Just Happens, You See
Another glimpse into the mind of the scrupulously progressive:
Because, says Mr Gold, our pronoun-stipulating essayist, a sense of connection with one’s home, one’s territory, one’s ancestry and how one came to be, is “utterly arbitrary.” A thing of no importance, unworthy of consideration. Says he, or he/him, “The only sensible form of government is one-world government.”
You see, becoming even less important, even smaller in relation to the steering of the ship, one of billions instead of millions, is a good thing, it turns out. And that irrelevance is sensible, a thing to which the rest of us should apparently aspire. Star Trek, I fear, has much to answer for.
Mr Gold is happy to be described as a “rootless cosmopolitan.” Lofty and unaffiliated, and thus exempt from customary expectations. Because status, baby. One simply must be seen having those designer opinions. Whatever the practical consequences of those opinions might prove to be.
And while pointedly disdaining as foolish and low-status any sense of connection with, or affection for, the country in which he just happens to live, Mr Gold is simultaneously an emphatic supporter of Palestine, regarding which very different assumptions would seem to apply.
The world of things just happening, entirely by chance and for no reason whatsoever – in the progressive mind, at least – has been poked at here before.
From which:
Because apparently all things are possible in progressive metaphysics.
Update, via the comments:
Geoff asks, not unfairly,
Well, Mr Gold’s obliviousness does seem rather contrived, a modish affectation. And despite his ostentatious sneering at pretty much anything patriotism adjacent, I remain unconvinced that a country inhabited only by people who think as he does would long survive.
Readers may wish to ponder how Mr Gold, and doubtless many of his peers, can denounce Mr Trump as some kind of quasi-fascistic, totalitarian nightmare, an end to democracy, while simultaneously enthusing about a one-world government, as if the prospect had no implications for democracy.
Also, it’s unclear where the boundaries of this disdained patriotism are. Does it include the feeling that one’s country is more than a hotel, a holiday resort, or an economic zone? Does it include a background sense of attachment, of lineage and continuity, of history? Does it include the sense – say, while driving through the countryside – that “I like this place, I know this place”?
I ask because, while I’m not prone to flag-waving or wearing patriotic hats, I do understand a sense of belonging, of attachment, of home.
And I think I understand the kinds of people who disdain such things.
Though I can’t say I like them.
And Wanye’s posts are still private.
[ Gnashes teeth in frustration. ]
Does not care about the country he lives in. And yet…he supports Ukraine and Palestine because “occupation is wrong”. If enough people do not support the country they live in, that country will become occupied sooner or later, human nature being what it is. Throughout history, occupied territories were bled dry of wealth, slaves, etc. Not “one world”. And the ahem world government we currently have, the UN, allows their aid agency to become an arm of Hamas and appoints dictatorships to human rights committees.
It’s possible that Mr. Gold is both stupid and a malevolent liar. “Rootless cosmopolitan” suggests a high probability.
You see, becoming even less important, even smaller in relation to the steering of the ship, one of billions instead of millions, is a good thing, it turns out.
Just a few reasons to not be ruled by foreigners:
Only a fool would ignore these facts.
Doesn’t have to. If things go sour he can just up stakes and live elsewhere.
Also, narcissism.
With mass immigration that number’s going down even lower.
I’m still processing how Mr Gold, and doubtless many of his peers, can denounce Mr Trump as some kind of quasi-fascistic, totalitarian nightmare, an end to democracy, while simultaneously enthusing about a one-world government, as if the prospect had no implications for democracy.
Also, it’s not clear where the boundaries of this disdained patriotism are. Does it include the feeling that one’s country is more than a hotel, a holiday resort, or an economic zone? Does it include a background sense of attachment, of lineage, of history? Does it include the sense – say, while driving through the countryside – that “I like this place, I know this place”?
I ask because, while I’m not prone to flag-waving, I do understand a sense of belonging, of attachment, of home.
And I think I understand the kinds of people who disdain such things.
[ Post updated. ]
He ought to be forced to read Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments.
Is he doing the thing?
T’would seem so. And despite Mr Gold’s ostentatious sneering at attachment and belonging or anything patriotism-adjacent, I remain unconvinced that a country inhabited only by people who think as he does would long survive.
That.
Which is, one might note, a recurring theme among progressives. Advocating behaviours and attitudes that, should they be adopted by a majority, would rapidly undermine the structures on which the rest of us – and they themselves – depend.
For instance, Laurie Penny’s insistence that the family unit, on which so much of our world ultimately rests, is just something to be “rejected” and “dismantled” in order to seem cool among other pretentious idiots.
Likewise, the supposed hazards of masculinity, as Ms Penny sees them. Or her fondness for vandalism and mob coercion. Or her claim that chronic dependency on the state is “liberation” and somehow empowering. Or her belief, announced on the BBC, that businesses don’t need to be competitive. And on and on and on.
As I’ve said before,
And this is the standard trajectory. It’s essentially parasitic.
Indeed, and it’s a good reason to prevent the immigration of, and to promote the remigration of, people who regard your historic nation merely as a strip of land where they happen to live, the nation they really care about being elsewhere.
Of course, you’re not allowed to question the loyalty of immigrants even when they express contempt for your historic nation, and of course people who pretend not to understand nationhood usually turn out to have their own nations but don’t want you to have one: why should you care, you just happen to live here.
Not picking on Sami, because he’s a college student so maybe he still sincerely believes that human attachments of specific ancestral groups to specific places are a superstition that has finally been overcome in his own generation.
We like to call people who do bad things “animals” – and that is false since animals’ instinctive behavior is to survive, be it themselves solely or the species as a whole.
So, Mr. Gold can envision his utopia of all peoples existing together and yet, a wolf pack (which, by the way, is a family unit, with several generations) works to ensure its members are fed, and musk oxen will form a protective circle around its young, and elephant herds do not abandon their old . . . and yet you have humans who view with contempt things like “nationalism” or “family.”
By the way, and since you ask, I currently have a cold. I am sniffling and making unattractive noises with my throat.
Feel free to send condolences, flowers, chocolate biscuits.
Chocolate malted milk biscuits would be nice. I hear they have healing properties.
Matzoh ball soup is the miracle cure, though.
[ Begins chopping ingredients for the two-gallon pot. ]
Do you, too, find that when you’re under the weather your craving changes from coffee to tea?
Not craving much at the moment. Apart from the aforementioned biscuits.
[ Awaits enormous shipment of biscuits. ]
“Rootless cosmopolitan” was a Soviet perjorative for Jews who were insufficiently Stalinist, having some liking for Western art and literature and human rights.
But there really are people like Mr. Gold for whom the term is very apt.
What is the airspeed of a fully laden swallow?
The time for not picking on such morally deranged fools ended generations ago (if there ever was such a time.) Shaming is necessary.
Has this chap appeared on these pages before? I think I recognise the name.
It often seems to me that the trendy denial of patriotism, ubiquitous amongst the progressive set, is typically paired with an overweening pride in one’s city or town of residence: a narrowing of perspective happens.
If it’s any comfort, Mr Gold is getting something of a thrashing in his replies. So far as I can see, his only responses have been expressions of disdain and, inevitably, of superiority.
I don’t believe so. Though his views are very much of a type.
Incidentally, the New Yorker article to which Mr Gold refers is paywalled, even on Wayback Machine, but some of its omissions and evasions are touched on here by Tyler Durden.
Maybe they should call themselves The New Rootless Cosmopolitan.
Status anxiety. Every time.
Professed egalitarians do seem remarkably prone to it. It’s practically a signature.
And almost funny.
Maybe they should call themselves The New Rootless Cosmopolitan.
.
Not entirely unrelated to the post above.
“Get over it,” says he.
You can lead a whore to culture . . .
He’s probably read one book (Howard Zinn?) and thinks he knows everything.
Why not? If he’s stupid enough to believe that he shouldn’t be stinking up the halls of academia with his putrid folly.
·
[ Feeble cough. ]
[ Awaits biscuits. ]
Wonder how he’d react should a group of strangers invade his home and tell him that when he objects.
Pst314
When people ask me about the increasingly open antiSemitism in the West – I tell them my main fear is that, when the chips are down, these rootless cosmos will exploit Israel’s Law of Return to flee here.
Kinda like Los Angelenos moving to Austin.
That was the attitude of the pacifist Alex Comfort, when he and a few other intellectuals argued with George Orwell in the letter column of some leftist magazine at the outset of WWII: Retreat from France to England. Then flee to America. But, no matter what, never never never get your hands dirty by actually fighting the Nazis.
Understood.
But the vast majority of *these* rootless cosmopolitans are not Jewish.
Kuffr woman is put in her place. Does she notice?
https://x.com/i/status/2061232814813790532
[ Recalls short story “The Man Without a Country”. ]
I don’t know what government he thinks he will get, but it is probably this one.
Oh do fuck off. Like pleasant, liveable, interesting cities just happen. Like electricity and fresh food and sewerage and fire protection and safe air travel.
Wanker. Parasite.
[ Passes used, slightly crumpled square of kitchen towel to Fred the Fourth. ]
On the house.
[Grateful, uses towel scrap to wipe spittle flecks off lips and adjacent bar top.]
[ Post updated again. ]