Over the holidays I have been reading… and posting reviews. I try not to review that which I have not finished.
The first book I have finished is Vox Day’s Cuckservative.
Yes, I’m double posting. Amazon does have a habit of taking things down.
Firstly, this is an important book. In the rest of the English-speaking world, as well as much of Europe, the so-called conservative parties are not such. They manage a social democratic state and continue to follow a progressive narrative. What they claim is that they do this in a more kind and gentle way.
However, in the US, the Republican right claim to roll back the tide of progressive destruction. This is a lie: they are as much a party to this as John Key (conservative NZ PM) is a golf buddy of Barak Obama — they are probably playing golf in Hawaii as we speak.
The best chapters are around the issues of immigration and had data on which groups of immigrants will go home, and which will stay. I have a quibble about the American Culture being English: that England of which they speak is 300 years ago, and the past is another country. The discussion of “magic dirt” ends up discussing how the Indians were shoved into reservation: the dirt of the midwest did not make the English immigrants native.
The weaker chapters are on economics — the argument about relative value is well made, but needs to be expanded — and on Churchians. Here the authors do not go far enough. Most Churchians are not cuckservatives, but cowards. They are frightened of offending… anyone, and think that love is but all that Christ spake, forgetting that he discussed righteousness, justice… and hell.
For those of us who are not progressive outside the USA, and are shut out of the political process, nothing here is shocking. Within that fantasy land that is the USA, I am less sure. If you live in the USA, this is a very important book. For the rest of us, it is interesting… but we moved from cuckservatives to the craven two generations ago.
To our shame. One hopes this will lead to the US reforming and renewing. The time for that in Europe is long past: we face revolt, revolution, or dhimmitude.
The second review asks an interesting question: will Christians need a homeland? Will we be driven out of the West by the progressives and the fascists? Will there be much difference between them? Rawles thinks we might. And he has written a first novel in a series about this.
Well, I have a soft spot for utopiae. And this is one of them. Rawles has tried to find Terra Nullius and build a fictional near-future Christian Libertarian place: a bit akin to the American Redoubt. There are some interesting twists: his Islamofascists are high tech and have — akin to Weibo — games that ensure dhimmitude if not active cooperation with the Caliphate.
And the technical issues about starting a colony from scratch are well thought out. I like the use of army surplus, outdated gear. I particularly like the second reformation that makes the current Calvinists look tame. And the courting — men ask if you will wed, the marriage is within weeks, and the first baby within the year. As it should be.
I like his discussions of how Randite libertarians degenerate fairly quickly to the local vice region: and how the bulk of the nation shun them. But tolerate them. This is well handled: the tribal difficulties with African Christian refugees (or Europeans, for that matter) are less so. Rawles builds an interesting melting pot — one minor quibble is that Howzat is not a yarpie greeting but one shared with all cricket playing nations.
In fact, this book lacks cricket and rugby, Which it would have.
The weakness in this book, like much ideological fiction, is that the Caliph is a bully, and the heroes fairly flawless. The trouble is that, historically, the Caliphs have been bloodthirsty bastards and the Christians, in general, just want to be left alone.
I want to see how this progresses. There is a historical precedent for this in the Orange Free State. But that has fallen.
The final commend I will add to them is borrowed from Tom Kratman: he has written a very bleak series where a military command fights the good fight keeping the fascists from ruining Africa, the Philipines, the world… and he says that this is his best-case scenario.
The SJW are part of the elite, and leave ashes in their wake. Do not believe the lies of conservative politicians when they say they are not of the elite when they vote with them.
And be not like them.