Spend some time scrolling through dissident Twitter, particularly those corners favored by more traditional Catholics, and you’ll soon run across references to J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
Both are the subject of myriad BrainyQuotes and, especially in Tolkien’s case, movie still memes. There’s no denying that the works of these twentieth century authors strike a chord with today’s new counterculture.
Tolkien’s works honored two types of heroism: the zeal of the Christian knight who, though he may be overmatched by his earthly foes, fights joyfully because he knows that Christ has already secured final victory, and the stoic, honorable courage of the pagan who is entirely without hope but fights just as fiercely because it’s the right thing to do.
Read the works of 20th century Christian authors like Lewis, Tolkien himself, and even Ratzinger, and they seem more informed by the second spirit than the first. Much is made of Christians being in the world but not of the world and “fighting the long defeat”.
As much as I admire these men, I think their fatalistic attitude, most likely imparted by the World Wars, lulled a lot of people into a false sense of soft despair. It’s not a big jump from “We’re outnumbered and outgunned, but it’s our duty to fight the good fight” to “There’s nothing I can do anyway, so I’m off the hook.”
Related: Conservative NPCs
Revolutionary political movements only need 10% of the population to succeed. The Church only needs twelve men. The Apostles took on an empire that was far more ruthless and run by much more cunning people than ours. True, they didn’t live to see Rome conquered for Christ, but their heirs did.
Some Christians sigh about “Fighting the long defeat.” Yet Lewis’ own Space Chronicles gave a hint of what victory might look like.
Amid the grim spectacle of the Death Cult’s madness, it’s easy to get caught up watching the train wreck and lose focus on what we’re fighting for.
Related: They’re Coming For Christians
Imagine a world where the arts and popular entertainment honor fathers and Christians.
Imagine having a functional economy where everyone from rocket scientists to unskilled laborers can find honest, fulfilling work at a living wage based on merit.
Picture cohesive neighborhoods where intact families support one another and look out for each other’s needs without requiring the intrusion of the state.
Related: They’re Still Coming For Christians
Parents, imagine not having to worry if your son will be frivolously abandoned by his wife and reduced to penury when she robs him of his house, income, and children with the backing of the state. Dare to dream not fearing that your daughter will flit from one sociopathic fling to the next while using Big Brother as a surrogate father for her bastard children. Or that your daughter will be forced by the state to become your son, or vice versa.
Imagine universities honestly pursuing the truth and teaching it to your children on a non-usurious basis.
Imagine a world that makes sense.
We could live there tomorrow if we really wanted to. We could stop fighting the long defeat and start winning.
The hardest red pill to swallow is the fact that the only obstacle in our way is us.
Turn your 3-star writing into 5-star writing
I’ve helped dozens of author clients find the right words and present the right elements in the right order to take their books from good to great.
Related, a recent thread by Isaac Young on an article about the current change happening in the Church: https://twitter.com/HariSel57511397/status/1785762884544340159
A lot of these ideas are remnants of dated 20th century tropes that were more relevant to their age, but it’s an age that’s over and done now. The faster we finally put them aside and adapt to what is coming, the better we can prepare for it.
You can tell what the Death Cult is afraid of by what its media apparatchiks attack. Judging by the hit pieces circualting in regmie media, the Cult is terrified of the Catcholic Church and newpub.
I spend way too much time talking with traditionally minded Catholics online.
Many just want beauty, belief, and orthodoxy. Fair enough, I want that too.
However, it’s clear to me that the Missal of 1962 offered in the aftermath of a certain Archbishop Lebrevre is being used as wedge inside the Church. Nothing about the current missal prevents the sort of beautiful liturgy that people crave when they go down the “traditionalist” road. But the ridiculous and ill informed screeds I have seen against the current missal are insane.
Worse, the “traditional” experience is a sort of a fake out, in the same way that the Disneyland French Quarter has only a passing resemblance to the real thing. The “Mass of the Ages” missal does date from 1962, and it was modified to be a transition to the current missal (and then modified again by Pope Benedict.) Medieval Catholics probably barely knew the name of their pope, let alone cared enough to be angry with him.
I know it’s difficult for people when I point this out. However, “playing” the role of Catholic that never existed by driving an hour or more out of your way every Sunday is the ultimate modernism. I don’t care if it’s in Latin and/or has Georgian chant and/or has the right people. That high mass experience was not the norm in 1950 in America and it certainly was not the medieval one. They also don’t like this, but my personal experience is that most overly attached to the missal are hippies who enjoy a different esthetic, which maybe
If people want that authentic old time experience, go to the best parish in their zip code. Get involved with parish life. If a woman wear a chapel veil…or a hat…or don’t. (Opaque chapel veils are modernism too.) Work with the priest and your bishop to have that reverent experience in the current missal. And then accept that part of the journey to our real home is showing up to a less than perfect Mass with less than perfect people every Sunday.
“Imagine a world that makes sense.
We could live there tomorrow if we really wanted to. We could stop fighting the long defeat and start winning.
The hardest red pill to swallow is the fact that the only obstacle in our way is us.”
The past few months, I’ve been sitting on this idea: the world could be a better place if we just stop.
Think of any problem that we face today: war, social unrest, addiction, oppression, etc. All of these are manifested because someone acted out the wrong way on emotions like fear, anger, sadness, despair. Stopping and walking away from acting upon those emotions means one less problem in the world.
I know we are human, we will make mistakes, and even implying we attain Christ-like perfection is silly because it’s impossible, it was impossible for even our best saints. However, aiming for Christ-like perfection and falling short is still more beneficial for humanity than aiming for a realistic outcome.
The idea of “the long defeat” comes off too blackpilled, antithetical, and borderline gnostic to the joy and hope we are supposed to have. Christ won, life can suck a lot, live your best life anyway.
“As much as I admire these men, I think their fatalistic attitude, most likely imparted by the World Wars, lulled a lot of people into a false sense of soft despair.”
Speaking as a Dutch person, this ‘soft despair’ definitely exists in Europe. It really cannot be overstated how much damage both World Wars did to Europe’s psyche. Modern European politics (in terms of ideas and general outlook) basically acts as if history started in 1945. There’s this idea floating around that if the EU were to be disbanded Europe would somehow go up in flames, which I’d argue stems from this collective trauma regarding the World Wars which still plagues so many people. The West’s relationship with that period in general is extremely unhealthy (though the reason why is different for the US and Europe).
It’s pretty much left Europe’s overall culture in complete stasis, which is why what was once the literal center of the world has been reduced to a series of de-facto American protectorates with a political/cultural scene that’s nothing but an extension of trends from overseas.
If I were in charge, my first act would be to levy fines on anyone caught making references to WWII in an argument.
My second act would be to do the same thing, but for the US Civil War.
Which would be an effective gag order on Boomers.