From "Double Consciousness" to "Double Crossed"

Taking back the concessions without compromise

By

James Pew

Today’s piece is a re-post that was originally published in September of 2023 on Woke Watch Canada. It is now close to three years since the false discovery of a mass grave of indigenous children in Kamloops B.C. The following article deals with the cultural processes that led us here.

Hopefully this will keep readers of The Turn satisfied while I put together my third long-form essay on Israel. In case readers are unfamiliar with my Israel work, here is the first essay, A Case For Israel, and here is the second Israel, A Promised Land. Enjoy!

From "Double Consciousness" to "Double Crossed"

We have compromised and conceded far too much. We have allowed a coterie of white progressive liberals (mostly women) in partnership with their radical BIPoC allies, and their fanatical comrades in the LGBTQ goon squad, to mediate the discourse, set the conditions, and dominate the narrative. We have given this contingent of resentful freaks thousands of miles, when we should never have offered an inch.

So, who is “we” ? Well, just like the activist menagerie of radical racist and deviant fools described above, the “we” on the coherent side of sanity, come from a collection of constituencies. Those who, brought together through shared values (generally Western liberal), form a consortium of decent folks in opposition to the woke movement. The “anti-woke”, if you will. 

In my view, the core principles of this consortium, at least in the West, absolutely must revolve around what can best be described as a cosmology of particularities: the principles, myths and symbols that grew out of the ethnic archetype shared by Western nations. In Canada, the ethnic archetype, the thing from which our cultural heritage developed, was mostly a product of Anglo-Saxon Protestant ethno-traditions, transplanted by British settlers. The exception being the province of Quebec which has a different ethnic archetype (Francophone/Catholic) giving that area of Canada cultural distinctiveness based on a different set of ethno-cultural myths and symbols. Notably both of these distinctive European cultures are products of Western enlightenment, which draws closer the ethnic boundary lines between the two - an important reason why Canada has always been, for the most part, a cohesive dual compact (although not without its dramas).

Canadian political scientist Eric Kaufmann’s 2004 book The Rise and Fall of Anglo America, offers a rich history of liberal progressivism and other (bad) ideas that shaped immigration policy and attitudes concerning assimilation and national identity. In the 19th century, American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emmerson exuded through his writings and lectures what Kaufmann describes as a “double consciousness.” On one side, there was an ethnically chauvinistic element of Anglo-centrism. But with Anglo-Saxonism being a collective sensibility, there contained a logical contradiction on the other side of Emersonian “Double Consciousness” - rooted in his reverence for the principles of individual liberty.

A “co-presence of traditional Anglo-Protestant Whiggery with anarchic individualism, mythically connected since Independence and exemplified in the persona of Emerson.” - Eric Kaufmann (explaining the “Double Consciousness” of Ralph Waldo Emerson).

At different points in the history of American immigration, restrictionist attitudes and policies, followed by less restrictive, more liberal periods occurred alongside an evolution in the conception of the American nation and citizen. The tension was between the egalitarianism and universalism of those with an anarchic/liberal cosmopolitan outlook, and the preference for cultural continuity and permanence, protected through tempered immigration, associated with a conservative traditional outlook. Cosmopolitans favour permissive and open immigration, and often prefer the cultures of foreigners over their own native culture, while traditionalists prefer regulations on immigration to allow for the enculturation of immigrants. Both can be reasonable positions, neither are inherently racist.

However, things were not always so black and white. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the universalism and cosmopolitanism of the liberal progressives thoroughly defeated any semblance of an Emersonian double consciousness. And in the process, greatly diminished the currency of the “old stock” American with Protestant work ethic. From that point on America was committed to the promise of being a “Nation of Immigrants” (the title of a 1958 book on the topic of immigration by then senator John F. Kennedy), a refuge to the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Any talk of “Old Stock'' was considered to be outmoded ethnic chauvinism. It didn’t matter that virtually all of the founding fathers were of Anglo-Saxon ancestry, and that the most important enlightenment principles were direct transfers from British tradition, special recognition of an ethnic archetype, or the desire to maintain a dominant ethnic, was seen as un-American.

But it is the particularities of an ethno national culture that give both the nation and its citizens distinctiveness. The origin story of Canada, like America, is largely a story of Anglo-Saxon heritage. It is also recognized that many other non-Anglo European, and non-European groups, have played important roles since the origin of Canadian settlement. But it is worth underlining the significance of the origin myth. My heart tells me there is no other way than to honour the originators, along with their culture and traditions, in order to fully embrace national roots and heritage.

If you traveled to Japan, would you not want to encounter Japanese culture from and with Japanese people? However, unlike Japan, the North American situation is complicated by hundreds of years of  immigration that vastly altered its original demographics.

In North America, as is explained in detail in Eric Kaufmann’s 2019 book, white Shift: Populism, Immigration, and the Future of White Majorities, the old stock Anglo-Saxons, who felt their dominant ethnicity (Protestant religion) threatened by Catholics and Jews in the 19th century, later absorbed both groups and rebranded as “white.”¹

Whiteness studies scholars describe this process in resoundingly negative terms. They see the evolution of white ethnicity as a long sequence of oppression and white supremacy, instead of a dominant ethnicity dealing with an unprecedented influx of immigration that threatened a prosperous way of life. It is a universal human reaction when a flood of “others” immigrate into a native homeland, to wish to protect and preserve the surroundings and the way of life. We should never have allowed liberal progressives to brow beat us into suppressing our natural instincts and concerns over rapid ethno-cultural change brought about by unchecked immigration. Doing so was an enormous concession.

Comparing Eric Kaufmann’s White Shift to whiteness studies professor, Nell Irvin Painter’s 2010 The History of White People, is instructive. In my view, it is not possible to frame whiteness the way Painter (who is a black woman) and other whiteness studies scholars do, without being full of antipathy for white people. 

When I started this diatribe with the observation that we have made too many concessions to the woke idiots, I had a particular set of concessions in mind concerning Canada's ridiculously corrupt aboriginal industry. The above preamble was needed to set the stage for the argument that dominant ethnicity/majority populations, like white Anglo Canadians, are needed to counterbalance diversity in order to prevent nations from descending into ethnic conflict, as is seen in many parts of the world where high diversity is not accompanied by a dominant ethnic. 

All attacks on Canada’s majority white dominant ethnic must be staunchly opposed. National morale and cohesion utterly depends on this. The area where the majority of such attacks are launched is our colonial history. We must defend the truth and honour of that history from all forms of libel, even when, especially when, the slander comes from aboriginal groups or individuals. Indian status does not afford one the right to desecrate the good name of Canada without an anglophile or two giving an explicit and forceful piece of their minds. 

What inspired today’s post was a very serious, sad, and difficult notion that had previously appeared to me in a vision. Sacred knowledge keepers came to me in a dream and revealed that aboriginal Canadians were full of shit. They then chastised me for accepting unsubstantiated nonsense about extreme genocidal abuse at residential schools and claims of murdered former students in clandestine mass graves. They reminded me of the long history of aboriginal lying and corruption - first observed by early European explorers and settlers.

It is awful to judge people on the basis of their ethnic identity. I remain open to any and all aboriginal people of Canada - I believe, not all, but most people are capable of fairness, love, courage and kindness. Nothing that happens in Canada’s nauseating political atmosphere will ever make me judge an individual based on attachment they may have to a collective. However, in the past few weeks a growing chorus of voices, not just in Canada, but all over the world, have been publishing articles, op-eds and videos pointing out the lack of bodies more than two years after claims of discoveries of mass graves at former Indian Residential Schools. The word “hoax” is now the most common term associated with the unmarked graves story. But shockingly, there are exceedingly few voices from within any Canadian aboriginal community, who are expressing anything close to concern or outrage at what the entire world now knows was total bunk.

While I’m certain Canada is full of awesome, honest aboriginal people - I would sure love a handful to step up and say a few words in condemnation of the awful hoax that has traumatized so many aboriginals and non-aboriginal alike, while at the same time absolutely devastating Canada’s international reputation. Yes, yes. I know Trudeau, and a bunch of other white politicians, activists, and media idiots have played consequential roles in the perpetuation of this hoax which has so destroyed the soul of the Canadian nation. But in the interest of holding everyone involved accountable, does the deafening silence from Canada’s aboriginal community not burn your ass? It does mine. And until I start hearing some Canadian aboriginals calling out the nonsense of their leaders and associated activists and activist organizations, I have no choice but to conclude that Canada’s aboriginals are full of shit. I’m waiting (and praying) for them to prove me wrong.

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Thanks for reading. For more on this topic, read What Really Happened in Canada's History

BREAKING NEWS: James Pew has contributed a chapter to the new book Grave Error: How The Media Misled us (And the Truth about Residential Schools). You can read about it here - The Rise of Independent Canadian Researchers

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