Is all hope for America gone?

A reader considers me naïve for envisioning the possible recovery of our civilization. One cannot deny the accuracy of the grim picture he paints. However, I think he goes too far in embracing a counsel of despair.

You write,

“The way to increase the white birthrate is to restore traditional family morality, and to do all the other things needed to recreate confidence in the future. Among these are stopping non-Western immigration; banning the culture of sleaze which is a culture of despair; and banning the anti-white and anti-Western propaganda in our schools and entertainment and politics, which has a profoundly demoralizing effect on whites, and white men in particular.”

How do you propose to do this?

It has taken decades for liberals to gain complete control of the communications media (press, television, radio, etc). Most journalism graduates have a liberal orientation. How do you propose to reverse that?

High schools and university staffs are 90% liberal. What they teach students is pure liberalism. How do you propose to reverse that?

The entertainment world is completely liberal. Nine out of ten films have a liberal orientation. How do you propose to reverse that?

Two thirds of the churches have departed from the original faith to become liberal. The priesthood of most churches now accepts non-Biblical standards. How do you propose to reverse that?

Sexual products to detach sexuality from morality (like contraceptives) are freely available (and dispensed in schools). How do you propose limiting those companies?

One could go on forever…what I’m saying is that you have a hope in hell of “reversing” the culture of death. Almost every institution in society is calculated to undo what you suggest. This has been America’s condition for over 40 years now. Solidly ingrained in our mindset.

You use the word “ban.” In order to “ban” something, you need the political will and legal support to do so. One half of the political base in the US is liberal. Remember Bush actually had less of the popular vote than Gore. How are you going to ban things on screen, in films, from the pulpit, and in the classroom? The ACLU has succeeded in getting removed small symbols like crosses from public displays. In small battles like this, the conservatives have been losing badly. In large battles—such as censoring classroom material and content—the ACLU would walk away with a victory in a heartbeat.

Realistically, what hope do you have for “reversing” this society’s values? By “hoping” that somehow things come to a head, people regain their common sense, and a mass popular uprising reverses the tide? You think liberalism can accelerate to an apocalypse of sorts and then implode? Exactly what concrete program do you have in mind apart from hoping that liberalism can self-implode (which doesn’t seem to be happening in America)?

Trust me I’m with you … but at my age (57) I’ve seen America’s better days behind her. I live in a small town in northern Georgia with good, like-minded neighbors (think Andy Griffith’s town of Mayberry) and I could care less what happens to the hell holes of New York, Washington and LA in the next 20 years of my life. New Orleans frankly got what it deserved—a thorough wash out (the Noah effect). Remember the Book of Revelation where Christ says that because a group has become “luke-warm”, he will spew it out. The US is getting spewed out as she rejects Christ. “Deny me before men and I will deny you before my father and the angels of heaven” said Jesus The US in denying Christ is being denied before God and heaven (how do you propose to reverse THAT). America is getting the hell it deserves and to try and reverse it somehow is absolutely chimerical. That day has passed…

My reply:

That is a very good summary of the true depth of our plight. But you go badly wrong in your conclusion:

“The US in denying Christ is being denied before God and heaven (how do you propose to reverse THAT). America is getting the hell it deserves and to try and reverse it somehow is absolutely chimerical. That day has passed…”

This is no way for a Christian to talk. Instead of looking for the truth to reverse falsehood, you are positively wallowing in the prospect of doom and punishment. You sound like Denethor in The Lord of the Rings, the Steward of Gondor who has closed out all hope for his country and looks forward only to death.

Sage McClaughlin adds excellent refections:

The melancholy exchange you have posted under the title “Is All Hope for America Gone?” is an interesting one. It illustrates a split amongst real conservatives, some of whom believe that advanced liberalism simply cannot be undone—it will destroy its host, and something concrete will step in to replace it, like Islam. Others such as yourself are less despairing. Note that I do not say “hopeful.” But you do not succumb to despair, and there is something to this distinction. Your point about Denethor is well-taken, one to which I have often had to refer over the years.

It is evidence of Peter Jackson’s and his writers’ total disconnect from the philosophical content of The Lord of the Rings, that they twisted the most important detail of Denethor’s death. In the film, Gandalf—Servant of the Secret Fire, the messenger from the heavens—actually strikes Denethor down, hurling him into the flames. But this robs the story of Denethor’s death, not only of its essential drama, but of its entire meaning. Tolkien’s Denethor leaps into the fire himself, casts himself into the darkness, and he does so precisely because he despairs. Sauron does not have to destroy the White City with his own hand. By staring too long into the Eye of the Enemy (through the Palantir), Denethor becomes overawed by the power of the growing darkness. As it closes in about him, he abandons the will to resist. Even Gandalf denies that he has any real hope—only “a fool’s hope.” What he does possess is the piety to see his appointed task to its conclusion, to fulfill the demands of his station, even without the hope of worldly victory.

And recall also that it is not only Saruman’s power-lust, but also his errant conviction that Sauron cannot finally be defeated, which leads him to join in a personal struggle for control of the One Ring. (I think he stands in nicely for neoconservatives in our present dilemma. They believe, foolishly, that conservative ends can be achieved by liberal means without succumbing to liberalism as such. Liberal means, at least in so far as politics is concerned, are indistinguishable from per se liberalism.) In both cases, men who refuse to resist become in their own ways tools of the One, and are ultimately destroyed by their loss of will in the face of evil.

Clark Coleman sees an interesting basis for hope:

In response to the despair of your 57-year-old correspondent in your latest blog entry, I consider it quite credible that liberal implosion represents a great hope for America. Americans are not ideologues. Most have no conscious political philosophy at all. But they know what is working and what is not working. Liberalism is based on a false conception of human nature and the corresponding limits of government action. Because of its false foundations, it always fails. As it fails, people notice.

Ask the ordinary American 10 years ago if we should profile Arab or Muslim men at airports, and the answer would be NO. Ask them now, and the answer would be YES. No conscious change in philosophy; just pragmatism. In other words, the short-term hope for America is the Unprincipled Exception. The long-term hope is to get Americans to realize why they keep having to make Unprincipled Exceptions in order to survive: because of the falsity of liberal principles.

Another reader writes:

The Denethor kind of despair leads to cooperation with and submission to the enemy (a form of dhimmitude to liberalism), which reminds me of Samuel Adams: “If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 07, 2005 11:37 AM | Send