I Think I've Seen This Movie Before

Observation Notes #2

“I Think I've Seen This Movie Before…And I didn't like the ending.”

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There has been an air of despair as of late, where online these political spheres I tend to inhabit and congregate with others has seen a substantial shift in focus. A shift in focus away from the political, and more explicitly the culture and the questions of relationships and personal growth. This has been of course criticized by many both on the political left as well as fellow travelers in this sphere, that somehow there has been a regression to a time of talking about “cleaning our rooms” and the ever-so-common refrain of “become worthy.”

There is some of this on the surface which I find to be very valid, much of our current political problems that have been the focal point for many dissidents are still going on, whether that be the limitless illegal immigration that is basically subsidized by the state, whether in the US or UK, or the meat grinding march of progress through a digitized panopticon of surveillance and chiliastic globalism. Not much has been done in countering those things, a few stunts here and there in the US, although I have some hope for the widespread protests in the UK and Ireland.

Yet one has to ask “is there a reason that so many have transitioned from national politics and commentary to the local, personal and cultural?” There are a variety of answers to this, of which I will try to highlight some of the key points. This is both criticism but also an illustration of the perennial need to focus on the personal. After all, much of our current woes have tied a cinderblock to the accelerator, but that doesn’t mean ordinary people have stopped working or trying to get married. So let’s take a look at this shift, as it seems at the time of writing this the scene is more focused on the day to day of dating, religion, and self-worth.

Isn’t this just a little boring?

Even as I say this, perhaps boring isn’t the word to use. Yet I cannot help but find myself consuming less content, news, and reviews than at any point before during my time as The Prudentialist. This is in part because I want to spend time reading more, which has seen relative success, and also because I want to spend my time on things that I know I can actually do in my area whether that be my parish or city council meetings. For instance, I have taken the time to print out the substack posts of my colleagues and distribute them at my county GOP with some degree of success. The chairman seems to really like The Distributist, so there’s hope.

I think the sudden shift back to dating, aesthetics, culture, and self worth is that politics can seem rather demoralizing, and outright boring if your own life is in a rut. Despite the Dostoevsky style ghost or husk of a man that remains today of Jordan B. Peterson, he once managed to captivate millions (and set hundreds of thousands more down their political journey) on the simple message of self improvement, self-discipline, and getting into the mindset that is necessary for success. A mindset that includes mindfulness, long term planning, and having some self-worth. Those things are perennial, and people are still going to look for answers.

In a time where there are more and more young people, generation Z and what comes after are coming online searching for meaning, I am not surprised in the slightest that there has been a rehashed focused on culture, personal growth, and offering an alternative lifestyle vision that isn’t just polycules and debauchery. After all, the wages of sin is death, and shouldn’t want our fellow men to be converted and live? Not just in the Christian sense, but also to simply not engage in behaviors that are contribute to our current civilizational entropy. It will vary for some, but tradition serves as the answer to perennial problems, but Christ is the answer to eternal problems.

So if anything I’m not surprised when the media cycle rages on the same things that by the time feel obvious, to take a line from Auron MacIntyre, it’s not rocket science they just hate Western Civilization and the people who built it. I think this is where the self-discipline, or even my own concerns about being overly online to where seeing the same things day in and day out can cause a bit of demoralization. This isn’t a call to say you don’t have to harden yourself (Lord knows you do) but for many it is illustrative of a feeling of learned helplessness.

This is perhaps where criticism of the “online right” “e-right” or whatever parlance you like to use is valid, that a falling back to the cultural, social, and religious issues are a sign that hope is lost, or at the very least no one has the energy or plan to push forward and carry on the banner to fight on. However one could point out that this isn’t the case, in this push for self discipline and renewal, there is once again that hit-classic, establishment gatekeeping that we see between individuals like Adam Ellwanger against the likes of Raw Egg Nationalist, who has been explicit that his project is not just lifestyle but political especially on the concerns of an overly bureaucratized and corporatized food supply. Yet even now the usual back and forths feel somewhat trudged over, and that the “energy” that is there can be either funneled into worthwhile projects (whether be on your own individual self or a political project) or taken for a ride into a political ghetto that limits its exposure.

Partially this is par for the course of being online in a way that has you just as dependent on the algorithm as the algorithm is dependent on your engagement with it. Twitter puts you on a discursive high speed rail of information, takes, and factions with its own language and subculture that can throw you for a ride that you’re likely unprepared for, or will take the redpill eager to take it again and go down the rabbithole even further. However one cannot fully escape into the matrix, people still have to work, live a little, and maybe try and find someone that can live a little with them.

Podcasting as bad Politics

I had recently came across a tweet, which had simply said “Podcasting as Politics Has Been A Disaster for the Human Race.” To which I couldn’t help but agree. In an age where anyone and their mother can have a podcast, substack, youtube channel, undercover reporting and the like, one has to ask if this massive opportunity to turn yourself into a Commodity. Unlike a consumer identity you as the creator become a marketable commodity which subsumes your identity - and that’s what you define yourself as.

And even as I say this I can imagine one might be willing to call me a hypocrite, and to pluck out the podcasting plank out of my own eye. Fair enough, but at least I am active in my own local politics that I find it necessary to pre-empt this little bit. Don’t get me wrong, I am doing all the things that content creators do these days. Twitter, blog, videos, rants, merch, and I’m working on a book. I’m always uneasy about the parasocial relationship, because it’s no substitute for the real thing, no one wants to be lampooned like John Travolta in Fanatic. Yet there’s always that weird worry because if you lean into it correctly, either as someone who encourages his fandom or as someone who treats it with a loving scorn, it can be quite profitable. Now I don’t mind chasing that dollar, after all I have expressed in the past that I’d like to do this full time, but I am always reminded of James Chapter 3 and the stricter judgement faced on teachers. I think it’s just as applicable to “influencers” or “lifestyle activists” where if I am going to impart any kind of wisdom, I certainly hope its impact is positive and tangible.

Politics cannot be a set position of what you aren’t, or simply going over the current thing over and over every week. I think we see this in various essayists and streamers on our side. An example I like to cite is the regular occurrence on The Distributist’s weekly stream, “Broadcasts from Fiddler’s Greene” where a gentleman without fail every week sends in a little life update on his dating life and prospects as conservative Roman Catholic. People long for community, not just to be talked at or given a weekly report about how bad things are. To a degree, there is a plethora of content, both good and bad that demonstrates how easy it is to let this be one of the main things people consume. Even I watch less television (although the poor quality of today’s programming helps) and mainly listen to what my cohorts and colleagues say online and even then that’s going down.

I’ve enjoyed the “Less Podcasting, More Rod Casting” meme partially for this reason.

One cannot exist purely in the digital, and people are looking for those talking about how to survive, thrive, and grow in these dire times. Everything from farming, to dating advice has been a growing area of focus as people look for meaning, not to mention the issue of getting their own dunks when it comes to factional fighting on the right. This is the part and parcel complaint I see from more “serious” (take that as you will) about the growing factor of digital escapism and self-commodification accelerating via multi-track drifting. There is a vast degree of critique there but I am not sure for whom. On one hand yes, there is an absolute need for well established political actors to treat the issues of replacement migration, anti-white racism, the not-so-proxy war between the US and Russia, and more. Most people however, especially my audience (save for some of you, you know who you are) and are looking to people like me and countless others for answers.

Needless to say, pure podcasting and bloviating as politics makes for bad politics. The same for theology, as it can make for a bad reality depending on what you take up and pursue but that is for another video or essay. However, the fact that the ordinary person still has to live life in our strengthening postmodern hellscape still means that the personal and day to day is likely to be on the forefronts of everyone’s minds.

This Does Not Mean Abandon

This does not mean abandon all hope ye who enter here on this side of the right. Much has been discussed to a point where the focus on what was lost can leave one wondering what to do about the now. A nostalgic honeypot, as the current hierarchy that rules us runs on an order that is the inverse of the values that held it up. Meekness traded for gluttony and sloth, hard work traded for xenophilic outsourcing of morals and culture. In a strange twist of events, by the nature of the existing power structure and consensus making apparatus clearly in the hands of the left the dissident right is the subversive counter-prevailing force in the West.

I think to a large degree this means for many people, the ordinary individual who listens and reads this kind of stuff are looking for advice on lifestyle and the demoralizing deluge of memeplexes and media that one sees daily. However this does not mean abandon on the critical issues that lie before us that are both civilizational as well as spiritual. This means finding a martial, disciplined spirit that requires one to be de-atomizing and networking. Some of this has been discussed at least in the foundational stages in a stream I was part of a month or so back.

Additionally this doesn’t mean abandon politics, especially at the local level. I’ve said elsewhere but attending local city council meetings or being active in your community sets yourself in the right direction for what you can do with what’s right in front of you. I’ve seen more businesses, artistic ventures, non-profits and more join in the ranks of setting up (however fledgling) infrastructure that will help achieve political and cultural lens.

So Now What?

A question I have found myself asking and warning about for some time, is that if any kind of meaningful victory were to be accomplished on a macro or micro scale, one will inevitably ask “now what?” going forward. I think before getting to that, the question of “when will things get better?” also needs to be addressed, but thankfully there were a few good answers out there already.

Politics and Culture have a distinct relationship where one shapes the others, and vice versa but are both beholden to the agenda setters in power. Their culture, or animosity to the existing cultural superstructure (especially as an outsider or foreigner) will set politics and culture for the years to come with their tenure.

I have no promise that things will get better (I am no prophet nor do I have that gift) but finding means to maintain the traditions of our fathers and of our faiths will be paramount to maintain a way of living that can survive this. I’m not saying somehow we’ll become the Yukonites of Fitzpatrick’s War but clearly people are witnessing a hyperreal situation in our politics that everyone is scrambling for any sense of heritage. What makes it worse is that it manifests itself in the fakest and most extreme ways online where anyone can be anything including Dogs and Tsarists. Something I’ve noticed is that Jordan Peterson and other self-help “I Used To Be A Miserable F*ck” authors miss is that self improvement will never succeed in replacing the awful spirit of the age.

I think this ongoing focus of pop culture, dating advice, and the day to day is a sign of either waning energy (with a potential aura of defeatism) or that there is growing need for something more heartfelt. At the end of the day, cleaning your room isn’t going to change the world otherwise Peterson wouldn’t have had the dark night of the soul only to become a Daily Wire husk he would have become something else. Synthesis is desperately lacking, and I think that is maybe where I’m coming to a head here. Perhaps the rumination that could best put a point to this post is that the need to synthesize our traditions to the current political struggles of the age. I hope to make 2023 a place where I can write some of my own thoughts on how to proceed.

So let’s avoiding remaking the same movie.