King Arthur? Avalon? Who? What...?
Illustration of King Arthur Receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake. N.C. Wyeth, c. 1910.
I had an instructive incident this afternoon, as I was teaching one of my behind-the-wheel students: since the struggle to save the West does not come with a salary, I teach driver's education to put meat and bread on the table, and otherwise attempt to keep the wolves from the door.
Seeing a Toyota Avalon ahead of us at a stop light, I quipped to my student, "Well, there's Avalon! I wonder where King Arthur is?" There was a brief silence, followed by a (slightly sheepish, to her credit) "I didn't get that one!" from my student.
She didn't get it. An Anglophone high school student, and one with a European last name and apparent ancestral heritage, to boot, didn't get a reference – and not an obscure one – to the Arthurian legends, one of the most formative legendary and literary cycles in the history of the English-speaking peoples (and significant to French and German-speaking ones, as well). If there is any doubt that our educational system is in serious disarray, this one incident is proof positive, I would confidently assert.
I passed off the episode lightly, for my student's sake – I'm teaching her to drive a car, not appreciate her own cultural heritage, and there were tasks to accomplish, and traffic and road conditions in need of attention – but it bothered me, and it continues to rankle.
But thinking about it tonight, I realized that from the perspective of the propagandists and ideologues that make up much of our educational establishment, this is an example, not of disarray, but of how well their plan is working. King Arthur should most emphatically not be taught, according to this outlook!
He is not only a member of one of the most despised of all classes (and one of the very few it is permissible – indeed, encouraged – to despise), a "DWEM" (Dead White European Male), but he actually fought against the invasion and subjugation diversity and cultural enrichment of his Romano-British land and people by the Anglo-Saxons. Really fought! With swords and spears and things. And in the process became an icon and an inspiration for defense against immigrant invasion opposition to multiculturalism for centuries thereafter.
How vile! He must have been one of those white supremacists. Oh, wait – the Anglo-Saxons were white, too! And so were the Vikings... and the Normans... and even the French and Spanish, who tried and failed to invade England. Best we just leave British / English history out of the schools entirely, unless we can find ways to convincingly pretend that they weren't nearly as European as they very clearly and historically were, at least until the last decade or so.
We certainly don't want to infect any of today's students of European ancestry with any pride in their heritage, do we? Much less suggest to them, however indirectly, that it might be – perhaps even, ought to be – defended from invaders? Perish the thought!
We are seriously screwed up, and are getting screwed-er up-er, all the time!