Brief Reflections on Natural Affections
"It is a known fact in human nature, that its affections are commonly weak in proportion to the distance or diffusiveness of the object."
- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #17
A known fact indeed, but one that is increasingly denied in favor of a more "inclusive" global citizenry. But the natural affections of man cannot be engineered out of him, no matter how strong the propaganda and social engineering.
The Hamilton quote above is a comment on proximity, but there is much more to the natural affections of man than mere distance. They encompass the affections that we have for all that we call "our own." Our own folk, the unique kitchen smells of Mom's cooking, all the mundane yet so familiar sights you see driving back into town after a weekend trip letting you know you are finally "at home."
"... this is my own and my brother's real fatherland. Here is the most ancient origin of our stock; here are our family rituals and our family; here are many traces of our ancestors. In brief: you see this house? It was made larger and fancier by the efforts of our father, who spent most of his life here in study, because of his poor health; but on this very spot, while my grandfather was still alive and it was a small house of the old style, like the house of Curius in the Sabine country, I was born. And so something abides in my mind and feelings, which makes me take all the more pleasure in this place..."
- Cicero, De Legibus
I consider, for example, my mother—what makes her special to me? Why do I cherish her above all other mothers? Is it because on the grand objective scale of motherly virtue, she is at the very top? No, and let us not make this more complicated than it need be. It is simply because she is my mother. Not only is it merely "ok" to have higher affections for her—it is right and proper to. And the principle behind this can be broadened out to apply to other things.
This basic reality—particular affections for the things that are ours—is under attack, and it is not hard to see why. Anything particular necessarily comes at the exclusion of others, and when our ruling elites have made "inclusion" one of their gods, such heresy must be stamped out. We see this prominently in anti-nationalist rhetoric and the ever-increasing globalist push for a new Babel that seeks to remove distinctions of nation, people, tradition, etc. so that mankind can supposedly all harmoniously join together into one great community. The irony, of course, is that this will only serve to isolate man, severing all ties to the particular until what is left is only a shell—just one of many global citizens.
This we must reject, as truly the particular and natural affections we have for what is our own makes life beautiful. For to love everything equally and exactly in the same way is to love nothing at all.