Hummingbirds for Hedgehogs, Cats for Mice: General Commentary AND a Review of LA POUDRE AUX YEUX by Justine Reix

Late last week, I learned that SBU stormtroopers had arrested Gonzalo Lira again in Kharkov. He stands accused of, much like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, telling the truth. Here’s praying for the best for him, his family, and his friends. I suppose emailing Tony Blinken the suggestion Lira is really a lesbian basketball druggie will not help as, of course, he and all other honest men can expect zero assistance from the imperial Yankee government. Today’s book review deals with government incompetence, dishonesty, and callous disregard – getting there in just a moment. Just the other week, all three characteristics were on full display when Joe Wilson (R – South Israelina) dropped House Res. 322, which might as well be known as the “Hey! While We’re Being Totally Wicked And Stupid, Let’s Declare (Unwinnable) War On Russia Act Of 2023”. Don’t worry, you, your children, and your grandchildren will pick up the potential tab for that.

Also, not too long ago, I learned of a terrible misdefinition of the “Sigma Male” of Socio-Sexual Hierarchy (SSH) fame. Many a right-winger, including the author of the original taxonomy, were amused at the reporting on the subject by one writer at VICE. She got it wrong, obviously, but I’m not entirely certain it was all her fault. Many illegitimate sources have out-of-the-blue claimed expertise in all things SSH. It may be a case of her not looking deeply enough, instead becoming satisfied by what she saw blathered all over creation (and TikTok). There was also the subtle feeling of Gekaufte Journalisten at work. Some SSH ideas help the heterosexual male members of the right and are thus anathema to Clown World. Regardless, writers like her get paid to produce content. Given everything, I found it difficult to fault her too hard.

But I did look into her, finding this:

(Multiple Twitter Picture Postin’s).

What a beautiful … book!

It turned out to be not such a bad book either. Here’s my,

Review of La Poudre Aux Yeux: Enquête sur le Ministère de l’Ecologie by Justine Reix, JC Lattès (2022) (US) (FR). 

La Poudre Aux Yeux, (Powder in the Eyes), is the tandem call for better ecological policy, and a discovery that government does not necessarily work as promised. It is not, as of yet, available in English. That may deter the casual non-French reader. However, I am told that multiple digital parties have assembled easy-to-use translation services. So there is hope for the intrepid reader. 

My Amazon review, below, essentially summarizes most of my thoughts on Reix’s book. However, I will first share a few more specific revelations for readers of my blog and, especially, the gangs at Reckonin’ and Abbeville. After all, agrarianism is a major theme for Southern People. It even received titular and topical treatment in Alan Harrelson’s (hey, bub!) doctoral dissertation at MSU, Native to the Soil: Twentieth-Century Agrarian Thought in the Upland South. Agrarianism is inescapably linked to ecology and environment matters. We all have to live somewhere, and most of us would like our somewheres as pristine as possible. Over the past few years, for reasons related to chemtrails, railroad fires, DNA-altering “vaccines”, and more, many on the right have changed their thinking about environmental issues. We all remain at least somewhat suspicious of the government and its (often corporate) owners.

A primary expertise of mine is in spotting and understanding evil trends in political matters, which is very, very easy. This helped markedly in appreciating Reix’s realization that France’s Ministry of Ecology might not do the best job of representing the interests of the French people. For her part, I suppose she is and was an idealistic, liberal young woman who perhaps thought things semi-worked as advertised. I was relieved to see, despite coming around to the harsh truth, she never lost her fire regarding her core concerns. 

However, many of my readers may not know it, but I was briefly, for one class in one college quarter, a student of Eugene Odum, the “father of modern ecology”. The class might have been entirely conducted by a graduate student, and I may have forgotten 97% of what I learned, but there’s still that 3%, right? There’s also the fact that I appreciate a clean environment. Many of the principles of modern “climate change” ecology I not only disagree with but know to be disproven, observably and mathematically. Reix covers some of that, but innocently and not in any raging or pushy fashion. I do agree with her on many of the other matters she discusses. Much of her caution and advice, especially as to what individuals and families can and should do, is sound. The great geostrategic and economic changes of the past year are literally forcing some of her proposals on the world; she called for a lessening of globalization, and that’s what we’re getting. Families in rural Doubs, France, and in rural northern Alabama are already practicing better ways that look suspiciously like traditional ways. 

For the Amazonians, I noted one particular point that I and Reix both found saddening – the fact that many young people are actively foregoing family formation and children out of fear of damaging the planet. There are other factors, economic and cultural at work, but this trend is real. I hope it ends immediately. Our greater ecological risk is damaging ourselves more than or to a higher degree than the Earth. And the only people who should have to fear are the people who have wrecked our fields, streams, towns, schools, economies, DNA, tranquility, sanity, and nations. Kids, that is not you; have no fear. Get out there, be happy, and have a bunch of children!

Also, keep those children out of organized schools and, to the greatest extent possible, out of the dying postmodern culture. While discussing potential corrective ecological approaches, Reix quotes a Léo Cohen, p. 138 (Kindle), on a similar entangled subject: “Quand on oblige les parents à mettre leurs enfants à l’école dès l’âge de 3 ans , on ne parle pas d’éducation punitive . Il y a une bataille culturelle à mener (When we force parents to put their children in school from the age of 3, we are not talking about punitive education. There’s a cultural battle to be fought)”. I do talk and write about “punitive” education, all the time. The schools in France, as-is, work much better than those in the former United States. However, they still force parents to send their children to be forcibly instructed in whatever the force of the state decrees appropriate. Interestingly, many of Reix’s personal suggestions, such as buying, growing, and living locally, appear most compatible with the concepts of homeschooling and parental (not state) control over children. 

There are other points I could make, though I think those work here. So now, please read my (5-Star) review submitted to Amazon, in French (translation follows):

Colibris pour Hérissons

Soixante ans après SILENT SPRING, nous avons peut-être un digne successeur à Rachel Carson.

Justine Reix a accompli deux exploits remarquables dans LA POUDRE AUX YEUX, plaidant de manière éclairée et sensée pour la gérance de l’environnement, tout en rappelant simultanément au monde la cupidité, l’insouciance et la léthargie systémiques endémiques dans les domaines intimement liés de la politique et de la corporatocratie.

Problèmes environnementaux. Même moi, un Américain de droite, j’ai trouvé un terrain d’entente avec les questions centrales abordées par Reix. Bien que je ne sois pas exactement d’accord avec toutes les politiques et slogans actuels associés à l’écologie moderne, je reconnais que nous avons tous des problèmes. Nous avons également tout intérêt à résoudre ces problèmes afin de pouvoir, selon les mots d’Eugene Odum, favoriser << des relations plus harmonieuses entre l’homme et la nature >>. Nous devons, pouvons et allons le faire. Au milieu de discussions sur de nombreux sujets et stratégies d’amélioration, Reix énumère des solutions véritablement réalisables, en particulier certaines de celles qu’elle oriente vers la prise de décision individuelle.

Calamité ministérielle. Reix doit être félicitée pour ce qui a dû être un processus d’enquête ardu dans la compilation matériel de base. Et elle aurait pu facilement transformer ses découvertes exploratoires en un traité sur n’importe quel ministère ou département de n’importe quel gouvernement de n’importe quelle nation. Tous les gouvernements sont soumis à certaines tendances bureaucratiques, et tous finissent par succomber à un abaissement et à un déplacement des loyautés et des efficacités. Étant donné que mon pays est dans un état aussi mauvais, voire pire que la France, le seul conseil que je pourrais donner est de persévérer.

Méfiez-vous également quelques des experts et des responsables, au sein et en dehors du gouvernement, en particulier ceux qui s’appuient sur un état constant d’alarme rhétorique. Il y a un grand cycle à l’œuvre, et ses différents auteurs changent fréquemment de rôle, résolvant un problème, dont la résolution crée un nouveau problème, qui continue encore et encore. Les préoccupations écologiques sont étroitement liées aux préoccupations économiques, de stabilité sociétale, etc. Ce réseau de soins interconnectés devrait intéresser tout le monde, car la plupart des groupes ont plus en commun qu’ils ne le pensent indépendamment. Reix couvre magistralement cette vérité; à titre d’exemple, j’ai été réconforté par le mention de forger un lien potentiel avec les gilets jaunes.

Une chose m’a causé une inquiétude supplémentaire dans la lecture, une tendance que j’ai lue ailleurs. Reix note et déplore certains hommes et femmes plus jeunes qui décident <<de ne pas faire d’enfants par peur de l’avenir>>. J’encourage tous les membres des jeunes générations en France, aux États-Unis et au-delà, à ne pas céder à la peur et à renoncer ainsi à tout bonheur familial, dont la poursuite n’est pas seulement sous l’ordre de Dieu mais qui procure également une grande joie personnelle. Certaines des propositions simples de Reix, correctement mises en œuvre, devraient encourager plutôt que décourager les familles harmonieuses. Ce n’est pas le chemin le plus facile à parcourir, mais des auteurs comme Justine Reix proposent le début d’une feuille de route décente.

La composition narrative de Reix se lit également très facilement, coulant de manière transparente d’un concept à l’autre. J’ai été entraîné, captivé et ma maîtrise du français, ma deuxième langue, fait un peu défaut. Quoi qu’il en soit, un argument convaincant et convaincant ressort des paroles de Reix. Elle est honnête mais passionnée, audacieuse mais raffinée, sage mais pleine d’esprit. Je note qu’elle a ouvert et fermé son livre avec des analogies allégoriques animales, une touche délicieuse. Elle a une belle voix et un style belletristiques, et j’aimerais la voir se développer davantage, ou, plutôt, la libérer à l’avenir. Quelques feux, humble colibri, ça paye de continuer à brûler !

Une série de messages importants dans un livre merveilleux.

English:

Hummingbirds for Hedgehogs

Sixty years after SILENT SPRING, we may have a worthy successor to Rachel Carson.

Justine Reix accomplished two remarkable feats in LA POUDRE AUX YEUX, making an informed and sensible case for environmental stewardship, while simultaneously reminding the world of the systemic greed, recklessness and lethargy endemic in the intertwined areas of politics and corporatocracy.

Environmental problems. Even I, a right-wing American, have found common ground with the central issues addressed by Reix. While I don’t exactly agree with all of the current policies and slogans associated with modern ecology, I recognize that we all have issues. We also have a vested interest in solving these problems so that we can, in the words of Eugene Odum, promote “more harmonious relations between man and nature”. We must, can and will do it. Amid discussions of many topics and strategies for improvement, Reix lists some truly workable solutions, especially some of those that she steers toward individual decision-making.

Ministerial calamity. Reix is to be commended for what must have been an arduous investigative process in compiling source material. And she could easily have turned her exploratory findings into a treatise on any ministry or department of any government of any nation. All governments are subject to certain bureaucratic tendencies, and all eventually succumb to a lowering and displacement of loyalties and efficiencies. Since my country is in as bad a state, if not worse than France, the only advice I could give is to persevere.

Also beware a few experts and officials, inside and outside government, especially those who rely on a constant state of rhetorical alarm. There is a great cycle at work, and its various authors change roles frequently, solving one problem, the solving of which creates a new problem, which goes on and on. Ecological concerns are closely related to economic concerns, societal stability, etc. This network of interconnected care should be of interest to everyone, as most groups have more in common than they realize independently. Reix masterfully covers this truth; as an example, I was comforted by the mention of forging a potential link with the yellow vests.

One thing caused me additional concern in reading, a trend I’ve read elsewhere. Reix notes and laments some younger men and women who decide “not to have children for fear of the future”. I encourage all members of the younger generations in France, the United States and beyond, not to give in to fear and thus renounce all family happiness, the pursuit of which is not only under the order of God but which also brings great personal joy. Some of Reix’s simple proposals, properly implemented, should encourage rather than discourage harmonious families. It’s not the easiest road to travel, but authors like Justine Reix offer the start of a decent roadmap.

Reix’s narrative composition also reads very easily, flowing seamlessly from concept to concept. I was driven, captivated and my fluency in French, my second language, is a bit lacking. Regardless, a compelling and convincing argument emerges from Reix’s words. She is honest but passionate, bold but refined, demure but witty. I note that she opened and closed her book with allegorical animal analogies, a delightful touch. She has a beautiful belletristic voice and style, and I would love to see her develop it more, or, rather, release it in the future. A few fires, humble hummingbird, it pays to keep burning!

A series of important messages in a wonderful book.

In closing, I gently correct Mademoiselle Reix. Lovely little hummingbird, ignoring the learned wisdom of the TikTok kings, while Bateman may be a Sigma gone maliciously insane, there are two more plausible classificatory explanations. First, if the story of American Psycho was fictitiously “factual”, then he is most likely an Alpha gone maliciously insane. Second, if the tale was a delusional dream, then, to me, it appears more likely than not he is a delusional Omega (possibly a delusional Gamma) gone maliciously, delusionally insane. Nonetheless, thank you for your dedication and spirit clearing away the powder.