Do You Want Her Body or Her Soul?

I just wanted to share a thought with my readers on this Thanksgiving morning. A few years ago a friend from North Carolina shared an analogy with me. I think it may have been in article comments somewhere, or it may have been via an email. Perhaps he has shared this analogy with others. I hope he will not mind that I base this essay upon his theory. My friend was speaking in regards to Dixie, but the analogy would apply to all of America and to western society as a whole.

His basic premise was that one’s beloved wife had died, and he was given two options. The first was to bury her, but be visited by her ghost at night, her body gone but their souls still in communion. The other was to revive her body, but it now be animated by a foul spirit of uncertain origin, while her soul dwelt in heaven. The first option left their souls still connected. The second would keep alive her form, and allow her to be of physical use, but would be a wretched farce. His contention was that many (most?) Southern history and heritage advocates of our day were content to keep alive the exterior form of Dixie, even if it be animated by a new spirit -a tatooed Jacobin whore in an Antebellum dress if you will. My friend longed for the soul of Dixie to live, even if her body lay entombed in the soil. So do I.

Dixie was dying in 1930 when the Agrarians wrote I’ll Take My Stand. They knew that the Old South was becoming just a memory, industrialism and “progress” wiping away the ways and culture of a people. I’ll Take My Stand was a formal protest, a call to preserve a society under siege. The Twelve Southerners were like knights riding out against overwhelming odds, many of their own kingdom already subverted by the foreigners, making one last ride against the foe in hopes of stirring their people to action. And through no fault of their own, those gallant knights failed. Lytle, to my mind, was perhaps the greatest of them. I do not know that we have had a great Southern thinker since Andrew Nelson Lytle passed in 1995.

In present day America the history and culture of White people are under constant attack, especially that of Southern Whites. Late last month we witnessed the melting down of the Robert E. Lee statue that once stood over Charlottesville, a proud reminder of a noble past. And the lies against are people are getting bold faced, to the point of ridiculousness. I have seen headlines in the last week claiming that an ancient Roman emperor was transgender and that Black women were more likely to die of the plague/Black Death when it swept through Europe over 600 years ago than White people because of systemic racism -when there were no Negroes living in Europe during that epoch! Just this morning I read the article Written out of existence? Native Americans in Kentucky push for recognition of culture on the (Louisville) Courier Journal website, it playing up the role of Indians in Kentucky, including ones from tribes (like the Navaho) who never even lived in Kentucky. In recent days Ron DeSantis, former Dubya era Gitmo lawyer and current Presidential candidate, publicly stated that “Western civilization was birthed in the Holy Land”. Is anyone stupid enough to believe DeSantis on that? Really? But he said it with a straight face.

The picture of this piece is the grave of Miss Madge (Rowan) Frost, the last lady of the plantation at Federal Hill. The words “weep no more my lady” from the song My Old Kentucky Home are engraved upon her headstone. I toured that mansion this September, and regret to report that MOKH State Park has basically went woke since my last visit there in 2021. If Miss Madge could have heard what the docent that day said about her family, the battle flag, and the Confederate army (that Madge’s older brother William served as a Captain in) she would be weeping. Damn this wretched wokeness that is rotting the soul of our people.

In 2023 America everything is to be celebrated except for our European ancestry. Our European blood, combined with Protestant Christianity, made this country what it once was. Well, the blood of Europe still courses through my veins, and I have a King James Bible, and I honor the memory of my ancestors and the history of the South. Europe and Dixie cannot truly die as long as they live on in our hearts! If the body of our people and culture be dead, let us cling to her spirit, and pray for a miracle.