A commenter announces his departure from the Human Biodiversity blogosphere

At his HBD blog on January 16, OneSTDV mentioned and linked me favorably on the subject of “Liberal Hategate.” A commenter named the Undiscovered Jew then said,

Who cares what Auster thinks?

He analyzes every event through the lens of a hysterical moralizing narrative with apocalyptic connotations.

Last week he was raving about how the non-event of letting gay males serve openly in the military is the greatest betrayal of conservatism ever.

Another commenter, Anonymous, then wrote:

I disagree. Lawrence Auster is quite accurate on DADT and other issues. As I’m leaving the HBD blogosphere I’m going to the traditional Christian conservative blogosphere.

OneSTDV asked:

Why are you leaving the HBD blogosphere? And are these “traditional Christian conservative” race-conscious? Or at least open to any race realist ideas?

Anonymous replied:

I’m incorporating race realism and bringing it to that part of the blogosphere. It’s kind of what happened to this guy except instead of game it was with HBD——
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/015828.html

Thank you for the journey. I’ll come back. Just not HBD as the main philosophy. I’ll still be fighting against equality, multiculturalism, progress, non-discrimination, individualism, etc and I will always be greatly in debt for your findings on racial differences.

[end of excerpt of thread]

This is the kind of balanced understanding that is needed. The anonymous commenter recognizes that HBD, though it presents important truths about group differences, is fundamentally inadequate as a world view or as a basis for politics. At the same time, he also recognizes that Christian conservatives mostly fail to acknowledge those same truths about group differences. But he seems to understand, first, that Christian conservatism, while missing some important things, provides a legitimate and workable basis for a world view, which HBD does not; and, second, that there is more hope in trying to expand Christian conservatives’ understanding so as to include the truth of group differences, than in trying to expand HBDers’ understanding to include the transcendent. The commenter is developing the multi-layered view of reality—that there is a biological order, a social order, and a spiritual order—which is the essence of the West, which is indispensable to the recovery of the West, and the systematic rejection of which, by all reductionist and one-dimensional modern belief systems, has ruined the West.

The exchange is heartening, because it shows the only kind of progress that traditionalists can reasonably hope for at present. It is progress toward true understanding, one mind and soul at a time. And one day, I believe, we who are now outcasts, we who are despised, we shall one day be the people.

- end of initial entry -

Mercedes D. writes:

You write:

“But he seems to understand, first, that Christian conservatism, while missing some important things, provides a legitimate and workable basis for a world view, which HBD does not.”

Just so. Your comment reminded me of something C.S. Lewis wrote in his essay, “Is Theology Poetry?”, which I just read again last night in the book The Weight of Glory. In explaining why he stopped believing in what he calls the Scientific Outlook and believed instead in Christian theology, Lewis said:

Christian theology can fit in science, art, morality, and the sub-Christian religions. The scientific point of view cannot fit in any of these things, not even science itself. I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 21, 2011 10:48 AM | Send