This post was, in part, inspired by a post by Gary Barnett at Substack: All Rule and All Government Are Evil to the Core, and the Abandonment of Natural Law.
A couple of happenstances occurred to me recently. A friend of mine, Morris, who is learning Japanese, were talking a few months ago and he was telling me that the Japanese have a "high honor"culture. That notion stuck with me and I continue thinking about it ever since since it’s so important.
Now here in Cambodia, I’m seeing their “honor” culture. For example, the very first morning here, I went to Siem Reap’s riverfront in the morning to get a coffee at one of the street vendors. I went to a young guy who served me a great cup of iced coffee for a little more than one dollar. I sat down on one of his chairs overlooking the river. I also noticed that he was exceptionally courteous and respectful.
He asked me if I my coffee was sweet enough and I said “a little more please.” He remembered my preference the next morning. That first morning I offered him about a $0.50 tip for the $1 coffee. He respectively refused to take my tip when I paid him. He said that it was “too much.” This really got my mind going. I was thinking about such a thing where he turned down my money on principle. I thought about “honor” and culture again.
(I keep going back to his stand for coffee and I’m happy to report that he accepts more modest tips. )
I emailed a friend in Houston about my trip and I mentioned this encounter. He asked me in reply, “is he nuts?” This is basically how I responded:
I was thinking about your comment "is he nuts?" I think the answer is an important one: that the street vendor must have an "honor code" that he learned from his culture or parents (or both). The more that I thought about it, the more I realized that "honor" is an entire basis of culture/civilization. If your behavior and thoughts are based on an honor code: respect, honesty, giving others their due, doing what's right---then that is the basis of society. We have our 10 commandments, the Japanese have their honor/respect "code" and both countries have deep 1000+ year histories—ours dating back to the Magna Carta, Anglo and Northern European culture and their accumulated intelligence. All this came to America.
My street vendor was using his sense of “right and wrong” that’s part of his, Cambodia’s, culture and code of honor. It must be the same or similar in Japan. Then I thought of US cultural history up until the late 1800s.
When you have a homogenous, intelligent population and culture, like in early America or in Japan, that is steeped in a deep and successful history, then you really need very few laws and regulations. That's because people behave according to their internalized “code” or “Natural Law” and self-regulate.
A Further Explanation of “Natural Law”
And here’s a brilliant explanation of “natural law” from Gary Barnett at Substack quoting "Natural Law, or the Science of Justice" (1882) by Lysander Spooner (author) :
The beauty, simplicity, and justice, of natural law is a thing to behold. It harms no one, and protects everyone; this the essence of freedom. Nothing else is necessary concerning man's interactions with man, as natural law is based upon the premise of doing no harm to another, no use of force against another, and no infringement upon another or his property. Natural laws alone are the only laws necessary.
The foundation and justification of natural law is centered on truth, honesty, and exacting justice, without any bias or undue force in the process. Each individual has to be responsible for upholding natural law. This can be done independently or with a collective of individuals working together, so long as any and all seeking and protecting justice, do so voluntarily, and without any evidence of coercion. There cannot be any shifting of blame in order to avoid guilt, dishonesty, or power-seeking in any legitimate free society, but of course, a society of this nature is simply peaceful anarchy, strictly based only on natural law.
The laws of nature, natural laws, do not need to be written down, or commanded by the State, as simply understanding that one cannot do any harm to another, or infringe on another's life, property, and freedom, is a sufficient understanding of right and wrong. With this knowledge in hand, why then are hundreds of thousands (or more) 'laws' made arbitrarily by this heinous government?
I think this sort of "natural law" was in force in the colonial days and into the Jefferson administration and onto the late 1800s. Christianity and Judaism, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Ten Commandments were our first "Honor codes" and codified our Natural law with nearly no central government. That and a 1000 year old common history and heritage.
There was a miniscule central government and no central bank before 1913, when Income Taxes and a US Central Bank were established.
With the establishment of Income Taxes and a Central Bank, all hell broke loose.
Although the Federal government was miniscule until WWII (and really through the 1950s). But since then, you could correctly say that the Federal Reserve AND the Income Tax Acts of 1913 were, and continue to be, responsible for our increasingly bloated and war-loving government for more than 100 years.
Despite all that, our European heritage (ethics, ‘honor,’ common culture) was our cultural gift that kept paying dividends in prosperity and increasing standards of living. Back then, the US was 84% White persons of mostly EUROPEAN heritage. US blacks had their separate neighborhoods and communities and they had their own neighborhood schools and their own ‘culture’ and a significantly different ‘honor code’ of sorts.
Someone decided that that all that “whiteness” had to end!
They did it because they knew that, in Marxist thought, where you DON'T have a deep, homogeneous, highly evolved and intelligent population with a culture and honor, then you need ever more government, zillions of laws, lawyers and AND MORE CONTROL. Really, the blessed, peaceful “Natural Law” had to go! All of our success left little room for Marxist infiltration, so….
You see, if your society is diluted by un-intelligent, uncultured and/or un-educated and/or uncivilized people who have no code of conduct and morality, then you need laws---zillions of them and more lawyers. And that's where the USA is at and it keeps getting worse due to the full-on "white replacement"effort by our evil Democrats and supra-national forces of evil.
The “Great Replacement” that began in 1965 has now "gone exponential" with open borders, alien invaders from disparate places with minimal education, and from primitive cultures that are MUCH inferior to ours. This was and is being done on purpose both here and in Europe.
Now, the entirety of Western Civ is being destroyed in front of our eyes: Sweden has a bombing and rape problem now after 1000 years of peace and tranquility. London has it’s knife attacks and Islamic leaders, pro-Palestinian protests where you’re not allow to carry a British flag. England doesn’t even look English now. Free speech is a thing of the past in Germany and the UK. Manchester has it’s Sharia Law and a shocking Islamic sexual predation—the grooming of children into pedophilia that is known and organized. The police look away. This is why Tommy Robinson is being continally persecuted by the “authorities.” Crime has overtaken entire continents now. Ireland and Scotland have fallen. Really the UK has fallen. Germany is in the hands of totalitarians again—in a New Normal Reich where all types of speech is prosecuted.
You’re witnessing the suicide pact of Western Civilization destruction— orchestrated by shadowy elites like Davos elites, the Gates and Rockefellas of the world and, of course, the WEF. The path forward is only decay, decline, disruption, war, more debt, bankruptcy —all due to DISHONOR—the intentional dishonoring of our cultural heritage and it’s preservation like Japan has done.
Hi Doug,
ReplyDeleteA 50% tip, no matter how much your heart is in the right place, ruins the locals.
The man who refused your overly generous tip is the rarity, most people would take that tip and quickly get accustomed to receiving, as their due, large tips from foreigners. Before you know it Cambodians end up like Mexican servers (in Mexico) and then like the worst money-grubbing waiters and waitresses in Los Angeles - NO Thanks!
All that being said, when I was in Bogotá, Colombia, back in 1990/1991 I'd tip the shoe-shine boys 100%. Back then the exchange rate was 600 pesos for $1 and a shoe shine was 100 pesos (the same price for a bottle of beer in any Bogotá bar). In Spanish, I'd tell the shoe-shine boy, who was usually a pre-teen homeless kid, that if he did a really good job I'd pay him double - 200 pesos (33¢) - for the shine, which I always did as I thanked him for a job well done. After a few months pretty much all the shoe-shine boys in my part of Bogotá knew me well.
As it is now, I haven't gone to a sit-down restaurant in America in years. The USA tipping culture is ridiculous (a 15% tip, once considered to be fine, is now considered to be garbage) and servers are not all that good at their job. Whenever I'm in America I steer clear of the cities and its restaurants, instead I camp in the wilderness and cook all my own food over a wood fire. It works well for me.
All the best.
All the meat in this post about Natural Law and freedom, the rise of big government, and the end of Western Civ and you are focused on my 50 cent tip to a young dude serving coffee from his motorcycle cart?? OMG, we're doomed! The kid is a budding entrepeneur and I'm supporting him.
DeleteThe US is in it's last days, seemingly secure that it won't be blown to bits by a hypersonic missile or 20, or a nuclear tipped torpedo to send a 500' wall of water over DC and NYC and you're going on and on about tipping???
Excuse the fact that I'm peeved about your obsession with tipping, but what it shows me is that there is really no hope to save our country by such myopic lack of vision and any sense of proportion. I'm saying, with some justification, that you're part of the problem.
This blog deals with the dying days of the US with the high potential of a catasgtrophic end and your worried about over tipping?? Fuck me!
God help us all, you're showing me WHY the US is doomed. Atrocious things are happening in the country, including a clear descent into tyranny and you're in a trivial little space apparently. I give up, I really do.
Hello Doug,
ReplyDeleteI'm a First-time poster. I just discovered your blog and I have been enjoying it very much.
This post really resonated with me. I had just posted the following comment on American Renaissance on a story from a person who had to deal with blacks in a public library. This author noted how blacks always were breaking the plastic stands off of the public computer keyboards making them harder to use. There were also numerous other larger problems caused by blacks in this library such as noise, stealing, parking lot issues, etc.
I agree that our society, our civilization is based on a homogenous population living in a daily high-trust nation.
Here are the thoughts I posted in the comments section of the American Renaissance story. I hope it agrees with your thoughts in this Gulfcoast Commentary article:
Predators is a good way to state them. Over and over we hear these stories. What I get out of them is this: whites have built the world's best civilizations. These civilizations are built upon numerous systems. These systems are built upon disciplines, things like science, math, physics, chemistry. In other words, difficult, complex disciplines. For centuries these systems have worked and worked well. Whole frontiers have been tamed, cities built, children educated, families flourished. As great as these systems are and have been, they rely on two givens, homogeneous people and high-trust values. So many systems rely on high trust. It is assumed that we will all not cheat at school and business, not take advantage of our fellows, not take everything that isn't nailed down, not speed, not throw our trash everywhere, not blast our music out the window, not drive drunk, etc. It's hard to think of these honor-based actions because we whites do them daily and to us they are natural. It comes down to something as simple as don't break the library keyboards. Common sense for us, a struggle for non-whites.
In today's world, the homogeneous has been destroyed by our leaders. The high-trust systems are laughed at and abused by non-whites. Medicare fraud seems to routinely be done by non-whites who have come here, they see our honor-based systems, and they think us fools, ripe for the plucking. Fraud should be committed according to their mind set. They are the predators this author speaks about.
Because non-whites cannot live up to this high standard of high-trust systems, and so many of our nation's systems are based on various levels of trust, we must live apart.
I love your comments! We're on the same page Please note that I'm migrating to Substack which is better for commenting and is a committed free speech platform. You'll like it. I have some "essential gulfcoastcommentary index" posts. Just search that phrase. Here's the address: https://gulfcoastcommentary.substack.com/
DeleteSee you over there! I'm going back to sleep. It's 1:30 am here in Cambodia. Ttyl.