Linguist and historian MacDonald King Aston explores the origins of one of the most influential movements of our age on pages 252-53 of his book Yankee Babylon. Aston employs his ‘Yankee Myth’ concept (which he describes as ‘the fictional narrative of the Pure White North and the Depraved Cruel South, and in particular how the mythos of the angelic Pure White North created and sustained the bulk of what historians call “the American identity”) to delve into utopian and millennialist aspects of multiculturalism that are linked to the idea of the Northern Redeemer:
Multiculturalism is a legacy not only of the 1960s, but of the Yankee Myth, which provided the foundation for the 1960s, for multiculturalism is among other things yet another example of the Puritan-Yankee millennialist zeal. “Multiculturalists are convinced,” wrote [Alvin J] Schmidt, “that their philosophy will usher in a new millennium, enabling people to overcome cultural prejudice and discrimination… a utopia, one without ‘inequality’ and cultural imperialism. Once more, the Northern Redeemer can not control his paternalistic impulse to impose his own utopianism upon the rest of us. The new multicultural America will thus create a utopia which is noncapitalistic, non-Eurocentric, nonoppressive, and egalitarian. The citizens of Utopia, Sir Thomas Moore had written, were true levellers, so that “no man ought to seek his own conveniences so eagerly as as to prejudice others….” The goal of the multiculturalist should be obvious: to destroy American and Western (Eurocentric) culture, to overturn “cultural imperialism.” In this sense, multiculturalism is simply an offshoot of Marxism, with its philosophy of radical egalitarianism extended to the cultural level. Multiculturalism is, therefore, neo-Marxism of the Herbert Marcuse variety which raised its ugly head during the 1960s and which also is still very much with us. At bottom, neo-Marxist multiculturalism is another expression the left’s exceeding hatred of tradition and specifically cultural values distilled over time within the European tradition. Multiculturalism is also a relativistic philosophy (a philosophy of the Enlightenment), insisting that knowledge and truth are not constant principles, but can be interpreted on-the-fly. As such, multiculturalism takes its lead from the pagan Enlightenment thinkers… who proved to be a decisive influence on the construction of the Yankee Myth, especially the Northerner Redeemer part of the myth. Just as Marx, building upon Hegel, attempted to overturn the knowledge and truth of the Christian world by arguing that one’s social existence is determinative of one’s consciousness, so multiculturalists argue that no one culture determines either truth or knowledge: all cultures are morally equal, from the cannibal to the Third Reich.
Of course, since all cultures are not equal, multiculturalism must enforce its Northern Redemption through violence and coercion, an old Puritan and Yankee technique. Its Gestapo is known as political correctness, which punishes speech and behaviour critical of non-Western or minority cultures with “hate crimes,” “speech codes,” and all the rest of the political correct arsenal.
Also see: MacDonald King Aston on the Yankee & the Southerner and Totalitarian humanism: Ideology of destruction
Tags: macdonald king aston, multiculturalism, new england fanatacism, political correcntess, puritanism, utopianism, yankee myth
This entry was posted on June 11, 2012 at 12:47 pm and is filed under News & Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
I have to get that book!!!
CP, it is indispensable reading.
C’mom… this guy is born and raised in California, LOL. Given his seeming age references, the idea that he was “surrounded by southern culture” in California— IS fairly unbelievable.
Would like to know even more about this real background (think SCV takes lateral relatives for qualifying, so he may not be a direct descendent of a soldier, either).
Also— his religious background, which seems fair enough to ask since “Yankee Babylon” is the usual Anti-Puritan screed. Why is he interested in contributing to White Genocide? (Um… puritans were/ are white).
His concentration on simply bashing, and the way he does it, and his collegiate tone, etc, is yankee indeed.
He seems one of these people who is deeply engaged in trying to produce the “New South” (which is really genocide of the real Southerners).
He may have qualified for SCV— but this is not a guy who’s deeply from Southern Culture.
It would be interesting to know what his various real religious influences were. Without that, you really can’t tell why he’s saying what he is.
He’s speaking like a collegiate person, by rote, not from any real life experiences, and I deeply question his underlying agenda.
oh yes— I actually do have the book, but found other more interesting things to read. I would want to know more about this person’s background before reading the rest
Dixiegirl, It’s ironic, given your name, how you are so quick to defend the Puritans and yet you question the background of someone like Mr Aston who defends the South and spends years of his life researching and writing a book like Yankee Babylon. Your personal attacks against him ring rather pathetic.
Michael, Dixiegirl knows what’s Southron better than Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, Rhett, Clyde Wilson or any of the other giants who knew the Puritan and his intellectual descendants to be our enemy. She is far wiser than they. That or she is a crazy person with a hobby-horse.
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Michael – I realize he is your friend, and loyalty to friends is a good thing. But here’s one problem I have with him: his playing of the race card against the SCV and statements like this one:
http://archive.boulderweekly.com/061004/coverstory.html
“It is imperative for us in the West to come down solidly on the side of tolerance and freedom for all people,” says Aston. “We don’t want to be aligned with anything that smacks of racism at allÖ The problem is appearances.”
And then his concerns with ‘fringe elements’ of the LOS who supposedly want the South to be a Christian theocracy.
Maybe this is not a problem for those who are secular and/or libertarian but for many traditional and Christian Southrons this kind of rhetoric is not reassuring.
Now this post may get me labeled a troll as well, but surely there should be room for different opinions.
-VA
VA, though you didn’t ask me I’m going to put my two cents worth in. Reasonable criticism is appreciated. In fact that is part of Aston’s value. He deeply understand and criticizes the Puritan mindset and how it differs from the Southron mindset. His understanding of the Southron mindset may have some holes but remain fundamentally sound. Additionally there are practical concerns. There are repercussions for being overtly racial in today’s PC dominated environment. Most people tread lightly around it and understandably so. But in Dixiegirl’s case, she has repeatedly defended Puritans. She places loyalty to some narrow sectarian view of Calvinistic Christianity about loyalty to the South. She has repeatedly supported Puritans who all Southrons pretty much regard as a hated enemy and vice versa over non-Calvinistic Southrons. Additionally she hops on her hobby horse at pretty much every chance she gets. She is a crank. You’ve done nothing to make me think of you as a crank or troll. A reasonable difference of opinions is good and constructive. Dixiegirl’s opinions regarding Puritans isn’t reasonable. It flies in the face of a long Southron tradition of condemning the Puritans and their intellectual descendants.
VA, Sumemo said pretty much what I was thinking.
I welcome intelligent discussion. Preferably that discussion can avoid personal attacks, remain as concise as possible and bear in mind that this is a pro-South site and most Southern nationalists are always going to take the side of a pro-South author over the Puritans.