Fr. Z's Blog

I am mindful of what I posted here: 3.5% of a group can bring the group down, turn it around, or take it over.

A friend, who sees and sends the most interesting things, saw and sent this, from The European Conservative.

“Ten Principles of Conservative Activism” by Sebastian Morello

It is good to see the intro to this. I’ll leave the actual ten principles for your own worthy reading.  This is also good for a mental exercise.

Lead in: An image of Ferdinand and Isabella receiving the surrender of Muhammad XII at Granada.

Then…

Remember, you are not trying to establish an environment of tolerance and mutual-understanding. Like Isabella and Ferdinand, you are trying to recover the territory. Treat the new Left like people who hate you, because they do.  [This is true in the Church, too.]

My emphases and comments:

Let’s face it, conservatives are lousy when it comes to activism. We don’t see ourselves as activists, and we’re not very good at adopting such an approach, even as all that is most dear to us is swept away by ideological mischief-makers who know little more than the thrill of repudiating what they do not understand. The reason, of course, that conservatives are poor activists is to be found in the fact that the ‘political struggle’ is not of great interest to conservatives. This is an observation that was well captured in the Viscount Hailsham’s The Conservative Case:

Conservatives do not believe that political struggle is the most important thing in life. In this they differ from Communists, Socialists, Nazis, Fascists, Social Creditors, and most members of the British Labour Party. The simplest among them prefer fox-hunting—the wisest [among them], religion. To the greatest majority of Conservatives, religion, art, study, family, country, friends, music, fun, duty, all the joy and riches of existence of which the poor no less than the rich are the indefeasible freeholders, all these are higher in the scale than their handmaiden, the political struggle.

Conservatives want to carve out a small part of this valley of tears, turn it into a home, and enjoy their lives in a world that so often thwarts such humble aspirations. For the conservative, the way to do this, as Roger Scruton used often to say, is to cultivate a love for all that is loveable, and forgiveness towards all that is not.

[…]

Let’s have a mind exercise.  Substitute some terms…

Let’s face it, traditional Catholics are lousy when it comes to activism. We don’t see ourselves as activists, and we’re not very good at adopting such an approach, even as all that is most dear to us is swept away by ideological mischief-makers who know little more than the thrill of repudiating what they do not understand. The reason, of course, that traditional Catholics are poor activists is to be found in the fact that the ‘political liturgical/ecclesiastical struggle’ is not of great interest to traditional Catholics. This is an observation that was well captured in the Viscount Hailsham’s The Conservative Case:

traditional Catholics do not believe that liturgical/ecclesiastical struggle is the most important thing in life. In this they differ from Communists, Socialists, Nazis, Fascists, Social Creditors, and most members of the British Labour Party  [Jesuits, Homosexualists, Papalorous Ideologues, Progressivist Liturgists, Hacks at Villanova, the Fishwrap, The Bitter Pill, Minons of Globalism, Betrayers of Chinese Catholics…]   .  The simplest among them prefer fox-hunting—the wisest [among them], religion. To the greatest majority of Traditional Catholics, religion, art, study, family, country, friends, music, fun, duty, all the joy and riches of existence of which the poor no less than the rich are the indefeasible freeholders, all these are higher in the scale than their handmaiden, the liturgical/ecclesiastical struggle.

Traditional Catholics want to carve out a small part of this valley of tears, turn it into a home, and enjoy their lives in a world that so often thwarts such humble aspirations. For the traditional Catholic, the way to do this, as Roger Scruton used often to say, is to cultivate a love for all that is loveable, and forgiveness towards all that is not.

Whilst these observations about conservatives and their attitude towards the political struggle are no doubt true, one cannot raise them to justify complacency in the face of civilizational collapse. We may not be naturally good at liturgical/ecclesial activism, but that only means that we must cultivate by art what more degenerate people possess by nature. Basically, we need to learn to be activists, and we need to learn quickly.

I hear self-identifying Traditional Catholics moan endlessly about the ‘woke’ crowd, when they ought to be sitting attentively at their feet. [At this point… you get the excercise.  I’ll stop subbing terms now and leave it be…] Wokery has re-centred the political and cultural discourse on moral issues, and away from the pragmatism of the 1980s and ’90s. Wokery has successfully shifted the public debate away from merely economic issues and questions of individualism, and towards what are popularly called ‘values.’ Wokery has not only re-framed the debate so as to privilege moral principles, but has demonstrated that it is prepared to be socially disruptive and simultaneously colonise long-standing institutions of state and civil society in order to advance its cause. In short, the ‘woke’ crowd have done exactly what conservatives should have been doing over the past decades when they were too busy apologising and conceding evermore ideological territory to their enemies.

Frankly, I’m deeply grateful to the woke movement for re-centring our political and social discourse on moral questions, which is where it ought always to have been. We can lament the gains of woke ideological activists all we like, but they have outwitted us and beaten us at every step. It would have been so easy for it to have been otherwise, given that most people are in fact broadly conservative by nature, but in the face of the woke onslaught we did nothing except cower.

The success of the woke movement is that it has offered a moral and, in fact, spiritual vision of the human drama, and has offered solutions to the unpleasant picture that it has painted of historical oppression and ongoing ‘systemic injustices,’ by which it has convinced a vast number of society’s members that they are imprisoned and in need of saving. This moral and spiritual vision of the human drama may be all wrong, and deeply noxious to boot, but at least they have a vision. It’s time for conservatives to wake up. It’s time to show that they too have a vision—a different, far more fulfilling, and most importantly, truer vision. It’s time to be socially disruptive, and to retrieve the enduring institutions whilst founding new ones.

Increasingly, I see myself as a ‘conservative activist,’ not because I have been deceived into thinking that the political struggle is an end in itself, but because I have realised that if we want to enjoy the ‘all the joys and riches of existence’ to which Hailsham refers, then we need to be proactive about protecting such wholesome aspects of a life worthy of our love. This means, I’m sorry to say, courting the ‘handmaiden’ of such things, namely the political struggle.

If I’m honest, and no doubt this remark will be weaponised against me in the future, I like to live like a hobbit. [Maybe even like a Catholic Restorationist?] The things that really matter to me are family, friends, beautiful buildings and rolling hills, poetry, music, good books, good wine, good beer, and good food. Nonetheless, for the hobbits, such simple homemaking was only possible because the Rangers of the North, the Dúnedain, [SSPX, FSSP, ICK, diocesan priests so easily canceled, fighting in the wilderness] decade after decade protected the Shire from all the orcs and goblins [… yeah…] that would have captured it, wrecked it, and enslaved its inhabitants. If conservatives want the joys of Hobbiton, they must engage in the struggle of the Dúnedain.

Below, I offer ten principles of ‘conservative activism.’ This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but it offers a concise overview of commitments that any conservative ought to keep before his mind’s eye as he battles the orcs that torment the modern world into which we have been so cursed as to be born:

[…]

You can read the rest there.

And I take exception to that last line.

It is a blessing to be born now because this is exactly the time God chose for us to be born.

This is the time into which our Creator called us into being. This is our time and we are his team for whatever work on earth is to be done.  Work involves sacrifice, suffering.

In the days to come we will watch the exaltation of will to power, the acceleration of the modernist grinders, the undermining of Catholic moral teaching to the accompaniment of “ooos” and “aaaahs” of sycophantic toadies with their over the top logorrhea about “new dawns”, “amazing compassion”, “walking together” and the elevation of the mediocre against the memory of the truly accomplished of the past.

Of all the possible universes He could have created, He created this one and not another.

If times are hard and things seem dark, the greater shall be our share of glory and the more God will offer actual graces to bear the cost.   We should not for an instant want to trade places with any one in any period of history.

Meanwhile, 3%.  It’s not unrealistic.