Why Does the West Hate Itself? By James Reed
A new book by Benedict Beckeld, Western Self-Contempt: Oikophobia in the Decline of Civilizations (North Illinois University Press, 2022), may supply an answer to the question of Western suicide, if I could get the book, but I am too poor in this inflation-ravaged economy to buy anything but the basic food items, like dog food. How then to find out about such books? Why, read reviews, and what free info is available. Here are some crumbs from Amazon.com:
“Western Self-Contempt travels through civilizations since antiquity, examining major political events and the literature of ancient Greece, Rome, France, Britain, and the United States, to study evidence of cultural self-hatred and its cyclical recurrence. Benedict Beckeld explores oikophobia, described by its coiner Sir Roger Scruton as "the felt need to denigrate the customs, culture and institutions that are identifiably 'ours,'" in its political and philosophical applications. Beckeld analyzes the theories behind oikophobia along with their historical sources, revealing why oikophobia is best described as a cultural malaise that befalls civilizations during their declining days.
Beckeld gives a framework for why today's society is so fragmented and self-critical. He demonstrates that oikophobia is the antithesis of xenophobia. By this definition, the riots and civil unrest in the summer of 2020 were an expression of oikophobia. Excessive political correctness that attacks tradition and history is an expression of oikophobia. Beckeld argues that if we are to understand these behaviors and attitudes, we must understand oikophobia as a sociohistorical phenomenon.
Western Self-Contempt is a systematic analysis of oikophobia, combining political philosophy and history to examine how Western civilizations and cultures evolve from naïve and self-promoting beginnings to states of self-loathing and decline. Concluding with a philosophical portrait of an increasingly interconnected Western civilization, Beckeld reveals how past events and ideologies, both in the US and in Europe, have led to a modern culture of self-questioning and self-rejection.”
Ok, so why does the West hate itself, but not china? Well, I watched the author’s book summary on YouTube, but was not able to find a clear answer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVkMVgiJu08
Then I eventually found a review:
https://americanmind.org/salvo/dont-hate-yourself/
No, not much there to our core question. Then an article from the author, but only for subscribers:
https://quillette.com/2019/10/07/oikophobia-our-western-self-hatred/
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-jim-rutt-show/id1470622572
It seems from the free podcast, that I listened to for over an hour, that this self-hatred is built into the Western psyche. There is no mention of race in his discussion which seems to be needed as the West from the Greeks to now have been primarily white, unlike the Chinese. The issue then is what produces this white pathology, not found in the Chinese, a topic that few academics, other than Professor Kevin MacDonald, dare to address:
I hypothese that there is a genetic weakness in whites of promiscuous altruism, evolved from the harsh cold climates of the past, that today is generally pathological and enables other ethnic groups to colonise their countries, race And minds.
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