Decline of the West II, White Cargo, and American Blood
“At the beginning a man was wealthy because he was powerful — now he is powerful because he has money.” -Oswald Spengler
This is review of not just of Decline of the West II by Oswald Spengler, but also touches on White Cargo by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh. This wasn’t planned, but as I listened to White Cargo I could see the philosophy of Spengler in England and the United States. This will be primarily focused on DOTW with the context provided by the early Plantations of the New World. I enjoyed part two of DOTW over the first part immensely because it dealt less with abstract and more with what Spengler calls World History. You must however, read Decline of the West I to fully grasp the second part. Before we get into DOTW, if you have not read White Cargo, it’s a raw telling of the settling of the American colonies which were than also called by a different name: The Plantations.
White Cargo lays out a forgotten history of the early United States. James LaFond is also another great source on The Plantations and the real history of our country. It’s widely accepted that evil white masters enslaved blacks in cruel and unique form. What isn’t talked about is that blacks showed up late in the conversations and it was actually English, Irish, Scottish, and Germans who made up the first chattel in America. The suffering of these groups was as bad if not worse than their African counterparts. Whites were cheaper and because their terms weren’t for life, they were considered more expendable. It’s estimated that around fifty percent of whites survived their “indentured servitude” in the Plantations.
What was happening in England and the Plantations at the time is what Spengler called the “equating of money with political power” under the name of democracy. Bad men from all walks of life helped create the history Americans are shamed to have even today. The reality is that this history is worse than they know. Near the end of a civilization, the old virtues that made a culture erode. Virtues like having a polite society, an aristocracy, honor, discipline, sense of duty, self-sacrifice and the “genuine sense of having a great mission” give way. The culture is no longer held together by blood and soil. The makings of the new world is an example of this.
Liberalism was represented by Spengler as the freedom of the mind and the “freedom of money for every kind of business.”
“But both, too, unhesitatingly aim at the domination of a class, a domination which recognizes no overriding supremacy of the State. Mind and money, being both inorganic, want the State, not as a matured form of high symbolism to be venerated, but as an engine to serve a purpose.” -Oswald Spengler
What you see in the British Empire during the 1600s is liberalism taking the place of blood and soil. Power came down to how much money you have, not how strong you were. Terrible men who kidnapped kids to send as slaves to the Plantations or villainous masters who raped and beat their slaves who got off like antifa thugs during the summer of Floyd. Much of the corrupt world as we know it today formed during this time. White slaves were told they could take bad masters to court, only to find the court was ran by the masters. Parents who’s child was kidnapped in England would figure out who committed the crime, only to see those responsible serve a couple months of probation.
The Plantations which claimed to rebel against the British Empire in the name of liberty, had a powerful history of enslaving all kinds of men — not just blacks. Many came under the impression they would serve for 5-7 years, to be taught how to be self-sufficient, only to find if they survived those years, they would either not get the land they were promised or their master would hold them long past their term. In the instances where they fled, the courts just stamped on more years. There were few instances where bad masters were punished for their excesses. In most cases, the slaves were just sold to another plantation and the master had to be paid out for them. The thousands shipped off to the world were severed from the soil they came from, often sold lies about the realities of the new world.
England at the time, was a country where monarchy was giving way to oligarchy. The conditions were bad enough to where the elite saw their colonies and plantations as places to ship off their criminals and lower the overcrowded populations. They used the plantations as somewhere to ship off the unwanted Irish in order to resettle their land. Most of the “pilgrims” weren’t pilgrims, they were chattel to be used and abused by masters. The settling of the new world was the beginning of the western oligarchy. The War of Independence was one branch of the oligarchy breaking ties with another in order to maximize profits.
I’ve been writing much on warrior religions and I still have much to say about them, but many think they can draw on American culture to do this. This is a mistake. There is much power in the frontier culture we can honor and perhaps borrow as a foundation, but a new culture must be forged as Americans themselves are a people already removed from their blood and country. If you want to remain on this land, a new foundation for a new culture must be made. Americans exist on the tail end of an older super-organism at the end of its life. Much of our history is forged by its decay.
For Spengler, it is Caesarism which follows the corruption of a culture by democracy and money.
“Money is overthrown and abolished only by blood.” -Oswald Spengler
The focus of Decline of the West II represents the great struggle of our time. Money has become power. Everything that made us what we are as a people has been tossed away, discarded. Money and mind have become god. You can say our culture was born from Christianity and it shows in our morality, but Christianity is little more than a corpse in the modern world. A corpse beaten on relentlessly by the leftist carrion. Spengler believes we are tied to the fate of our culture and men of power will drag us kicking and screaming to the bitter end.
You can choose to meet that end kicking and screaming or you can choose to meet it with honor. Either way, it comes. This is where I split with Spengler. I do believe in the civilizational life cycle, that culture is a super-organism that we all are a part of. BUT, if you can resavage yourself and your people, you will become barbarian to your culture and when the fall comes, you will have a chance to create a new culture. Spengler leaves us the answer in his Great Work. You answer the corruption of this modern world with blood.
Not just the blood of your enemies, but the blood of your people and culture. By revitalizing the virtues of the young culture again. You must attach yourself to blood and soil. Pursue the Great Work. Show devotion, discipline, honor, daring, and strength against the force that seeks to bury the old virtues. Most Real Americans have some combination of English, Scottish, Irish, and German blood — and our ancestor’s experience on the frontier took that blood to make the American we know today.
Our enemies have tried to drag our history and blood through the mud. It’s true there is much bad in our history, but the Real American was forged in the frontier. He is something different and that blood flows through us. You must heed wisdom of Spengler. Understand that the culture is spiraling toward its end and unless you can separate yourself from it, you will share its fate.
“The Imperial Age, in every Culture alike, signifies the end of the politics of mind and money. The powers of the blood, unbroken bodily forces, resume their ancient lordship.” -Oswald Spengler