“Where men are forbidden to honour a king, they honor millionaires, athletes, or film stars instead; even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.”
C. S. Lewis

The reasons behind the election of the man who currently resides in the White House can be found in this same question. Was he elected because he clearly articulated a vision of a morally upright, honorable America where all men would have the opportunity to excel and then reap the rewards of their success? or was he elected because he seemed “cool” and “hip” and represented “the latest ‘in’ thing”? To paraphrase someone he is fond of quoting, was he elected based on the content of his character – or on the color of his skin? I have no doubt that it was for the latter.

I have made no secret of my admiration for constitutional monarchy as a form of government, and Mr. Lewis has presented the chief argument in favor of that – the moral and spiritual reason. Many people will, of course, feed their “spiritual nature” with poison rather than food simply because the nature of man tends toward the wicked rather than the good. Those type of people will always be with us. The benefits of having a leader who represents honor and righteousness and justice and freedom go not to what I refer to as “Walmart people,” but to those who yearn for a leader who brings out the best in men rather than pandering to our baser instincts.

General Robert E. Lee certainly understood what it meant to have authority over others and how to use that authority properly.

Understand that following legitimate orders issued by those in authority over you is also the mark of a Southern gentleman. Respect for authority is the cornerstone of a civilized society – respect for legitimate authority.

What brings this to mind is the way that National Park Service rangers have abused the authority vested in them during the 2013 government “shut down” by following political orders to make life miserable for the public they are supposed to serve. Did all NPS rangers act this way? No, I’m quite certain that was not the case. What I find troubling though, is that I have not seen any reports of rangers who stood up and said they will not be part of this. Would it be reported? Absolutely. Probably not by the major media, but the alternative media would have hailed such men as the courageous gentlemen that they would be. I saw no such reports.

That brings up the question of what is the proper way to handle illegitimate, immoral, or illegal orders? If you’re looking for a safe, easy, and painless answer, there is none. No one wants to lose their job – especially in a job market such as we have now. That is why it is so important to be selective when going to work for someone (including working for yourself) to make sure that you are working for someone who is of good moral character and will not require you to do that which you know is wrong.

What if you find yourself in such a situation anyway? As difficult as it is to say, a letter of resignation that clearly spells out the reason why you can no longer work for that employer is the only proper way to handle the matter of being issued immoral and/or illegal orders.

Before I get accused of being “holier than thou” and hearing “you don’t understand”, and “it’s obvious you’ve never been in that situation”, I’ll say, “Yes, I have been in that exact situation.” Did I follow my own advice here, and do the right thing and resign? Sadly, no, I did not. Instead I told the person over me that I knew exactly what he was doing and what he told me to sign my name to, and that this had better never happen again. Yes, I signed my name to something I knew to be false. I put my signature on a lie. That is something that I will live with for the rest of my life – always wishing that I had done the right thing. That, my fellow aspiring Southern gentlemen, is why I am writing this. It is written in the hope that others will not make the same error that I made decades ago. Learn from my mistakes.

This short video illustrates a boy’s entry into manhood; it requires no words.

The Hazardous Journeys Society (HJS) was founded to give glory to God, not man, as part of an exciting effort of world exploration. The purpose of the HJS is to provide teams of intrepid adventurers, photographers, students, scientists, journalists, and naturalists with an opportunity to engage in journeys of discover around the globe and to interpret their findings from a perspective that honors the Creator.
External Links

www.hazardousjourneys.org

To that end, this is a list of tangible things we can do, presented in no particular order.

1. Boldly proclaim the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Leading a soul to eternal salvation is a greater accomplishment than anything else in this life.
2. Live a virtuous life at home, at work, and in public. Always speak the truth. We are ambassadors of our great Southern culture and must serve as an example of what that culture stands for.
3. Be part of a church that truly believes The Bible ¹. as the literal word of God – and acts on it. There are far too many modernist churches that lower standards and try to become like the rest of the world. If you’re in one of those modernist churches, leave and find a real church that is not focused on entertaining the congregation.
4. Use the power of the spoken and written word to advance the cause of restoring civility to America.
5. Dress more formally than what is customary in today’s society.
6. Pay close attention to manners and etiquette, and make them a part of your daily life.
7. Pray – not a vain repetition, but pray like you are talking directly with The God who created the entire universe, because that’s exactly what you are doing. He listens to “specks of dust” like us.
8. Seek out like-minded people, and form strong bonds with them.
9. Treat others with respect. As conditions worsen, there will be those who proudly provided for their families in the past, but find themselves without work or, if they are fortunate, doing menial work. Your turn may come. While those who willingly live off of money stolen from the productive deserve our open contempt, resist the urge unless pressed.
10. Follow the Boy Scout slogan of “Do a Good Turn Daily”. Find some way to help someone who would not expect it.
11. Follow the Boy Scout motto of “Be Prepared”. When hard times come, you can depend on no one but yourself and your closest friends and family.
12. Produce some of your own food by gardening or small-scale farming, and raising chickens. Those are valuable skills that cannot be learned by just reading a book. It is also the key to our Southern Agrarian culture.
13. Understand what Southern Agrarianism is by reading I’ll Take My Stand, by Twelve Southerners.
14. If you are living in an urban area, move to a semi-rural or rural area. The cities are not only increasingly dangerous, they are corrosive to the soul.
15. Arm yourself and learn and practice to become effective in the defense of yourself and your family. Armed men are free men – disarmed men are slaves.
16. Turn off the TV, cancel the cable subscription, and disconnect the antenna. TV has done more than anything else to destroy our culture. Don’t allow the filth and propaganda into your home.
17. Home-school your children and help and support other home-schoolers if you can.
18. Take control of your future by investing your retirement savings yourself so that the government cannot gain control of it ².
19. Make your home more self-sufficient: dig a well, own a sewing machine ³ to make and repair your clothes, install a wood heating stove, increase the insulation in your attic.
20. Secure your home. Rampant crime is just one of the results of a decaying society where civility is no longer revered.
21. Embrace old-school ways of doing things: use paper and pen rather than an electronic device for taking notes (bonus points for using a fountain pen ⁴); shave with a double-edge safety razor and brush and mug rather than the latest multi-blade gizmo; resist the temptation to automatically upgrade to the latest technology; consider using open source software and Linux rather than falling into the Windows/Mac trap.
22. Resolve to give no credibility to political correctness. When it comes up, question it and force the source to justify what was said or written. Don’t accept it.
23. Watch your language. Make a conscious effort to avoid any obscene or profane word coming from your lips. Crude language identifies the speaker with the worst elements of any society. That such language is now commonly used by “celebrities” is reason enough to shun it.
24. Cherish those who are close to you and resolve to repair any relationships that need repairing. Your family, your spouse, your friends – those are more important now than ever, and will become even more so in the future.
25. Display the Confederate flag – any one of them – on a regular basis. (see the Code of Confederate Flag Etiquette)
26. Sharing a meal as a family is a time-honored tradition. Make the extra effort to have a more formal, structured dinner.
27. Resolve to take away the power that the word “racist” has over us; at the same time, remember to treat all men with the respect they deserve.
28. Language is an important part of any culture – the English language is the language of our people. Don’t allow yourself to slip into the sloppy language habits that have become a mark of modern popular culture. Writing and speaking well are the marks of a civilized man. Use correct English in your speech and writing. ⁵
29. Collect books – not digital text, but real paper and ink books that can be read without batteries. As the popularity of digital text increases, there are bargains to be found in used books. ⁶
30. Carry a pocket knife. A generation ago, every Southern male carried a pocket knife – it was almost a rite of passage. Somewhere along the way, the Nanny-state took over, and an incredibly useful tool came to be viewed as a dangerous weapon and a threat to be banned.
31. Get out of debt as quickly as possible. Make it a top priority.
32. Reduce or eliminate your income dependence by laying the foundation for your own business. Find something that you truly enjoy doing and that others are willing to pay for, and acquire the tools and the skills to provide that service or product at a profit. ⁷
33. The Christmas season has become the emblem of materialism in America and a brief glance at the mayhem of “Black Friday” shopping will confirm that. Turning away from the greed and materialism is a wonderful opportunity for a family lesson in setting priorities. Rejecting materialism now will make life easier later when it is forced on America by a failing economy.
34. Find something that you can grow or make at home to give away to others. For some, it is home-canned vegetables or preserves or home-made soap; for my wife and I, it is vanilla extract; for our son, it is egg nog in a variety of flavors. Turn back the clock a bit to a day when people didn’t buy everything from the store, but made it themselves. We also give away much of what our garden produces, and the surplus eggs from our chickens.

This list was inspired by a list posted at The Thinking Housewife blog. Be sure to read the Thinking Housewife post since it covers some things that I did not cover in this post. What can you add to this list?

Early in our history, or perhaps it was an illusion all along, we voted for candidates based on their stated position, their background, and other criteria. While those are still the terms in which we discuss elections, it is only a mask for what is really happening.

America has divided into two very distinct groups. Two diametrically opposed groups with ideas that are completely incompatible, with no room for true compromise. One will be in power and the other will actively oppose anything done by the group in power. The candidate names and the party names are just convenient labels. The two major parties have completely switched roles over the last 150 years, so the only constant is the struggle between the guiding principles of these two groups.

• One group believes that the individual is responsible for his own material destiny, and that government exists to protect individuals from force or fraud and to provide a basic framework for a civilized society. The same applies on the family level but no further. This group is identified by the labels: conservative, The Right, Republican, libertarian, etc.

• The other group believes that government exists to ensure fairness and equality. It is an egalitarian system that believes all people have equal talent and ability and drive, and that if results are unequal then it must be because the system is unfair and it is government’s role to make it “fair”. This group believes it is the role of government to redistribute wealth to ensure equal results. This group is identified by the labels: liberal, The Left, Democrat, socialist, etc.

Since the objective of these two groups is to win a majority of the votes, there is a self-leveling mechanism involved in the party platforms. The Left will move just far enough to the right to try to win a majority, while the Right will move just far enough to the left to try to do the same. If one side won’t move toward the center, then the other side captures those votes and gains power. While the line between the two sides is constantly shifting, it is still a line drawn down the middle resulting in a close election. Landslides are the result of one side failing to read the mood of the country and not adjusting their position accordingly.

To really understand the difference between these two groups, I look as closely at the people who support them as I do the actual candidates. The liberal side is coarse, crude, vulgar, immoral, and aggressively attacks my most basic beliefs taught by The Bible. They are sometimes referred to as the “Free Stuff Army” and the “Gimme-Dats”. As I imagine my grandchildren living in a world controlled by the liberals, it chills me to the bone. I have a duty to do what I can to keep that from happening. Protecting future generations is one of the most basic obligations of the Southern gentleman.

The two basic rules of power in America are:
1) There are only two sides, and they are defined by whether the individual or the government is responsible the individual’s success or failure.
2) We pick the side that we believe is right and vote for that side. The name of the party or the candidate is just a way to identify which side we believe in.

So, what is the RIGHT thing to do once one recognizes how this works? My conclusion is that we pick the side we believe is right and vote for that side. That leaves me with only one option – to cast my vote for the conservative side, which in this election is Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan. It is far from a perfect choice, but what in life isn’t?

gen-tle-man – noun a : a man of noble or gentle birth b : a man belonging to the landed gentry c(1) : a man who combines gentle birth or rank with chivalrous qualities (2) : a man whose conduct conforms to a high standard of propriety or correct behavior …

This morning I watched yet another news clip of a police spokesman using the word “gentleman” to describe a street thug. In this case, a group of five Blacks walked into a restaurant, got angry because it was taking too long to cook their food. They shot and killed the cook and walked away. The cook had a wife and five children with the youngest being 2 years old. Our society has rotted to the point that this kind of brutal, savage disregard for life is no longer uncommon.

Another quote from the police: “It was a random dispute that went tragically wrong.” No, Mr. Detective, it was a brutal murder by uncivilized thugs who do not have even the most basic level of decency required to live among civilized human beings. There is more to claiming the title of “human being” than having opposable thumbs. Words have meaning, Mr. Detective, and if you can’t grasp that concept, you should not be a public spokesman.

One contributing factor to this is the fact that our society continues to treat uncivilized thugs as though they were civilized men. We have all heard police, judges, politicians, and news reporters use the word “gentleman” to refer to the worst dregs of society. Can anything be farther from the true meaning of the word? Do a web search on “gentleman” and you’ll find “gentleman’s club”. They are not where gentlemen congregate – they are dark, sleazy, degrading strip clubs. To add even further insult, their advertisements will refer to those who work there as “ladies” – yet another complete perversion of the meaning.

Words have meaning, and when a society takes a word and reverses its meaning, that degrades the entire culture. “Gentleman” is not the only example. “Bad” has become slang for something good. “Gay” went from meaning “happily excited, merry, keenly alive and exuberant, having or inducing high spirits …” to meaning one who practices the most vile and perverted sexual deviancy. We have come to the place where George Orwell’s prediction about the way society thinks has become reality: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

We cannot stop the process of cultural Marxism as it destroys our society by changing the way people think. We can, however, control it in our families, among our friends and associates, in our churches, and other places where we have a leadership role. Men think in words, and words have meaning. Insist that words be used correctly.

Richard Michael, grandson of Stephen Clay McGehee. Born at 4:14 this morning. 7 pounds, 15 ounces. 20 1/2 inches.

No one is “born” a Southern Gentleman, but allow me a bit of liberty in this instance. I can assure you that Richard Michael will be raised to be a Southern Gentleman. Richard Michael joins his cousin, Ethan David, as our second grandson; the happy parents are Richard and Sarah. All are doing fine and are already back at home.

I am truly blessed with a wonderful family.

Part 7 of our series on the Southern Gentleman and the Boy Scout movement. Obedience is the seventh point of the Boy Scout Law.

Obedience is a tough one for many of us. The main reason we have trouble with obedience is pride – the sin that is at the root of all other sins. Another reason it is tough is because we are so often faced with demands from illegitimate authority. The legitimacy of authority is an important matter, and one that today’s society (and government) would like us to ignore.

The Yankees called us “Rebels”, claiming that the seceding states were in rebellion against the legitimate authority of the federal government. The Yankees were wrong. A rebellion is disobedience to legitimate authority, and that was simply not the case since secession was (and still is) completely legal. Any Southern gentleman should find the term “Rebel” to be offensive; we would do well to gracefully inform others who do not understand.

The real question comes down to “Obedience to whom?” The answer to that is actually pretty straightforward.

Obedience to God is, of course, the primary point. That means that we must first know and understand God’s word – not what we would like for God’s word to say; not what some self-proclaimed “expert” says; not just the parts of His word that we agree with – all of God’s word. That also means rightly dividing God’s word. We cannot take what was written to the Hebrew people of the Old Testament and apply it our lives; it wasn’t written for us as New Testament Christians.

We must also understand that in an evil world, there are always forces trying to claim authority that they do not have. Our Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It holds the same place as the king in an absolute monarchy. If a lawfully elected leader proclaims that we must do something, and the Constitution says otherwise, then being obedient means that we must follow the Constitution and not the illegitimate authority of those who disobey the Constitution. The same holds true for those appointed to enforce the law.

It must also be pointed out here that each of us routinely obey illegitimate laws and illegitimate authority on a daily basis. It is part of the price of living. While I would rather live here in America than any place else in the world, it is still a system run by man, and therefore, it is a corrupt system. Each of us must determine our own line that we will not cross. We must also understand that we willingly accept the penalties that the system imposes on those who oppose it.

“There are two types of people who are doomed to failure in this world:
Those who cannot give orders and those who cannot follow orders.”
Author unknown

“Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”
Benjamin Franklin’s suggested motto for the Great Seal

“If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land”
Isaiah 1:19

“For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.”
2 Corinthians 2:9

“Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work”
Titus 3:1

“Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.”
1 Peter 2:17

Friendly – Having the temper and disposition of a friend; kind; favorable; disposed to promote the good of another.
Courteous – Polite; wellbred; being of elegant manners; civil; obliging; condescending.
Kind – Disposed to do good to others, and to make them happy by granting their requests, supplying their wants or assisting them in distress; having tenderness or goodness of nature; benevolent…
— Websters Dictionary of 1828

For this post, I am combining three points of the Scout Law into one. Friendly, Courteous, and Kind are three sides of a triangle that makes society work smoothly. When any of those are missing, we all suffer.

So much of the world today seems to be coarse and cruel. We see videos posted on the internet showing gangs beating and humiliating an innocent person while the mob of thugs laughs and videos this cruelty as though it were a great spectator sport. Although it is currently almost exclusively a Black phenomenon, history has shown that Whites tend to follow the worst traits of Black culture. That makes it all of society’s problem – it is not just a Black problem such that we can smugly point our fingers at someone else. While Whites have little or no influence over Black culture, we do have influence over our own. The question is – will we exercise that influence in a powerful way to assure that our culture, at least, is friendly, courteous, and kind. We must become active role models. The best outcome would be for other cultures to see and emulate this so that their culture is taken to a higher, nobler level.

Our objective here at Confederate Colonel is to preserve and build up the culture of the Southern gentleman. While the most immediate benefit is to ourselves and our families and our circle of friends, it also benefits all of society. Ideally, others will observe, appreciate, and then follow the life pattern of the Southern gentleman. That is what makes a successful culture.

A few quotes on manners and etiquette:

Traditionally Southern statesmen have been orators. A society emphasizing social rituals and manners requires a kind of reverence for words to adequately express sentiment and feeling. The dregs of this rhetoric remain the stock in trade of the grass roots politicians. The Southerner generally does not shy away—to the extent the Northerner does—from a use of language that is something more than bare statement. The Northerner, with his conditioned respect for practicality and getting-to-the-point is more likely to possess a far greater reading than speaking vocabulary and to associate anything more than simple expression with ostentation.
William Van O’Conner 1947

Manners are of more importance than laws…. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.
Edmund Burke 1796

Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.
Ralph Waldo Wmerson 1876

I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.
James Russell Lowell 1873

More quotes about manners.

When my father first started walking with a cane, and my mother with a walker, they were  both amazed at the politeness they experienced – often by the people they would least expect it from. They routinely had doors held open for them, they were quickly ushered to the front on any lines, and were generally given the preferential treatment that an elderly person dealing with a handicap should be given.

Simply holding a door open for another person is not only “helpful” but it shows respect for others that a decent and orderly society needs to maintain itself.