The Morning Rant

As usual, J.J. Sefton beat me to this excellent article, but its message is worth repeating.

The Left, with its slavish adherence to dogma, and its acolytes willing to be foot soldiers in its war against the West, has systematically overrun the institutions that made America great and unique, and any change, even if possible, will be a long slog through those same institutions.

But first we have to minimize the power those institutions have over us.

What Is To Be Done?

Various habits render one fragile and insecure, not least debt. Thus, avoiding debt and getting out of debt has to be one of the bedrock habits of any dissident. This is particularly true for young people, who are sold a siren song of credentials funded by student loans, when state colleges, learning a trade, or investing money in a business would earn a larger return. So long as one is leveraged, in debt, spending to the hilt, and in dire need of a paycheck, one can be cajoled or manipulated into doing the system’s bidding. The more one has in the bank, and the lower one’s monthly obligations, the easier it is to stand up for oneself. This may take some time; reducing expenses is a painful process for most. But the McMansions, vacations, credit cards, fancy meals, and all the rest are luxuries one can live without, particularly when one recognizes them as tools of social control. The coronavirus has been a massive disaster. But one silver lining is how many of us learned to enjoy simple pleasures like exercise and home-cooked meals. Look at money the way the wealthy and powerful do: as a means of securing personal independence.

But that’s not all. He discusses intellectual independence, the need for organization, and I think the crux of the problem: the need for solidarity.

And that’s the big problem. Just look around here. We are more than willing to cast out the unbelievers, whom we define as adhering to less than 99% of our orthodoxy. Yes, that’s a bit of hyperbole, but unpopular opinions are rarely tolerated, even in these august pages.

But solidarity is a noble and powerful end result, and it is worth working towards. Just ask Lech Wałęsa!

But…in today’s world it has become immensely difficult to communicate with like-minded people without using the the tools that are controlled by those who wish to destroy us. So while this point is reasonable, it doesn’t reflect the harsh reality of a modern, connected life.

The source of strength for the dissident Right comes from those areas of life that exist outside of the economic-political-technocratic surveillance regime. The greatest potential exists among “in real life” friendships and family relationships. Your Twitter followers aren’t going to come to the rescue when Antifa is threatening your home or your business needs a loan. And it’s a lot harder for “cancel culture” to break the bonds of blood and shared experience.

But even within the surveillance state there are ways to minimize its reach. Even simple encryption will go a long way toward mitigating their advantages.

Regardless of the tactics, we have to rebuild the America that we desire, the one that the Left has carefully and methodically dismantled. I firmly believe in American Exceptionalism, and if the current political disaster has revealed anything, it is the distinct possibility that the left’s apparent success is based on a careful manipulation of our electoral process. There may very well be a majority in America that hearkens back to the country we remember and love.