States Rights

Do you remember reading Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and thinking how awesome it was? Such beautiful thoughts expressed so beautifully. But consider this, H.L. Mencken via Borepatch. It's long for this kebob stand of a mind blog but read on:

The Gettysburg speech is at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history. Put beside it, all the whoopings of the Websters, Sumners and Everetts seem gaudy and silly. It is eloquence brought to a pellucid and almost child-like perfection—the highest emotion reduced to one graceful and irresistible gesture. Nothing else precisely like it is to be found in the whole range of oratory. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. 

But let us not forget that it is oratory, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it! Put it into the cold words of everyday! The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination — “that government of the people, by the people, for the people,” should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in that battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves. 

What was the practical effect of the battle of Gettysburg? What else than the destruction of the old sovereignty of the States, i. e., of the people of the States? The Confederates went into battle an absolutely free people; they came out with their freedom subject to the supervision and vote of the rest of the country—and for nearly twenty years that vote was so effective that they enjoyed scarcely any freedom at all. Am I the first American to note the fundamental nonsensicality of the Gettysburg address? If so, I plead my aesthetic joy in it in amelioration of the sacrilege.

“that government of the people, by the people, for the people,” should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in that battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves. 

Reflect on that and ask yourself, when Leviathan tears down another statue, how free are you. Or, if you'd rather, make like a pathetic lib Sumner sheep and bleat freedom, no slavery! Well done, but don't support its antithesis.

All for the Cause,

LSP

Smash The Statues!

The best thing about removing statues of honorable Confederate generals is that it's going to eliminate poverty, injustice and oppression everywhere. 

No longer will persons of color and feminist theater study majors have to trudge in slavery under the baleful glare of General Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jeb Stuart. Smash the statues! Strike off the manacles of fascism! And by the way, eliminate borders so that everyone can be controlled by our unimaginably wealthy transnational elite at slave labor wages.

To coin a phrase, what a crock. So come on, Sabo et al, let's see some life size Confederate street art, everywhere. As I pondered this on the Compound's southern values porch, my son came out, looking suspiciously sharp. 

"A friend's coming to get me," he announced cheerily. "Well that's nice, kid," I replied, like a member of Parson's Brigade and before you could whistle Dixie, up pulls the friend in a brand new, gleaming white F250.

Not My Rig

I tell you, it made my rig look like child's play.

Ride on,

LSP