Bourgeois Anarchy

It is generally assumed that liberal forms of government like parliamentary democracies and representative republics are middle-class in nature. That is, they require a strong and stable middle-class to come into existence, but they also foster the growth of a strong and stable middle-class. Because the bourgeois are conservative by nature, unwilling to risk their peace and prosperity, liberal democracies will tend to resist radical social experiments or take on great risks, like wars of conquest.

Of course, the history of popular government in the West strongly argues against those theoretical assertions. Not only has the West been racked by war, the peace that has existed for the last three generations is due to the imposition of empire. The Pax Americana is the result of the decades long stand-off with Bolshevik radicals and the final triumph of the American financial empire. In other words, the results of liberal democracy seem to be the opposite of what is predicted.

In fairness, one could argue that the last century of war and radicalism were part of the birthing pains of liberal democracy. Prior to the Great War, the West was still largely dominated by hereditary empires. Radicalism was the result of the prior age, born in the Industrial Revolution under the age of kings. The great competition for what would follow hereditary rule was the industrial wars and the subsequent ideological war, which was ultimately won by bourgeois liberal democracy.

This is the underlying assumption of Francis Fukuyama’s book, The End of History and the Last Man. The final triumph of the American empire of the Russian empire was not just the end of the Cold War. It was “the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government” He has since revised his opinion on the matter, in light of current ructions, but it is an argument you still hear from time to time.

It does not matter how you frame it, as the West is now dominated by liberal democracy and the bourgeois sensibilities that supposedly support it. Look around the political classes of the West and you will not find exceptional men. In fact, much of Europe is now run by frumpy middle-class women. What is remarkable about the ruling classes of the West is not their mediocrity, but their uniformity. Every politician says the same things and behaves the same way in office. It’s rule by automata.

The horror that has gripped Washington for the last three years is not about policy disputes with Donald Trump. It is mostly about style. Trump is garish and flamboyant in his words and deeds. He is not a man with bourgeois sensibilities. Instead, his tastes range toward the crude and the base. The bourgeois hatred of Trump is all about the aesthetic. He’s not one of them and he is not respectful of their thing, so they see him as a threat, a foreign object that must be expelled from the body politic.

Of course, this smug, bourgeois elitism is not limited to Trump. It has become an article of faith in Washington and throughout the ruling capitals of the West, that the hoi polloi is the enemy of democracy. The great caper to rig the 2016 presidential election was as much about thwarting the will of his voters as the man himself. Today, the political class in Washington is proudly undermining the basics of democratic order in the name of democracy. Something similar is happening to Boris Johnson in Britain.

Washington politics is now an endless squabble between mediocrities over trivial matters that distinguish one from the other. Because these people all fall within a very narrow band of general talent, what makes one stand apart from the other is little things that would normally be overlooked. In order to avoid that, they amplify these trivial issues and endlessly pick at one another’s small distinguishing features. The result is endless hairsplitting and backstabbing over persona slights and insults.

It turns out that bourgeois government looks a lot like everything else in bourgeois society, in that it is debate about how many mediocrities can dance on a pin. The reason for this is the great middle is not all that great. If we use the standard of IQ studies and say the average IQ in America is 100, that is the pole around which bourgeois society is twisted. The closer one gets to that number, the more representative of the whole. By definition, the middle-class is mediocre.

Further, the people who fall about one standard deviation above the middle are going to be the people who dominate the cognitive fields like law, polices, the media and the academy. That’s an even narrower band of people. Relative to one another, they are even more mediocre. Walk around a college campus and you are surrounded by people who never met a risk they did not take. The same is true in the political class. What’s remarkable is the near total lack of accomplishment outside of politics.

Critics of democracy generally point to the stupid getting access to the ballot as the main flaw of democratic systems. If for example, America only allowed males to vote, the political center would be somewhere to the right of Ted Cruz. If whites were the only vote, something similar would result. The argument from those very bad people who make such arguments is that we have 30% of the population not built to operate a Western style democracy. As a result, the system must fail.

Whatever truth there is to that, the reason for those conditions, for stupid people getting the vote and foreign people imported to vote, is the bourgeois political class, supposedly operating from middle-class sensibilities, made that choice. The decision to expand ballot access was not done by the king or the oligarchy. That was the work of middle-class people supporting members of their class in political office. The same can be said of open borders, where bourgeois demands for cheap labor rule the day.

The fact is, a precondition for a middle-class is an elite that will impose order and discipline that allows for the growth of a middle-class. The bourgeois was never intended to rule, rather they were built to serve. Put them in charge and you get what one would expect by putting the inmates in charge of the asylum. The resulting bedlam always requires a strong hand to restore order. This is why authoritarianism always seems to follow every foolish experiment with democratic rule.


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196 thoughts on “Bourgeois Anarchy

  1. “The fact is, a precondition for a middle-class is an elite that will impose order and discipline that allows for the growth of a middle-class. The result of this approach is to ensure the success of the application of the law.

    Z-Man blog.

    Yes yes yes, very well. An authoritarian power, then. But that’s where the problems begin.

    We can have a dictatorial power, a type of Caesarist, demagogic and populist, which leads to a kind of mega-socialism, and to despotism (see Philippe Fabry’s excellent book on Rome-which neglects, however, that the cause of this The accession of Caesarism was precisely the liberal republic that preceded Caesarism, and secreted the oligarchy as the secret snail of the drool, it is mechanical, and proved by a historian himself openly liberal, proven to be defensive, perhaps but proven).

    We can have tyrannical power (Sylla, Pinochet, Franco). These powers are based on a social base so small that they never last long, and that the inevitable reaction arrives: to the left all!

    We can have a fascist power, Italian or German version, where a balance seems to exist between the two social poles, the optimates and the populares. But when Benito and Adolf die, what happens? Ze.Méga.Mess. Like that idiot Alexander with “I leave my empire to the most worthy”.

    So what ? Which solution ?

    The king.

    The king gets the balance sought and temporarily obtained by fascist authoritarian regimes. He is not related to the optimates, but he uses them as frames of the regime. It is not related to populares, but avoids their oppression (Dickens) by the optimates. It also avoids their preponderance (2019).

    He is tied to the fate of his nation-state, since his son will succeed him, just as a family business is more soundly managed than a corporation by share, in which shareholders see only the short term.

    TINA.

    (sorry for the language, I’m french and this text is google-translated)

  2. We have the government our elites want us to have. The legions of empty suits in DC are perfect foot soldiers for globohomo. The goyim are awakening and it must scare the crap out of them.

    That’s why they pushing all the lunacy , ie transgender, uncontrolled immigration, constant attacks against the president, etc.

    This country was founded by white men with white men sensibilities. We’re still here, but quickly being replaced. Shlomo is continuing to dictate what we say and do even in the face of our own extinction.

    Suspicions arise when I see attacks on the president from so-called conservative websites. Always find it amusing when people try to label the president as being brash or oafish.

    When looking at democrats and their legions of mindless followers it’s easy to see who the real buffoons are. What will middle white class do to save themselves ? Sadly by the looks of things not much . Perhaps generation Z will save the USA from the evil continues to plague us ?

  3. The other problem with authoritarianism is who gets to be the authoritarian? Who decides who gets to be an “elite” and by what criteria?

    Say, I am a technical professional, or an entrepreneur, or business owner with an IQ of 136. With the outlying exceptions like the brainiacs working on warp drive (IQ 165) or professional athletes, I consider myself to be fully competitive with any other kind of human in nearly all meaningful endeavors. What in this universe makes you think that I would even dream of sucking up to any eilte class that did not include myself? Of course this is never going to happen.

    The fundamental issue here is that any concept of elite that is not based on pure meritocracy is non-viable from the get go.

  4. The question for those who believe in authoritarianism is always “who will watch the watchmen”.

  5. You have critiques, not without flaws.

    Do you have solutions?

    Why yes; Year Zero. Again.
    But this Year Zero is grounded in reality esp HBD. So this Year Zero will work.

    I don’t agree the middle class was built to serve or that’s how the middle class came into existence, but in any case in America they’re armed, alert and will bow to no such scheme.

    I have no problem with philosophers waxing about an ideal or better society but tearing down the wall with no replacement is getting old. It’s as if upon reading Chesterson one still marches out to the anthem of Pink Floyd.

    The Republic is what we have in some form still. We have genocidal mediocrities that have administratively hijacked the Republic and they must be removed from power for us to survive.
    As it happens they’re in open rebellion and this simplifies problem and solution.

    You’ll suggest that democracy will be replaced by authoritarianism.
    But you see-we really are however still a federated Republic. The Republic may fall but the replacement will inevitably be federated. Federations want a say in governing indeed must have one which means…

    Now you may have your philosophy but we who do must have solutions.
    Scribble away but we’ll have probably the Republic restored. We’ll certainly continue in Federation, perhaps with Trump as Pricipeps, or another.

    But tens of millions armed, sworn and over 15 million trained veterans backed by 1.3 million standing soldiers who DO take their Oaths deadly serious will not accept less than the Republic. They may accept an elective political dynasty in the Trumps if they lead us to Victory. But they’ll be no Year Zero along yours or anyone else’s lines.

    And you’d regret it if you got it.

    Cheers

    • “in any case in America they’re armed, alert and will bow to no such scheme. ”

      Nonsense, they do what they are told and like it.
      Just look at the airports,

  6. Walk around a college campus and you are surrounded by people who never met a risk they did not take.

    This part I dont get at all. In fact I think it is the other way around; I think think a main problem is that these ppl never had any reality checks, they’ve been pampered and protected all their lives. Even the ‘tough guys’. John Bolton, the king of chickenhawks, he dodged Vietnam. Imagine Churchill’s credibility, when he promised to fight Hitler on the beaches, to the bitter end, if Churchill had dodged all the myriad small wars of the British Empire in his youth. Instead, whatever you think of Churchill, he literally went out of his way to find these wars, enough that he annoyed the hell out of teh upper crusts of the late Victorian British Army. That matters, to credibility in war if nothing else. So I dont get the part about them ‘taking risks’.

  7. Look around the political classes of the West and you will not find exceptional men. In fact, much of Europe is now run by frumpy middle-class women. What is remarkable about the ruling classes of the West is not their mediocrity, but their uniformity.

    I had a discussion w a friend a while back. He’s obsessed w the JQ and thinks the West is being murdered by Marxists, Jews, others and combinations thereof. I said what is happening is organic. And yes there are some very unappealing people involved, many of whom belong to his pet categories.

    But my point, which I still hold, is this: There will always be ppl who want to subvert society, do crazy, evil or backhanded things. These people will always exist to offer their poisons. What characterizes an age and a society, is which types of people get traction. This is how societies choose their leaders and I suppose there is something rather ‘democratic’ about it even though it has nothing to do w ballots and elections per se and applies to all societies, not just democracies.

    To see how a society is doing, see what kinds of people it elevates. This is why it is a very bad omen that such completely pedestrian people are now in charge across the West (minus the US, and perhaps partly the UK; Trump is certainly a different animal and holds other omens, not necessarily good but certainly different. Boris Johnson seems to me to also be a deliberate choice of something other than the pedestrian although he has not won an election yet).

    But this is the message of a Merkel and all the other ‘leaders’ in Europe that seem ready to bore you to death w their ordinariness. And it is interesting to compare to what kind of man has been #1 in Russia for the last 19 years. Maybe Russia is not the sick man of the white ppl’s world after all…

    • Nobody dies from AIDS, they die from other illnesses due to the AIDS virus having weakened their immune system. The West has full blown AIDs, jews/marxists/etc are the minor illnesses that are actually killing it.

      • Decadence, a fundamental weakening of the culture, greed, selfishness, loss of sense of adventure, honor and integrity, are the ‘AIDS part’, the marxists etc ripping us apart are the ‘opportunistic infections part’.

    • C’mon dude, step up to the plate and make a specific criticism. We like discussion here. An insightful correction is always appreciated.

  8. This subject and yesterday’s bookend nicely. They both have bothered my thoughts all day. How to create a society that won’t devolve to the mean of what we have now and yet isn’t an oppressive dictatorship. Democracy naturally leads to mass franchise for those that have no rightful claim to steering the ship of state and the other end of the spectrum leads to all but a tiny few having no right to claim the helm.

    I know it’s a problem as old as man. I wish I didn’t care. But I do care about the future of Our People. We will be forced to build anew if we are to survive.

    I read all the posts from yesterday, particularly critiques of the Constitution and the Founders limiting the franchise. They seemed to have realized and tried to limit the morass of the universal vote while striking a bargain of guaranteing basic human dignity with the Bill of Rights. And yet here we are.

    How to limit the vote to the responsible people in the future? It doesn’t seem solvable. I try to work through a solution of combining the Constitution and some sort of draconian hoop-jumping (military service as requirement for males, as a prerequisite for even attempting to take some sort of franchise-granting test of equally difficult proportions, etc.). I understand and agree with limiting sufferance to men only. Basic human rights for the remaining “helots” not earning voting rights. Only, this failed before. Men granted women the vote. Men eliminated the prerequisites for voting. The limited democracy still failed us.

    I simply cannot work around the solution of pandering. Politicians pandering to open the franchise. Men relinquishing their rights to all and sundry.

    I am befuddled.

    • There’s no perfect system. The system matters less than the men who run it. Men will always fail in the long run.

      As an aside, the Bill of Rights was a concession to the Antifederalists who were worried about a federal government running rough shod over the states’ sovereignty. The BoR, originally, only limited the federal government reserving those specific powers listed to the individual states. Or, in the context of your comment, reserving the duty of protecting “basic human dignity ” to the local government.

  9. I retired from teaching. Now I’m bored. I know how to cook, wash cars, clean stuff, shoot guns decently.

    I want to go to school to become a machinist. Don’t ask why.

    • One of the more popular bloggers (back in the early days of the “blogosphere”) turned his talents to machining. 😉

    • If you were in my area there is a company that will pay for your schooling if you give them some years after working for them…

      • I will talk to some companies here then. I’d rather go to age 70 machining instead of making tomato sauce and delivering pizzas. Just planning ahead. thanks for the idea!

  10. Slightly off topic – you know, Zman, just as our political aesthetics appear to be stuck in the 18th century, so too are our landscape aesthetics. I took a class on the history of landscape design in college (purely for pleasure) and the American preference for a smooth, green lawn is directly drawn from 1700-1850 England. The whole idea of mimicking nature, albeit controlled, and an expanse of cool green surrounding one’s home. Where the climate is suitable that’s fine, I suppose, but I’ve always preferred nature in its natural form, and for gardening to reflect its human design. Think the medieval garden as an outdoor room, with benches of greenery one could sit upon, or a knot garden, or the Italian renaissance water garden. The standard suburban lawn is boring, and a massive waste of time and labor – seed, feed, water, cut, deweed, water, water, water, cut cut cut. We a new outdoors paradigm!

    • You can thank the HOAs for that. “Victory Gardens” were a thing during the war and when I was a little kid during the PBS series of the same name.

  11. Meant to post this yesterday, but didn’t get around to it. Seems like you’re still thinking along the same lines. You wrote:

    “Either all men are equally capable of active participation is society or they are not. There is no middle ground. Democracy chooses the former and must relentlessly work to make it manifest.”

    Do you see “what comes next” as the West choosing the other side of this binary? For example, a Heinleinocracy (as in “Starship Troopers”), or rule by those who make some voluntary contribution to society. For those unfamiliar, in Heinlein’s case this voluntary action was military service, which guaranteed citizenship.

    After searching for a few minutes, I’ve only noticed Heinlein appear in your comment section. I’d be interested in your thoughts on him.

  12. Maxine Watters alone, walking through the halls of Congress as a representative, in her fake ghetto wig, is all you need to know about the current clown show environment. To expand on Groucho Marx, I refuse to belong to any club that would have Maxine Watters as a member.

    No good person can stay in Congress and stomach it for more than a couple terms. You have to accept it for what it is, a brothel for lobbyists, nothing more. Of course, in all the lobbying, the middle class are nowhere near the topic of conversation.

    The current state of politics has no gravity. It’s like outer space. An asteroid will keep going in one direction unless smacked by another object, or pulled into the orbit of a larger object. All of this can keep going, until a very large object comes along that moves all of the orbits and changes the whole dynamic. That’s what we’re waiting for. A crisis moment.

  13. The very idea of “right to rule” being linked to “cognitive ability” is a category error. The word “clever,” as applied to people, was an insult almost within living memory. There’s a certain level of brains needed to lead, yes, but leaders don’t need to be very much smarter than the average bear. It’s character that counts. Nothing could be “dumber” than passing out from heatstroke while dining at the regimental mess on the Northwest Frontier in full formal dress in high summer, but I’d take any all-but-illiterate redcoat sergeant-major over every single politician in the West right now.

    • It would seem a matter of degrees. I would say that a Congress critter needs a bit of IQ and specific knowledge to say, sit on a Congressional committee to listen to folks testify wrt climate change and what we need to do about it and such. Right now, the numbers of people sitting on Congressional committees with little to no specific/useful knowledge is staggering. I don’t know what you call the average bear, but if it’s around IQ 100, then I’d say you are off by a standard deviation.

      • IQ isn’t the problem in congress it’s their utter lack of character and being criminally inclined to astonishing degrees.

        A higher IQ won’t fix that, you’d just end up with more high functioning criminals. We already have that on Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

  14. This kind of is affected by what is meant by a middle class, right?

    In the past, they were the merchant class – they used their skills and individual trade to make money. As opposed to the ruling class, who used the work of serfs and higher order trade to make money.

    A democracy run by the middle class – has it ever even existed? Technically, our ruling class is considered middle class. Technically, Warren Buffet is middle class. But are they REALLY?

    What has existed is democracy being run by moneyed interests. The wealthier you are, the more influential. Moneyed interests have shifted over the millennia, from lords to middle class to neo-lords (who use the wealth generated by serfs to trade in hedge funds and stock markets, accruing great wealth).

    It also explains why the more “successful” middle class are actually not conservative at all.

  15. “…….The same is true in the political class. What’s remarkable is the near total lack of accomplishment outside of politics……”
    ———————————–
    Been screaming about that for at least 10 years. I’ll look up some of the local Dems who are running for local office here in California—— city council, board of supervisors, Assembly…..that sort of thing….Nearly every one has a similar resume, especially those 50 and under———— Involved w/ CALPIRG in college, perhaps. Stints of volunteering and interning at various activist or environmental organizations. Next step is assistant manager, then manager of one of those organizations. Local Donkey Party then plucks them out of the talent pool to run in the next election.

    They quite literally have never held an actual job. They come to the office not as sober legislators – but as screaming, placard-holding, bullhorn-barking activists. That’s all they know. That’s all they have ever done.

    • Jay Dee:
      Case in point. We had a young woman recently who wished to run for city council. She posted her campaign, including her “qualifications” on the local Next Door site. Graduate of Cal State LA. (bottom of the already laughable CSU system) major in Sociology, and Chicano studies. It took about four hours for some of the locals to turn up some seriously juicy anti-white shitposting on her Instagram account. Toast. But here is an encouraging side note. She was flamed pretty hard for her bigoted remarks, so, she deleted her account, and disappeared. As I followed the thread I saw that (in general terms) both the Joneses and the Gonzaleses flamed her equally. The ‘Spanish surname’ crowd didn’t want any part of her crap anymore than the white folk.

      JWM

  16. I think we’re evolving into a system where the only actual citizens are members of the permanent government, the dominant media, and academia. They work hard to diminish the value of citizenship by importing more and more people who have no real interest in citizenship, and they expand the rights of non-citizens to the point where you actually have a default-higher prestige as an oppressed immigrant POC than the people who are born here. It’s a feature not a bug designed to eliminate the usual citizenship identifiers.

    That leaves the ruling class as the actual citizens. Voting doesn’t matter. What matters is whether the judge will allow it, or if the judge will just write some new rule the voters oppose. The judge is a citizen, the voters are not. Similarly, the voters elected Trump, but the permanent bureaucracy is in an open insurrection against his presidency. To the point where John Brennan actually called for government employees to fire off “whistleblower complaints” against every perceived illegal activity they can name against President Trump. That’s just the citizens taking action to control what they will and will not allow in “their” country.

    You and me? pfft. Irrelevant. We’re not citizens.

  17. The conclusion of this article is incorrect. NRX is based on a critique of democracy which simply doesn’t fit the facts.

    The masses did not vote to enact replacement level migration, it was forced upon them by the elite.

    In the United States we can point to several attempts to stop or discourage replacement level migration, which were voted for by the people and then frustrated by politically sophisticated elites.

    Examples include the various ballot resolutions in California, such as denying public funds to illegals, (Prop 187) which were struck down by the Courts.

    And the election of Blumpf in 2016, where the masses voted for less immigration and got more immigration, as a result of complex elite shenanigans.

    Democracy is problematic because the masses are incapable of disciplining the elites.

    See standard poly sci on how unsophisticated outsiders are at a massive disadvantage when competing with sophisticated insiders in a complex bureaucracy.

    The election of Blumpf is an object lesson about how elites in a democracy use the system to frustrate the will of the voters and give people the opposite of what they voted for… And it will also show us how they manufacture consent for those new, elite driven policies, for example by creating the myth of “White terror” to justify repression of the people who voted the wrong way in 2016.

    Democracy is a solved game, and a total failure. In part because of the masses are not capable of sufficient sophistication to play the role they would need to play.

    But the moral culpability lies with the elites who used their powers to commit injustice against us, not the masses who tried, but failed to restrain them.

    It’s essential to keep the culpability of the elites firmly in mind, when thinking about what a just outcome would look like and what a new system ought to look like.

    • Next time you hear the “but that wasn’t real communism” argument remind them that a whole lot of people at the time thought it was. So all those people were either stupid sheep or it was real communism. Either of those conclusions will disrupt the leftist mental OODA loop.

    • Spot on analysis. As a CA I remember how the elite stopped every effort at curtailing immigration reform. No one wants to mention that because it doesn’t fit into the current narrative being pushed.

      Unless we have a way of keeping the elites in check, the outcome will always be the same, the elites turning on us.

  18. “By definition, the middle-class is mediocre..” The middle class IQ must be higher, because we know the “inner city people” average at 85.

    • David, I’m wondering this as well. I just don’t have the facts wrt IQ standardization. A lot will have to do on when last standardized and upon the population. A failing of mine to be sure. Given our current PC culture, I can see more and more vibrants being included in the future standardization (always to the magical number, 100) which would push the average White into current Asian territory—and would change our frequent discussions of the Smart Fraction and what numbers of students should be pursuing a college education and the like.

    • That’s Blacks in general. The inner city folk might clock in at retarded level – 70.

  19. ” Look around the political classes of the West and you will not find exceptional men.”

    It occurred to me the other day, that Trump is the first president since Eisenhower who is not a career politician.

    JWM

      • Reagan was governor of CA. He also ran, or attempted to run for the presidential nomination the term before he got the nomination (IIRC). He was president of the Screen Actor’s guild for a term or two. I’d say he had political bona fides, albeit did not make his bones on it.

  20. “The bourgeois was never intended to rule, rather they were built to serve. ”

    And they still serve. Their subservience to current orthodoxy despite decades of social decay is pathetic. Dairy cows display more resistance on their daily herding into the milking barn than does your typical corporate worker bee or academic. Sell the bourgeois a moralistic tale, spin it daily, catch them young…and you can milk them until the stars burn out.

    Which is why changing the narrative is so critical to our success. Something you excel at.

    Calling them out by name and dealing harshly with the vermin who have manipulated the bourgeois herd into working against their own interests is also a necessity.

    • Yves, can you expand on what to do with the new narrative? That is, how to share / broadcast the message? The pulse of dissident collectives seems to be head down, not open debate (because that’s just not allowed by our chosen ones). If we are grossly out numbered by almost every measure and space, how can a different story be told?
      As I learn from these discussions, and please hear my respect for your position, a new narrative suggests general application and portability. But I question collective efforts beyond quiet fortification. And that’s mostly individual it seems.

      • Getting inside their OODA loop is necessary. The “Islam is right about women” signs are brilliant.

      • MH,
        Without endangering ourselves and those close to us we need 1000 more Zmans, 1000 more Ramzpauls, 1000 more Enochs, 1000 more of a lot of things. Maybe even 10,000 more.

        I think the best thing we can do right now is to make connections with friends and family who are like-minded. You don’t have to go full 1488…but just express dissatisfaction with the current social milieu and where its headed. Meet regularly and discuss how you could assist one another when things do turn for the worse…and other contingency plans. Keep the group small. The next 2 presidential elections will set the stage for the eventual conflagration.

        Make contact with other groups through existing orgs if you can. Amren and Therightstuff guys have a pretty extensive network. I forget what they call themselves now, but there’s a great bunch of young identitarians who operate nationwide.

        There are also existing organizations like the rotarians, the elks, the vfw and many others who are all geriatrics and need new blood. They have lines of communications that extend nationwide. Your own small group could join and soon curb its activities.

        We need to make ourselves into a hard target. Trump, despite his many many many faults, does provide us with some cover. When he’s gone things will go south fast. We need to prepare for that.

        Preparing doesn’t mean running for the hills either. We do need some of that if things get really bad…but abandoning our cities and their surrounding suburbs is a mistake. It’s where power resides and where civilization happens. Don’t live in the hood. Move to a place where you’re surrounded by your own tribe no matter how progressively delusional they may be.

        You can find dissidents everywhere, even places like Berkeley and Marin County.

        When you can, be a wise-ass and laugh at prog sanctimoniousness.

        There are a lot of people in this comment section with great ideas and who have taken a variety of action. We need a lot of different people taking a lot of different actions to get ourselves out of the current decadent collapse.

        Try to find one thing everyday, even if it’s spontaneous, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant it may initially stike you…that pushes back against the expectations of Clown World. A few dozen of these acts will amount to zilch. But there are millions of us who are dissidents and 10s of millions more who in one fashion or another share our sentiments.

        Millions of small acts of defiance will force our enemies to overreach driving more and more people onto our side of the Rubicon. When we have enough willing and able to act, we cross it.

        • I agree, all of us need to reach more people. We’re up against huge obstacles, but we have one big advantage: the truth is on our side. So many people we know are carrying around so much cognitive dissonance, lies and propaganda, sometimes it doesn’t take much to make it crumble. And it’s better to approach discussions with friends in a good-faith way rather than a snarky gotcha manner.

          • Exactly. Help an injured guy out by shoveling/snow-blowing his walk and driveway. Rake his leaves or mow his lawn. Bring over meals to a family that’s had a recent birth or death. Even if they refuse you’ll be labelled a good person. It’s the right thing to do regardless. Let’s be the people who do the right thing.

          • That sort of voluntary assistance was taken for granted at one time. One of the reasons why it’s less common is because in a socialist society (we live in a socialist society) personal relationships to people in particular are replaced by impersonal relationships to people in general. I’ve asked others, “Who’s going to take care of so-and-so?” “The Government.”

        • We need organizers and some Thomas Paine types that can actually talk to the normie whites, provided our side had a message for them – which it doesn’t.

          Right now the DR has as much substance as Beto or any Lefty running for president. Which is to say none.

          Yeah there are a lot of whites pissed at the status quo, but the DR offers no alternative because it has nothing to say to them outside of “democracy is bad” and wishing for a dictator to fix everything for us, for god sake.

          The DR isn’t a movement at this time.

  21. I don’t think the Washington antipathy is a matter of aesthetics so much as it is a matter of economics. Sure he’s a bore, but so what? The real threat he presents to them is if he halts the gravy train. There’re all quite wealthy and they want things to continue in this fashion whether the head honcho is a bore or quite debonair.

  22. They want everything flattened out and regulated. The West as an economic zone, run by drab managerial elites, populated by people from all over the world as economic units working, shopping, consuming netflix, spouting the same approved opinions. Fewer corporations owning more, including formerly independent news outlets and radio stations. Anyone or anything sticking out among the crowd must be hammered down or banned.

  23. I was just listening to (((Andrew Marantz’s))) TED talk. He was talking about his experience interacting with “us” for lack of a better term. One line really hit me: “No one is born not believing in democracy” as a way to smear us as being contrarian for its own sake. This is how up their own arses these people are. Who is born “believing in democracy?” As if belief in democracy is encoded in our genes. Democracy is really like a religion to these middling intellects. When the people defy the elites’ beliefs, it isn’t the failure of democracy to deliver to people what they want; it’s a failure of the people to realize that democracy is whatever their social betters (those Whites and Jews who live in DC, LA and NYC) believe.

    • Most humans are born with an innate sense of Hierarchy and Authority (both men *and* women, but women have much more ‘hidden’ social hierarchies, at least to men…). Is this dude an idiot or a liar (or both)?

    • Nathan – very well said. You critique of Marantz echoes, in some way, my critique yesterday of Paul Gottfried. They seem to share the assumption that the dissident right and/or identitarians are merely shock artists, a pep squad, contrarians, or autistes. They utterly refuse to believe that any intelligent, well-read rational individual could possibly share our beliefs. Yet I’ve learned more history and political and moral philosophy in my online reading of “hate sites” than in all the years prior, and yet I tick every box the elites value re credentials (elite college, grad schools, jobs, etc.).

  24. Following the OT people, an anecdote. I was on vaca this summer and was touring a lighthouse. You know the deal, buy a ticket, wait for the time they allow you to climb to the top. So there I was, at the top, having an amiable discussion with the park ranger, an older lady. She was telling me about her science background, what drew her to the work in her retirement years, pointing to a wetland in the near distance.

    So I am wearing a shirt identifying my alma mater, and this bovine, really fat, tatted, revealing too much skin female creature blurts out, “you live in (the northern city)?” I turn, take in this presence, and answer that I went to school there. She, the bloated, tatted thing blurts, “you look pretty old?” Total non sequitur, while I am standing next to a woman, a dignified one, in her 70s.

    Now that hideous creature has my attention, I decide to take a moment and continue my longtime pursuit of information gathering, human intel if you will. I ask her if she lives in (northern city). She says “I used to” … but her large, air conditioning manufacturer, employer moved them down to a southern city. She declares, she “hated” said northern city.

    Speaking with fat beast, I could not help but take notice of her preening that a good looking man (that would be me), of gym-rat created middle age, is giving her the time of day. I also could not help notice how stupid she was.

    I ask this creature, “what do you do at (large air conditioning manufacturer)?”

    ANSWER: “I am in HR.”

  25. On paper Mexico is a liberal democracy, but in reality it’s a Narco feudal region. Thats probably the big divide in the future, white and Asian areas with a functional state vs everyone else.

  26. Another fantastic Zman post. The “mediocrity” has slain the Republic. I hate to say that as a Vietnam vet and a real Patriot but I think America is disestablishing. Those conservatives who want to “go back” need to realize one can never go back. We have to prepare for the future not relive the past. We need to stop all immigration. Seal the borders. Deport all Mohammadans, communists and illegal aliens. Then keep them the fuck out. We also need to realize no matter how much it hurts to say the Constitution has failed and we need another way. The Constitution has been converted (or perverted?) into a suicide pact that protects criminals, anti Americans and their anti American practices, illegal and legal aliens, the very poor, very black, very colored, very rich and very left. In short everyone but the white, Christian men who started the whole damn thing.

    We gave away our birthright when we gave away the vote to blacks, colored, women, and every person who had no skin in the game. We cannot take it all back now so we need to start all over.

    • I’m all for sealing the border and doing lots of deporting. However, I think whites are more responsible than minorities for our present problems. Minorities have always voted for big government and PC policies. It is the whites, though, that have changed in my life time. Outside rural areas, whites are now supporting the bad guys from 45% to 55%. This is probably due to indoctrination in college and even in most public and private high schools. The New England states, Oregon and Washington are mostly white, but elect hideous candidates to office. My wife grew up in the Chicago suburbs which voted for Goldwater and Reagan. Obama and Hillary win now. I grew up in the Phila exurbs. Reagan won by 65%; the same county voted for Obama in 2008 and Hillary in 2016. Some of this is changing demographics, but not a large percentage of blacks or Hispanics vote. Mostly it is white people; the older conservative ones are dying off and being replaced by younger ones who are PC, pro abortion and LGBTQ, and believe the propaganda that diversity is our strength. It is not an intelligence thing either. Ivy League graduates have incredibly high IQ’s, but tend to vote Democrat (even the ones on Wall Street). Our hope is with the graduates of community colleges and trade schools. We should all encourage our children and grandchildren to move to the country. Rural people are similar to cops and those in the military–conservatism seems a part of their DNA.

      • It just goes to show you that IQ isn’t everything. This is why I don’t think a white ethnostate is the answer, it would invariable self-destruct as the high IQ slowly morph into Bernie Bros and turn on the rest of the whites. Like what happened in Britain where the aristocracy turned on the lower classes.

        • You’re right about an ethnostate not being the answer. We need a section of the country where there are few if any large cities. Alabama and Mississippi vote the right way in spite of large black populations. Georgia and North Carolina, due to the large cities (Atlanta and Charlotte), will soon be blue states.

      • I can’t speak for the rest of the country, but New England (and the east coast, generally) were the first to be impacted by mass immigration. Pick a county and trace its voting record. Start with the cities and the near suburbs and follow the flight ever outward. It’s no mystery.

      • Cpt Mike: In order to save the villagers, we must destroy the village, and hang the village shamans.

  27. “Critics of democracy generally point to the stupid getting access to the ballot as the main flaw of democratic systems.”

    It’s not that they are necessarily stupid. It’s that they can’t possibly have any personal knowledge of whom they are giving their vote. Candidates are the products of coordinated efforts of anonymous staffers and media flacks, an advertised consumer product, like toothpaste or beer. The modern nation/state is simply too large for the democratic process.

    • If letting the stupid have access to the ballot didn’t cost me so much – I probably wouldn’t care so much

      The reality of our current “democratic” system is not that people object so much to all the dumb people voting – they object to the government being used as a tool by the useless and stupid to force $$$ out of their pockets to subsidize the useless and stupid.

      If all the dumb people had access to voting for was whomever the next “representative” was going to be – and the government was as toothless as intended in the founding documents – the smarter people who actually work would probably just ignore the entire situation.

      When I go to the supermarket and I’m confronted by a bunch of massively overweight “inner city dwellers” – who are loading up their shopping cart with food I can’t afford – and I get to stand behind them in the checkout line and watch them pay for it all using one government issued welfare card or another… and I then get to watch them waddle out to a car nicer than mine – which they parked in a handicap spot……… It’s a big splintered stick shoved up my ass – reminding me of what “democracy” really means on the ground.

      All the esoteric arguments about fairness and egalitarianism and so forth – are things I can completely wipe from the minds of those I am able to lay out the facts and figures for – and then hammer home what those facts and figures mean by having them stand in line at the supermarket behind those “inner city” residents.

      Since women are the ones who most often do the shopping – they’re a good target audience. I have found that the coupon-cutting women are where I can get a lot of success. When you spend hours cutting coupons to save a few bucks – and you can show that all of that time and effort is completely futile – because Showanda just bought a steak with the money you saved and then sent her thru your tax return …… you just created another enemy of “democracy” – as it’s typically presented.

      I typically see democracy portrayed as ” 2 wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner”.

      I usually portray it to women I know as: ” Showanda just outvoted your effort to save money by clipping coupons”

  28. The unanswered question in Z’s post is, “Why did the conservative bourgeois expand the voting franchise to those who would vote against the bourgeois?” I disagree with Z and guess that this decision was driven by white and J3wish elites.

    We will confront his underlying issue in a white ethnostate: the ruling elite come to hate the non-elite and empower outsiders to weaken the non-elite.
    How do we prevent our elite from hating the non-elite?

    My favorite uncle addressed this problem. Has anyone else?

    • Not sure I agree. There must always be a supporting population of highly skilled folk for the elites to draw upon—doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. those folk will not be of the lower IQ cohorts (<100) and they certainly won’t spend a third of their lives developing such skills for minimum wage. They will be the middle class of the dystopian future I see developing—a small cohort of perhaps 10 to 15%.

      But yes, it would seem we are headed into an era of a vast lower class typical of what we see in Latin America. To the support of this, just listen to the figures cited of folk who now retire after a life time of work with no assets, or the surveys on how many people can not meet an unexpected expense of $500.

  29. Young people who have only known the costs of empire and are living the blowback have a hard time understanding how something as silly as globalist TINA-ism could be taken seriously.

    While the smarter among them should study the specific ways and means by which this came to be, for everybody else it is easiest just to call it all a globalist plot and move on to how we get rid of it.

  30. “What is remarkable about the ruling classes of the West is not their mediocrity, but their uniformity.”

    The current system is set up to keep brilliant, independent-minded people out of political power. The media and intelligence agencies are actually a giant filter designed to locate and neutralize anyone they deem “suspicious”. Trump represents the kind of person they definitely did not want: hyper-wealthy, self-made, smarter than most politicians, confidant, and contemptuous of the media. They absolutely must take him out at all costs in order to put the next ladder-climbing mediocrity in place. I’m actually surprise that they have not tried to kill him before now…and I don’t rule it out.

    • I’d suspect that it was discussed somewhere, but so far, Trump hasn’t rocked the boat too much, either in terms of draining the swamp or trying to halt our march toward multi-culti heaven.

      In the end, he’s a crass CivNat Boomer who still believes in much of Cult of Equality. He’s annoying to the elite, but, again so far, hasn’t proved to be much of a threat. Now, if he starts prosecuting rogue FBI and CIA agents, starts building a wall, enforcing immigration law against businesses, etc., then we might see some fireworks.

  31. My wife retired from a well-known Midwestern liberal arts college a year ago. What struck me was the rigid conformity of thought among the faculty, many trained at prestigious graduate schools.

    Most striking, every faculty office bulletin board was decorated with exactly the same political posters. Apparently, individual faculty could arrange as they saw fit, but the whole set was mandatory. This was regarded as a desirable situation.

    • Interesting. I had somewhat of a different experience, I was the oddball out wrt my office at the University. Way back when in the Reagan/Bush era, I got a Christmas card from the Whitehouse. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know, but I put it on the door with others from students. Every morning, I’d come in and check out the umbrage it created during the night. No faculty ever mentioned it, but many anonymous students (I assume) had no problem vandalizing it in many imaginative ways. After a week or so, it vanished, thereby ending my impromptu experience in “conservative” statements in academia.

      • I have always been amazed how little respect the snowflakes show for other people’s property. Somehow they feel entitled to simply deface or destroy other people’s things that they don’t like. Yet, look at them cross eyed and they melt down.

        • There’s the old joke about going into a Communist bookstore, loading up with stuff and walking out. When they stop you, explain that it’s “according to your need.”

  32. “It turns out that bourgeois government looks a lot like everything else in bourgeois society, in that it is debate about how many mediocrities can dance on a pin. ”

    I’d love to see more expansion on how the bourgeios takeover of everything has led to the collapse of all the places smart(er) folk once were able to find a place within the social order while still gaining the benefits of traditional bourgeios values (family, faith, community, social connection, etc).

    Entire American corporate departments are *filled* with mediocrities now. The marketer, accountant, benefits coordinator, supply chain analyst, project manager, etc, are perfectly average in so many ways.

    What’s so frustrating is that the departments (Engineering, IT) that were once places where smart(er) folks who wanted stability could, in theory, find a solid place to use their talents, are now being filled with minority mediocrities from the next 10% below the ‘talented tenth’ (the talented 10th usually have direct entry to the elite) and (dot)mediocrities.

    Smart-folk risk taking today involves giving up having a family and kids – working 16 hour days at the Startup is a young single man’s game now, and there are few woman for him find that can manage the day to day affairs of the household (she’s busy with her 9-5 as a “business analyst” or “non-technical project manager”).

    • BT. Seems dissident smart folk are risk-taking by retreating in areas where the blast zone of the coming reset might get them too. I used to believe I should put on the mask, dive into the cesspool of mediocrity and grab all I can as fast as I can. Now I believe that’s a fools errand because of the opportunity cost of not preparing for what’s Next.
      I’m somewhere between Bison Prepper and Zman, I think. Navigating best I can hour by hour, with an eye (and laboring) on weeks, months and years to come. Homeschooling our kids is motivating as hell…

      • Moss homeschooling is the greatest thing you can do for your kids and they will thank you the rest of their lives…I know that because mine are already thanking me and they are just starting out…

    • Corporate departments by their nature have always been filled with mediocrities. I have worked in corporate finance for 31 years. I am generally risk averse and not terribly creative, so I make a decent living doing the white collar scut work to support the risk takers. I am surrounded by many with the same characteristics.

    • Yes, this is a concern to me.

      I am going to graduate in 2 years and enter the field of STEM. The only problem is that, I have no interest in working for companies where the entire department is sub-continentals and various alien mystery meats.

      Am I afraid of being mistreated? Not really. What I dislike is the alienation and complete lack of cohesion that happens when you have “diversity”. Just interchangeable aliens working together to make some stupid piece of software run. Robots.

      So I’m not sure what to do. Should I make a go of it in those creepy, dissociated corporate environments? Should I move to a small town somewhere and work for a small white company? Would likely not be work that challenges me (120+ IQ).

      Where did all the smart white people run off to? I have no idea. But as I mentioned in a previous thread, these demographic changes seem to have taken place overnight.

      • When you succeed in a rigorous field of study, e.g. STEM, the world is open to you. If one corporate environment is too poz’d, you are able to find another because you have a valuable commodity to sell—ability! Yes, you will enter some corporations and bump into “diversity” hires, but the reality is that too many such hires will place the corporation at a productive disadvantage.

        Don’t put the cart before the horse. Forget about others. Concentrate on yourself. You will not fail.

      • My advice would be to start in a smaller shop where you get to do more and learn more with the goal of ultimately working remotely. If I had started out in a Fortune 500 company (like the now-defunct one I contracted with a few years back) I would have made more money, learned nothing but office politics, and been bored rigid. (My last project with them involved changing one character in a SQL query running in a black-box reporting Db. I spent an entire week filling out the paperwork to move it to QA.)

      • If you are going into STEM, consider lab work. My favoritist (and only) daughter learned all the lab techniques for her microbiology degree, and got actively recruited for her first job in the field. She also likes the lab work because she “doesn’t have to deal with humans all day”. She’s kind of picky there, that’s OK with dad. Here in California, she can get certification as a “Certified Lab Technician” and then a “Certified Lab Scientist”, and basically write her own ticket wherever she wants. All her work is under NDAs so she can’t talk about it, but she says mastering all the available training in lab techniques, while in college, did the trick. She is overseeing robotic genome mapping machines, employing her lab techniques to oversee a semi-automated process, that’s all she is willing to say.

      • In a 10-20% third world firm somebody has to the actual work. That will be you.

        Break your balls for a few years gaining hands-on electromechanical problem solving skills and learning how to interface and iron out software conflicts. While in school master your dimensioning and tolerances, know your CAD, learn to run a milling machine, and learn to use hand tools.

        Or obtain a full time internship at Northrop Grumann this winter or summer. Da boomers be retiring very, very soon. Wink, wink. Do not turn down a technician-level internship if one is offered should they deem you not fully qualified for engineering at that point.

      • Are you an inside guy or an outside guy…I was an outside guy which is why I chose my field instead of being the Architect that my teachers said I should do…If you are an outside guy look into the trades that require a journeyman ticket you will find hardly any diversity hires…

      • Unless you’re set on something else, I urge you to consider electrical, mechanical, or electromechanical engineering. Or engineering technology from a place like Cal Poly, if you live in California. From what I’ve observed opportunities for young engineers with hands-on skills are greater.

        Automation is here. As are UAVs and UGVs. And missiles, too, because FUSA is (quietly) concerned about Russia’s hyper-sonic vehicles. Competent engineers and electrical/electronic/mechanical/electro-mechanical technicians are needed. Inside and field-types, as Lineman mentioned.

        Nowadays young engineers are oriented toward math and design. My sons, all engineers, have confirmed my impression that companies are “rediscovering” the value of hands-on skills for engineers. Their resumes went to specific department managers looking for exceptional candidates in addition to HR.

      • UFO, I don’t know how rooted you are in your current location, but there are tech jobs in red state cities where the demographics and poz aren’t nearly as bad. I’ve worked as a software engineer in three big cities on the west coast and at those places your concerns are realized. However, I relocated to a red state and have a great job with comparatively little multiracial or degenerate headaches. Good luck.

  33. These female managerial class types — the older ones, even if they are big Hillary or Liz supporters, can be very competent and fair-minded if you are pleasant to them. The ones in their early 30s and younger are a disaster — fat, entitled, bitter, scolding, incompetent know-nothings. Our institutions won’t be able to survive them.

    • ” Our institutions won’t be able to survive them.”

      thank God!
      most of our “institutions” don’t deserve to survive..
      School system?
      Dept motor Vehicles?
      Welfare offices?
      Hollywood?
      Academia?

      Bring it on.

    • “our institutions won’t be able to survive them.”

      That is why public education has become a jobs program. There, you will find the most useless but wholly empowered females.

  34. Well stated.
    In addition to my “square job”, I have a small construction company. It’s almost impossible to find people (men) that can/will;

    Show up, regularly
    Not be drunk
    Do a task without having someone constantly monitoring them.

    It’s gotten to the point where the guys who know what they’re doing, start their own thing.

    And don’t get me started on the lack of common sense most people lack regarding doing simple home repairs, or improvements.

    I swear, some don’t know what end of a hammer to hold. Or even own said hammer.

    This may be off topic Z, but your piece today prompted me to think of the utter incompetence of people.

    • Yep. I live in a mid/upper-middle class subdivision (mostly folks in corporate middle management, upper-tier nursing, lower-tier academia, engineers/IT, and a few small business owners). I can count on one hand the number of men I see who:

      (1) mow their own grass / maintain their own landscaping
      (2) maintain their own vehicles (even for *simple* things)
      (3) fix their own house (again, even for *simple* things)

      These people are mostly pure consumers. They consume everything. I have *fights* with my wife about why *I* want to do something myself. “Just Hire Someone” is her constant refrain… I’m like, do you not understand that there’s *value* in my doing it myself???

      • Okay I live in a neighborhood very similar to that one but I’m actually one of the worker bees and Ive got to say that these people support a vast economy. The people they hire to maintain every aspect of their lives is why I have shelter and food on the table. They’re not misers they’re Spenders. I appreciate them and God bless them I hope they keep making money

        • I’m not completely against it. But I just don’t see how folks making (together) $120k/yr to $180k/yr living in $350k-$500k houses can afford it longer-tem. I certainly can’t (even with both cars paid off, no student debt, etc). One economic ‘correction’ or lost job, and these people are *done*.

          I get it when at least one partner is a doctor, lawyer, high-caste academic, or executive, and the home is $800k+ with 3 luxury cars. But since when did the American middle class hire servants?

          • It’s true. A great number of people can live like the 1% now. That actually shows you how good things are. For luxury cars they’ve had to add all sorts of extra bells and whistles because it’s the only way to separate them from what the hoi polloi drive because all cars are good now. Which ironically makes a mid-price car much more reliable than a high-end car. You rarely see cars broken down on the side of the road anymore but it’s always an Audi or something now

          • Whitney, and a great number of people refuse to live as such. Wife is retiring soon, she thought she wanted a Lincoln Aviator until she found out the cost of such bobbles put on a basic Ford Explorer. Now she thinking to get a Cadillac, but it will be the same story, she has an inability to purchase and enjoy such luxuries as she has earned through a lifetime of work and investment. I’m beginning to think one has to be born with money to spend it. Just can’t take the peasant out of some people. 😉

          • Whitney: I was discussing this exact thing with a friend this weekend.
            She married well, and they have money in the bank, he has a good job (she stays home with the children) and they have a nice house.
            Cars are average: a 5+ year old Honda minivan, and he has a 12-year old Audi.
            She and I were discussing the personal value (belief) about not needing to have a fancy car, and instead having that money in the bank.
            In other words: no need to show off when you know you have money in the bank, rather than feeling the need to be flamboyant with what one drives.
            My Dad (born in 1932) was part of the former belief: have one car and keep it until it dies. Then buy another –used– car for a great price, and keep that one until it dies.
            Repeat until lots of money saved over a 30-year period.
            I’m glad I got to see (and also practice) that value in action.

          • Staying home with the kids is no piece of cake these days. I know a lot of the stay-at-home moms and they frequently have kids in three different schools and all in activities and it is just seriously a Non-Stop job. And then there’s the anxiety, because they don’t talk about what the future looks like for their children but they feel it and they’re doing everything in their power to ensure that their children stay on top of the heap at the same time their kids are getting brainwashed by their schools, private or public, to find something they “love” which I think just means don’t make any money and work at a nonprofit.
            I think one of the most malignant and Insidious messages that kids hear and have for several Generations, I know I heard it, is find something you love and do that is a job. The truth is that’s not always possible but you can love what you do and take pride in what you do and it can be rewarding. They have completely reversed that message….like so many things

          • @BadThinker
            “. But since when did the American middle class hire servants??

            The middle class has always had servants.

          • The ‘historical’ middle class in Europe and the USA prior to the 20th century did. But the *American* middle class of the last generation or two, created by industrialization, usually did and has not.

          • I’m all for trading money for time/leisure, and I sure did give it a try when I retired. Spread the wealth (as has been mentioned) is also a good reason as well.

            I don’t have a lawn, but there are grounds to keep, and a large house to maintain—and so I did. I had a roof leak, I called a roofing company. They fixed the leak. Next rain, new leak. This went on for three storms, regardless of what I told them to do—which was to patch everything they thought flaky. My general admonishment was to repair as you would for your own home, cost was not even mentioned.

            I gave up, went up on the roof. Worked for three weeks during the one or two hours of morning that were bearable—presto, no more leaks! Ditto for new water heater, after install it began to leak at pipes. Turned off water, replaced connections with one’s that fit, pipe dope, care in tightening. Again, years later no leaks. Ditto, a/c. Even told the repair person the cause and fix (capacitor). For a $50 part, got to pay $400. Stories like this abound.

            In short, what I am experiencing is perhaps the “Peter Principle”. Folks in the trades seem here to be simply incompetent or unconscientious. Basically, in this new “retirement” home, the workmanship and maintenance is so poor, that I can spot such in most every aspect and repair myself better than I can reasonably hope to employ others to do. Welcome to a sub 100 IQ world. My problems are little more than an annoyance, but g_d help you if you are lying flat on your back in an ER with a heart attack.

          • Two friends who worked part-time as real estate agents told me that they wouldn’t buy a house built after 1965 because it probably shabbily built. A third friend carefully watched the work done on her custom-made home. She demanded that a great deal be redone because they didn’t do it right the first time.

          • You must be bad at math. My wife and I had a combined income that grew over the years to about 175K before tax, per year. Our home went from the purchase price of 200K in 1995 to 750K today. It’s paid off. That will pass on to any heirs when we are done with it.

            When we retired 8 years ago we had a combined pension income of about 52K per year plus we had about 550K in savings to invest. We don’t gamble in the market, and interest rates are very low, so that yields a minimum amount, but it’s enough to offset inflation.

            We live well, eat well, drive a new car, enjoy a bit of travel and hire out the yard work as we are now too old to do much physical labor. Our money has not gone up or down in that past 8 years. Our savings continue to gather interest and we aren’t big spenders.

            We simply continue to live within our means. I track all expenses so I know where the money goes. We lived well below our means for most of our working lives to allow for some serious saving. It becomes a habit after awhile. It’s hard to break. You start to think in terms of frugality and it’s benefits. It’s simply the ‘deferred gratification’ thing.

            That is a big problem with many people, they live beyond their means, get divorced, have too many kids/pets/vacations, buy too expensive a house or car. … over-use debt etc. Credit cards destroy lives.

            There have been books written on how to live well on very little. Those books should be taught in school. We are all going to have less as time goes by ….

            So many people are too stupid to figure out how to solve their most basic problems which is to get food and shelter for themselves. Time to smarten up.

          • Good for You, Boomer. Pension, Medicare, Massive Home Price Inflation, I’m so *glad* that your life is fantastic and that you were born at the right time. I bet you paid your way through college on a part time job too! Obviously these uppity Xers, Millennials, and Zoomers just need to learn to do Math!

          • BadThinker, I hear ya, however Duke’s ease of success and subsequent advice has little to do with your particular circumstances. Regardless of your particular “post Boomer” cohort, precepts such as “get married, stay married”, avoid out of wedlock children, avoid CC debt, live below your means, save the rest—are universal, timeless, *and* classless.

            That you perhaps did not do these things—or did do these things—with results perhaps not as good as for Duke does not mean that you are not better off than you would be by ignoring such advice.

            I am father to two millennials, who followed Duke’s advice and they now have similar situations to Duke—before they hit 30! I admit that these two children have solid minds, above average intellect, and took degrees in rigorous fields of study. I am thankful to Providence for such as we (wife and I) are completely undeserving of such—and my wife never fails to remind me so. 😉

          • Compsi,

            True, but Duke may not fully appreciate the difficulties that Xers and Millennials face. We sure as hell aren’t going to get a private pension.

            Also, his advice about the stock market being gambling is just wrong. The market isn’t rigged. It’s volatile. Owning stocks is simply a claim on future corporate profits. If you look at it like a business and forget the daily, monthly and annual gyrations, you’ll be fine.

            Just decide how much your gut is willing to lose and create a portfolio on that. If you can handle a 30% loss, put 60% of your money in stocks. 20% loss, 40% in stocks.

            But your kids should be investing in stocks.

          • Citizen, on that we really do agree. I am most angry that TPTB—whoever, Greatest Gen, Boomers and X’ers —allowed such to happen. How does it profit Duke or me to be in the top wealth quintile while 80% of the rest of our society live hand to mouth? It’s disgusting and shameful.

          • Your kids, before they hit 30, are retired with grown children, have a paid off house that quadrupled in value, a 52k / year pension, government and/or company-pension-paid healthcare, buy new paid off cars, no student loans, etc?? I take your point about making good decisions, but unless your kids are *far* outside the norm, I’m sure they’re circumstances aren’t *that* good.

            I’m not discounting the value of proper planning, staying out of debt, and saving. Before I was 30 (and before I was married) I was out of all debt and had about a 50k net worth, with *no* parental monetary support after age 18 (no college paid for, no car, etc). Even after getting married and having a kid, with huge medical issues that the wife has been facing afterward, we still only owe money on the house.

            My point is that in general, Boomers all act like circumstances have *nothing* to do with results. It’s the combination of circumstances, ability, and motivation. I count myself very *lucky*, in my mid 30s, to have a six figure job in a ‘lower’ cost of living area than some of the major eastern/western cities, and can keep things going even on one income, after having to spend about $12k/year on medical premiums + deductible/oop. Most guys my age do not have the opportunity, and my point about others is that should some major medical issue or lost job happen to them, they would be completely broken.

            A late 30’s friend who was the sole breadwinner of his family as low/mid-level IT manager was recently laid off, the whole dept to be replaced by body-shopped H-1Bs with H-1B Brahmin managers.

            All of this is anecdotal, of course, but I think it shows that circumstances matter a great deal. And Boomers can F off when they don’t acknowledge it.

          • Duke said: “That is a big problem with many people, they live beyond their means, get divorced, have too many KIDS/pets/vacations, buy too expensive a house or car…”
            Kids are just another luxury, eh Boomer? Like Carnival cruises and Vegas vacations, huh? Should my people survive or should I spend a week at the Mirage?!?
            If anyone wonders why we’re in this giant demographic shitshow, you are Exhibit A. Sure we’re rapidly approaching CW2, but my 401k is doing great!

            If you wonder why everyone under 50 hates you, just contemplate the solipsistic atomistic “screw you I got mine” hedonism of viewing YOUR PROGENY as a luxury accessory, an alternative to a new Lexus or a trip to Paris.

          • I had to up-vote your up-vote. I’ll tip my hat to living frugally, but to NOT notice the simple blessing of going to school and joining the work force during America’s golden age is simply amazing.

            By the way, what is a pension?

          • A thing for government workers, (and contractors), that you subsidize by setting your alarm clock every morning.

          • @Educated Redneck
            Well said Brother…It’s all about loving self these days…Screw your kids and your society as long as your money holds out til you die…

          • Yep. This is what the regular guy with a family hears:

            “Screw you, on your median salary of $32,000. Looks like you both have to work! Oh, shoot, we’re going to Vegas again so we can’t watch the Grandchildren, better find a daycare! Oh but not that one I heard stories about how daycares damage kids, you should just stay home to raise them! Oh, a house that fits you and your kids in a ‘good’ school district is at least $200k? A 1970’s split-level that needs a new roof, new siding, and a new septic tank? Oh well just work hard, that’s what I did!”

          • Confusing luck for effort, self control, and ability is a loser’s excuse for failure. We seem to see a lot of that here.

          • Compsci,

            Boomer were paddling with the current. GenXers and later generations of whites are paddling against the current.

            That’s the big difference that Boomers can’t seem to figure out. Plenty of Boomers who would have been successful without the help of the current, but at least acknowledge that later generations have a tougher path.

          • Among the many ingrained deficiencies of Boomers, one of the largest and generally unstated and misidentified Boomer deficiencies is that Boomers continue to believe that America is a giant cookie jar, and that every greasy Third World moocher on planet earth deserves a free cookie, because Time magazine cover photo of crying brown baby, or Magic Statue-Poem or something.

            Boomers (may their memory be erased) seem to think that all of the prosperity they have enjoyed their entire lives magically sprouted out of the ground, and since the cookies are magical, and arrive by magic, it would be immoral and “downright mean” (who said, remember?) to not give a cookie to every single begging, pleading, wheedling brown pauper on the face of the earth.

            There’s plenty of room in the lifeboat! We can’t let those poor brown babies drown! Because lifeboats NEVER sink, Science teaches us that!

            That’s why they’re called “life”boats, right? ….Right?

          • As I’ve said above Citizen, you will find no comment—ever—from me wrt follow on generational cohorts not having it harder. As you pointed out, even I’m not certain I could do economically as well in today’s society either.

            That being said, what I usually object to and comment upon are statements wrt Boomers having taken some unfair “share of the pie” and Boomers being some sort of impediment to all follow on generations’ goals and aspirations. This type of “guilting” I find little different from the nonsense the Left uses involving “White Privilege” and the like. These Leftist tactics have been discussed time and again within this group.

            I will not be shamed, nor guilted, nor will I participate in the creation of yet another divisive political identity split among Dissident Rightists. I understand the frustration (to the extent I can without direct experience) of the commenters here, but I and Duke are not the enemy or the cause of these frustrations. We are here because we seek a solution along with fellow travelers.

          • Boomers catch a lot of shi$, some deserved, some not. If I have to hear some GenXers bitching about Boomers and the 1965 immigration act, I’m going to lose it. Boomer were ~15-years-old when that happened.

            That said, the vast, vast majority of white Boomers are in a laughable cocoon and seem oblivious to what’s happening around them. From their birth to now, they really do seem an amazingly self-centered and selfish group.

            What irks later generations is the seeming lack of concern among Boomers about what happens after they pass. As Z says, they seem to have no desire to plant trees whose shade they’ll never feel.

            What I want is for Boomer to wake the fuc$ up. Your generation has the least to lose (you have your money, you no longer work, etc.) yet they remain silent even though deep down they know something is wrong.

            I applaud you and other Boomers around here who take the heat for your brethren, but GenXers like me have a hard time forgetting what we’ve seen since we were little kids.

          • You have sent all my Boomer defense arguments back ten years. You really are the stereotype. Friends of my brother?

          • David,

            Yep, he’s not helping your cause. He’s actually right about most of what he wrote, but his complete lack of understanding the situation facing most younger whites is stunning.

            Boomers were paddling with the current. GenX and later generations are padding against it. Simple as that.

          • Duke,

            First, how many people working today are going to get a pension at all, much less one that pay $52k in today’s dollars. Your pension plus SS (assuming that the $52k doesn’t include SS) will easily be more than $80k.

            My generation won’t have private pensions, just SS, which likely will be reduced 10% to 20% due to lack of funds. A GenX couple making $150k will need well over a million dollars in addition to having paid off their house if they hope to retire in their mid-60s. They’ll also need to save ~$100k per kid to put them through state university (yeah, yeah, I know, college is evil, but it’s still required for decent jobs.)

            On top of that, we have to deal with technology and H1Bs squeezing us at every turn. I’ve known several people whose jobs no longer exist or have been dropped by 50% with lower pay.

            Boomers slid in just before the door came crashing down.

            Btw, the market isn’t gambling. It’s simply to claim on future corporate profits. I can’t ever figure why people think that the market is rigged. It’s not. It’s just volatile. Throw in a few bonds and just accept that the ride is bumpy. (If anything, bonds are dangerous at the moment. Look at real – not nominal – draw downs for bonds throughout history. They’re as bad as stocks.)

          • As a tail-end Boomer, I remember when Americans bragged that only the rich could afford household help because even the help made good money.

        • Has anyone else ever considered the etymology of the word “Miserable”? As in miser-able. As in you are able because you are frugal being a negative state of existence.

      • The same thing is happening in my neighborhood. Everyone has a shiny F-150, Silverado or Ram truck that is spotless without the dings of a well-used truck. The wives all drive various foreign luxury “crossover” SUVs.

        Very few of them (mostly top-level doctors, business executives and attorneys) mow their own grass or repair anything. I get weird stares when I’m out working on one of my cars or mowing my grass with an inexpensive push mower. I only call someone if I’m afraid that screwing up might cost me a bucket of money to fix or might kill me.

        My truck is nearly 15 years old and has the dings to prove it has lived a life of hard work. I hate the disposable nature of the consumer culture. I fix things rather than buy new, whenever possible. The flooring in our house in the common areas is from architectural salvage, hauled home in my loveable old truck and installed by my son, my cousin and I.

        When you do things yourself, you have a sense of accomplishment and pride that I think our so-called Betters don’t want us to ever have. I’m an engineer and therefore, a problem solver. Fixing things is fun and shame on fathers who don’t embue a love of problem solving to their sons and daughters. That’s one of the reasons why we’re in the fix we’re in with man-bun hipsters everywhere.

        I think the only political system that saves us is to narrow, rather than expand, the body politic. I hear politicians complaining about low turnout; I celebrate it. Expanding the vote to conquering, white-hating ethnics, men-hating wamens and mental defectives has had the predicted result: A slide toward a tyranny of dunces that will run what our forefathers built into the ground and send us back to the Bronze Age at best.

        Robert Heinlein’s system in Starship Troopers might be a good idea. Reading that book, it sounds almost prophetic.

        • And brave new world…

          “No strain on the mind or the muscles. Seven and a half hours of mild, unexhausting labour, and then the soma ration and games and unrestricted copulation and the feelies.”

        • I counted 5 of my buddies who became husbands, who were perfectly happy in 1 bedroom apartments, then suddenly bought SUVs and new homes within a year.

        • I like the society presented in Starship Troopers. It’s both egalitarian (the wealthy factory-owner’s son Johnny Rico only acquires political rights because of his service in the military) and hierarchical (military ranks, obeying orders, group-orientation and strict rules with a strong sense of right and wrong).

          Democracy, with it’s emphasis on equality, inevitably leads to moral collapse. Democracy is not just a form of government, but a way of life. Everybody’s equal, everything’s equal, every person, every behavior and every idea. Except when you reject equality in some manner. No one has the right to tell you what to do because we’re all equal. On top of that, the massive redistribution of wealth and property. All in the name of equality.

        • Over-specialization is killing us. A century ago the average doctor or lawyer in rural America could frame a house, repair a flat tire, and milk a cow. Ditto the engineer, the field which I know. Today’s engineer is usually an expert in a very narrow field, and can only solve the broad challenges with a team of other experts. I encourage young men to change their oil, repair electrical appliances, and fix their plumbing. If man created it I can fix it … not always of course but that’s the attitude to have. God didn’t create me to be a helpless, dependent, clueless consumer. As Heinlein put it, specialization is for ants.

      • Sorry. Gotta agree with your wife on this one.

        One can always make more money, but time is finite. Has anybody at the end of their life ever said, “I wish I spent more time doing home repairs!”?

        After working a full-time job I want to enjoy my time off, not work more.

        • I guess it’s how you view what a home and family is supposed to be about. I’m of Chesterton’s view: “the productive home with its creative kitchen, its busy workshop, its fruitful garden, and its central role in entertainment, education, and livelihood. Unlike the industrial home, life in a productive household is not amenable to scheduling and anything but predictable.”

          Many folks aren’t, and I get it. Industrial/Digital-Age consumption is a powerful force. The challenge for me at least is that I once *wasn’t* of the Chestertonian view, and married a woman who still isn’t…

          • The massive influx of women into the paid workforce has been a blessing to the restaurant business. Also, led to an increase of obesity. McDonald’s vs. mom’s home-cooked meals.

        • I know plenty who say “i wish i could afford my bills.” So some of the DIY attitude snowballs into other areas and encourages savings across the board.

        • Where is the additional money going to come from, except additional work? Either way work has to be done for the fix to happen, so is it better to work for your own self satisfaction or to work for what is likely the additional benefit of Globohomo Inc.?

          The weirdest thing about a lot of moderns isn’t that they don’t know which end of the hammer goes where, its the bizarre pride they take in that ignorance. I was once paid about 700$ to replace a circuit board that was 4 screws and a wire harness and took less than 10 minutes, but the customer tried to look down on me for being the one turning the screwdriver instead of just doing it themselves. Seemed like smart work to me.

          Another poster is right, what in the he’ll are these types going to do if/when times are tough and you can’t just put it all on the plastic for another day?

        • Agreed. I quit cutting my grass years ago. Used to take me two hours to cut my yard with a push mower. My “lawn care professional” gets it done in 15 minutes with his zero turn monster. Totally worth it.

        • Nope. My wife gives me crap as well about my “DIY” attitude.

          I’ve come around to the belief that with women – it’s a strange jumble of beliefs that: A) working with your hands is a lower class skill set – combined with B) being able to brag to other women when their husband can do something their husbands cannot.

          If you were a doctor or highly paid executive – their ability to brag about your position in the social pecking order (and ability to earn $$) would more than compensate for your incompetence with physical skills.

          I know plenty of women who complain incessantly about how their husbands can’t fix the sink, fix the car, mow the lawn – etc. Budget restraints on just paying somebody – means that stuff exists in a broken or half-broken state a lot of the time.

          I also think a lot of these people have a mental block. It’s not that hard to figure out how to pound a nail in straight. And an awful lot of the men I’ve met who will tell you that they are crappy carpenters – will spend hours telling you about their tennis game or video game playing skills.

          From everything I’ve read – Bernie Sanders was an absolutely horrible carpenter. So instead of doubling down and getting better – he decided to become a commie and just make his living by stealing from other people.

          This in a nutshell is what is wrong with our current society IMHO.

          • Bernie’s tribe is particularly adverse to doing anything around the house. There’s an old joke that you know that a house is owned by jews because there’s no kitchen.

      • I really don’t have a problem with this. I realized one thing a while back that there’s only one real currency you have in your life: time.

        If your time earns you enough money to pay people to do things you don’t like to do, that’s all to the good. The time put to alternate uses means more to you than the money, and there’s somebody out there who really needs that money.

        Now, I’m not the “I don’t know how to do stuff on my own” type. I built a lot of my own house. I can do simple equipment repairs — I’ve rebuilt carburetors and hydraulic systems, but I don’t *like* doing it. As a rancher, you pretty much have to bite the bullet and do some of your own repairs, because you simply can’t pop a big farm tractor over to the shop every time something goes wrong. I figured out a weird hyrdraulic issue last week and fixed it myself, but honestly, I called a mechanic I know first to see if he could make a house call, and only reluctantly fixed it myself when he couldn’t make it out soon enough. I don’t particularly like getting covered in dirt and hydraulic oil.

        I could have slaved from dawn to dusk this summer, but instead I paid people to do a lot of basic labor, while I stuck to things I really didn’t trust other people doing — I don’t like other people running my tractors and there are spots in my pastures that are treacherous enough I have nightmares about letting someone mow a field and having a tractor overturned or stuck really bad.

        In the modern world, it’s easy enough for a man to get by pretty nicely without ever picking up a hammer. I don’t really respect that kind of man — a man should at least know *how* — but I understand him.

        Rich people spending their money to save their time is part of what makes the world go around. It’s all good.

        I suppose that eventually it leads to the sort of disconnect between the aristocracy and the working class that we saw in pre-revolutionary France or that we see in the US today, but I wonder if that’s simply a normal cycle of society.

        It’s only in the past hundred years or so that even most rich men didn’t have to freeze their asses off in the winter to take a shit, or wake up cold in the middle of the night because the fire had burned down. This prosperity, it’s a new thing. I think it accelerates the disconnect of the elite from their environment. We haven’t really gotten through the first cycle of consequences from that, yet.

      • I shamefully admit that, other than mowing, I “call a guy” for most home repairs. My father was a school teacher, but in his spare time he installed outlets, put in a new bathroom, finished two basements, replaced drywall, and many more things than I can remember. This was before the internet and YouTube. While he was doing all this, I played sportsball and learned nothing. I see Teutonic’s point about the value of free time, but something is being lost. Maybe when I have more time…

        • It is a remarkable thing. Handiness has all but disappeared in the upper middle-class. The popularity of Home Depot says it still exists in the middle and lower-middle. Then again, I suspect most of their business is with professional handymen and gardeners.

          • >most of their business is with professional handymen and gardeners.

            Depends on the zip code of the Home Depot in question.

          • There’s an interesting generational dynamic here. Most middle class and up Boomer and xer men are of the “eww, grease” variety. There is a resurgence of the masculine ways in us non-GOPe right millennials, especially the older ones. We want new Stihls and old pickups. One example – we M’s build our own MSRs and show them off to our buddies, whereas boomers don’t even have arkansas stones to do their own trigger work (or don’t even know what that is).
            There’s just something lacking in a man who won’t replace a light switch or change his car’s oil, and something fundamentally wrong with a man who can’t.

          • Educated.Redneck – This is all anecdotal, but I work with a lot of millennials in the midwest, and they are all pretty metrofied. I have millennials who rent a house from me, and they call me every other month with some trivial issue. In the last six months I had to go out there to reattach a section of fence to the post, put in a new toilet handle, and I kid you not, change a lightbulb on the patio. It was a tubular halogen that clips in on both sides, and that really confused them.

            I’m not handy at all, but these folks make me feel like Bob Villa. Not sure of any of their politics, so it could be a right-millennial/left-millennial thing, as you suggest.

          • While I tend to agree that most millenials are pretty useless snots, I’m not sure you can make that inference from whats happening with your renters.

            I’m definitely on the handy side but back when I was renting there was no way in hell I would waste my time/money doing maintenance work on my landlord’s property. Hell, that’s one of the main upsides to renting, that kind of thing is the landlord’s problem.

          • I’m constantly bewailing the fact that God sent me a three left handed with five thumbs teenage son. During his weekend part-time job at a big furniture(y) store he moves among the rest of the staff like a god because of his ability to use tools and put things together,
            I am gob-smacked.

          • Well, building MSRs isn’t really a necessary life skill. Your experience is so different from everyone else’s that it sounds like bullshit. The truth is virtually all boomer men are at least a little handy, GenX are less so and millennials are absolutely lacking any kind of physical skills.

            The few millennials who do get into that shit are usually dorky hobbyists like yourself who think buying tools makes them a tradesman. It’s more than just a lack of skills, it’s a total lack of wanting to know the skills, but it’s not all millennials’ fault. A lot of it is simply because younger men in the past were forced to learn how to do basic construction, basic auto repair, etc. and now they aren’t. Now it’s just something some guys dabble with in between online activities.

          • JackB: your response, while snarky and feminine, misses the point. “Building MSRs” may not be a critical life skill in itself but what about using precision hand tools, assembling mechanical devices, using a drill press? Are those important skills to you?
            Moreover, I do not think I am a “tradesman,” everyone here is discussing homeowner repairs and shade tree mechanic-ing. You are correct that mechanical ability is now something that has to be chosen, but that means you only get true believers. And I betcha can’t tell me the difference between a safety chain and a full chisel without googling it (you can look at my Farm Boss 271, but no touching)

        • My father was utterly incapable of home or auto repairs. My husband does basic auto (his first job way back when was at an old-style gas station) but isn’t particularly skillful around the house (but he has a brother who does it all). His argument is that he’s just not that interested and doesn’t want to spend the time. On the other hand, he complains incessantly about the costs of repairs. He used to cut our grass, but between mowing and edging in the Texas summer heat, it would utterly wear him out and he was then done for the day. We now have it mowed ever other week and he still complains about how sloppy it looks, but I don’t care – if it were up to me I’d rip it up and do xeriscaping. And while I admire others’ flowers or plants, I’m not particularly into gardening. I suppose I can see both sides of the argument – useful skills are inherently valuable in and of themselves, but time is limited as well and we cannot all be jacks of all trades; some specialization is required.

          • A friend said that back in the 1960s her dad could take apart and put back together a car. That was in the pre-computer age. What can a car owner do to repair or maintain his car nowadays, other than change a tire? Here in NJ, used oil must be discarded at certain locations. Might as well let a mechanic do the work.

          • 56 years old, seven figure net worth, and I still perform all the maintenance on my vehicles including brakes. In my experience, if you want something done properly, you have to do it yourself.

          • Likewise. I was hoping to chat a bit more and exchange contact information. Meeting Jared was a genuine honor. He is a true gentleman.

          • Very True. Modern computer systems in cars prevent you from doing most major repairs yourself. Brakes and Tire maintenance is basically it.

          • “Modern computer systems in cars prevent you from doing most major repairs yourself.”
            That’s bizzare and inaccurate. Commercial diesels, maybe. Granted I don’t own anything made after 2002, but I’ve engine swapped obd1’s and gotten elbow deep on obd2’s. It is conceptually no more difficult to work on ecu-controlled powerplants than carbureted stuff. Personally I prefer rearranging wires to dealing with vacuum systems.

      • It’s not just economic value, particularly for repairs that require less skills. Keep in mind that they have as a hard a time finding people as Bartleby does and it’s not going to be the creme of the crop sent out to do the work on these jobs.
        And nobody cares about your stuff the way you do.

      • Ha, ha…have a millennial neighbor across the street. Marketing guy…was the local phone co, now somewhere else. Haven’t ever seen him do anything house/yard/car related. Can’t even be bothered to pick up the poop in his backyard from his three dogs. Hires it out to a weekly pickup service.

      • Doing things yourself has become low status.

        At least among the types of people you are detailing that live in your subdivision.

        Like you – I’ve noticed the same thing. I see a decent number of people around me who mow their own grass – but I also see the landscaping company trucks going up and down my road all week long as well.

        I don’t think I really recall seeing all the landscaping companies exploding all over the place until the late 80’s or early 90’s. Before that – most people (men) mowed their own lawn.

        Like Bartleby – I have a “square” job – and then I do a LOT of work outside of my “job” – with my hands. Built a 2nd floor on my house, built a large barn by myself, fix my own vehicles, do my own landscaping (including building stone walls – etc). I have actually had men I worked with get upset when discussing this type of of stuff with work friends. They’d overhear the conversation and start insisting that I couldn’t do what I was claiming I just did.

        I have come to the conclusion that a large part of the populace is so cucked at multiple levels that they’re just completely irredeemable. They’re cucked on politics – and they’re cucked on personal issues as well. They’ve become so convinced that it’s not “right” to do things like mow your own lawn, fix your own car – or work on your own house – that they get extremely upset when somebody appears who challenges their worldview on these issues.

      • BadThinker, It’s puzzling to me why your wife wants you to hire someone else to do fix-it jobs. Men who can do things themselves are appealing to women. It’s been said by those who study laws of attraction that a husband clomping around the house wearing a toolbelt fixing things is a turn-on to wives. Appeals to the limbic part of their brains.

        • Not so many people smoke any more, but back when I was a young chap chasing the girls around, I got some sage advice from a grizzled uncle: always use a good well-made metal lighter (like a Zippo, not a plastic one) to light your cigarettes (and especially a girl’s cigarette) instead of matches. The lighter is a tool, and it makes a metallic clicking sound, and that is a major subconscious turn-on for women.

          Very good advice, and it worked like a charm.

      • I was reading someone’s comment on here once, recently, about why the idea of “DIY” in the middle class (a la BadThinker) is a point of pride. I can’t remember what the commenter said about its genesis, but I can recognize that the “DIY” quality of the middle class is dwindling, whereas it may never have existed in the old money upper classes.

      • That was normal male behavior for men of my parents’ generation. Self-reliance, living within your means and a stay-at-home wife who took care of many chores during the weekdays. With both husband and wife working outside of the home, some prefer to outsource household duties, leaving them with more spare time in the evenings and weekends.

        Also, dad taught his son how to do household repairs the way mom taught her daughter how to do household chores. Given the high rate of divorce among Baby Boomers, many boys didn’t have a dad to teach them how to work around the house and yard.

      • FWIW: Pre-marriage, I fixed everything, did everything. Post-marriage, it’s just easier to listen to my wife complain about how the “contractor screwed it up” than to do it myself. “Good enough” might once have been good enough, but christ…entitled lasses demand perfection.

        Worth it, though. Right? RIGHT?!?!

        (just need a few more billable hours though…)

    • I suspect that part of the cause of these young men being clueless is not having a full-time father in the home, thanks to the all the divorces of the past thirty years, women filing 70% of them and emasculating Dad forever in the minds of his children with that one act. Youngsters need a father modeling a work ethic, and, well, man things, like holding a hammer. Feminists can screech all they want, but it’s objectively biological and psychological–as children mature they need mom’s nurturance less and less, and dad’s problem-solving skills and guidance on how to deal with the world more and more.

      The lack of rote learning in schools, so that the darlings don’t get bored and have to live without fun or Marxist brainwashing for a set period of time, has also contributed to the ineptness of young men. As a result of chaos in the classroom, many don’t have the self-discipline or powers of concentration to figure anything out. Add electronics that stop just short of placing young people in a permanent state of seizure, plus the denigration of maleness, and you have the widespread pathology of Fetal Position Syndrome.

      Our culture’s insistence that everyone be a doctor, lawyer, rock star, or athlete doesn’t help. And thus, at the end of it all, the stage is further set with “bedlam [which] always requires a strong hand to restore order.”

      • When the big fire came to our neighborhood in 2003, I was the only one who knew how to grab a big wrench and turn off the gas main with it 😮

        A benefit of doing your own work is that you get skilled at it. There may come a day that having those skills, the tools, and knowing how to use them, could make a big difference. I have become a bit of a tool hoarder. The sturdy vintage stuff, bought at garage and estate sales, is the best. A full tool set in each car and truck, and tools stashed around as well as the everyday boxes.

      • Fetal Position Syndrome – brilliant!! Perhaps the one syndrome which cannot be treated by some synthetic medication, but rather requires the non-drug of: stark reality – in heapin’ helpins.

      • “I suspect that part of the cause of these young men being clueless is not having a full-time father in the home,…”

        Yep, that got me to thinking. Why do I do what I do around the house and environs. In every case, I can see an adult male figure in my life when I was young with me watching and helping (such as it was). Doesn’t have to be a biological father, but it does have to be an adult male role model—and there can be more than one. It can be a neighbor, an uncle, but someone willing to just have you around while he attends to “business” (those of the newer generations call this “adulting”).

        Thanks Viking, for the memories.

      • Just to add another perspective:
        Don’t think that millenial (and later) FPS is only reserved for those boys who didn’t have a father in the home.

        I have some immediate family where the Dad (family member) goes to a corporate job, the mom stays home and takes care of the son. But because Dad has his quasi-leftist learnings (not totally, but things that go bang bang are BAD) and while he has taught the 16-y.o. son some good things about money, saving, and investing, there have been almost NO practical skills instilled in the kid.
        In addition, they let him play video games. Not a lot, but during the summer he was likely averaging 1-2 hrs per day on the thing. And mother never “got curious” about the game, what it’s doing, what’s the goal, etc etc. (Aside from the fact that the kid is chubby and would have been better put to work in the yard with those two hours per day.)
        All I’m saying is: it’s not just fatherless homes that have yielded these types of young people.
        One day, when the kid comes to visit (which he will), I look forward to teaching him how to pay for / pump gas (they live in NJ where they still do it for you), do his own laundry, load the dishwasher, how to fix my toilet when it doesn’t fill up right (a monthly occurrence), and a host of other “manly” / practical life things.
        Ugh.

    • Being able to do things outside of your day job is a type of freedom. Not the freedom from want or being uncomfortable, but the freedom of autonomy. Its not just about optimizing financial transactions. The observation, people who grow their own food, know how defend themselves and their family and have competencies outside of their day job are less likely to be of a liberal persuasion.

    • I am not sure whether one model is better than the other?

      When I was part of Globohomo Inc., I paid for everything: yard work, snow removal, home repairs, etc… There was simply no time when you are an airline’s frequent flyer dream customer.

      Then I left Globohomo and have more time, so I do my own yard work, shovel snow, and some minor house repairs (wood trim, grout, door seals, etc..). I’ve done some electrical work, and I should probably do more.

      One thing I’ve notice with car repairs and other home repairs is the specialization of tools. I’m not spending $400 dollars for a specialized wrench to change a headlight every 5 years. Sometimes it makes sense to hire the person or firm that has already invested in the tools and materials.

      The point is that I do not look down on someone that pays $100 for an oil change, $40 to have his lawn mowed, or $25 to have his driveway shoveled. His time value of money is different than mine.

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