Untitled Alternative
Last time I gave some basic orientations to the various new rights that have been emerging as of late with the hope that these orientations could aid whatever faction wins out. In that post I said I would restate my alternative to these new rights and the mainstream views, and here we are. The difficulty with any statement of this alternative, which is the work of my friends as much as it is me, is that it is still being “filled in.” There is a “there” there, but what it will look like when it is “filled in” is uncertain. Because of this, I will try and elaborate what this alternative looks like dialectically after the model of Alain de Benoist’s Manifesto for A European Rennaissance, in which each point is “against ___, for ___.” This is not for any dependence on de Benoist (that would simply be a revival of the old Alt-Right), but because it allows me to point at the thing without knowing the entirety of that thing. Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge all my friends in the greatest think tank of the world who have contributed to this vision, challenged me, and made such a vision even possible. Eventually I’ll have a proper name for this thing, but I don’t want to rush it. It will come when it comes.
I) Against Regression, For Progress
In recent decades America and European countries have been regressing. High marks of civilization, namely Christianity, strong families, architecture, and vocations, have been fading. Progress consists in revitalizing these marks of civilization.
-Christianity, which used to be a metaphysical truth about Man’s deification via the Incarnation, has sunk to the level of conventional morality. To be a Christian is no longer about being transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18) but is now about being a “good person”, which usually translates into being a “nice person.” It was not moralism that build Hagia Sophia, inspired Dante’s Divine Comedy, or composed T.S Eliot’s The Four Quartets. Behind the great works of Christendom was a metaphysical truth, not a petty moralism. Whether we are Christians and seek the authentic faith, or simply desire the fruits of civilization, we recognize that moralism calling itself “Christianity” is neither the true faith nor has it inspired any of the great works of civilization. Progress means restoring the metaphysical truth of Christianity.
-There are few things more important than the family, because, as modern psychology has shown, the early years of a child’s life are the most formative. Both absent parents, and helicopter parents, both the absence of the father, and the absence of the mother, both lax rules, and Draconian rules, all have led to the family, which ought to be the forge of the well-balanced person, regressing into a mere numeric clump that produces various psychosis. Progress looks like healthy families producing healthy members of society.
-There is little architecture left in America. Yes, there are plenty of buildings, but very few things are built with artistic intent. Our inner life is not separate from our bodily life, and what we see will affect our soul. Put simply, ugly buildings will harm our soul while beautiful architecture will nourish our soul. If we wish to be on the side of civilization once more, we have to recognize the artistic element in building and foster it. Mere utility is pre-civilizational and marks regression.
-Most of us have jobs, not vocations. A job is a mere means to an end, the way we make money so we can afford to live. A vocation, in contrast, is something we are called to do by God, by Nature, and is what we take pride in. Recently the phrase “anti-work” has cropped up, even appearing on Tucker Carlson Tonight (the largest news program in the country, if not the world). Anti-work is only possible when there reaches a critical mass of people who view their job as nothing more than an end. For the dignity of Man, it is imperative that work is replaced with vocations, that our labor is a labor our love and not mere necessity. Progress is corelative with the number of Americans finding vocations, while regress is corelative with the number of Americans having jobs.
II) Against Centralization, For Distribution
Under the current economic arrangement, economic power is concentrated in the hands of few international corporations that receive tens of billions of dollars in government subsidies. Americans, accordingly, are left little choice but to work for these internationals who are able to outcompete the small and local businesses that have not been eliminated by the Covid-19 lockdowns. Armed with subsidies and lobbyists, the Amazons, Walmarts, and Blackrocks of the world are able to bulldoze the small business owner, a meeting of private ambition and public power that has made the distinction between the two almost impossible to identify.
Economic freedom is the ability to create your own wealth, and this means being able to produce your own products. Owning a bakery is economic freedom, as is having a farm, or being a consultant. As it is now, most Americans have little to no economic freedom, and for them to achieve it they will need to be able to start their own businesses and for these businesses to be protected against their international rivals. Ownership, economic power, in other words, needs to be distributed across the population. General stores specific to locales, instead of Amazon and Walmart. Local farms that sell at farmers markets, rather than corporate farms run by Bill Gates that sell at Giant or Harris Teeter. Numerous CNC shops, rather than a few manufactures.
With the supply chain issues seen today, the need for distributed ownership becomes even more pressing. A table with four legs, should you chop a leg off with a hatchet, will wobble, if not fall. A table with a thousand legs, however, could lose a hundred or more of its legs and still stand aright. Centralizing ownership has made our system susceptible to the slightest disruption.
III) Against Capitalism and Socialism, For Gardening
Too often political discussions get bogged down by outdated debates about capitalism and socialism. The fact is that no society today is either capitalist (private control of the means of production) or socialist (public control of the means of production). Long gone is the distinction between private and public, as even the slightest tax cut makes a private company a part of public consideration. Rather than wasting time over an outdated debate that hardly ever changes minds, it is time to talk about gardening. Society is like a garden, and we can choose what plants grow therein. By watering some plants, but not others, we select the watered plant to grow and the un-watered plant to wither. Should weeds crop up, we can dig them out.
Watering plants in economic terms means granting subsidies and cutting taxes. If we want more local farms, then we grant generous subsidies to them, slash their taxes, and make sure everyone knows we will be doing so. If we want Ford to hire more workers, then we can issue a loan to them on condition that the loan is for the sole purpose of hiring workers and raising existing workers’ wages. If a weed crops up, like a company outsourcing jobs overseas, then the CEO’s bank account can be frozen, and his personal property seized. After a few hours of this he might reconsider. None of this is capitalism, and none of this is socialism, all of this is choosing what plants we want to grow in our garden, watering them, and pulling up weeds as they appear.
IV) Against Public Schools, For Humane Education
As it stands, public schools in America have been modeled after prisons and fester with mental health disorders, suicide, bullying, drug use, and shootings. Designing education after a prison, in which learning is the consumption of facts to be thrown up on a test (intellectual bulimia) and never to be remembered, and where nature is studied in textbook and not touched, has led to serious health problems in our children. So far, the only widespread “solution” has been to prescribe students, sometimes even Elementary School age children, pills. If Timmy cannot sit eight hours a day in a desk, then give the seven-year-old some ADHD meds!
There are more humane alternatives to the Prussian model America currently runs on. Apprenticeships, Montessori, and Classical schools are all built around recognizing students as human, rather than factory products that need the structure of a prison.
V) Against One-Sided Relationships, For Mutual Benefit
America’s relationship with South America and Europe is hardly healthy. In South America the CIA funds Mexican cartels to reap drug profits, at Mexico’s expense, and in countries like Chile and Venezuela, the University of Chicago and Yale (respectively) have installed despots (Pinochet and Chavez) to wreck up and coming economic powers. Why is this done? To keep South America dependent on these United States. Likewise with Europe, deals are cut to keep the continent dependent on American oil and the political parties these deals are made with were, historically, the creation of the United States in the aftermath of WWII. The result is a growing anti-American sentiment, weaponized by the forces of Eurasianism, and mere puppets, rather than allies. Aside from any moral reasons, America is losing the ability to run these schemes, as our State Department and Intelligence Agencies are no longer what they once were, and a strategy needs to be employed.
Regardless of what can be done in Europe, America’s first priority should be the return to the Monroe Doctrine. North and South America are our principal areas of hegemony. To secure this hegemony, and maintain stability in our region, mutually beneficial trade agreements must be drawn, all interference in South American domestic affairs will cease, America will promise military protection, and public works projects will be co-sponsored by American contractors. The end result will be a South America that looks to the United States as its protector and ally, a South America that will be stable in the absence of cartels, dictators, and crippling infrastructure (resulting in less immigration to America, and a vast number of natural resources with which America can trade for. As Game Theory dictates, in the short run it pays off to seek your benefit at the other’s expense, but in the long run it pays off to seek mutual benefit.
The Vision
In the future I dream of, Christianity will be the animating force behind great works of art and poetry, there will be a long and self-conscious effort on the part of parents to ensure a healthy environment for their children, great works of architecture, great works of beauty, will become a source of national pride, and jobs will be glacially replaced with vocations.
(State Capital, Harrisburg)
(State Capital, Baton Rouge)
In the future I dream of, local and state economies will become the new center of America. Each dollar spent will go back into your community, or the community adjacent to you. Instead of CEOs who could not care less if they pick up and move to China or India, businesses will be run by folks who have lived in their town or city, whose parents have lived there, and whose children live there. In short, business owners will be invested and care about their environment. Should a locale be unable to produce a good, then it should be produced somewhere else in the state. Should it not be possible to produce that good in the state, then a neighboring state will be commissioned to produce it and thus a network of trade relationships between locales and states will emerge.
In the future I dream of, the debate between capitalism and socialism will be a relic of the past. People will simply ask “what kind of society do we want?” and then apply the proper stimuli to induce these changes. Rogue companies, who attempt to aggrandize themselves at their community’s expense, whether that looks like outsourcing or producing addictive opioids, will be swiftly punished.
In the future I dream of, kids will not be stuck in prisons, subjected to intellectual bulimia, nor given medication for what is likely the fault of the school. Kids will learn about biology by planting gardens and raising chickens, instead of sitting for hours in front of the textbook. Instead of listening to a lecture and scribbling notes as fast as they can, kids will take part in Socratic Seminars and get to ask the questions they want to about a text or subject. Students will be seen, first of all, as human and not products to be pumped out and measured by standardized testing.
In the future I dream of, America’s hegemony will be founded upon respect and not fear. South America will open her markets to us because she will see us a partner, if not a protector. Americans will vacation in Mexico City or Havana, and be welcomed as cousins, rather than colonizers. With a revamped Monroe Doctrine, America will be able to move out towards Europe, knowing that her hemisphere is secure and that any natural resource not found in her land can be found in the south, and that the south is happy to trade.
(Havana, Cuba)
As I said above, this is the outline of my proposal, and it will be filled in over time. Policies will be developed, definitions clarified, and the message will be streamlined. While I am on the right (the tagline for this blog gives that away), I have seen both mainstream and dissident rights either fail or make things worse. At some point something new needs to be tried. It would be ingenuine for me to claim that I am “beyond left and right”, but I think I can say, while still being honest, that the above vision can appeal to both left and right. Even more than that, I think it can appeal to Americans. Everyone I talk to, left, right, center, and apolitical realize that something is rotten in Denmark and that the scripts being run on all sides will not solve the issues. People are looking for something new.