charitable interpretation of the protest against God (and Country) is that it’s a kind of post/anti-industrial Cynicism: a desire for austerity, simplicity, self-sufficiency, and naturalistic cohesion that flies in the face of Aristotelian (ie. civilised/civilisational) ethics, technology, and order (if too its decadence, luxury, and consumption). But what the Ancient Cynics got wrong in the days of Diogenes – and still get wrong in the days of “Degrowth” – and why they’ve ultimately lost the war for The Western Soul™, is that civilisation need not lack sacrifice.

Au contraire! Civilisation at its highest and best forms feeds off the gifts from the many to the few, and from the few to Eternity. Such is the undefeatable pyramidal form of all great societies and civilisations. In contrast, the small, hot, and flatly “decentralised” bands of cynical purists are ultimately no match for the organisational capacity of the polis.vi

All of which brings us neatly to a rather personally revealing list of people, principles, and situations that your humble author would sacrifice himself for, and to what end. Inspired by a recent (and timely!) mega-thread by good Saint Marko,vii so let’s take a look behind the curtain (and into your humble author’s soul):viii

  • My own life for: My two sons
  • Sacrifice my two sons for: Eretz Israelix
  • Time / money sacrificed for:
    • The Girl: 90% money and 10 years
    • Parents: 50% money and 3 years
    • Brother: 30% money and 3 years
    • Extended family: 1% money and 1-5 days
    • Home / Personal Residence: 10% and 1 month
    • Office / Studio: 20% money and 3 months
    • Private Athletic / Golf Clubs: 5% money and 3 months
    • Synagogue: 20% money and 6 months

To be crystal clear, none of this makes me a “martyr,” at least not yet, but it still seems worthwhile to take honest stock of one’s position every now and again. You never know what you might find until you start digging. But maybe that’s just my Aristotelian curiousity speaking. Or my conviction.x

All I know is it’s not my Cynicism… For God and Country!

 

  1. Oh you think being a vegetarian makes you some kind of new age hippie “self-sacrificer”? It seems that you’re blissfully unaware that the Pythagoreans were vegetarians 2`500 years ago, and it was far from a “new age” innovation even then! History you didn’t know yet, indeed… ↩
  2. It’s all pyramids baby! ↩
  3. For Capitalism indeed!

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  4. To quote Zohar from his latest piece:

    Why do the ashes of an unblemished red heifer, specifically, purify, and why does God give us laws that seem so idiosyncratic as to be unreasonable? A classic answer is that the idiosyncratic laws known as chukim are only apparently without reason. Search hard enough and you will find the reason. And you should. Not all that is unreasonable is irrational.

    Really, what’s so great about being reasonable anyways ↩

  5. If you’re currently asking yourself “Why would the US Democratic Party field a candidate much less a President as senile and sovietesque as Biden?” then you’re playing along in the sport beloved by so many other white collar university educated types, that of armchair politics! Yes, even when there’s apparently legitimate excitement, it’s still nothing compared to the genuine purges still to come. The fight is only just beginning:

    Though to be fair to the current corrupt gerontocracy, this is probably the most we can ask of it until give or take US Election 2040 when Mr. Beast vs. Logan Paul puts a pin in this Fourth Turning and sets us up for the next century of symmetry!

    We await our Cincinnatus!

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  6. Cities are, per Samo Burja, perhaps humanity’s oldest social technology and the most important for civilisation! (archived) ↩
  7. Quoth Saint Marko:

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  8. For context on the sacrificed quantities herein described, I don’t give that much of a shit about dying “too young”* and on the contrary see value, merit, and potentially even honour in it depending on the circumstances. I’m also not that impossibly attached to my wealth (ie. “net worth“) because I’m still young enough to make it again, it was fun doing so the first time, it would be a fun challenge to do it a second time, and if anything I’d just be forced to express my creativity in the same way I did when I just got out of school, which is to say by reading, writing, exploring, and negotiating my way through the world. Kinda like exactly what I do now! So for reference let’s say that my “net worth” is a few million and I’ll live another 20-25 years. Of course, YMMV NFI ETC… but context is that which is scarce so there ya go!
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    *I’ve been (half) joking with The Girl that she’d better enjoy our time together because I’m likely to exit stage left around age 45! Of course as I near that age, I’m inclined to push this timeline back just a couple years, but perhaps this is just what “normies” do when they get to 65 and look out the window for the first time in their lives, begging with The Eternal for a few more breaths before goodnight, which makes me think that really I should just stick to my guns. Amor fati! ↩
  9. Not even just the idea — the actual land! Y’see, for Jerusalem, the Third Temple will be yet another miracle. This is a crazy thing for your humble author to consider (much less admit) given that I’m only half-ethnically “chosen” and that my kids are only a quarter-ethnically so, but if someone held the proverbial gun to my head and made me choose one cause that I could honestly support their martyrdom for, that’s it. There’s only one. No others. And I’ve only been there 4 times and my kids only once, and yet that’s  how strong the gravitational pull is to that land… But don’t take it from me, just ask the Brasilian narco-pentacostals!

    Reports that a powerful Rio drug lord known for his extremist religious beliefs ordered Catholic churches near his stronghold to close have spooked worshipers and security experts and exposed the advent of a “narco-pentecostal” movement made up of heavily armed evangelical drug traffickers.

    Claims emerged in the Brazilian press over the weekend that Álvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa – a notorious gang boss known as Peixão (Big Fish) – had determined that three places of worship should shut down in and around the agglomeration of favelas that he controls in northern Rio.

    Since Peixão – whose nickname comes from the ichthys “Jesus” fish – took power in 2016 of five favelas that have become known as the Complexo de Israel, an allusion to the evangelical belief that the return of Jews to the Holy Land is a step towards the second coming of Christ and Armageddon.

    A neon Star of David has been erected at the top of the complex and at night can be seen for miles around – an unmissable symbol of Peixão’s force and his faith. The roofs of the favelas’ redbrick houses are dotted with blue and white Israel flags demarcating the territory the gangster controls. When police raided one of his hideouts in 2021 they found a swimming pool framed by a mural of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem and the words: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”

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  10. Conviction is a God-given gift! No other way to explain it. It cannot be reasoned towards nor taught very well. But what do I know? I’m just on the inside looking out. ↩