I've noticed that a lot of people on the right-wing nationalist side of things have been greatly perturbed by the melting down of the Charlottesville statue of the semi-talented Confederate general, Robert E. Lee. It is widely seen by the Amren/Counter-Currents/ Southern Secessionist types as a symbol of the "Great Replacement," and as an act of the so-called "Anti-White" establishment rubbing in the fact that White people are now weak and marginalised losers, and that "diversity" has triumphed.
As usual this is a highly emotionally-driven and, therefore, massively mistaken analysis. It is also a dog-whistle to moronic anti-Semitic tropes.
Actually, what this act symbolises is the exact opposite of diversity triumphing. Instead, it is a symbol of the ongoing project of centralising and unifying American and Western identity.
As is well known, the American Civil War was a highly divisive episode in American history. The unexpected resistance that the South was able to generate led to the war being a much more brutal and polarising experience than it needed to be. Also, the war itself was undertaken to counter centrifugal forces and strengthen the unity of the American political entity. But, after four years of relatively intense warfare, much of the population of the South had been alienated from the rest of the country; a phenomenon that was then intensified by the excesses of the period of what is called "Reconstruction."
It was this that led to the ad hoc process of mollification that succeeded Reconstruction from the 1870s onwards. Essentially this allowed a revival of States' rights, segregation, the stealthy disenfranchisement of Blacks, and a guarded respect for "Southern identity" and the history of its short period of "glorious" Secession. Confederate flags and naming things after General Robert E. Lee and Stonewell Jackson all became markers of Southern identity.
But this identity was always at odds with the greater Gleichschaltung of the American state. This exists at a more subtle level than it does in states, where the need to create cultural and social unity are more pressing, but it exists nonetheless and almost as potently. This Gleichschaltung emphasised firstly ethnic unity amongst a diverse White population of immigrants from Europe, and then racial unity between the various races that found themselves enmeshed in the American political entity.
A separate Southern identity, with all its symbols of Secession, slavery, and racial hierarchy (implicit or otherwise), was always a potential threat and fault line, something that the inherent centralising tendencies of any powerful state cannot tolerate forever.
The most interesting point is that the establishment's move against this separate identity had to wait until the twenty-teens and 2020s to reach its full culmination.
Dukes of Hazard re-runs about to be cancelled
Sure, the 1960s saw the Civil Rights movement, which greatly perturbed Southern Whites. But that was motivated by the need to include America's relatively large African-American population in society, and prevent that becoming another fault line and sticking point with the non-aligned World, where America was competing for influence against the Soviet Union (Yes, almost none of the great "moral" reforms of America have been taken for actual moral reasons).
Following that, for around 50 years, Civil Rights, "integration," and "Black empowerment" existed side-by-side with the Secessionist subculture of Civil War America. That it was able to do so is testament to the strength and unchallenged position of America for most of that period. Only a hegemonic superpower, whose fault lines and internal contradictions were relatively unchallenged by its rivals, could carry such divisions within it.
The fact that this particular contradiction now has to be eradicated, symbolised most strikingly by the iconic image of General Lee sinking into the embers, is testament to the growing challenge and accumulating weaknesses of America in the rising multipolar order.
Following that, for around 50 years, Civil Rights, "integration," and "Black empowerment" existed side-by-side with the Secessionist subculture of Civil War America. That it was able to do so is testament to the strength and unchallenged position of America for most of that period. Only a hegemonic superpower, whose fault lines and internal contradictions were relatively unchallenged by its rivals, could carry such divisions within it.
The fact that this particular contradiction now has to be eradicated, symbolised most strikingly by the iconic image of General Lee sinking into the embers, is testament to the growing challenge and accumulating weaknesses of America in the rising multipolar order.
America is still the strongest dog in the pack and the major power that has the least necessity to engage in the 'Great Game' of global geopolitics, but the 2010s revealed unprecedented weaknesses in the system, and Charlottesville was right at the heart of that.
The unexpected geopolitical bitch-slap that was Charlottesville
Charlottesville was a symbol of the Alt-Right, and the Alt-Right, when all's said and done, was a symbol of the weakness of open liberal societies to foreign subversion.
The tremendous impact that this had on the American political ecosystem is something that continues to reverberate today, through America First, MAGA, QAnon, Groypers, Christian Nationalism, Elon Musk, and all their derivatives, memes, and narratives. These have gone on to colonise vast areas of the Republican Party, pointing it in an isolationist direction, while all across Europe and the West disruptive populist forces have also been unleashed.
The tremendous impact that this had on the American political ecosystem is something that continues to reverberate today, through America First, MAGA, QAnon, Groypers, Christian Nationalism, Elon Musk, and all their derivatives, memes, and narratives. These have gone on to colonise vast areas of the Republican Party, pointing it in an isolationist direction, while all across Europe and the West disruptive populist forces have also been unleashed.
This is the macro reason why we are seeing the melting down of this statue now. It is an act of strength and unification, addressing a growing challenge.
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Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying it here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia).