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Walt Garlington

Armenia’s Advice for the South

1/29/2022

2 Comments

 
Picture
​Glory to God Who helps us in many and varied ways!

A writer from Armenia has described the problems of his native land and how she can begin to solve them.  Without knowing it, however, he is speaking to us here at the South as well.  Here is the relevant portion of his essay:
​ . . . A nation that once defeated the Roman empire and competed with the British East India company, has now been sunk into deep apathy and utter hopelessness after the 2020 Turkish-Azeri aggression against Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

It is now clear that the loss of the beautiful capital Ani and the fall of the Bagratuni (Bagratid) kingdom a millennia ago, in 1045, played a major role in developing that “saviour-messiah” syndrome within the Armenian nation.

First, losing the independent kingdom, then losing ministries – then the political elite of the Armenians, the nation started looking for a solution to its problems outside of itself.

Notable Armenians of the late Middle Ages would go to this or that European royal palaces seeking for military help from a “saviour-messiah” foreign ruler who would come to the Armenian Highlands and fight the oppressors – the notorious Ottoman Empire.

It did not take the nation to anywhere good and it was not until 1918 when the Armenian nation, surviving the first major genocide of the 20th century, teamed up and regained its independence.

The very 1918 events, which are called May heroics, are an excellent vindication of an adamant success: once a nation relies on itself, succeeds – this is a political axiom that the majority of Armenians seem to have forgotten now.

On a political level, most Armenians are now longing for a “saviour-messiah” who will come and save the country from collapse.

The most common excuse is “I do not trust this guy, that guy, this initiative, that movement” which is fatal and sucks the energy of the nation from within.

There is no magic stick in politics, rather the latter loves everyday hard work. A nation becomes independent, keeps its independence and sovereignty once its people self-determine and self organise – they believe in themselves and their collective power.

1918 was one example, 1990s – the first Artsakh War, is another example.

In business terms, it is like you pitch your right to self-determination, sovereignty, independence and prosperity to the others in the global business club.

If you show consistency, strong team-up record and “rely-only-on-yourself” philosophy, you are then accepted into the global club.

This new 2022 is full of challenges but offers tons of opportunities for the global Armenian nation to stage a remarkable comeback and strengthen its place in the aforementioned club.

Armenians’ forefather Hayk did install that mentality of independence, self-determination, and sovereignty into the Armenian people several millennia ago.

Now is the perfect time to show forefather Hayk that the nation has learnt the lesson.

Armenians, stop bringing up excuses for not working hard for the homeland and the nation.

No outsider is going to work for Armenia unless Armenians work first and hard.

Armenians, stop searching for a saviour-messiah, team up and work hard instead!
​The South, like Armenia, was once a land renowned for her leadership in various fields in the united States, but after a devastating war and various reconstructions and reeducations, she has grown weak and timid and looks for help and deliverance from outside herself – to a President, to the federal Supreme Court, to the ‘star power’ of a celebrity, and so on.

But as Mr Ayvazyan says in his essay, that is not the proper place to look.  Southrons, like the Armenians, must look within for answers to our problems.  This will be more difficult for us than in the past.  Before, we had a class of Christian country gentlemen and ladies who could give us good leadership.  Today, what is left of them is too busy jostling for a seat at the Great Barbeque put on by the powerful in Washington City, Los Angeles, and other political and cultural centers dominated by globalists/Yankees.

More than ever, the plain folk of the South must band together, cultivate new leaders from amongst themselves, and ‘work hard for the homeland’.  But isn’t this just what Jefferson and his disciples told us to do?  Dr Clyde Wilson writes,
​For Taylor, Adams had got his history wrong. The people, in a society like that of Americans, were not dangerous. Most of the time they went quietly about their own business and demanded nothing—unless they were intolerably provoked by abuses of government. It was the “court party” that was the enemy of liberty and that would subvert the free commonwealth. History showed that there were always self-seeking minorities, would-be elites, ready to use the machinery of government to live off the labor of the majority. Sometimes this was done by force, and sometimes by fraud, as in the Hamiltonian maxim “a public debt is a public blessing.” The remedy was not to erect artificial “checks and balances” but to make sure power was widely dispersed, limited, and amenable to recall.

The Jeffersonian Constitution has been misrepresented as much as or more than Jeffersonian philosophy. It was not “strict construction,” a nonstarter, nor even states’ rights. It was state sovereignty. Jefferson (and Madison, too) may be quoted ad infinitum to this effect. The Virginia and Kentucky documents of 1798-1800 spell out beyond any doubt that the final defense of freedom in the American system is the people acting in their only constitution-making identity, that of their sovereign states. The states were the legitimate and peaceful resort to protect the liberties of their citizens and themselves as communities from federal encroachment.
​The federal government exists; we do not care much for it, but let us try to use it to our benefit even while we work to either drastically change it or separate from it altogether.  But, per Jefferson and the Armenian example, our main work must be closer to home, at the State and local level:  organizing, building, reaching out, connecting, so that we can be free from the parasites who use us to fight their wars, play in their football circuses, and perform atrocious country music songs for them.

The example of Russia in the 1300s offers us a great deal of hope that we can accomplish this:
​The Russian Land at this time suffered under the Mongol-Tatar Yoke. Having gathered an army, Great-prince Demetrius Ioannovich of the Don went to monastery of Saint Sergius to ask blessing in the pending struggle. Saint Sergius gave blessing to two monks of his monastery to render help to the great-prince: the Schemamonk Andrei [Oslyaba] and the Schemamonk Alexander [Peresvet], and he predicted the victory for prince Demetrius. The prophecy of Saint Sergius was fulfilled: on September 8, 1380, on the feastday of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, Russian soldiers gained a total victory over the Tatar hordes at Kulikovo Pole (Kulikovo Field), and set in place the beginning of the liberation of the Russian Land from the Mongol Yoke. During the fighting Saint Sergius and the brethren stood at prayer and besought God to grant victory to the Russian forces.
The country of Georgia in the 11th and 12th centuries under the leadership of the holy King David IV likewise overcame incredible odds to gain her freedom from the Turks.

Inspired by them and by the example of our Southern forebears; with prayers to the Saints of our people; with hope in God; Dixie will also reclaim her independence.
2 Comments
Preston Brooks
2/1/2022 08:15:53 am

The patron saint of DIxie would have to be Saint Andrew as it is his cross that appears on all our flags.

Reply
Walt Garlington
2/1/2022 05:10:54 pm

St Alfred the Great of England would make a good fellow-Patron Saint, since so much of Southern culture originated in the heart of his kingdom in Wessex/southwest England:

http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/athlifea.htm

http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/zathelney.htm

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    Walt Garlington is a chemical engineer turned writer (and, when able, a planter). He makes his home in Louisiana and is editor of the 'Confiteri: A Southern Perspective' web site.

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