For a long time I’ve wondered and been curious about this contagion of both national loathing and contempt in much of the West.
The why? The how?
How could an individual or group take all the advantages and benefits from the abundance of their own country with all that it offers in terms of material benefits, opportunity and freedom but then hold such a deep loathing, contempt and doubt about its legitimacy and what it stands for and what it has built from nothing?
It’s the virus of the politics of guilt and shame like for example when a teacher tells students that Western civilization has been uniquely evil in its pursuit of colonization and slavery, with the implication that other civilizations have not engaged in such things.
It could be the flag or Australia Day
It’s one thing to be critical on specifics but then to extend that to wanting to bring the roof down on a system that has supported you and from which you have derived material benefit, is truly criminal.
It turns out it’s not a new thing.
It goes back as far as Ancient Greece and Rome and occurs when a country or has had it far too good for far too long. They start to take everything for granted with a sense of expectation and entitlement.
There’s even a word for it:- Oikophobia (𝐨𝐢𝐤𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐚, 𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐠. 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭)
I’ve had my suspicions that it was a combination of too much money, too much time, and too much university education.
You don’t see it in countries in Africa for example they’re too busy living hand to mouth.
You don’t even see it in the suburbs and country towns of major cities in the West for similar reasons. Too busy with kids, education, work and keeping the wolf from the door as it were.
It is a “progressive” left, Western peculiarity and ideology.
An ennui. Boredom with yourself leading to a form of national suicide or national and civilisational murder.
Seems I was right. Particularly the university part. That is ground zero for this virus of the politics of guilt, shame and criticism.
It is the Wuhan lab of the contagion.
The latest Victor Davis Hanson interview with Benedict Beckeld on this topic is very revealing.