When most people think of citizenship, they think of their nation’s constitution or the rights guaranteed to them in the law. They will think of their obligations to their country, like paying taxes, obeying the law and defending the nation. In the West, a citizen is pretty much as the dictionary defines it, “a native or naturalized person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it.” It is a reciprocal set of obligations in the law, animated by a sense of duty by both the rulers and the ruled.
Additionally, at least in America, citizenship comes with a belief in equality between the people and the office holders. Every American grows up hearing that anyone can be President. The House of Representatives is known as the people’s house, because it was designed to not only represent the people, but be populated by representatives from the people. In other words, the citizens are ruled by their fellow citizens, not strangers or hired men paid by strangers. You can only be a citizen in your nation.
In the post-national world, that old definition of citizen no longer works. In a world where foreign people can just move in, claim the benefits and protections from the government, citizenship loses all value. At the same time, the state is increasingly alien to the people over whom it rules. In the European Union, the people are no longer ruled by their national governments, as all of the big decision are made in Brussels. In America, political offices are increasingly being filled by exotic weirdos with no connection to the natives.
The question then is what does it mean to be a citizen in a democratic empire?
The most obvious thing about the new citizen in the new post-national world is that the relationship between the citizen and the state is transactional. The state looks at the people as assets and liabilities. Theirs is a custodial role. The people that serve the interests of the state are treated differently from the people who depend on the state for their existence. It is a corporate relationship, except that people cannot be fired, so the useless ones will be stashed away while the productive are put to work.
Similarly, the citizen looks at his government in terms of what it can provide to him. He owes the state no more than he owes the coffee shop. The rules promulgated by the state are to be navigated around, rather than respected. If the rules work for the citizen or his group, the law is supported by the citizen or his group. On the other hand, if the law is an obstacle, then the law is subverted or ignored. In a post-national world, respect to the spirit of the law makes no more sense than having loyalty to a country.
This means that patriotism has no role in the democratic empire. Loyalty to your country only works if you actually have a country. The residue of patriotism will last for a while, as people will still think of their neighbors and friends as their countrymen, but in time, as those people are replaced by strangers, patriotism will disappear. In a transactional world populated by stranglers, your primary loyalty cannot be to the state, as it is just as much a stranger to you as the new neighbors, who just moved in from over the horizon.
The sterile transactionalism is already evident. Consider the change in relationship between employers and their workers. Everywhere in America, employment is at-will, which means an employee can be dismissed by an employer for any reason. Further, local business is atrophying as global enterprise monopolizes the marketplace. It used to be local business was a part of every community, sponsoring little leagues and charity drives. You’ll never see your kid’s little league sponsored by Google or Amazon.
Of course, this will have unforeseen consequences. For example, the military will no longer be able to rely on patriotism for recruitment. Since no one is a citizen in the old sense, the military stops being a citizen military. Instead, it takes on the characteristics of a mercenary army. The decision to join is no different than the decision to take one job over another. This will also apply to the police. The cops will no longer be citizens protecting and serving their community. They become free range prison guards.
Humans are social animals so the loss of national and regional identity means something will replace it. In a transactional world where everyone is a civic stranger, the old fashioned loyalties will become more important. Family, community, and tribe will be the only identities that have meaning. Again, we see the beginnings of this with the administrative layer of the managerial class. Those FBI agents plotting to overturn the 2016 elections were motivated by the emerging new identity politics.
That’s the thing that gets overstated in discussion of identity politics. The old identities will surely play a role, like race, ethnicity, and religion. New tribes resulting from the post-national relationships will emerge. The managerial state will begin to fracture and balkanize, as the rival power centers begin to jockey for power. Again, this can be seen in the obstruction of the Trump agenda by career bureaucrats in the government. They have become their own tribe and they have become class aware.
This paradise comes with a cost. Nations hold together for the same reason communities hold together. The social capital, those invisible bonds between people, breathe life into the organizing structure. Patriotism and civic duty are what animate the republic. Duty to king and the people is what animates a monarchy. This social capital is what binds the rulers to the ruled. In a highly transactional world, where social capital has been monetized or pushed to the margins, something else must animate the system.
That something else must be force driven by the self-interest of the people occupying positions in the power centers. We see some of that with the censorship campaigns by the tech giants and banks. This will become more overt until everyone has a natural hostility to everyone outside their social group. The cost of maintaining order will increase, but the means for imposing order will increase the cost of imposing that order. The empire will have no choice but to become more ruthless in its dealings.
If one wants to a preview of the post-national world, look at Lebanon. Every hill and every valley is its own nation, so to speak. Groups of the same religious sect or political persuasion can form temporary alliances, but Lebanon is not a coherent country with a common purpose. It’s just a place on the map with meaning only to those completely removed from the realities of Lebanese life. The future citizens will highly local and covetous of the small benefits he and his group can extract from the whole.
…the dictionary defines it as “a native or naturalized person who owes allegiance to a government ”
That’s obviously backwards.
It’s the government that should owe its allegiance to the people.
yeah, dream on.
The sterile transactionalism is already evident. Consider the change in relationship between employers and their workers. Everywhere in America, employment is at-will, which means an employee can be dismissed by an employer for any reason. I don’t see any more fair employment relationship possibilities. Tenure and unions are both failures and sources of tremendous graft and cronyism. What should be the case is that the employee should be able to rely on a shared sense of community morality. The business owner should be morally ashamed, and experience shame from his community when he fires an employee for spurious reasons. But… Read more »
“Utter destruction” not required. Substantial destruction would be, at least destruction of the social order, if not of the population itself.
Maybe I’m quibbling, but there’s a big difference between a social revolution and the Apocalypse.
Union labor is indeed part of the problem and should not be fetishized. The problem of callus employer employee relationships isn’t alleviated by unionism. If the state does not enforce minimal immigration and fruitful labor and capital relations itself, the union will only capitulate too.
Union leaders are generally members of radical leftist parties. They are out of touch with the membership anyway.
How do we on the right put the genie back in its bottle? Facism would produce a counter-reaction with leftist cells metasticizing again. Devolution to a confederation federation? Not even the squatemalans want to live in a squatemalan-run territory and they’d be massacred in negro territory, so it’d be everybody follow whitey. If we should experience a struggle of material attrition, who is to say some combination of events would cause us to fail as white Christians. Look how the Catholic church is still treating the Covington Boys despite they did nothing wrong and they are supervised children. If you… Read more »
You link Representative Ilhan Omar and imply she is not American. Let me tell you that she is more American than anyone posting here. She represents MOST OF THE COUNTRY; she represents diversity, progress, and good in the struggle against racism and Islamophobia. She is beautiful, smart, brave, an incredible leader, and is a prove that all America does not listen to our president’s hateful and divisive rhetoric. We should be proud of her. How many white presidents or Congress have been in the USA. But if one black person gets something good, he/she gets hate messages or threat from… Read more »
“Dear fellow white people…” Mr. Corn, you’re boring.
Mr Corn is trolling—and unfortunately too many of us are falling for it. Don’t feed the troll.
Also, she’s married to her own brother.
not that there’s anything wrong with that, anymore.
Proof?
….crickets…..
That’s what I thought
“Official School Records Support Claims That Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) Married Her Brother”
https://pjmedia.com/davidsteinberg/official-school-records-support-claims-that-rep-ilhan-omar-d-mn-married-her-brother/
“Pjmedia”
Lol
That’s not a credible source.
Give me something like NYT of Washington Post, not right wing propaganda.
Somalis didn’t like being a European colony.
But they certainly love colonizing European countries.
Almost like it isn’t “justice”. It’s revenge
“Give me something like NYT of Washington Post”
Those aren’t credible sources…
Gads. This guy is crazy …..
In the case of Ilhan Omar, it’s not so much People of Color, it’s more People of Sharia that’s the problem.
Too bad for you Islam is the fastest growing religion and most of the revers/converts are women
If your name is actually “Jerry Corn” it’ll be too bad for you, too, unless you plan on converting.
Very corny, Jerry. Very corny
Afraid? no just saddened and surprised that a Somali could represent anything other than savagery. By the very fact she is Somali one can say she is if not the bottom rung of the evolutionary ladder then she is pretty near it, not sure why the likes of you think we would ever be afraid of low IQ savages.
I see you took your daily stupid pill earlier today.
Loyalty to your country only works if you actually have a country. I know everyone likes to (justifiably) whale on the cuckservatives. But I’d like to propose a new term: the slowservative. Unlike the cuckservative, who is cowardly and careerist, the slowservative is an upstanding guy, likes idea of family, works hard, inwardly dislikes public pozz, tries to do the right thing. But the problem is he’s slow in getting it. You know, It. Our Thing. The slowservatives I know are still fired up about the American flag because they don’t know yet that we don’t have a country any… Read more »
It’s why I have started to remind every normie I know that he will soon be a minority. It’s illuminating to see their response. At some level, they know this, but have locked it away in some hidden part of their mind. When it is called forth, they get angry, not at the person making the point, but just angry. They don’t know where to direct the anger. Fear of being racist closes off the natural avenues. Fear of breaking with their political tribe closes off other avenues.
Another aspect to this is that white normies don’t have a deep enough cultural well to draw from. Millions of white Americans have no real connection to their ethnic ancestries, unlike Europeans, who, despite everything, are still tied to the lands that out people have lived on for many thousands of years. White America, almost by definition, was built on turning away from the traditions of Europe and trying to create something new and shiny here, albeit from a European template. Most educated whites are so alienated from their own ethnic traditions that they find third world cultures to be… Read more »
True. American whites face a far more difficult task than European whites. They have a sense of tribe that goes beyond their government. We don’t. American whites defined themselves by words – pioneers, freedom, the Constitution, etc. – not blood.
This proved to be our downfall because words can manipulated, especially by a certain tribe.
Citizenship should first and foremost be defined by blood.
“…and the relative transience of modern American society leaves millions of whites in America with no firm anchor to an ancient past, which modern Europeans, despite all their problems, possess..”
Deracinated (no roots) and
atomized (no .connections to other people)
You may have something there, my family have lived within a few miles of where I am now in Northern England since….well forever I guess and I would die before giving it up.
Do this for me, please. “Ethnic” or not, most of us on this site can connect genealogically to someone who was a Patriot during the American Revolution. Did you have a Great Aunt Tilly who was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution? Go on the national website, dar.org, and look under GRS. Its a public genealogy site. Think of a family name you’ve heard that might go back a ways, also a state where that person may have first settled. Why I’m mentioning this is that this non-political organization works tirelessly with volunteers across the country —… Read more »
This is why I’m bullish on the South’s chances. We still have something resembling cuisine and a culture that has been under attack for much longer. Attrition has done some damage but it can’t be monetized like other cultures.
I also remind them that whites are a tiny minority of the world’s overall population (and falling) and that we’re the most “exotic” in terms of skin and hair color.
Young whites need to be reminded that their race is different and special – and worth keeping around.
Normie realizes that he’ll be a minority. And that’s a bit odd to him. But the part of that that he doesn’t get yet, is that we won’t be just another minority, but a hated minority who POCs and women must avenge.
Babe—slowservatives. I like that concept. Will use it. Now that I hear it described, it fits most folk I know in the close circle of friends and relatives. Thanks.
You are comparing different entities. “Cuckservative” applies to Conservatives in power (media/political/publishing), and with the power to do something about what they secretly know is the real truth, but they choose to play the enemy’s game for narrow self-serving reasons. Your “Slowservative” is just a relatively powerless neighbor normie.
For us to get to the point of Lebanon would require a degree of social decay that would leave very little worth fighting for to preserve. In the best of times Lebanon was a country of borderlands, people with deep fundamental cultural differences. It was never anti-fragile, as a famous native has coined that term. Our regional differences, inspite of a civil war and some regional bickering, are workable and antifragile. At least up until now. If the present trend continues and we get to a point that a Lebanon like fragmentation appears on the horizon, where we are no… Read more »
Unfortunately, our political system isn’t designed for more than two parties. A parliamentary system allows for many parties. That makes an ostensibly white nationalist party (or, really, any party representing a particular group) not viable.
It’s why the Dems are the coalition of the fringes. They have to work within the structure of one party.
Theoretically, white identity politicians would be a faction of the GOP, but the GOP hates us so that’s not going to happen.
I primary difference between our ruling class (the managerial state, academia, the technology corporations, etc.) and societies based ethnic, tribal and religious affiliations is that in the latter, kith and kin maintain lasting bonds, whereas in the former, siblings, children, etc., are forsaken when they don’t “qualify” for a place in the ruling class. One might see such relatives and friends at an occasional Thanksgiving gathering or a funeral, but the ties that really bind are transactional — “earning” a place in the ruling class, even a low level position, is a prerequisite for maintaining the bond. The crazy uncle… Read more »
The USSA is a giant tick that sucks the lifeblood out of the resident populace. It is part and parcel of leftist thinking. Welcome to the club. Egalitarianism is a far cry from where we need to be.
We function in part as a protection racket. The US Navy secures the sea lanes for Arab oil and Chinese trinkets. In return, foreign money buys up the debt to finance the imperialism. It’s a psychotic macro-level game of musical chairs. And when the music stops, nobody knows.
This is a little off-topic maybe, but I saw you got a nice plug from Am Greatness today:
https://amgreatness.com/2019/01/21/the-left-wont-allow-a-peaceful-separation/
I hope they send some new readers this way. And in all honesty it’s not really that off topic to bring this up because your post today about citizenship makes a nice companion piece to the discussion about peaceful separation.
The Leftists always hijack words that all normal people approve of, like Justice or Equality, and then they twist the meaning so that it fits in with their own perverse understanding, in the expectation that people will retain the word and gradually get use to and accept the new meaning. Justice and Equality means the permanent establishment of rules that treat people in an unjust and unfair manner. Voila. I used to sing along with the national anthem. Then it occurred to me that the state that I associated that song with no longer exists, and they want me to… Read more »
I don’t know what the answer is. I was active military in Gulf War #1 and looking back, that may really have been the last gasp of American Nationalism. I’m currently working with a lot of active duty folks and for them military “service” really is just a job, one with lots of mandatory pozzing. It’s sad really, maybe we were all delusional suckers back then, but we really believed we were participating in something bigger than ourselves, on behalf of our country. I don’t think you could get anyone with more than 6 months of service to say that… Read more »
As Zman says, “Since no one is a citizen in the old sense, the military stops being a citizen military. Instead, it takes on the characteristics of a mercenary army.”
A mercenary army in the service of a corrupt, deep state. What could go wrong?
Technology (and the death of hardship) has changed our environment such that the river of our culture has changed course. And now, it’s leading us to a falls up ahead. Only the strongest among us will survive the journey over the falls. Stay strong or get strong.
Back in the good ol’ days, white people had little concept of their own race. It wasn’t something you thought about much. For most white Americans, whiteness was everywhere. In your neighborhood, community, school, when you went out shopping, on TV, movies. Blacks mostly lived somewhere else, in their own neighborhoods. Now that whites are surrounded and living among people from all over the world, who actually do think and act racially, the game has changed. Whites have been trained to think in terms of color-blindness and content of character. However, the new brown neighbors don’t think that way. They’re… Read more »
I agree. We should treat non-whites with respect, especially as individuals, and wish them well. However, we must adamantly vote and act in our own best interests until everyone agrees to play by the same rules.
>”Similarly, the citizen looks at his government in terms of what it can provide to him. He owes the state no more than he owes the coffee shop. The rules promulgated by the state are to be navigated around, rather than respected. If the rules work for the citizen or his group, the law is supported by the citizen or his group. On the other hand, if the law is an obstacle, then the law is subverted or ignored. In a post-national world, respect to the spirit of the law makes no more sense than having loyalty to a country.”… Read more »
A federal government manned by blacks and browns will not be a particularly effective overseer. It won’t be hard to work around them.
The hard part will be getting whites to realize that they “their” country no longer exists and that they need to create a community within the larger society. This will take time and work.
Maybe I’m just getting too old, or can still remember too clearly the America that was for us, but do we really want that ???
This column dovetails with some of the thoughts I’ve had recently that the alt-right (or dissident right, or whatever nomenclature you choose) needs to become less republican (small “r”) or democrat (small “d”) and become parlimentarian in our thinking. In the foreseeable future we will never be more than a small but growing minority. We need to exploit opportunities for alliances on a transactional basis on issues of importance, as is done in a parlimentary system. I began thinking about this when AOC proposed her 70% top marginal income tax rate on incomes of greater than $10MM. As a matter… Read more »
we’re not homo economicus .. There’s more to public policy than just Tax Policy. Dems have supported policies like limiting the size of soda bottles (Bloomberg as NYC mayor (BTW he’s a RINO, and might run for potus as a Dem)), banning plastic bags, or banning paper bags, banning plastic soda straws (but not plastic forks); DeBlasio wants to evict people from public housing if they smoke; they banned foam plastic food containers, they want to ban pet stores from selling pets that aren’t from shelters; San Francisco Supervisor Katy Tang won a proposal to ban sales of fur coats.… Read more »
And now let us turn to Hymn No. 233, Onward Christian Soldiers.
So are we looking at the Balkans of the 80s and 90s?
No, the federal behemoth has too much inertia. Social disintegration will begin in the large metropolitan areas with very high parasite populations. These localized collapses will trigger a heavy-handed response from federal agents and national guard troops; which will succeed in marginally containing the chaos. Nothing major will happen until the pension bubble bursts and the financial system collapses.
“The rules promulgated by the state are to be navigated around, rather than respected.”
Not taking issue overall, but there has never been a time when that particular item wasn’t true.
I live in Minnesota, and the change is unbelievable up here after the Somalis invaded. When some of them first got here, they would try on the culture and integrate OK. A Cross country team up here had a national caliber team of Somalis in a small town. Not that many in the school so they all went out for the team and did really well. When the local meat packing plant kept bringing them in for cheap labor, their crew in town grew really large. Now they are a gang in town that just makes trouble and gives nothing… Read more »
Until the average normie conservative is mouthing the words “internment” and “repatriation” we are still on square one.
It would seem almost a titanic achievement just to halt illegal immigration, let alone “legal” immigration.
There’s a difference between a sprinkling of diversity and large numbers, a distinction most pundits never make. The Somalian kids when small in number felt the need to join the cross country team and integrate into the school’s culture. Kids want to be part of a group. When the numbers of Somalians grew large, now they have their own group, their own culture and no need to join the white students’ team and culture.
This is exactly the world as it existed in the environment of our ancestral evolution, e.g. roving tribes in equilibrium with all other neighboring tribes; and all strangers are perceived as existential threats because that was the reality. It is only during the last 1% of our evolutionary life that we have adapted to large-scale assemblies of population (nations), and this was driven by survival necessity (the age of barbarism). Patriotism evolved as a trait because that is what worked in the new nation-based environment that ultimately defeated barbarism. Now ask the question, what we will evolve into in this… Read more »
“Everywhere in America, employment is at-will, which means an employee can be dismissed by an employer for any reason.”
What are you, some kinda commie? BTW, it’s not everywhere, only most states; and it doesn’t apply if you do have an employment contact (execs, big shots, etc.). And it’s always been like this, so it’s hardly related to some loss of patriotism.
I was arguing with some lefties the other day about the illegals and the caravan, and I told them “you guys favor foreigners over your own people.” And they said there is the issue, you should not make a distinction between “your people” and foreigners. That basically shut me up. Once a large group has accepted and internalized that what more can you say to them?
Do any of you people have children?
Do any of you people have (or have you ever had) a romantic relationship with a female?
“In a transactional world populated by stranglers…”
Now THERE is a Freudian slip!
“If one wants to a preview of the post-national world, look at Lebanon.”
Yes, by all means look at it. Look at the entire Middle East. By bringing in large numbers of non-Europeans into the USA, especially Semitic peoples of all persuasions, we are turning our nation into a mirror image of the soil from which these tribal people sprang. Low trust societies are destroying high trust societies.