← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Buster
Thread ID: 13787 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2004-05-19
2004-05-19 18:47 | User Profile
Much of the recent discussion about Jared Taylor begs the ever-present question of how political change is best brought about. There is, of course, no one answer. It comes about both by deliberate action and by accident, by violence and by persuasion, by money (definitely money) and by luck, by organization, by the appearance of a book (or film in Mel Gibsonââ¬â¢s case), or the appearance of a saint. Was it Gore Vidal who said that what American really needs is a great epic poem?
None of us has The Way. Party politics is, of course, a joke (here, that is, though not in Europe). Some think that Hitlerite rhetoric and JewHatred is the way to go. Some like me believe that much of our problem lies in the decay of our moral institutions, the decay of Christendom over the last several centuries, and particularly the present weak and corrupt generation guiding the once great Roman Churchââ¬âthe definitive anti-Jewish institution.
Perhaps we might recall that many people who are total failures in human eyes are successful only over the course of history. It was three centuries after getting his head chopped off before the efforts of St. Paul in founding tiny communities and writing letters came to fruition. Karl Marx was dead and in the grave for several decades before his ideas came to pass anywhere. And even then Marxism probably would not have happened if not for WWI. If not for the stupidity of the allies after WWI, there would probably have been no Hitler. If Japan had not been defeated, no Mao.
Yet, by way of contrast, as David Duke pointed out last weekend, Islam swept throughout the entire Middle East in hardly a generation. Religious ââ¬Åawakeningsââ¬Â of various sorts are not unusual. One thinks not only of Islam, but St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Joan of Arc, even various Protestant movements.
On the positive side also, television, probably the greatest weapon of our enemy in terms of dispersing his propaganda, now has competition. The internet might be the greatest force for freedom since the rifle. I canââ¬â¢t tell you how many of my ideas have been altered thanks to my computer.
Politically, Europe seems to be all that matters. In the U.S. it seems clear at this point that even spectacular acts of violence (McVeigh, 9/11) do little to lift the public out of its doldrums, and are even counter-productive. Same for the catastrophe in Iraq. None of the secessionist groups seem to be moving.
Perhaps the passing of the present Pontiff will provide the next opportunity to look back and recover some of what we have lost. Looking backward is often the first step in moving forward.