Two European Spirits in the land of the Americans
In all extent, the actions undertaken by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold have been seen as an expression of typical American features by the scornful, aristocratic left-wing intelligentsia of Europe. What that left-wing intelligentsia in it's isolation from the true world of emotions and class struggle have failed to realise is that they in their own incarnation is more of a representation of contemporary American thinking than our two friends Reb and VoDKa.
In the true extent, Europe, no matter the fact that it is convenient for American supremacy that it's political leadership is more liberal and weeping than that of America, is the home-continent of the dogma of violence, of social hatred, of revanschism, and of illiberalism. That is why the European leaders need to be more wimpy and more prone to use means of state control over it's population.
In the US (and Australia), historical social mobility and constant immigration by new waves of immigrants have weakened the class struggle and ressentiment between the social classes. The lack of a domestic aristocracy (after the civil war) has led to a society where we only have one (from the beginning) monolithic bourgeoisie and one very diverse and disunified working class.
Due to the heterogenity of the American society, there has been a constant social violence in the background, but it has historically been below the political discourse, and all answers towards that violence have been made through symbolic rather than socio-economic measures (for example affirmative action, which by no means would make an end to the fact that the inner cities of the American metropoles look like they have been hit by atomic bombs).
Americans are defensive individualists, who are barking like dogs but are happy as long as they could protect their own property. They are armed to the teeth, but so socially domesticated by their inherent libertarianism that they pose less a threat to their government than the unarmed Italian populace represent to theirs. Without the ability to interpret class struggle, to discover and trace social groups, and without a ressentiment against the higher stratas of society, Americans are pretty harmless. All their hampering and disunity could be solved by meaningless, cosmetic actions (banning of abortions, affirmative action, abolishment of affirmative action, installment of the ten commandments poster at the school, etc...).
Some spectacular examples manage to see through and become frustrated with the inate meaninglessness of the civil and public debate of the USA. I argue that Eric and Dylan were such examples. They understood the inherent hatred against those privilegied at their school, the jocks and preps, as well as the general hypocrisy of their suburb, and managed to interpret it into making an action which is very Un-American, namely suicide, after taking so many as possible of their enemies down.
Say what you want about their action, it's conduct and it's outcome, but it is clearly not an example of the American way of thinking. Instead, it shows more resemblance to the thinking and mentality of the RAF or the Red Brigades of 1970;s Europe. By the de-individualisation of the victims of the massacre, Eric and Dylan upgraded their ressentment from an individual level to a collective one. And why not? Everyone understood that they were treated as inferiors despite their apparently superior ability to interpret things, and everyone accepted the ritualistic ideas of the preps and jocks, the idea that high school was a seat of mating together boys and girls.
The classical American way of dealing with social inferiority is to keep silent and try to work upwards. Americans can not see the structures of repression if they are not directly visible.
The classical European way of dealing with social inferiority is to DESTROY the group allegedly responsible for that inferiority, no matter be they Jews, capitalists, immigrants, aristocrats, catholics, puritans, moslems or politicians.
No values attached, it is so.
Europeans are able to see or perceive privilegies almost everywhere, while Americans just see individuals. That is one reason why the socialist movements (and fascist movements) had a bigger success in Europe than in the US.
The American government, as well as it's client governments in the rest of NATO and Europe, recognise the fact that the European people is very dangerous for the status quo of international capitalism. Therefore, it has made a policy to try to liberalise Europe since 1945, try to make it a seat of tolerance, political correctness and general wimpyness. So, the liberalism and "female" values which Robert Kagan attach to Europe is not a product of European weakness, but of a general political project made to soothe and moderate the European people.
While "liberty" is a codeword for the USA, and the ideal is to own property, the codeword of Europe is "defiance", and the goal throughout the historical European rebellions, from the medieval age to our time, has been to destroy the concept of property and create some sort of utopian state. That is akin to the lost golden age of Europe, in the bronze age, when the Proto-European peoples worshipped female gods and practised tribal communism.
Eric and Dylan were, in almost all of their personality traits, more European than American. They loved aesthetics, they loved German music (an expression of the cultural experiences of Germany, not of the USA), they loved Tarantino, one of the most international (hence European) of the American film-directors.
A typical American guy, no matter his ethnicity, look round-faced, muscular, a bit like Justin Timberlake, a bit like Bill Clinton in his facial features. Eric and Dylan look more European than American. If I saw them on a given photo without knowing their citizenship, I would have written Germany for Eric and Ireland for Dylan.
Even though their actions where made easier by their access to weapons, the actions of Eric and Dylan where more in line with the mentality of Sorel and Mussolini than the one of Nozick and Friedman. The spontaneous act of violence, against a herd which do not deserve better, is not an American action.
It is the European way of thinking.
In order for us Europeans to reclaim our identity, we must embrace exactly the characteristics which our cosmopolitan establishment are condemning. Vengeance, aggression, ressentiment, revanschism, and hatred have been the keys behind all successful overthrows of corrupt social systems.
In the true extent, Europe, no matter the fact that it is convenient for American supremacy that it's political leadership is more liberal and weeping than that of America, is the home-continent of the dogma of violence, of social hatred, of revanschism, and of illiberalism. That is why the European leaders need to be more wimpy and more prone to use means of state control over it's population.
In the US (and Australia), historical social mobility and constant immigration by new waves of immigrants have weakened the class struggle and ressentiment between the social classes. The lack of a domestic aristocracy (after the civil war) has led to a society where we only have one (from the beginning) monolithic bourgeoisie and one very diverse and disunified working class.
Due to the heterogenity of the American society, there has been a constant social violence in the background, but it has historically been below the political discourse, and all answers towards that violence have been made through symbolic rather than socio-economic measures (for example affirmative action, which by no means would make an end to the fact that the inner cities of the American metropoles look like they have been hit by atomic bombs).
Americans are defensive individualists, who are barking like dogs but are happy as long as they could protect their own property. They are armed to the teeth, but so socially domesticated by their inherent libertarianism that they pose less a threat to their government than the unarmed Italian populace represent to theirs. Without the ability to interpret class struggle, to discover and trace social groups, and without a ressentiment against the higher stratas of society, Americans are pretty harmless. All their hampering and disunity could be solved by meaningless, cosmetic actions (banning of abortions, affirmative action, abolishment of affirmative action, installment of the ten commandments poster at the school, etc...).
Some spectacular examples manage to see through and become frustrated with the inate meaninglessness of the civil and public debate of the USA. I argue that Eric and Dylan were such examples. They understood the inherent hatred against those privilegied at their school, the jocks and preps, as well as the general hypocrisy of their suburb, and managed to interpret it into making an action which is very Un-American, namely suicide, after taking so many as possible of their enemies down.
Say what you want about their action, it's conduct and it's outcome, but it is clearly not an example of the American way of thinking. Instead, it shows more resemblance to the thinking and mentality of the RAF or the Red Brigades of 1970;s Europe. By the de-individualisation of the victims of the massacre, Eric and Dylan upgraded their ressentment from an individual level to a collective one. And why not? Everyone understood that they were treated as inferiors despite their apparently superior ability to interpret things, and everyone accepted the ritualistic ideas of the preps and jocks, the idea that high school was a seat of mating together boys and girls.
The classical American way of dealing with social inferiority is to keep silent and try to work upwards. Americans can not see the structures of repression if they are not directly visible.
The classical European way of dealing with social inferiority is to DESTROY the group allegedly responsible for that inferiority, no matter be they Jews, capitalists, immigrants, aristocrats, catholics, puritans, moslems or politicians.
No values attached, it is so.
Europeans are able to see or perceive privilegies almost everywhere, while Americans just see individuals. That is one reason why the socialist movements (and fascist movements) had a bigger success in Europe than in the US.
The American government, as well as it's client governments in the rest of NATO and Europe, recognise the fact that the European people is very dangerous for the status quo of international capitalism. Therefore, it has made a policy to try to liberalise Europe since 1945, try to make it a seat of tolerance, political correctness and general wimpyness. So, the liberalism and "female" values which Robert Kagan attach to Europe is not a product of European weakness, but of a general political project made to soothe and moderate the European people.
While "liberty" is a codeword for the USA, and the ideal is to own property, the codeword of Europe is "defiance", and the goal throughout the historical European rebellions, from the medieval age to our time, has been to destroy the concept of property and create some sort of utopian state. That is akin to the lost golden age of Europe, in the bronze age, when the Proto-European peoples worshipped female gods and practised tribal communism.
Eric and Dylan were, in almost all of their personality traits, more European than American. They loved aesthetics, they loved German music (an expression of the cultural experiences of Germany, not of the USA), they loved Tarantino, one of the most international (hence European) of the American film-directors.
A typical American guy, no matter his ethnicity, look round-faced, muscular, a bit like Justin Timberlake, a bit like Bill Clinton in his facial features. Eric and Dylan look more European than American. If I saw them on a given photo without knowing their citizenship, I would have written Germany for Eric and Ireland for Dylan.
Even though their actions where made easier by their access to weapons, the actions of Eric and Dylan where more in line with the mentality of Sorel and Mussolini than the one of Nozick and Friedman. The spontaneous act of violence, against a herd which do not deserve better, is not an American action.
It is the European way of thinking.
In order for us Europeans to reclaim our identity, we must embrace exactly the characteristics which our cosmopolitan establishment are condemning. Vengeance, aggression, ressentiment, revanschism, and hatred have been the keys behind all successful overthrows of corrupt social systems.
I would also like to recommend the following website.
www.columbinegame.com
Try to download the game. It is enjoyably multi-dimensioned and helps investigate the mindset behind such destructive actions.
DEATH TO THE WEST
LONG LIVE EUROPE
www.columbinegame.com
Try to download the game. It is enjoyably multi-dimensioned and helps investigate the mindset behind such destructive actions.
DEATH TO THE WEST
LONG LIVE EUROPE