The Thomas Carlyle Club for Young Reactionaries (Students Against a Democratic Society) 1s pleased to present the inaugural issue of our free newsletter, Radish. Volume 1, Issue 1: Introducing Thomas Carlyle Letter to Walt Whitman Whitman and Carlyle quarreled over popular government. Whose predictions came true? Carlyle on democracy An excerpt from his last great reactionary pamphlet, Shooting Niagara. With a rebuttal (of sorts) by Walt Whitman, and a last word from Carlyle’s biographer, Froude. Page 2 ‘The Present Time’ A long excerpt from the first of Carlyle’s brilliant Latter-Day Pamphlets. What is democracy? How does it ‘govern,’ exactly? And shouldn't we have answered all these questions properly 150 years ago? Pages 6-8 Whitman’s America At Whitman's request, we checked up on five U.S. states to see how well democracy and republicanism are working out for America these days. Pages 3-5 January 11, 2013 ‘Shooting Niagara’ Recommended reading Learn more about the topics covered in this A longer excerpt from a. pamphlet generally considered ‘extreme’... in 1867. Page 9 Who was Carlyle? Since I refuse to tell you anything about Thomas Carlyle, besides his name and occupation (writer), this will be a very short introduction. In fact, you may stop reading now, as long as you promise not to read anyone else’s introduction to Carlyle either. Do yourself a great favor: instead of reading about Carlyle, read the man himself. Carlyle’s work is readily available, free of charge, on Google Books. If you need a place to start, try this reading list: 1. Chartism (1840), 2. Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), 3. Shooting Niagara (1867), and finally 4. the Occasional Discourse (1849). RADISH: Volume 1, Issue 1 — January 11, 2013 Thomas Carlyle as depicted by English painter John Everett Millais in 1877. For those who insist on a proper introduction, I provide this excerpt from an 1881 obituary: The way to test how much [Carlyle] has left his country were to consider, or try to consider, for a moment, the array of British thought, the resultant ensemble of the last fifty years, as existing to-day, but with Carlyle left out. It would be like an army with no artillery. That was written by the American poet Walt Whitman, Carlyle’s staunch opponent: under no circumstances, and no matter how completely time and events disprove his lurid vaticinations, should the English-speaking world forget this man, nor fail to hold in honor his unsurpass’d conscience, his unique method, and his honest fame. Never were convictions more earnest and genuine. Never was there less of a flunkey or temporizer. Never had political progressivism a foe it could more heartily respect. Whitman, you see, was a progressive; Carlyle, a reactionary. As one modern ‘Carlylean’ explains: A reactionary is not a Republican, a Democrat, or even a libertarian. It is not even a communist, a fascist, or a monarchist. It is something much older, stranger, and more powerful. But if you can describe it as anything, you can describe it as the pure opposite of progressivism. True reaction is long since extinct in the wild, but it lives in Carlyle... As for those “lurid” predictions, how completely have time and events disproved them? We resolve the Carlyle-Whitman quarrel on pages 3-5. Carlyle on democracy From his last great pamphlet, Shooting Niagara. All the Millenniums I ever heard of heretofore were to be preceded by a “chaining of the Devil for a thousand years,” — laying him up, tied neck and heels, and put beyond stirring, as the preliminary. You too have been taking preliminary steps, with more and more ardour, for a thirty years back; but they seem to be all in the opposite direction: a cutting asunder of straps and ties, wherever you might find them; pretty indiscriminate of choice in the matter: a general repeal of old regulations, fetters, and restrictions (restrictions on the Devil originally, I believe, for the most part, but now fallen slack and ineffectual), which had become unpleasant to many of you, — with loud shouting from the multitude, as strap after strap was cut, “Glory, glory, another strap is gone!” — this, I think, has mainly been the sublime legislative industry of Parliament since it became “Reform Parliament;” victoriously successful, and thought sublime and beneficent by some. So that now hardly any limb of the Devil has a thrum, or tatter of rope or leather left upon it: — there needs almost superhuman heroism in you to “whip” a garotter; no Fenian taken with the reddest hand is to be meddled with, under penalties; hardly a murderer, never so detestable and hideous, but you find him “insane,” and board him at the public expense, a very peculiar British Prytaneum of these days! And in fact, THE DEVIL (he, verily, if you will consider the sense of words) is likewise become an Emancipated Gentleman; lithe of limb, as in Adam and Eve’s time, and scarcely a toe or finger of him tied any more. And you, my astonishing friends, you are certainly getting into a millennium, such as never was before, — hardly even in the dreams of Bedlam. Suffice it to say, Carlyle takes a dim view of democracy! You can read this passage in context on page 9. For now, though, we turn to Mr. Whitman’s rebuttal... ‘ Wilde el ih a Sy Whitman responds From Carlyle from American Points of View. Carlyle’s grim fate was cast to live and dwell in, and largely embody, the parturition agony and qualms of the old order, amid crowded accumulations of ghastly morbidity, giving birth to the new. But conceive of him (or his parents before him) coming to America, recuperated by the cheering realities and activity of our people and our country — growing up and delving face-to-face resolutely among us here, especially at the West — inhaling and exhaling our limitless air and eligibilities — devoting his mind to the theories and developments of this Republic amid its practical facts as exemplified in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, or Louisiana. I say facts, and face-to-face confrontings — so different from books, and all those quiddities and mere reports in the libraries, upon which the man... almost wholly fed, and which even his sturdy and vital mind but reflected at best. ... All that is comprehended under the terms republicanism and democracy were distasteful to him from the first, and as he grew older they became hateful and contemptible. For an undoubtedly candid and penetrating faculty such as his, the bearings he persistently ignored were marvellous. For instance, the promise, nay certainty of the democratic principle, to each and every State of the current world, not so much of helping it to perfect legislators and executives, but as the only effectual method for surely, however slowly, training people on a large scale toward voluntarily ruling and managing themselves (the ultimate aim of political and all other development) — to gradually reduce the fact of governing to its minimum, and to subject all its staffs and their doings to the telescopes and microscopes of committees and parties... seem never to have enter’d Carlyle’s thought. It was splendid how he refus’d any compromise to the last. A last word from Froude From the preface to Thomas Carlyle. Whitman considered James Anthony Froude to be Carlyle’s “fullest best biographer.” He [Carlyle] was a teacher and a prophet in the Jewish sense of the word. The prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah have become a part of the permanent spiritual inheritance of mankind, because events proved that they had interpreted correctly the signs of their own times, and their prophecies were fulfilled. Carlyle, like them, believed that he had a special message to deliver to the present age. Whether he was correct in that belief, and whether his message was a true message, remains to be seen. He has told us that our most cherished ideas of political liberty, with their kindred corollaries, are mere illusions, and that the progress which has seemed to go along with them is a progress towards anarchy and social dissolution. If he was wrong, he has misused his powers. The principles of his teachings are false. He has offered himself as a guide upon a road of which he had no knowledge; and his own desire for himself would be the speediest oblivion both of his person and his works. If, on the other hand, he has been right; if, like his great predecessors, he has read truly the tendencies of this modern age of ours, and his teaching is authenticated by facts, then Carlyle, too, will take his place among the inspired seers, and he will shine on, another fixed star in the intellectual sky. Time only can show how this will be. Was Carlyle right after all? Have the facts authenticated his teachings? To find out, we took the Walt Whitman Republicanism & Democracy Tour: America’s Cheering Realities, from Wichita to Jena! See pages 3-5. RADISH: Volume 1, Issue 1 — January 11, 2013 A LETTER TO WALT WHITMAN Dear Mr. Whitman, I hope this letter, which I have sent back in time from the year 2013 at great expense in postage stamps, finds you well, and also does not somehow kill my great-grandparents. Recently, I read with interest your Carlyle from American Points of View (see page 2), in which you suggest that if Mr. Carlyle had only witnessed first-hand the “practical facts” of America “as exemplified in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, or Louisiana,” he surely would have learned to love “all that is comprehended under the terms republicanism and democracy” as much as you or I or any other decent human being. And if the practical facts of Kansas, Missourt, etc., in the late 19th century would have shaken the skepticism, with regard to popular government, of such “an undoubtedly candid and penetrating faculty” as Carlyle’s, surely the “cheering realities” of those same states today will shatter it completely! Luckily for all three of us, the U.S. Postal Service recently introduced same-day past- century delivery. So I have taken the liberty of compiling for you a few anecdotes of life in those five American states in 2012, which I present below, along with my commentary. I’m sure these cheering realities will only reinforce your (already sturdy) faith in popular government. Sincerely, The Carlyle Club RADISH: Volume 1, Issue 1 — January 11, 2013 Kansas In April, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) declared a four-year-old girl a “high security threat,” accused her of smuggling handguns, and threatened to shut down the Wichita airport after they observed the child hugging her grandmother. Remarkably, although everyone not actually employed by the TSA agrees that everything it does is either useless or evil, no one has any idea how to stop it. Perhaps we should all vote on something. In November, 50 young Mesoamerican colonizers gathered in Topeka to protest Secretary of State Kris _ Kobach’s “tough immigration laws,” which are so tough that 50 foreign | invaders can safely protest the Secretary of State in front of his workplace. “Tjust don’t see why he’s so troubled with” colonization, said Luis Sosa, a Mesoamerican colonizer attending a U.S. community college who had no problem giving reporters his full name. In May, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback felt the need to sign a bill prohibiting state courts and agencies from using non-U.S. law. Many Americans opposed the measure, citing a variety of reasons: e it will ridicule and demonize Muslims, somehow; e itis unconstitutional and un-American, somehow; e itis unnecessary, because U.S. law always prevails, and even when Islamic law prevails, that decision eventually gets overturned, and these 49 other documented cases do not count, so ignore them; e Muslims should be protected by U.S. law (?); and e people may feel that Kansas is unwelcoming. In December, acting on “the promise, nay certainty of the democratic principle... to gradually reduce the fact of governing to its minimum,” the Wellington City Council ruled that a household may have no more than four adult cats and one litter of kittens. Miussourl1 In January, March (twice), April, May, August (twice), October, and December, we read in the papers that lawless bands of Afro teenagers are ambushing Euros and Asians at random and beating them unconscious, sometimes fatally, as part of a “knockout game” popular in St. Louis. We find these stories disturbing, because by not censoring the ancestral origin of the attackers and victims, they may perpetuate hurtful stereotypes. In March, two Afro teens in Kansas City followed a 13-year-old Euro boy home, doused him in gasoline and set him on fire, stating: “You get what you deserve, white boy.” Euro parents and students report a pattern of racial harassment by Afro students and teachers at the victim’s school. This is normal, and no cause for alarm. However, the same story with the clines reversed would be a national crisis and proof of the inherent wickedness of all Euros everywhere, so we are always on the lookout for such a despicable crime to agitate over. In September, a crowd of 150 gathered in St. Louis to support Reginald Clemons, one of four Afro men who raped a pair of Euro sisters and forced them off a bridge to their deaths in 1991. Clemons has been awaiting execution for his crimes since 1993, which is ; considered normal. One of his accomplices is already free on parole, which is also considered normal. The protesters are participating in social justice, a new and more democratic form of justice based largely on historical revisionism and xenophilia. In August, two Afro serial robbers shot and killed former college volleyball star Megan Boken for no reason, as she sat in her car in front of an apartment building on a Saturday \2 This, too, is normal — an accepted part of urban afternoon in St. Louis. living. In fact, I’m not even sure why I brought it up. Illinois On one August weekend in Chicago, 21 people were shot, presumably by Afros. The next weekend, 30 were shot, seven fatally. The following Thursday, 19 more were shot — 13 over one half-hour period. Fortunately, Chicago has strict laws against carrying a gun, in accordance with certain unelected officials’ evolving interpretations of the Constitution. In December, an Afro man boarded a Chicago train and, without saying a word, struck a 21-year-old (presumably Euro) woman in the face with a sock ~ : filled with his feces. The »~ - woman, a college student, described it as “the biggest degradation” she had ever experienced, and wished that “he had just hit” her. Iam not sure if this is considered normal yet. In any case, it was an isolated incident, obviously not indicative of any sort of breakdown of social order. That would be crazy. 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(Continued from ‘Illinois’ on page 3.) In March, one year after Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty, a remorseless 24- year-old Afro man smiled as he was sentenced to 50 years in prison for raping a 90-year-old woman. We consider capital punishment uncivilized. tr, the Chicago Teachers Union ended an a cages strike j in exchange for an ae raise and other benefits. Chicago has the shorte: of all ten largest metro InS school year areas, and was alreac paying its teachers more than any other city, yet 39% of its teachers send their own kids to private schools. Well, what’s another $74 million a year, when your state is already going bankrupt? (States do that now.) General Medical Sciences Heart, Lung and Blood Institute In December, a Mesoamerican colonizer named Jorge Mariscal received a free kidney transplant in »———- Chicago, an option not generally available to U.S. citizens. Two other Chicago hospitals hope to offer free liver transplants to a pair of colonizing brothers. “Why can’t we be treated the same?” Jorge asked, without apparent irony, as he worried if fellow colonizers might not get their own free treatment. Tennessee On a Friday night in March, four Afro immigrants, including a 15-year-old, abducted two young (presumably Euro) men in Antioch. They beat and stabbed the men for at least an hour, and forced them at knifepoint to perform sex acts on each other. Ps Bs. Indian He “