Daily Archives: February 14, 2012

The deconstruction of treatifarians.

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I have to thank the Gravedodger for pointing to Cam’s place, where one of the commentators asked simply how the current elite allowed Brian McDonnell to post this. He has invented a new term Treatifarian: a person who looks at old documents and legal precedents to rewrite history backwards so that they gain an income and/or control of resources.

However, instead of being seen as an object of historical study or as a source document for assisting contemporary formulations of ethnic relations, the Treaty has instead in recent decades been raised to an altogether higher status by some Maori activists and Pakeha sympathisers whom I (only semi-facetiously) term as “Treatifarians”.

These people would like it to be seen virtually as a sacred text and adopted unmodified as the pre-eminent foundation document of our nation: a compendium of Magna Carta, the Provisions of Oxford, the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Treatifarians approach the Treaty as Holy Writ to be subjected to exegesis by a high priesthood.

The Treaty, they assert, can help “unwrite” subsequent history and reinstate Maori back to the level of equality of power enjoyed in 1840. This project creates a redemptive history in which the elevated Treaty performs an almost messianic function: To save the country’s present-day population from the wrongs of its colonial past. Such wrongs are inarguably very real, especially in the loss of land, and I am all for specific cases being addressed fairly. But the process must not resemble a cargo cult.

Now, Maori do very badly in New Zealand. Interestingly, they do well in Australia. In a similar manner, West Indian Blacks (Afro-Caribbeans) do very badly in England but do quite well in Canada. Some minorities that were actively oppressed and discriminated against, such as Chinese in New Zealand prior to 1920 or Indians in Fiji, do very well. Others, who have enshrined status (Maori or Malays in Malaysia) do poorly.

It seems that being told one is oppressed and that one will get justice eventually is bad for you. It does not really matter which group you belong to: if you believe every one is racist, sexist, or part of the 1%. Trying to get what you want by regulation, litigation, legislation or simply making people guilty hurts you, and is not sustainable (the group you are leeching on will eventually either die or crush you). Standing on your own two feet however, benefits you and your family.

In addition, unearned income is bad for you. Being dependent on the state generally leads to disintegration of the family and increased sickness, crime, unemployment — sometimes euphemistically called a decreased quality of live.  Being dependent on a family trust has also shortened lives — as these people also are shielded from the bad choices they make. As Cam says

The creation of treatifarians and the broracracy is now at a critical junction…we either continue forward creating a situation haves and have nots in Maoridom perpetrated the preference by government in dealing with formal iwi goupings or as the treaty grievance process winds up we find another way forward that brings all Maori into the fold of contributing citizens

They can blame someone else, and they can go to someone else to be rescued.  Many of us hold Trustafarans in contempt. We should hold those who preach Treatifarianism in greater contempt, for they close the door to independence to many, instead of opening the doors to opportunity.

For there is no pot of gold. There is no cargo cult. We cannot undo history. What we can do is refuse to accept the idea that we can get something for no effort.

Besides, living well and helping your enemy is better. For you, anyway.

Today is no feast day. It is Feb. 14.

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Today is Valentine’s day, but the three martyrs whom this day was named after are long missing from the current legends. The day is no longer in the Church calendar. Wikipedia notes.

In the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the feast day of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the General Roman Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars for the following reason: “Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14.”[14] The feast day is still celebrated in Balzan (Malta) where relics of the saint are claimed to be found, and also throughout the world by Traditionalist Catholics who follow the older, pre-Second Vatican Council calendar. February 14 is also celebrated as St Valentine’s Day in other Christian denominations; it has, for example, the rank of ‘commemoration’ in the calendar of the Church of England and other parts of the Anglican Communion

The Reformed calendar is stripped more bare than the Anglicans, who celebrate, for instance the death of Charles I. But the reformed noted that this date was conflated with the troubadour ideas of courtly love and smacked of not only Papism but paganism. So it disappeared from the calendar,

Anyway, today is a day where you are supposed to declare your secret love. Where girls cry because they got no cards, and boys are sad because their gifts are rejected.  I do not see much fun in this day, instead I see pain, hurt, and commercial exploitation. And today I am thankful the boys go to a single sex school. There will be no hearts given out there today.

Today I am thinking more of the grandaughter, in Canada, where this meme is rampant, and where the making of these things is seen as a nice craft activity. I pray that she will not be harmed, for there is enough pain in that family at present. It is a horrible day for my daughter, for her husband is very unwell. For them, Valentines Day, this year, has barbs.

But  God is more merciful than this.

Psalm 103:6-14

The LORD works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed.
7   He made known his ways to Moses,  his acts to the people of Israel.
8   The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9   He will not always accuse,   nor will he keep his anger for ever.
10  He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11  For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12  as far as the east is from the west,   so far he removes our transgressions from us.
13  As a father has compassion for his children,  so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him.
14  For he knows how we were made;  he remembers that we are dust.

For none of us are adequate. None of us are perfect. Courtly love is a convenient lie: it makes our lust into an idol as we define that woman as perfect because we see her as beautiful. There is a person is a person under that skin, who wants to be accepted, as Christ accepted us, flaws and all — and then be allowed and ecnouraged to grind the flaws away. The reason marriage is a holy estate is that it forces us to change, to think of our spouse, and moderate our quirks, faults and irritability for the sake of their feelings and our children.

There is not much romance in that hard work. But there is something deeper — and if it gets destroyed, as our no fault divorce does time and time again, something breaks.  This society is damaging women and men. The fun is gone. We are left with broken, suspicious, and isolated.

Let the romantics grieve. Their time is past. Today is Feb. 14. Let the commercial world do otherwise. We can enjoy this as an ordinary day, or turn it into a time of hurt.