AN excerpt from the unpublished book, America Erased, by Lawrence Auster:

What are the practical results of [the] pervasive nihilism on white, middle-class Americans? What does the human product of a nihilist culture look like? As white America has progressively lost its belief in God, in objective truth and morality, in law, in nationhood and in race, whites have acquired an increasingly bland, complacent, pacific aspect. This seems to be true not only in the United States but in the white West as a whole.

One is especially struck by this ennervated quality in contemporary whites when observing them at their leisure, on Sundays, or on their innumerable vacations, or when they are shopping. In the all-white or predominantly white pockets of society, the environment is orderly and peaceful and aesthetically attractive, but something vital is missing.

I have noticed it when strolling in downtown Chicago, or on Manhattan’s Upper East Side on a Sunday afternoon, or watching on TV the audience of a July 4th concert of Broadway show tunes (not traditional patriotic songs) held on Capitol Hill in 1996. Even the relatively refined whites (i.e. those who avoid the aggressively nihilistic “grunge” look of today’s pop culture) have their own, passively nihilistic style — dressed down, neat but nondescript.

There is the predominance of t-shirts and shorts, the absence of clothing that conveys dignity or a large sense of self, the vaguely unisex fashions that deny the true scale of man and woman. Whites seem to have lost the energy, confidence and leadership qualities that once created a civilization. Absent is any sense of the long views and great plans, the intensity and faith that once bestrode a continent. There is no look of destiny, or even of character, in the faces of contemporary whites. Even the “WASPy” upper-class types on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, for all their supposed elitism, do not have the aspect of leaders of society, but of an enervated clique maintaining a residue of manners. It might be said that they have declined into a mere ethnic group; but even that would be an overstatement. What they are is simply consumers.

And in this peaceful, orderly and insipid aspect of today’s middle-class white people, they bear an eerie resemblance to that race of drones called the Eloi, as portrayed in H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine–those pretty, passive, dimwitted creatures in the distant future who laze about peacefully in the sun waiting for the night to come when the beastly Morlocks, coming up from their underground hiding places, will seize and eat them. The graceful and attractive Eloi, whom Wells’ protaganist at first glance believes to be the masters of this future world, turn out to be the mere sheep or cattle of the Morlocks.

— Comments —

Mark Jaws writes:

There I was walking home from the community pool late this afternoon after swimming a half mile, when I passed by our sub-division’s community center. There was evidently a shindig going on because out emerged several attractively-dressed young women in their 20s. As I continued to walk away from the center I noticed an old acquaintance, a quintessential WASP, whom I had not seen in about eight to ten years approaching the center. It turns out that it was this gentleman’s daughter who was having a bridal shower, and he was dressed as if he was about to mow the lawn! I thought immediately about this blog entry and how white middle-aged men no longer know how to dress for the occasion. This evening I am going to a Carly Fiorina fundraiser and I will be darned if I am going to look like some schlub who just emerged from Home Depot.

Bob writes:

There is a very strong social pressure on white middle and upper class men to dress down. This is especially noticeable among white male faculty. When I first joined a university faculty in 1972, we all wore ties and sports coats to class. Students dressed down. By the time I retired in 2007 it was de rigueur for men to wear chinos or jeans and informal shjirts (no tees, that was still a student thing). Students still thought it was inappropriate for faculty to wear jeans, but many did.

Interestingly, there were two groups who were exceptions to the code. All women faculty dressed up, either in dresses or commonly business suits. Radical women wore pants suits, but they are a minority. The other group was male administrator, who dressed in formal business suits.

There is some psychological process underway here, but I don’t know what it is. In part, there has been a total abdication by male faculty to the students, or maybe its just boomers who are deluded into to thinking it’s still the 60’s. With the women and male administrators, it’s a clear class statement.

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