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Last week anime culture war news was rather unwelcome here, so it is time for another.
The topic of last week xitter storm was anime.
Is anime weird? If so, what should parents do to make sure their kids never watch anime and become normal members of the crowd?
Fitting with the crowd as end in itself was always seen as moral duty in small c conservative tradition, nothing unusual with it.
It is clear who the bad people are and why they are bad.
Nevertheless, massive arguments for and against torn xitter asunder and joined with even bigger arguments whether normie existence in 2020's North America is really something you should strive for or whether much better, happier, nobler and more fulfilling life can be found elsewhere.
If you examine all parts of normie life, from such basics as school, regular employnment, transportation or house building and find this is worthwhile prize, and then find out that your kid is not normie, you should indeed tell them:
"For your whole life, you will live as undercover agent in enemy territory. As Otto von Stierlitz had to pass as Nazi, you must learn how to pass as normie."
(using Eastern archetype here, in Western culture heroes are men of action facing adversity directly and challenging enemy in honorable combat, not sus characters skulking in shadows)
But parents are usually extremely bad judges what is "weird" and what isn't. They remember what was normal and what wasn't in high school in early 1980's, and are unable to comprehend that times are changing. And this is the problem barely noticed, the problem that makes this whole discourse waste of time.
Well, C.S.Lewis can be considered one of preeminent big C Christian small c conservative voices. When CSL calls you bad guy, you need to shut up and listen if you want to consider yourself conservative in good standing.
And it was clear that Scrubb family was meant to be bad from the first page of the book, and it was clear to intended readers, people of early 1950's, why.
This world is now as nonexistent as Narnia, so fully understanding this would need some unpacking.
So why Srubbs bad? Scrubbs are unwieldy combination of all things unpopular at the time, and lots of things were unpopular.
It is not only nonconformism of Scrubb family and their standing out of the English crowd.
1/They are COMMUNISTS.
What sorts of books are this? Every reader in the early 1950's would instantly imagine Soviet propaganda books depicting land of workers as paradise on earth. And communism in general and USSR in particular were not well appreciated at this time.
2/They are HEALTH NUTS, possibly NEW AGERS
Remember, we are in 1950's when boozing was part of life and doctors on TV recommended Lucky Strikes. What the Scrubbs think, that they are better than experts? Are they unchristian followers of some oriental superstition?
3/They are penny pinching MISERS
Remember, we are in 1950's, time of war recovery and rising prosperity all over the Western world, even in England.
People had jobs and money for the first time in decades. Buy and consume was the order of the day. If you could (and Scrubbs are depicted as respectable educated people, not utterly destitute poor) you should buy buy buy, fill your house with stuff, then throw it away to make place for more stuff.
Not going with the plan painted you as some throwback, Scrooge like 19th century miser.
4/They are NERDS
And not the useful sort of nerds, who are building computers, rockets and H-bombs to keep the commies at bay, but losers obssessed with useless stuff like beetles. Who needs it?
(MKULTRA research looking for new drugs and hallucinogens at all possible sources, including exotic insects and spiders, in order to fight for freedom and stand up to commies, was still strictly classified at the time).
This is silly. Everyone knew perfectly well the type he was pointing at, and it still works today because they're still fairly prevalent:
Re that last line, you are reading it wrong, it's not:
it's:
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