The people of the Western World are a defeated people. The healthy and vigorous lifestyle required to maintain a constant state of triumph is not possible in a society where languid passivity is prevalent, or, at any rate, it is much harder to achieve this lifestyle. At one time, a healthier time, when a people were victorious on the battlefield, the entirety of the people was awarded that rise of righteous triumph. This elation of victory resulted in better attitudes towards the people themselves; either by the folk within, in a kind of proto-nationalist sense, and/or by the folk without, in an admiring respect for the superior tribe/civilization at that point in time. The spirit of victory makes for heroic peoples and timeless cultures, each doing their part for our collective humanity.

Take a look at war today. When a democratic country goes to war with another people, petty squabbles and disputes erupt within and disrupt what national unity there might have been under a strong leader, which is the rarest of things in a democracy. As of the current time, it is impossible for the Western World to win a war. I am not discussing the benefits of economical and material accumulations here, but the fact that the lack of integrity of the people in a first world country make these costly conflicts across the globe useful only in providing further entertainment for the masses to consume in vicarious splendour on CNN nightly. Even should the Western country "win" the war, the people at home are almost entirely unaffected by the "victory." No, it is apparent that the only way to wake the dreamers of the American world is to bring the war to them, as the destruction of the World Trade Center seems to have done. But what has been the response? Even more policeman politics! Thousands of miles from home, young men think that they are fighting and dying for their country, for their nation, for their people, but I fail to see how. The American people do not gain any of the spiritual essence that is granted with victory, not only because they are a splintered entity, but also because the war has absolutely no relevance to them. Thus, the results of these international wars are still the same: further strife, further division of people and further evidence of a world in disrepair.

Now, to return to my opening statement: we are a defeated, hopeless people. When I walk the streets of these decadent cities, I am not given the good fortune to see a lively and thriving community with works of true art proudly displayed, but a society of specters; wrinkled bodies wandering with no soul to show. Interestingly, but perhaps also expectedly, the closer to the city, in contrast to outlying rural communities, the more the people seem self-absorbed in their own lives and less... friendly. I make my effort to appreciate what value of the current community there may be, but it is sadly and disappointingly unrewarding. When I peer into the eyes of each and every fellow citizen I pass by on the street, rarely do I receive even a skirting glance in return. If I should get such a hospitable response, how often is it accompanied with a radiating pair of eyes full of joy, or even a bright smile? Depressingly seldom.

Another observation of this kind is that it seems to grow worse with age. It is true that I may enjoy the life of a child's smile, but this is also depressingly, as I now know how difficult it really is to retain that vigor when that life is and will be persistently assaulted by the woes of our society and how it forces them upon us, these false values. The crime is greater because these are our children! The future of the people, and yet we teach them to be just as us: stale, mundane and with a marked dependency on the creative thinkers of old. This corrupt form of "education" receives only my disgust at such blatant perversion of originality.

Following this logic of age as a depressant, we would have to investigate those of advanced age. Of all the different denominations of the various social groups, and in proportion to the size of these groups, I share the least amount of smiles with the elderly. This speaks to two observations: the first is how our society (parenting, in particular) has failed to bring up our youth to an acceptable standard of integrity, and this has resulted in the constant stereotypes attributed to young people by those who have been here much longer. Therefore, the elderly are much more likely to see me as another vandal, or something similar, and will not react in graciousness to my own friendliness. The second observation is the elder people are simply less than satisfied with their life, and thus cannot face death on their own terms. When someone is reaching their end, it is, in general, easiest to appraise their state of contentment than ever before. If they lived their life with truths that gave their life meaning, the final years and transition will be smooth, with a few teary farewells along the way. If, however, and this sadly comprises the majority, the subject in question has lived in a way adverse to life itself, the years before his final demise will not pass with ease, but with a bitter hostility towards people around him; a stone testament to a life lived without significance. On a brighter note, there are few things more pleasing than receiving a warm, loving smile from a matronly grandmother figure, however rare these may be to find in the actual markets and streets of the "community."

These observations reveal to me what I view as one of the greater tragedies. Traditionally speaking, it is always the elders who graced their sons and daughters with the prudence and symbolic allegory of the stories told by preceding generations, as well as those only just spawned in their lifetime. These traditions gave meaning and direction to the people, but also hope and values essential to communal living. And now, it pains me to remark, and now we are left with a dead and shriveled population wearied by years of life without purpose. And who is to blame for this tragedy? Who is the murderer of the grandfather of all empirical wisdom? Who killed Wotan? It is I, my friends; and it is you. It is all those who have lived and died, all of those who have submitted to this misdirected progression, we have forsaken and destroyed our spiritual guides; we have waged a treasonous war of Ragnarok on the gods of truth. All of us are part of a humanity that has erred time and time again, and because we have not yet remedied these grave mistakes, we are guilty as a whole; for humanity is nothing if not a living organism in its entirety, leaving no man as an island segregated from the continent of reality, leaving no man innocent.

Now, if you'll excuse my Nietzschean drama of god-slaying, I'll conclude this tirade. When you have the misfortune to exist in a society that values materialistic symbols of emptiness over the divine and eternal truths of the genuine beauties of nature, art and healthy culture themselves, it is no wonder that you find the grand majority of people treading upon the concrete sacrilege of our natural home parasitic and lifeless, existing for no real reason, giving nothing and taking everything until that last breath is exorcised from the utterly wasted body. With no revolutions taking place to overthrow this deadened world, the necessary catharsis is never performed, and the cycle continues on and on. Western World awake! As war has progressed to what it has become, soldiers dying for an empty cause, so too have our people moved to a point where they do not have any purpose to reality, and thus have no meaning. To acquire purpose is to unfetter yourself from the shackles of the mob and determine your best course through reality, alone and distinct from the ways of the foolish majority destined for nothingness. In a world containing only defeated peoples, those with purpose and a reason to fight, a real and unshakable reason to fight, exist to prevail over the crowd in the names of Truth and Tradition, ever wielding the righteous sword of heroic Nihilism.

February 24, 2008