Saturday, July 28, 2018

Falafel & circuses

Way back in 1828, an Englishwoman by the name of Eliza Fenton sailed from India to Australia. She travelled on an Arab ship, the Hamoud Shaw. Her description of the crew is very interesting. She thought the captain, Ben Hassan, "a fine looking man," but she was less complimentary toward the chief mate:
He [the captain] has one European on board who holds the office of chief mate. He makes me quite melancholy. He is English by name and complexion, but his tastes, manners, and his scruples, not to say his religion, are Arab.

He is the son of a Scotch clergyman, but for many years has been leading his present life, trading between Muscat and Mozambique. Muscat is, in his imagination, what Paris is to a Frenchman.

His taste seems to lie in laying bare the unsightly movements of the human heart and crushing its better feelings, or dwelling on them with bitterness and ridicule.

His converse turns on murders, executions, shipwrecks, his reading is the works of Voltaire and Paine, of which he has just read enough to unsettle his own belief.

Poor fellow! though it always make me nervous to hear him speak, I pity him too; he may not always have been what he now is; has he been made this [way] by disappointment or alienation from the humanising relationships of life?

She then describes a Greek member of the crew and writes something prophetic:
The crew are a mixture of Bengalees, Arabs, and negro slaves. Among this crowd there is, - Oh! sad to write it, - a Greek, a native of Athens, a Moslem now by adopted faith and practice.

Little reckons he of past time; Marathon is no more to him than Mozambique. He would rather have a curry than all the fame of his ancestors.

"He would rather have a curry than all the fame of his ancestors". This could describe a whole lot of Western liberals who often justify open borders on the grounds of ethnic cuisine.

I was reminded of this today by the response to Lauren Southern's attempts to walk to the mosque in Lakemba, a suburb of Sydney with a majority Muslim population. Lauren was stopped by several officers of the NSW police force, who informed her that it would be illegal for her to walk to the mosque.

In doing so, Lauren Southern demonstrated that there were no go areas for her in Australia. This did not seem to be the most significant point about the incident to some on the left. They were more concerned by kebabs:


The mainstream media journalist covering the story was also thinking with her stomach:


She is happy to trade a falafel for her country, demographic transformation for a Middle-Eastern wrap. In her mind, it's a great deal.

I know what Eliza Fenton's reaction would have been. She would have seen it as the response of those who were, for some reason, emotionally alienated from the normal feeling of connectedness to their own tradition.

And Lauren Southern? Her rejoinder was droll:



It has to be said, that the "muh cuisine" defence of open borders does fit to some degree with the "bread and circuses" concept that was known to the Romans:



The difference, I suppose, is that it is not the common people who are being appeased by superficial things, but a section of the intelligentsia. They are the ones who are neglecting wider and more significant concerns because of the allure of food/cuisine.

A note to Melbourne readers. If you are sympathetic to the ideas of this website, please visit the site of the Melbourne Traditionalists. It's important that traditionalists don't remain isolated from each other; our group provides a great opportunity for traditionalists to meet up and connect. Details at the website.

8 comments:

  1. This food diversity "defence" is an utterly ridiculous non sequitur.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, but its all they have to cover their real motivations

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  2. Mark,

    This is not an "Onion" headline

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5993347/Woman-28-quits-criminology-career-time-housewife.html

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  3. Perhaps the best example I've ever seen that shows how liberal proclaim the immigrant as superior in moral status. And no accident that the author is a leading neoconservative.

    https://twitter.com/EliotACohen/status/1021914501308923904

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  4. "They are the ones who are neglecting wider and more significant concerns because of the allure of food/cuisine".

    The elites are not interested in alien cuisines served in the west, which are in reality, modifications of traditional food to suit western markets. A falafel or curry in London tastes very different from the equivalents in Cairo or Bombay. The curry houses and kebab houses and Thai restaurants do not serve the expensive wines with which they like to indulge themselves and impress their friends and associates. Nor do they have the luxury decor or ambience or sophisticated service and their standards of hygiene are often below par. The alien cuisines are indeed bread and circuses for the masses and that this why these establishments focus on the mass market with products adapted to cater for their tastes and wallets.

    Any interest the elites take in the third world cultures usually arises from travel to the lands of the Orient, Africa and Asia, an activity generally denied to the masses. The traditions, religions and arts of these countries is what attracts them and holds their fascination as they often live in these countries for a time. Some have family connections to these lands having been born there or lived there as children of empire or business families.

    I think the attraction to the strong traditional cultures is one of a deeper nature that food. It is the matter of alienation which is a result of the collapse of their own cultures and civilisations caused by rampant individualism. Despite the lure of "freedom", most of humanity cannot cope with freedom and require a strong framework of tradition which tells them what to believe and what to do. In essence a blueprint for life.

    The people who destroyed their own culture in pursuit of freedom, later immerse themselves in the cultures of Asia trying to replace for themselves what they have destroyed at home. Ultimately human's greatest need is for security and not for the pursuit of happiness.

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  5. I've said many times that I would gladly eat nothing but roast chicken or meatloaf with mashed potatoes, gravy, and cooked peas for the rest of my life, if it meant getting to live in an entirely Anglo country.

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