The Schizophrenic Nature of America
A Discourse on Our Land
America truly is the most beautiful nation on Earth. True, we Americans are biased, but our land probably has more varied natural environments than any other country. We have temperate zones, mountains, deserts, vast grasslands, swamp country, chaparral even. I believe that since Darwin’s work was validated, and natural selection therefore exists, the land that a people inhabit surely has a selective effect on those who inhabit it.
This does not imply that the “magic dirt” assertion is correct. Far from it. Just because an individual person happens to reside in a place, just because he has walked there, does not mean that his feet automatically grant him claim over a territory. No, any changes made to the stock of a people who reside in a singular place will be slow and gradual. The best contrast for how geography determines destiny is between the Germans and the English. Let me say that I disagree with Spengler’s belief that destiny is detached from a people’s geographical location. Geographical location helps determine the fate of a people. The Germans are the way they are because they are a people centrally located in Europe with enemies on all sides. They must by necessity be strict, conformist, anti-individualistic, highly religious in the bringing together of themselves as a singular people, and militaristic.
The peoples of Anglo-Saxon stock, by contrast, have been allowed more liberty historically because they are geographically detached from history due to their island home. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and even the U.S. have similar geographic advantages. Those of Anglo-Saxon stock have not had armies on all sides attempting to conquer them. They have, generally speaking, peaceful relations with their neighbors. Thus, their temperament is allowed to be quieter, more individuated, more hobbit-like. At the same time, theirs is a greater sense of adventure, of horizon-seeking due to the unbroken maritime tradition and seafaring nature of the Anglo.
But what does the nature of the American land imply for the American? Alain de Benoist said why desert was the proper land for the Abrahamic faiths, and truly America has many desolate and arid places. Its extensive grassland also allowed for a pastoralist lifestyle among the natives. America has such an extensive old-growth and virgin forestland that memes have sprung up out of it comparing whimsical European forests to sinister and dark American ones.
Really, all this means that the American people cannot decide truly which way to turn. Not biologically, not spiritually. The desert enforces a fundamentalism which can still be observed despite degradation. But such extensive virgin forest surely ensures growth in a different, more northerly European direction. These are the two tendencies at play in our polity, whether on the left or on the right.
Spengler stated once that the English as a people were finished. Perhaps in England they are. I disagree, but only because this land will force a bifurcation of our people into new tendencies which have long been forgotten among the tribes of the Anglos. The farther north we are pushed, the wilder we will have to become in order to survive.
I’ve never been quite fond of that meme about the woods, personally. Europe abounds with elves and fairykind, and the fables about them can be quite frightening. I imagine the frightfulness of American woods comes from the fact that they are, in a sense, alien to those of European descent.
Good piece overall though. Reminds me very much of early Nick Land.
I remember a hunter from Australia insisting on Rogan that America is a far, far more dangerous place than his homeland. He detailed how all of his pals have nearly died multiple times from wildlife while hunting here.