Besieged

Ed Driscoll has a couple of links to some sobering thoughts on the culture wars, including an interesting essay by the late Paul Weyrich.

I think there is much to be said for the idea of detaching oneself from the surrounding culture when it degenerates into a morass of self-obsessed carnality, state-mandated entitlements, “one-world” homogeneity and the celebration of the kind of (highly-selective) “diversity” that dissolves the glue that binds us together as an identifiable and unified society. And it would be foolish to pretend that conservatives have reversed the process of cultural disintegration; it is becoming increasingly difficult for many people, for example, to unashamedly espouse traditional, conservative political beliefs, without reciting, as if by rote, certain politically correct qualifications. The institutions which historically have served as repositories and guardians of our cultural – specifically, our western - heritage have become engines for the atomization of society, as our intellectual “nomenklatura” continue to work assiduously to undermine the concepts of personal responsibility, natural law, love of country, free enterprise and freedom of speech; and since these same people control the education of our children, it is not surprising that so many people find themselves, as adults, ill-equipped to defend a system of beliefs that is rooted primarily in a sentimental attachment to the preferences and practices of their parents – a kind of inertial acceptance – and that has never been reinforced through formal instruction by teachers who subscribe to its validity.

So, as I say, the concept of moral, spiritual and intellectual withdrawal is appealing, and is not at all inconsistent with, for example, the Christian idea that the world is a vale of tears through which we pass, as pilgrims, in order to reach our final destination. And yet, and yet…there is still the gnawing fear that this kind of withdrawal may finally lead to the creation of a conservative ghetto, alienated from the larger society, having no influence on it, and perhaps ultimately unable to defend itself from increasingly strident and violent attempts to coerce and suppress it. I do not think – but in any event, am not prepared to accept – that we are bound by some form of historical determinism to proceed inevitably from being active participants to being the occupants of a ghetto (and – who knows? – maybe, in the end, the inmates of a gulag). We should never underestimate the power of individuals – however few in number – acting with courage, intelligence and persistence, to alter the course of affairs.

We now resume our regular programming of dance music, light comedy and snappy patter.