Rufus the Red pointed out in an earlier comment that, as true as some of the rants are around here, action speaks louder than words. What can the Renaissance Man, dedicated to the preservation and advancement of Western civilization, do to save it? This question is especially poignant in areas of culture, art and music. Remember that the decline of our political situation is the inevitable consequence of a moral and cultural decay.
Take the example of abortion. The Constitution mentions nothing of the practice, despite the procedure being known as far back as the ancient Egyptians. A clue for the reasoning behind this can be found in the Federalist Papers.
I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why for instance, should it be said, that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed?
The Bill of Rights was nonetheless passed, and time has proven that Alexander Hamilton’s opponents were the wiser. For the concrete language of the Bill of Rights has long been the last remaining line of defense against tyranny in America. In any event, however, it did not occur to the Founders to write a law specifically covering abortion because the culture of the time was so dead-set against the practice that such a law was not only unnecessary, it was viewed as dangerous, for the exact reasons Alexander Hamilton worried so over the Bill of Rights. Perhaps they were wrong not to write these things down, or perhaps we have failed to live up to their legacy. But the culture prevented the worst of moral excesses. The judgement of one’s peers was more to be feared than a distant and small Federal Government.
When the culture changed to accommodate the cultural excesses of the 60s and the Boomers, legal wrangling over abortion became inevitable. Even if a written law had existed banning the practice, it is likely it would have been overturned. Regardless of where you stand on abortion as a moral or legal dilemma, it is proof that cultural change precedes legal change. Opponents of abortion are well-advised to target the culture, then, and not the legal precedent. It is the same for all of us who wish to stem the tide of decay in the West.
Allow me to be clear: this is a monumental, Herculean task that cannot be completed by any one of us alone. No great leader could achieve this, no single political figure possesses a large enough lever to move it. Culture is like a supertanker, it may move quickly in a single direction, but changing direction requires an immense application of force. Even then, momentum will carry it forward along the undesired course for some time after. Progressives have been working on American culture for over a century, now. They came for your beer, once. Today, they come for your freedom of speech.
But the Culture War is not yet lost. Our own culture rose from the ashes and remnants of the old Roman Empire, faithfully preserved and advanced by diligent monks and Byzantine scholars. Truly, I do think it is too late to save America as a nation, although I would love to be proven wrong. But Western civilization is bigger than America, and I hold out hope that it may be saved. It survived the Germans (and converted them), the Arabs and the Mongols. Surely it can survive the Progressives, too.
That is our role, to be the new monks, the new scholars, preserving and building on our origins in opposition to trends of our time. While Miley Cyrus twerks to a worthless six-note little ditty, consider listening to and supporting musicians faithful to our culture. Allow me to introduce you to one such, Schiller, a man who combined orchestral music with electronic instruments. His latest album, Opus, brings the modern and the traditional together. Truly, I think he is one of the greatest musicians of our age and is, as a result, remarkably under appreciated. Here are two of my favorites, a modern rendition of Swan Lake and the two part intro to the album Solaris. It is unlike anything you will find in Pop Culture.
It doesn’t stop there. Most of my readers are familiar with Francis Porretto at Bastion of Liberty. He is, whether he realizes it or not, a part of this very same cultural movement. So are authors like Vox Day, Tom Kratman, and other notables behind the Sad Puppies, Hell bent on restoring sanity to the Hugo Awards. The change we desire in the course of our civilization already exists. I must admit that this the raison d’être for The Declination in the first place. This is my small contribution to cultural change.
So, if you wonder what you can do, forget political action at this point. Even if you manage to get your favored candidate into office, he cannot stem this tide. Ronald Reagan was a good man, perhaps the greatest figure in recent Conservative history. And yet, he was only able to slow the decay for a time. No men of equal stature to him exist today, and the decay has accelerated terribly. The time for political solutions has passed. Indeed, it may never have existed in the first place. A strong Conservative or Libertarian candidate would be shouted down by a hostile culture, decried as racist or sexist, snubbed as a rube as Scott Walker has been. If in office, he would be hamstrung by an angry bureaucracy and a corrupt media establishment. Any changes he made would be quickly reversed by his Progressive successors.
Our war is the Culture War, and you can fight with us by promoting to friends, family and neighbors that which is good and decent over that which is decadent and useless. Should we ever win this fight, the necessary political change will come on its own. Political figures long suppressed by a hostile culture will emerge once again. Your battlefield is art, cinema, the written word and music. Our greatest weapons lie in the fact that Mozart is greater than Beyonce, Schiller more talented than Kanye. Michelangelo was the master, the woman smearing period blood on canvas is but a terrible reflection. We have more to offer to the world. It is time to reclaim our place in the sun.