About That Wall

“Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership . . . not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.”

-Edmund Burke

(Notably, he didn’t add “and those who just decide to walk on in and help themselves to a piece of your society without asking permission, because it’s nicer than their society.” Must have gotten distracted and forgot.)

What would Burke say about the people running America?

Well, from those people’s perspective, their dead predecessors were overwhelmingly despicable, racist, misogynist, transphobic, homophobic and in general disgusting human beings. Certainly they can’t be held to a contract made with those hideous monsters, especially not an implicit contract which they were born into. What is this, slavery or something?

“Those who are about to be born”-these people don’t have children in any meaningful quantities. They reproduce below replacement rate. They view non-procreative sex, homosexuality, abortion and sexual mutilation leading to sterility as heroic. If Western elites don’t care about their descendants enough to go through the formality of creating them, obviously they’re not going to be bound by some imaginary contract to these imaginary descendants.

In their position, on a narrow bridge between a reprehensible past and a non-existent future, you can’t expect them to see their birthright (as Americans, Europeans, Israelis, etc.) as a precious inheritance to be guarded carefully, husbanded and passed on. They’ve got the mentality of someone driving a rented car. Go ahead, I’ll give you a ride. Put your feet up on the dash, what do I care? They are willing to sell what they have for pennies on the dollar, because they hate the people they got it from and because they do not have anyone to bequeath it to. Walk right across the border, what do I care? You can turn big chunks of my city into a slum, as long as I get authentic cheap chalupas out of it.

But people have a deep need for authenticity, for a heritage, for heirs. And the Western elites live with a big hole in the middle of their identity. Keeping this papered over requires constant mockery of the other, of their peers who have all these things, delivered through a bullhorn. That, a steady diet of SSRIs and conspicuous consumption of status-oriented goods and services keeps the pain of such an existence to a manageable level. Any upwellings can be projected upon one’s class enemies. The recent Women’s March is a good example.

A wall, aside from its practical benefits, is symbolic poison to this way of life. It’s a big, YUGE statement: “we don’t think like you. We see our country as a precious thing which many desire, but which we share selectively. We are proud of our ancestors. When you are long dead and forgotten, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will inherit what we build.” This is a direct attack on the elite’s mentality of “apres moi, le deluge.” No wonder they’re going crazy.