Tag: Cultural Revival

Cultural Pep Talk

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So, what’s the deal?  Are we reaching the end of the American Century and should we abandon all hope, we who enter?  Or is there any other way to approach the situation we are in?  Well, I would be accused of being a hopeless optimist if I didn’t admit that western civilization has fallen off a cliff at this point.  Looking around and seeing what passes for leadership and competency it’s impossible not to see a step change down from what existed a generation before.  Even the crooks are a couple of standard deviations below the level that used to operate in the last century.  Everything is diminished.  It’s undeniable.

Where do we go from here?

A few years ago, I read a book by a culture critic named Rod Dreher called “The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation.”  Now Dreher is a man of the right but he has had lots of fights with many other folks on his “side of the aisle.”  If I remember correctly, he’s not very fond of Donald Trump.  Oh, well.  But there was much in his book that I found interesting and helpful.  He talked about how our era had commonalities with 5th century A.D. Europe during the fall of the Roman Empire.  The Benedict in the title refers to Saint Benedict who at that time founded the Benedictine monastic order that began the slow painful process of restoring civilization to the human wreckage that existed after civil authority broke down after the barbarian hordes knocked over the Roman government.  Dreher’s point was that we no longer live in a society united under a common culture or religion.  But that doesn’t prevent us from forming our own communities to preserve the things we value and pass them on to our descendants.

And he’s absolutely correct.  Now admittedly, the left is doing everything it can to infect all areas of civil life with their Anti-American, Anti-European, Anti-Christian, Anti-western-civilization, anti-white propaganda and agenda.  But giving up because it’s difficult is the very definition of weakness.  If the things we want to see endure are worth saving then they are certainly worth fighting for.

So, I see this as the alternative to despair.  Look at the current state of affairs as a test of fitness for people and ideas.  If you’re not willing to fight for the things you value then maybe you don’t actually value them that much at all.  It certainly is a shame that the elites in this country valued the monetary advantages they could gain from globalism over the patriotic loyalty they owed to their fellow citizens and drowned our culture in third world “diversity.”  But just giving up is weak and defeatist and now that the globalists have been exposed it’s incumbent on us to support all individuals and organizations that work toward preserving the best parts of our traditional culture and do everything we can to reconstitute that culture and allow it to flourish again in this country.  Start rebuilding.

Where Will We Be in 2,500 AD

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The last twenty-five hundred years of Western History seem to be divided roughly into five-hundred-year chunks.  500 BC to the beginning of the Christian Era was dominated by the Greeks and their successors the Macedonians and the successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great’s conquests (remember I said roughly, the Romans finished off the last of the Hellenistic kingdoms in 30 BC).

Then the Roman Empire dominated the Mediterranean and the rest of Europe for the first five centuries of the Christian era.  When Rome fell, we had five hundred years of interregnum.  From 500 AD to about a 1,000 AD the petty kings fought each other over the carcass of the Roman Empire and the Church attempted to keep the peasants alive and give them hope.  By 1000 AD some stability had been restored and the “Dark Ages” were replaced by the High Middle Ages and civilization began to coalesce and Europe was no longer just a maelstrom of savagery.  And just exactly around 1500 AD Europe exploded into the Age of Reason and the Age of Discovery.  Science, technology, commerce and learning were everywhere and the Renaissance Civilization of Europe conquered the world.

And now here we are at 2,000 AD and European civilization is collapsing into some kind of squalid self-hating cult.  All of the remarkable triumphs of science and technology are despised and feared by the technophobic ignoramuses that crowd around the campuses of the universities where pseudo-intellectuals pose as philosophers and preach a false gospel of defeatism and anti-European hatred.

So, are we doomed to repeat the five hundred years of dark ages that swallowed up Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire?  I guess it’s possible.  It certainly looks that way.  But history doesn’t repeat itself.  We live in a very different world.  Even the powerful Islamic caliphate wasn’t able to roll any farther than Iberia and Asia Minor so Europe had a chance to reassert its independence.  But the world is a very different place today.  China and other non-European powers are emerging.  If Europe and the United States were to decay into weak entities their independence and survival would be far from a guaranteed result.  It truly behooves the leaders in the West to address the loss of morale and direction that is currently ubiquitous in Western countries.  It is basically an existential necessity at this point.  And there is very little time left to reverse the situation before it becomes impossible to solve.

What is needed is a cultural revival.  And a revival requires a leader.  Someone has to focus the resources of the state to purge the negative aspects of the present culture and replace them with institutions and goals that will strengthen society.  And the institution that must be restored and strengthened the most is the family.  All the reforms should work to restore the nuclear family to vigorous health.  Laws that encourage women to stay home and care for children while their husbands work are the most important aspects of a revival.  All elements of society that are detrimental to the family should be weakened and discouraged.  No one should be telling children that they can decide what sex they are or any other madness like that.  Traditional sex roles and other stabilizing patterns should be showcased and encouraged in entertainment and educational media.  Society as a whole should be focused on restoring healthy lifestyles and activities for everyone.

If a program of renewal is pursued strenuously, I think it’s not impossible for us to stave off the destruction of Renaissance civilization.  But where do we find the leader to initiate it?

What Is This Quintessence of Dust

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It struck me recently, out of nowhere, that we humans are very strange creatures?  That the things we do are irrational and confusing.  We spend most of our lives doing things that bore us or depress us or cause us grief.  That what we want or what we think we must do is often diametrically opposed to what’s good for our minds, bodies and spirits.

There’s nothing profound about these insights.  It’s just that every once in a while, you look around at what you’re doing and what you should be doing and they don’t line up.  I guess it’s an artifact of the complexity of our hyper-complicated world.  Our ancestors in the trees were never confused about what to do.  There were no choices.  You mostly looked for food to eat all day long and then went to sleep hoping that the neighborhood leopard didn’t come to visit during the night.  Even our paleolithic predecessors didn’t have much leeway on what went on during the day.  Maybe the top caveman decided which beta caveman became a hunter or spearhead chipper or fire-tender or whatever other careers were being advertised in the Bedrock Gazette.  But I’m sure it was a lot simpler back then and existential angst must have been at a very manageable level.  And people didn’t live very long so there wasn’t time to reflect on the vicissitudes of Cro-Magnon time management.

I suspect we’re currently at a high point for personal discontent.  Partially it’s because the complexity of our civilization doesn’t make it easy to decide what path to take.  Hunters and spearhead chippers are no longer in high demand.  Even cutting-edge professions can become obsolete almost overnight.  Also, the coping mechanisms we formerly had for dealing with limited opportunities; religion and family have mostly receded in importance.  Now we’re down to antidepressants and government welfare programs.  And neither of these seems to sooth the soul.

A return to religion was a periodic reaction in America.  Going all the way back to the Puritans they would have a religious revival about every seventy-five years or so.  One or more great preachers would appear and exhort the people to return to God and to doing the righteous thing.  And this would have at least a temporary effect on behavior and a positive change on society.

Well, America 2025 is a very different place from America 1950.  And even 1950 was a way different world from 1875.  Religion barely exists in the minds and souls of the current population of this country.  So, by definition any preachers appearing on the horizon won’t look anything like the past.  If Billy Graham showed up today, he would only find a tiny audience for his “crusade.”

But that doesn’t mean we don’t need an equivalent to a religious revival.  Call it a spiritual revival if you want or a lifestyle intervention if that makes it sound more scientific.  But without a doubt people need direction.  Their lives have lost meaning not only in their own eyes but also to society at large.  It is not an exaggeration to say that the people who run this country and the world at large, value your life and happiness not at all.  In fact, all indications are that they want to get you off this planet as quickly as possible and at the lowest cost.

Like the Roman Empire at the time of Christ, this world is looking for spiritual leadership.  And whoever provides it will harness an enormous latent force that currently exists only as discontent and despair in the minds and souls of the people who currently have no purpose in life.  I think it will happen but what it will look like and when it will hit is the mystery.  For old timers it’s just a matter of embracing your Bible or your copy of Marcus Aurelius.

Is It Just the Economy, Stupid?

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The polls seem to indicate that the Democratic Party is going to receive the equivalent of a good stiff knee to the groin on Tuesday night.  Of course, that’s wonderful news and no surprise.  But analyzing the reason why is important too.  If this is completely explained by the double-digit inflation and the skyrocketing crime wave engulfing the cities then it’s still good news.  But I hope it’s more than that.

What I’m hoping is that it is partially explained by a large chunk of independent voters reacting to the Democrats’ behavior during the lockdowns.  Being bullied for two years and then finding out that the bullying was all for nothing should have a lot of people really angry.  And now that more people are realizing how dangerous the side effects from these unnecessary and ineffective drugs are I can imagine that adding to the anger and the desire to get some payback.

You might ask why it matters if it’s more than just a reflex action by people unhappy about inflation and crime.  It’s simple.  If there’s any hope of this country returning things to sanity (never mind normalcy) it will depend on a solid majority rejecting the Democrat party categorically.  They have to stop seeing the two parties as legitimate alternatives.  We’ll only start fixing things when the Democrats can be kept out of power for a couple of cycles.  Enough time has to pass that laws can be passed to repair the damage that’s been done to the institutions of government.  All vestiges of the programs and policies that the Democrats have promulgated must be flushed down the drain and reasonable policies adopted.  And that will only happen when a stable majority that rejects their madness has emerged.

Of course, that assumes that such a majority exists.  I often wonder whether there are enough sane people among the Millennials and their younger brethren to allow this country to recover.  I think it’s far from certain that there are that many normal people in the next generation.  But we’ll get a chance to find out starting Tuesday.  And we’ll need to run the table from now on until things improve.  2022, 2024, 2026, 2028, 20230, 2032.  That’s a really long time to hold onto power in Washington.  The last time that happened was during the Reagan era.  The Republicans held the White House for twelve years.  Of course, Bush Senior was a RINO who single-handedly handed the country over to the Clintons by lousing everything up.

It would take an extraordinarily savvy politician to manage the fickle American electorate for that amount of time.  Basically, it’ll take a miracle.  And the Stupid Party doesn’t do miracles.  They do stupid.  But stranger things have happened.  The exact right man may appear at the exact right time and save us from the miserable fate that seems to be pursuing us.

But one thing’s for sure.  We’ll never have a more compelling case for kicking the Democrats out of power than we have right now.  Inflation, recession, crime, culture war madness, COVID fascism, you name it.  What happens after that is a matter of political savvy and determination.  And of course, a large dollop of luck.

America Needs a Prophet

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America has lost its way.  Those under forty are dispirited and directionless.  The older people are confused and frightened.   Only the fanatics of the Left are energized.  And their only impulse is to destroy what is normal.

William Butler Yeats in his poem, “The Second Coming” characterized the problem of modernity thus:

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity …”

I think what he is saying is that we’ve lost our way utterly.  Those running our civilization have disconnected from what is essential to human life.  They’ve cut away the roots that nourished our culture and our people.  And maybe they’ve done it purposefully.  Maybe they think they should get rid of most of us.  Or maybe they want to end humanity altogether including themselves.  I’m not sure which.

It may be that the western world and America in particular will needs a revival.  It has happened several times in America’s history that a religious revival has swept across large areas of the country to restore purpose and energy to the communities here.  It might coincide with a financial crisis or a war.  Usually religious leaders would declare a “crusade” to attack a spiritual problem like alcoholism or gambling.

I don’t know if there are any religious leaders in the mainline churches who aren’t already coopted by the Left.  I guess it could be anyone coming from any background.  Maybe it won’t even be a religious man.  But it will have to be someone who can speak eloquently and to the point.  That man must preach against the Left in all its various forms.

What is needed is someone who can confidently and convincingly attack the Left and all it stands for.  He will need to provide a coherent and comprehensive plan to reestablish Western Civilization as it flourished a hundred years ago.  He will have to be a Moses to lead the people back into the promised land.  He will have to cast down the golden calf and provide the people with the commandments they need to restore order to their lives.  What does that metaphor equate to in our current world?  So many things.  Probably the most fundamental commandment will be return to living in functional families.  And that means abandoning the feminist model of working women who produce one child sometime in their late thirties or early forties.  It means stay at home moms who raise their children themselves.  And men who work to support those families.  And spend the rest of their time at home with their wives and children and in their communities.  That is the central theme of a revival.

Next, the schools need to be reformed.  All the leftist propaganda must be stripped away from kindergarten to graduate school.  All of the intersectional studies programs must be eliminated.  No good ever came from Women’s Studies or Queer Studies or Africana Studies.  Ever.  Schools must return to their original purpose; vocational training.  Whether it’s advanced physics or carpentry teaching a valid skill as a means to making a living is what we pay colleges to teach our children.  If they don’t accomplish that then shut them down.

And last but not least we have to reform our federal government.  And this is the most difficult reform of all.  The managerial state has become our master.  It dictates to us how we must live in excruciating detail; what we must do and what is forbidden.  The prophet we need must have laws to reform the government and cast out the masters who have made us slaves.

That is what we need; someone of gigantic stature to reform our society.  It’s an almost impossible task.  But if no one appears we are surely doomed.  We will sink into serfdom and even our elites will be pushed aside by abler cultures that maintained their understanding of what makes a healthy culture.  Where is our Moses?