0168 Part 2 is titled, “The Romantic Rehabilitation of Nature”.

This part depicts a fall from the American Identity, where the esse_ce of the wilderness (or frontier or whatever else one might label “wilderness”) calls for changes in the essence of the Puritan’s, the Virginian’s and the Founding of the Nation’s sensible constructions.

0169 Chapter 12 tells the story of Daniel Boone (1734-1820), who relies on his rifle when he rescues his kidnapped daughter (and others).  The story adds to an impression that the rifle is key to the American identity.

But what does that mean?

Once again, here is the American Identity at the time when the United States achieved independence.

0170 The rifle allows Daniel Boone to take the law into his own hands.  Isn’t that what a sovereign does?  A sovereign accepts responsibility_3b.

0171 In contrast, the author discusses the Quakers, who were unwilling to carry guns, because carrying a gun signaled their… um… lack of virtue.  Quakers want to retain their property but are unwilling to defend it themselves.  However, they are willing to pay others to provide a defense, especially when the payment is under the table.

In other words, the Quakers signaled their virtue by refusing to carry the American symbol_1b of individual sovereignty_3b… that is… responsibility_3b.

0172 The Quakers are not the first to muddle innocence and not being responsible.  They testify to the American Identity by virtue of their exception from the rule.  Quakers were too “holy” to defend themselves in such an uncivilized manner.  Daniel Boone was born a Quaker.  He grew up to be a guide that led folk through the Appalachian Mountains to the interior of the continent.  He carried a gun.

0173 Chapter 13 covers the fictionalization of Daniel Boone, by James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851).  Cooper’s novel, The Last of the Mohicans, sold so many copies that Cooper could live off of the royalties.

0174 The hero of The Leatherstocking Tales is named Natty Bumppo.  Cooper writes a series of books, where this character develops.

When I look at the above figure, I suspect that Natty Bumppo does a lot of walking_3a in frontier lands.  He respects the Bible_2a, but is not book smart.  He does not have theology, whether covenantal or acquisitional.  He admires the wisdom in scriptures_2a, even though theologians are sometimes not so wise.  He carries a gun_1a.  A gun_1a gives him the freedom_1b to stand for himself_2b.  Bumppo is responsible_3b for himself.  He serves as a guide for others.

0175 In the 1820s, the essentialist Calvinist doctrine of total depravity proves worthless in the face of the esse_ce of the frontier.  Frontier folk had to take responsibility_3b.  That included carrying a gun_1a.  The gun_1a obviously belongs to the realm of actuality.  But here, the gun_1a stands in the realm of potential_1a, because it is just a tool.  Or is it a talisman to ward off evil?

0176 An if-then statement arose in the intellectual ferment of the early nineteenth century, “If carrying a gun somehow makes a person appear guilty, and if the Bible no longer makes sense in terms of covenantal and acquisitional theologies, then maybe we can follow the Virginians, not in owning slaves, but in extoling nature.”

0177 Here is that option.

Does this diagram subtly change the meaning of “us_2af” and “themselves_2bf“?

What else raises suspicions?

0178 Along the east coast, Americans were wealthy enough to travel to Europe.  Or should I say… “back to Europe”.  Mechanized ships facilitated transportation.  Many wanted to emulate the Europeans.  What were the Germans up to?  Oh yes, this must be the Age of Ideas.

0179 Chapter 15 tells of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), who writes an essay on nature that hybridizes The Leatherstocking Tales and the pretensions of German Idealism.  For personal reasons, he resigns his Congregationalist ministry in order to travel in Europe.  There, he witnesses visual and auditory arts that the Calvinist revolution had… um… “reformed”.

The Puritan colonists cultivated an ardent disgust of Catholic culture, especially those Baroque styles that made Catholic art so… um… simultaneously unworldly and worldly.

By “unworldly and worldly”, I mean the possibility of grace [inflows] nature_1b.

0180 Here is a picture of the civilization that Emerson, and other nineteenth-century Americans, were completely unprepared to encounter.

0181 The student should read Chapters 16, 23, 24, 28, 32 and 34.

0182 Where was I?

Here is where I left off.

0183 Before considering Nathaniel Hawthorne’s trips to Europe, allow me to note some adjustments that need to be made to the intellectual option for the 1820s-1860s, in light of the end of chapter 15.  The American Revolution called people to responsibility_3b.  The French Revolution’s slogan of “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” called every man to do what the English and French royalty have been doing since Henry VIII.  Just add the qualifier, “of our undergarments” to the Parisian slogan to appreciate what shocked Emerson.

Hence one parenthetical adjustment on the content-level.

As the astute reader already noticed, ‘responsibility_1b‘ moves into the realm of potential when freedom_3b becomes the normal context.  That is the nature of co-oppositions.  When one is the normal context, the other stands as the potential.

Just as no one wants to carry a gun_1a because a virtue-signaler_3a will call him “guilty_1a“, no one wants to profess “responsibility_3b” because others will test his faith_1b.  Moving “responsibility” from the normal context_3b to potential_1b serves as a solution, of sorts.

Plus, a change in terminology provides cover.

Instead of “responsibility_1b“, the educated person says “practical reason_1b“.

0184 This accounts for the one adjustment on the situation-level.

Here is a picture of the revisions.

0185 Chapter 17 should be read in light of these two revisions.

When innocence_1a becomes universal, practical reason_1b becomes moral.

When nature_2am [unites] us_2af, then the people_2bm [stand for] themselves_2bf.

Humans are structured for walking_3a.  So, human identity_3b is found in the bounty and the blessings of freedom_3b.

Does this sound like a religion called, “Americanism”?

0186 What about religion in Europe?

After the Reformation, western Europe divides into Protestant (northern nations) and Catholic (southern nations).  The division comes after over a millennium of a common tradition, called “Christendom”.  Eastern Europe remains Orthodox.  Western and eastern Europe split into Catholic (west) and Orthodox (east) centuries earlier.  Surely, that is another story.

0187 As a result, the American whose identity_3b extols freedom_3b and whose structure_3a is idea-oriented_3a, finds the Europe identity_3b of sheep and shepherds_3b and of faith and Aristotelian reason_3b disorienting.

0188 Chapters 16, 23, 24, 28, 32 and 34 and tell the tale of Nathanial Hawthorne, his family, his writings and his life, in light of an encounter with Catholic Identity.

This is the identity that the Protestant Reformers (in Chapter 4) dismantled, much to chagrin of the author, Dr. Jones.

Indeed, the author is eloquent in these chapters, since this topic belongs to his field of technical expertise as a scholar of American literature.

0189 The Protestant theological construction… or “deconstruction” of Catholic Identity is not conducted for intellectual achievement.  Rather, it is promulgated because it removes a brake to sovereign “progress”.   After the Peace of Westphalia (1648), the sovereign determines which “religions” (Christian factions) are permitted in his realm.

The American Revolution counters this elevation of the sovereign over religion by requiring, by constitution, that the federal government cannot establish a religion.

Consequently, the American Constitution takes exception from one of the key provisions of the Westphalian compromise.

It makes me wonder, “Precisely what would be required in order to demonstrate that the American federal government qualifies as a ‘religion’?”

0190 I suppose that the answer depends on how one defines the word, “religion”.

0191 Perhaps, I may go back to the idea that Aristotle’s hylomorphe, as a little noumenon, accrues elements that constitute a big noumenon.  With that in mind, I may appreciate what Jones is not telling the reader because he presumes that the reader (somehow) already knows.

Here is a picture, once again.

Compare the previous two figures to one another and ask, “How do these big noumena account for Catholic art?”

0192 Imagine works of visual art portraying the stories of scripture to illiterate common folk in a way that the matter of the stories [are rendered in] the forms of painting and sculpture_2a.

That would be shocking enough to someone fixed on the written script of the Bible.

0193 Now imagine that these works of visual art_2a have the power_1b to express a principle of unity (as matter) in the architectural embodiment of a chapel or cathedral (as form)_2b.

That would be even more shocking in so far as we (humans) are disposed_1a to socially construct our identities_3b on the basis of transcendentals such as beauty_1a (the art itself), truth_1a (the stories themselves) and the innate impression_1a that grace inflows nature_1b.

0194 What E. Michael Jones presumes that we already know is discussed as an interlude in Razie Mah’s masterwork, How To Define the Word “Religion”.

In a category-based treatment of the presence that underlies the word “religion”, a perspective-level stands above the situation-level within the so-called “society tier”.  This perspective-level belongs to a civilizational supra-sovereign religion (such as Christendom before the breakup).  The situation-level belongs to the sovereign. 

That implies that the Reformation involves the sovereign-level casting aside the supra-sovereign level.

0195 The supra-sovereign_c level of the society_C tier contains an actuality_2cC that is the object that calls all into relation_2cC.  For Christians, this object_2cC contains the Triune God.  This Triune God occupies three elements of a nested form, the normal context₂, matter₂ and form₂.

But, that is not all.  Because this object_2cC belongs to the realm of actuality, it_2cC should contain two contiguous real elements.  One real element is a nested form expressing the Trinity.  The other real element contains… of all things… us.  We are images of God.  So, the contiguity between {Jesus (the Son) [interpellates] us}_2cf as form and {the Father [and] His Son}_2cm as matter must be a substance that... well… one cannot label with a spoken word.

However, one can feel that substance when receiving the Eucharist during a traditional Mass in Notre Dame Cathedral.

0196 Here is a picture of the object that brings all into relation_2cC in the most differentiated expression articulated in any civilization.

This perspective-level relational object_2cC accounts for why the Catholic disposition_1a senses that the sacraments_1a offer the structures_3a that have the power_1b to draw us into mystical union_1cfC with Jesus, the Son of the Father_2cfC.

0197 Now, the student should read chapters 18, 19, 20, 21 and 36.

0198 Although Jones does not articulate the object that brings all into relation_2cC, I suspect that it_2cC is why nineteenth century Americans find the arts and architecture of old Europe so evocative.

0199 Now, I want to add some caveats.

This relational object_2cC reaches full differentiation by the time that Europe celebrates 1000 A.D.  Yet, only now, after 2000 A.D., has scholastic philosophy developed a way to allow its depiction.

This relational object_2cC is an actuality, as befits Peirce’s category of secondness.  Secondness consists of two contiguous real elements.  Most curiously, each real element consists of a nested form.  The contiguity, the substance, stands, in esse_ce, with Jesus (the Son of the Father and the Word of God), and in essence, with Jesus (the Son of Man and the Messiah of God’s chosen people).

0200 The Trinity appears in purple.

Mohammed’s revelation appears in green.

The Calvinist doctrine of covenant-election appears in red.

The radical individual is the form in red.

0201 Consequently, there is a lot to unwind.

So much so, that one’s structure_3a and identity_3b may consist of only a fragment of the relational object_2cC that calls all into being.

0203 What about those Catholic doctrines about the pope and Mary, mother of Jesus?

One must keep in mind that this relational object_2cC occupies the perspective level above sovereign decrees, laws and actions_2bC on the situation level.  Consequently, the pope is assumed_3cC to stand above any sovereign_3bC.  Also, Mary foundationally influences the potential of the object that brings all into relation_2cC because she is the mother of Jesus (as the Son of Man) as well as of God (Jesus as Son of the Father).

Theologically, Mary belongs to the potential of ‘consilience’_1cC.

Ironically, many contemporary Protestants accuse Catholics of an inversion of the co-opposition in the above figure.  They say that Mary_3c is assumed to be above any sovereign and that the pope_1c is supposed to be an agent of consilience_1c with respect to their “reformation”.

0204 Chapter 18 reports on a shift that occurs during the lifetime of American-born Orestes Brownson (1803-1876).  Orestes Brownson is a generation older that Henry Thoreau (1817-1862, the topic of Chapter 17), who ridiculed Calvinism in light of the identity_2b that he fashioned in his retreat to the shores of Walden Pond.

There is something “old school” in Orestes Brownson and “new school” in Henry Thoreau.

Consistent with the Quaker tradition of virtue-signaling one’s moral superiority by refusing to carry a gun, Thoreau embraces his self-aggrandizing innocence as an exemplar of Kant’s pure reason, which undergirds Kant’s practical reason.

0205 How elegant can an American intellectual get?

Here is a picture.

0206 Orestes Brownson grows up in the Calvinist tradition.  He decides that he wants to be a minister, but is unsure of which congregation to join.  According to Jones, there is not much to distinguish the various denominations at the time.  So, Brownson enters the Presbyterian Church at the age of 19.

What is the hitch?

Brownson finds Presbyterianism logically incoherent.

He concludes that reason must be a preamble to faith.

Does that sound like St. Anselm’s slogan, “Faith seeks understanding.”?

Maybe not exactly.

0207 Here is one of Brownson’s riddles.  Can the Presbyterians claim the right to break away from the Catholic Church and then deny Brownson the right to break away from the Presbyterians?

But, where would Brownson break to?

On one hand, it would have to be the Catholic Church.  On the other hand, it would have to be no church (which turns out to be Thoreau’s option).

0208  At 21 years old, Brownson changes from a supernaturalist to a rationalist and becomes a preacher of “Universalism”.  Unfortunately, universalism does not think much about scripture… er… the Bible, but other scriptures are fine, such as Scottish socialist Robert Owen’s and English political philosopher William Godwin’s book, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.

Today, replace the word, “political” with the term, “social”.

0209 At 29 years old, Brownson is a Unitarian minister, which allows him to put humanity in the place of God.

Then, he attends some lectures by Theodore Parker (1810-1860), who had written several essays on the doctrines of the Catholic Church.

0210 At 39, Orestes Brownson has remarkable respect as an American writer.  He talks to everyone.  He knows artists and intellects of the day.  He notes that there is a secret dissatisfaction with the continuous divisions occurring in the Protestant tradition.  Jones discusses the multiplication of sects following the demise of Calvinism in America.

At 41, Brownson approaches the Irish bishop of Boston, and says that he wants to become a Catholic.

0211 Chapter 19 discusses the irony.

Irony?

Two types of Catholics immigrate to America in the first half of the 1800s, German and Irish.  The Germans immediately begin to blend in with other Americans.  The Irish congregate in big Northeastern cities, such as Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, because – to them – America is England writ large.  And, the English are never up to any good when it comes to the Irish.

0212 For three centuries, Protestant England runs roughshod over Catholic Ireland.  The Irish cling to their peasantry and religion as styles of resistance.

0213 So, imagine a convert from educated Boston, having left the Transcendental Synagogue for Roman Catholicism, moving to New York, the diocese of Bishop John Hughes, in order to aid the conversion of… what?… Irish to Protestants or Protestants to Irish peasantries?  Can I substitute the word “Americans” for “Protestants”?

What a trap.

Jones writes, “Brownson was too Catholic for the Yankees and to American for the Catholics.”

That is, the Irish Catholics.

0214 At 53, Orestes Brownson gives a commencement address at Fordham University.  Then, the bishop of New York, criticizes him for being too American.

0232 Why would John Calvin (1509-1564) have advocated for the Catholic Church to condemn “Americanism”?

What happened after the Catholic Church condemned Martin Luther (1483-1546)?

Being condemned can be good for business.

0233 Chapter 22 raises a question about two contending options for American identity_3b during the second half of the 1800s.

The Northern abolitionists unite against the lack of virtue of the Southern plantation owners.

The Northern transcendentalists unite against the undisclosed transcendental that is implicated by the gun.

Finally, the literary classes of America cannot wrap their heads around how such beautiful European art_1a can come from a civilization that lacks modern expertise_3b and wallows in superstition_2b and Dark-Age philosophy_2b.

0234 Here is a comparison.

Surely, adopting one normal context entails rejecting the other.

0235 The irony is that ethnic Catholics develop a hybrid identity, under an “ethnic-American” label.  So do clergy.  As a result, Americanism covertly identifies with the abolitionists (who are against the lack of virtue of others), the transcendentalists (who signal their lack of guilt by not owning guns), and the literary classes of America (who have faith in practical reason and marvel at how these Catholic ignoramuses could have produced such magnificent art).

0236 Chapter 25 starts with artistic license, so to speak.

During the War of 1860-1864, if a soldier in the Connecticut regiment goes on holiday, then he can use a handy manual, The Gentleman’s Guide, to the arts of New York City.

While there, the soldier can subscribe to mail order pornography, thus giving new meaning to the term “first-class mail”.

0237 The abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) is the son of one of the last great Puritan ministers in America, Lyman Beecher (1775-1863).  Jones tells the story.  The son moves west, first from Connecticut to Ohio.  Here, he composes articles repudiating Catholicism.  Then, he moves to the real west, Indiana.  He begins to preach in the Methodist style.  He learns to speak like Emerson, while using different words.

Emerson says, “Self-reliance.”  Henry Beecher says, “The great law of Liberty.”

0238 Then, Beecher receives an offer to become pastor of a church in Brooklyn.

He accepts the offer and adopts a theatrical slogan.

Salvation comes from love, rather than obedience to the law.

0239 In the 1850s, gold from California arrives in New York.  60% of New York’s population is born in another land.  New York is cosmopolitan.  New York already offers ideal subject matter for a gentleman’s guide.

Beecher’s practical experience out west_1b inspires him to make freedom the cornerstone of his ministry_3b.

Freedom for what?

Well, he may have picked up a copy of The Gentleman’s Guide.

0240 Here is a picture of my associations.

0241 In Chapter 26, the author tells what happens next.

That story ends around the year 1867.

0242 Chapter 27 tells the story of Mark Twain (1835-1910), who arrives in New York shortly after the birth of… um… someone related to Henry Beecher.

“Mark Twain” is a technical term used by steamboat operators on the Mississippi River.

Mark Twain is the label for a man of the west, at ease with the ribald humor of Americans, as well as their Civil War-related moral decline.

Does Henry Beecher hire Mark Twain to be his publicity agent?

0243 Mark Twain takes a European vacation on a tour that Beecher arranges, but does not attend.

The tour takes him through some of the most beautiful cities in Europe.

He uses his notebooks to write The Innocents Abroad.

0244 Chapter 29 concerns a verdict.

Who is guilty?  Who is found innocent?

0245 The student should read Chapter 30, 31 and 33.

0246  Eight years after Mark Twain publishes Innocents Abroad, Henry James (1843-1916) publishes The American.

0247 The year is 1877.

One author represents the attitude of the west, which is still the frontier.  The other author expresses the attitudes of the east, which looks across the ocean… or is it the Jordan River?… at the civilization that Americans left behind.

0248 In Chapter 30, Jones discusses Henry James’s novel in detail.

In Chapter 31, Jones turns his attention to Henry Adams (1838-1918), the Old Man of the East, who is not Henry James.  The switch of focus is a little disorienting, because both men are named “Henry”.

0249 But, the year is still 1877.

In this year, federal troops withdraw from the South, ending Reconstruction.  The new post-war era is to be called, “Redemption”.  Three decades later, the war itself would get a new label, “the Civil War”.  It is amazing what a change in labels can accomplish.

In this year of 1877, the American labor movement surfaces with a surprising railroad strike.

In this year, a descendent of President John Quincy Adams, Henry Adams, resigns from his professorship at Harvard, disappointed that his dream of a unique American Mandarin class had not come to fruition.  If he had only lived another half of a century.  Once science encourages the birth of “expertise”, Henry Adam’s dream becomes a reality.

He must have known what was coming, because he writes an autobiography that is published right after his death and after the conclusion of the so-called “First World War”.

Jones tells the story of unfortunate Henry.

0250 The War of Southern Rebellion and the War of Northern Aggression derails the American experiment, as well as Henry Adam’s career as a public intellectual.  Even his professorship at Harvard does not seem to give him a lift.

0251 Chapter 33 covers what happens to Henry Adam’s wife, and how Henry spends his end of days.

At this juncture, I would like to mention an American philosopher whose life (more or less) overlaps with Henry Adams.  This philosopher is Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914).  Charles is the son of a Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University.  Tremendous intellectual ferment occurs during the latter half of the nineteenth century.  Very little of that turmoil influences the westward expansion of the Re-united United States or the migration of Catholic Europeans to the East Coast (Italians join the incoming Irish and Germans).

Peirce does not concern himself with Protestant or Catholic concerns.  Rather, like Henry Adams, he recognizes that everyone is talking as if science is the key to all knowledge worth knowing.  The century-long contests between Catholic and Protestant doctrines are no longer relevant, since science surpasses both.  Unlike Henry Adams, he reads the Baroque scholastic, Francisco Suarez (1548-1617), then arrives at the same definition of sign-relation as John Poinsot (1589-1644).

So, while Henry Adams ends his days writing paeans (in effect, aesthetic travel guides) to Catholic European tourist destinations, Peirce wrestles with the causalities inherent in sign-relations.  The diagrams in this examination are products of Peirce’s postmodern reclamation of Baroque scholastic thought.

0252 The student should read chapters 35, 37, 38, 39, 40 and 41.

Keep in mind the following two-level interscope.

0253 Chapter 35 discusses Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), who serves as president at the turn of the century (1901-1909).  His presidency starts with the assassination of William McKinley. At the time, Roosevelt is Vice President.

Bullets are in the air during this time.  Lakota leader Sitting Bull (dies 1890), New Orleans Police Chief David Hennessy (1890), Lamatta Chief White Bird (1892), US Chicago Representative Carter Harrison Sr (1893), President of France Marie Francois Sadi Carnot (1894), King Umberto in Italy (1900), and so on.

0254 Thoreau’s option reaches a nice optimum, with the people_2bm remaining Protestant as they take the form of democracy_2bf.   The people_2bm amend the Constitution, now that the states are reunited and… um… redeemed.  Americans are still walking_3a to settle the frontier, but now they can take trains out west.  Some Americans are driving automobiles. Some are taking mechanized passenger ships back to Europe, for “vacation”.

So, walking_3a stands in for what Thoreau does, that is, ideating reality_3a.

Here is a picture of Thoreau’s option, as the western frontier comes to a close.

Notice that ‘pure reason (innocence)’_1a occupies the same slot as ‘gun’_1a.  By not carrying a gun_1a, one signals one’s virtue_2am (and the nature_2am that unites us).  By deploring people who carry guns, one denounces their lack of virtue_2am.

What does this imply?

When the people_2bm [stand for] themselves_2bf, the selves_2af that the people_2bm stand for are the virtuous ones_2af, not the ones who carry guns.

If that makes sense, then you might be a candidate to become an expert.

0255 Teddy Roosevelt promotes sports and sportsmanship.  Democracy is so successful that Protestant people_2bm will be supplanted by our nation_2bm.  Plus, our nation_2bm stands for “a muscular Christianity_2bf“.  Muscular Christianity_2bf virtually situates our attitudes_2af in the normal context of winning_3a arising from the potential of ‘fair play’_1a.

Here is a diagram.

0256 Notice how ‘fair play (our lack of guilt)’_1a occupies the same slot for ‘gun’_1a in the original American identity.  Teddy Roosevelt is known for his “gunboat diplomacy”.  So, guns have not really left the realm of possibility_1a.  Rather, ‘the gun as a talisman for some opaque transcendental that is too terrifying consider’ retains its charisma, since guns are employed for assassinations by criminals (1890, maybe 1893), anarchists (1894, 1900, 1901, 1914) and agents of the state (1890, 1892).

So, what is the point?

‘Guns’_1a have no place in ‘fair play’_1a.  At the same time, ‘guns’_1a serve as indicators for a lack of fair play_1a, so to speak.  The use of ‘guns’_1a defies practical reason_1b in a nation_2bm that stands for Christianity_2bf in the normal context of expertise_3b.

0257 Chapter 37 discusses an example of how expertise_3b develops at the turn of the century.  The artisan is eclipsed by the industrial designer.

0258 Chapter 38 discusses the closing of the American frontier in the popular (or… rather, the literary class’s) imagination.  A key event is the Columbia Exposition in Chicago in 1893.  Jones reports on a speech by Frederick Jackson Turner at this spectacular “World Fair”.  He announces that frontier opportunities had come to a close.

According to Jones, Theodore Roosevelt personifies a new American identity, characterized by the above diagram.  Situation-level matter_2bm veils the federal government, as a centralizing state, beneath the tapestry of nationalism_2bm.   Our nationalism_2bm stands for a strenuous Christianity_2bf in the normal context of expertise_3b and arising from the potential of practical (that is, “not religious” reason)_1a.  Protestant Christians_2bf virtually situate the sportsmanship_2am that trains healthy attitudes_2af.

0259 At the same time, Protestant Christians_2bf increasingly become wage slaves to a managerial class_3b(1b) working for oligarchs_2c, such as the Mellons, the Rockefellers and the corporations that they own.

0260 Part 2 (The Rehabilitation of “Nature”) leads to Part 3 (The Return of the Satanic Wilderness).

The first wilderness stretches out from the fortress edge of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The second wilderness stretches to the north (Canada), the south (Mexico and Central and South America), the east (across the Atlantic to Europe and the Middle East) and west (across the Pacific to the Far East).

That sounds like an empire to me.

The second “wilderness” is tamed by the American empire.

0261 Chapter 39 discusses the writer, Jack London (1876-1916).  London comes to age in San Francisco.   He reads European authors of the day.  He circulates in Bohemian circles.  His novel, Sea Wolf (1904), serves as a witness to Darwinism replacing Calvinism as the hidden grammar of the nascent American empire.

I wonder, “Where have I seen the term, ‘hidden grammar’, before?’

Oh, it_2a labeled the contiguity in the content-level actuality_2a.

I wonder, “Can I adjust Teddy Roosevelt’s revision to embrace Darwinism?”

This serves as a good template for reflecting on the author’s review of Sea Wolf.

0262 Chapter 40 discusses the writer Ernest Hemmingway (1899-1961), who was born in Oak Park, Illinois.  That is a nice suburb of Chicago.

Henry Adams dies in 1918, when the First World War ends.  Adams’s autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams comes on market.  At the same time, Hemmingway is recovering from wounds that he received while driving an ambulance in the First World War.  After the war, he makes his way to Paris, where he meets Ezra Pound and other literary figures of the so-called “Lost Generation”.

0263 Jones sets the scene by discussing the birth of modern art.  “Modern art” involves a clever and subversive re-definition of the term “visual arts”, from decorative to… well… transgressive.

I suppose this indicates that neither Protestantism, nor nationalism nor Darwinism are adequate to appreciate the end of the world as everyone knew it.

Oh, I meant to say “the First World War”.

0264 What is left?

Science, of course.  Modern expertise_3b carries a certain righteousness_3b, as well as certain freedoms_3b.  Modern reason_1b accesses opportunities_1b that practical reason_1b does not.  For example, consider the logics of modern finance, quantum mechanics,  industrial-production, and mass-marketing.  All these fields develop in the interwar period, along with the ideologies of Marxism and Fascism.

0265 What do these ideologies have in common?

They both rely on modern experts_3b operating of opportunities_1b.

Of course, their subversions_2bm are um… “value neutral”_1bf.

0266 Here is how I associate Hemingway’s “Lost Generation” approach to Jack London’s revision.

0267 Chapter 41 covers William Falkner (1897-1962), who writes a novella titled, “The Bear”.

This portion of Jones’s book looks back at the American identity and wonders, “How have we sold our identity?”

0268 It seems that Americans sold their identity_3b for a bowl of porridge.

Or something like that.

Americans pass from sola fide_3b, sola sciptura_2b and sola gratia_1b to the following nested forms, as well as everything in between.

0269 The student should read Chapters 43, 44, 46 and 47.

0270 Chapter 43 opens with a quick synopsis.  By 1902, the American frontier had been replaced by eye-catching progress.  Also, popular novels fictionalize the failure of Protestant America to envision a common identity.

This makes sense, in so far as, in the Protestant movement, every literate person is granted equal disposition_1a to read the Bible_2am, and render his own interpretation_2af.  That interpretation_2af generally falls within established congregations (the Puritans, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, and so on).  The American Revolution accommodates the various powers_1b by establishing a relatively weak tripartite central (or “federal”) government over strong state governments_1b.  This political arrangement is a practical solution_1b, allowing people of certain faiths_1b the freedom_3b to self-segregate into their own jurisdiction_2b.

0271 Here is a picture of (what I will call) the Virginian’s option.

0273 What is this potential of ‘gun’_1a?

It is easy to understand how the Bible (for Christians) or nature (for Transcendentalists)_2bm unites individuals of like minds_2af.

But how does the ‘gun’_1a potentiate that actuality_2a?

0274 Well, when one is walking_3a with a ‘gun’_1a, one is conveying a meaning_1a, a presence_1b and a message_1c.

The meaning_1a has something to do with the possibility of self-defense_1a, especially in regards to mortal conflict.  A gun_1a cannot help finding water.  A gun_1a can help when a rustler is “guarding” the water hole.

The presence_1b has something to do with the possibility of practical reason_1b.  Practical reason_1b allows the people_2bm to stand for themselves_2bf, in the normal context of freedom_3b.  Practical reason_1b is another label for ‘responsibility’_1b.  Recall that freedom and responsibility constitute a “co-opposition”.  When one is the normal context₃ the other informs the potential₁.  Responsibility associates to faith.  Freedom associates to grace.

0275 The message_1c?

That is a good question, since the perspective level does not even appear in the above figure.

I can say the following from the clues offered in the examination.

0276 Whatever the perspective level is, I must assume its normal context.

In other words, a perspective-level “assume_3c” virtually brings a situation-level identity_3b into relation with the potential of content-level structure_3a.  The logics of thirdness are exclusion, complementarity and alignment.

In the Virginian’s option pictured above, I must assume_3c that situation-level freedom_3b (or grace_3b) situates content-level walking_3a (or ideating reality_3a).

0277 More crucially, I assume_3c the perspective-level actuality_2c.

Of course, the most magnificent assumption_3c pertains to the object that brings all into relation_2cC. That_2cC includes “God”.  And, perhaps I can add, “us”, as participating in this object_2cC. 

According to the twentieth-century German philosopher and historian, Eric Voegelin (1901-1985), Christians come up with the most differentiated expression of the society-tier perspective-level actuality_2cC, sometime between the 600s and 1000s, centuries before the so-called “Reformation”.

0278 Finally, I somehow intuitively grasp the potential_1cC that there can be an object that brings all into relation_2cC.

I wonder whether this is where the gun_1a comes into the picture, as a talisman for consilience_1c in the face of a failure of practical reason_1b.  When practical reason_1b fails, then the people cannot stand for themselves_2b in the illumination of their freedom to assemble_3b, and live_3b, and express themselves_3b. 

0279 Where are we to go when people who live without a sense of guilt_1a actualize attitudes_2af that express the hidden grammar of nihilism_2am in the normal context of their survival_3a?

It is a jungle out there.

0280 Here is a diagram containing that question.

0281 On the situation level, the normal context of criminal expertise (the righteousness of criminals and their lawyers)_3b brings the actuality_2b, {the principles of our subversion_2bm [substantiate] our fitness over our victims_2bf}, into the possibilities inherent in ‘criminal reason, which is opportunistic to the core’_1b.

0282 In Chapter 44, Jones looks at The Virginian, a novel by Oren Wister (1860-1938).

The book is published in 1902.  The movie comes out in 1929.

0283 In Chapters 46 and 49, Jones considers movies starring Clint Eastwood (1930-present).

0285 The student should read Chapters 42 and 45.

0284 Chapter 42 reports on Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), born in a wealthy Jewish family in New York.  He receives a classical education at a private school.  In 1922, after America’s victory in the First World War, “the war to end all wars”, he publishes a book titled Public Opinion.

Perhaps, he knows that the similarly positioned Edward Bernays (1891-1995), nephew of renown psychotherapist, Sigmund Freud, is hot on the same topic, publishing Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923) and Propaganda (1928) in quick succession.  After the Second World War, Bernay capitalizes on his fame by writing Public Relations (1952) and The Engineering of Consent (1955).

0285 I like to call the First World War, 1914-1918, the First Battle Among the Enlightenment Gods, The War Among Naive Mercantilists.

During this time, Lippman works for the intelligence section of the Allied Expeditionary Force in France.  He helps draft President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Point Speech.  He hears about the success of George Creel’s Committee on Public Information, America’s first propaganda ministry.  Creel (1876-1953) later wrote a tell-all titled, How We Advertised America (1920).

0286 Lippmann concludes that identity_3b may be framed as a typology, based on (what E. Michael Jones calls) categories of the mind.

Plus, the subtlest and most pervasive influencers create and maintain these categories, using broadcast media.

0287 Now, I pause to remind myself of the contemporary Thomist construct of identity_3b and structure_3a in order to consider the situation and content levels actualities that get packaged into a stereo- (two) -type (actualities).

Here is a diagram.

What is a stereotype?

The first type in “stereotype” dwells in content-level matter_2am.  It_2am substantiates a form_2af, corresponding to the way that we experience the world_2af.  We are structured_3a to be disposed_1a to certain attitutes_2af that are informed by one or another stereotype_2am.  The task of propaganda_1b is to situate our attitudes_2a by placing a typology in content-level matter_2am. 

Then, the form_2af that we have been structured_3a to experience_2af is situated according to a principle of unity_2bm that substantiates an embodiment_2bf.  The task of propaganda_1b is to prime_2bm a response_2bf through the second type of “stereotype”, dwelling in the situation-level principle of unity_2bm.

The two types in stereotype play the same music through different level matters.

The result sounds so real.

0288 Lippmann writes at the dawn of popular acceptance of moving pictures.

0289 Moving pictures?

In the realm of image processing, a sequence of slightly different images_2am substantiate the form of a mechanically driven display of one image following the other_2af.  Then, the human mind has the power to apply a principle of unity_2bm that substantiates the embodiment of motion_2bf.

Then, sequences of moving-picture clips_2am may be strung together_2af and the audience will apply another principle of unity_2bm to appreciate a scene_2bf.

This constitutes the first type in “stereotype”.

Scenes portray the content-level matters_2am of action and plotline_2af, and the audience spontaneous situates the content-level form_2af using an implicit principle of unity_2bm into a cognitively embodied “narrative”_2bf.

This constitutes the second type in “stereotype”.

The result looks so real.

0290 It is almost as if identity_3b, powers_1b, structure_3a and dispositions_1a are simply going along for the ride.

Why would this be the case?

Is this how humans evolved to be?

0291 So, what happens when stereotypes are promulgated (through cinematic narratives manufactured in order to serve… how shall I say it?… “special interests”)?

Indeed, Jones wonders whether Ernest Hemingway and the Lost Generation are stereotypes manufactured by Madison Avenue (New York) and Hollywood (Los Angeles) as expressions of American cultural imperialism.

A new system arises in order to manipulate public opinion_2bm and orchestrate the accumulation of power and money_2bf through the invention and the promulgation of stereotypes_1am.

The vessel_3b(1b) that accrues both power and money is a network of big(il)lib power brokers who fashion themselves as “liberal” (that is, freedom-oriented) but are really interested in using the authority of government to suppress anyone who would hold them to moral account (that is, responsible).  In other words, this vessel is a contradiction in terms, being simultaneously liberal and illiberal.

Consequently, I label this network, “big-government (il) liberalism”, or “big(il)lib” for short.

0292 Here is a picture of Walter Lippmann as a nemesis to the American tradition of walking with a Bible and a gun.

0293 On the situation level, the normal context of working the system_3b brings the actuality_2b where {our success in accumulating money and power_2bm stands for our fitness over the goyim_2bf} into relation with the potential of using propaganda_1b as a style of public reasoning_1b that cultivates the hidden grammar of stereotype_2am-fueled attitudes_2af.

On the content level, the normal context of manufacturing consent_3a brings the actuality of propaganda_1b-situated stereotypes_2am substantiating public attitudes_2af into relation with the potential of ‘selling an agenda, as if we do not benefit from moving the product’_1a.

Jones frames this nemesis as an inversion of Jeffersonian democracy, where the people stand for themselves_2b.

0294 Chapter 45 mentions Ayn Rand (1905-1982), the author of Atlas Shrugged, (1957), as a teaser for his real intent, which is to discuss the fates of the movie-star, Gary Cooper (who plays the role of The Virginian in the movie) and the literary-star, Ernest Hemingway (who acts as an author of American literature as the tradition turns into a curation by the mavens of modern art).

0295 The student should read chapters 47 and 48.

0296 What happened to American literature?

Does it transform into some disorienting house of mirrors.

Does propaganda constitute the new American written word, just like the moving pictures?

0297 Here is a diagram of how this new literary style might operate.

A new American literature_2bf serves as the embodiment_2bf of big government (il)liberalism_2bm.

0298 Chapter 47 discusses The Moynihan Report.

In 1965, the Catholic Assistant Secretary of Labor, Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003), releases a report concerning why blacks (a category of the big(il)libs) are not as economically successful as whites (another category of the big(il)libs).  The primary reason is broken families (which are the products of a separate big(il)lib agenda, called “sexual liberation”).  Sexual liberation produces broken, fatherless, families, which then must be supported by federal programs with titles such as “welfare for families with dependent children” (a big(il)lib program).  The result is a cycle where the children of welfare families end up as… um… welfare-seeking heads of families with dependent children.

0299 Jones has already written extensively on this topic.

But, does he realize that the public responses to this report constitute a new genre of American fiction?

0300 The Moynihan Report is immediately opposed by big(il)lib establishment figures such as Robert W. Spike (1923-1966), then executive director of the National Churches’ Commission on Religion and Race.  Author of The Freedom Revolution and the Churches, he calls for a political solution.  The “whites” need to expiate their guilt.  Or, something like that.

0301 To me, if this doesn’t sound like a new American fiction, I don’t know what does.

Pity the reverend who has a control file at the disposal of someone with money and power.

Pity the fellow who speaks up, then is served a lawsuit about some… how shall I say it?.. episode of sexual liberation, whether true or not.

0302 This is the literary genre of manufacturing consent.

Stereotypes_2am are like esse_ce.  They constitute a new (virtual) wilderness where human dispositions_1a are subject to literary and cinematic manipulation.  Our attitudes_2af are like the essence that stands between human structure_3a and our evolved dispositions_1a.

The content-level category-based nested form with the normal context of making influence_3a is also like esse_ce.  Making influence_3a is the normal context for a cognitive wilderness_2a arising from the potential of ‘selling a product or agenda’_1a.   Both the normal context_3a and the potential_1a are sign-interpretants of a sign-vehicle, a perspective-level actuality_2c that stands behind the curtain_2b (so to speak) of stereotypes_2am, attitudes_2af, expert self-regard_2bm and the literature of… what?

What is the appropriate label for this new American genre?

0303 Chapter 48 concerns critical race theory and the destruction of American identity.

Can I locate the sought-after label within these concerns?

0304 Jones writes about the subversion of Catholic identity in the ethnic neighborhoods of Philadelphia.

The intelligensia_2bm – the literary classes – now refer to the people who used to live in those neighborhoods as “white”_2bf.  The unspoken accusation is that these “whites_2am” are the reason why “blacks_2am” cannot make a living.  It is their attitudes_2af.  The unspoken accusation covers up the reality that the federal government’s welfare programs have subsidized broken families for generations.

0305 The only promoted remedy is for the federal government to step in and take affirmative action.  This generates new expertise and constitutes the (il) of big(il)lib.  Freedom of thought for modern expertise_3b is mirrored by an expertise that defines the system_3b through the fiction of legal decrees standing for enforcing morals_2b according to the dictates of ‘an opportunistic modern situational ethics’_1b.

0306 Here is a comparison of the Lost Generation’s and Affirmative Action’s situation level nested forms.

Each term seems to be a variant of the other.

What happens when both these situation-levels are reflections in the mirror of… what?…

0307 If Jones states that critical theory is the nemesis of American Identity, then is something else standing in the mirror of this nemesis?