The prospects of traditionalism in a liberal world

Russell W. writes:

Mr. Auster,

It was reading your site and some others that changed my views about immigration. When I was about 20 and terribly immature, I was a WSJ open borders libertarian. I eventually came around to a more mainstream conservatism, but it was the kind of propositionalist conservatism that applauds legal immigration from all destitute corners of the globe and I would have been horrified at the suggestion that consciously seeking to preserve a predominant European demography and culture was anything but unacceptable bigotry of the basest sort.

What a long, strange trip it’s been. Now, at 26, I find I’m hard-pressed to disagree with you on most things, especially immigration.

But here’s my quandary: how many people in America do you honestly think agree with us? I frankly don’t think it’s that many. There’s a lot of popular anger over illegal immigration, but is it enough to do anything with all the political forces arrayed against it? And more importantly: how many people do you think would really sign up with the sort of ethnically conscious policy even if we get the illegal situation under control? I doubt more than 20 percent of whites would be for it, so enthralled are they by the psychological inability for Western whites to think in a way that acknowledges the social consequences of ethnicity (what Peter Brimelow called “Hitler’s revenge”).

Regards,
Russell

LA replies:

Obviously, very few agree with us, or, rather, very few articulately and openly agree with us. But the very extremity of the civilizational crisis, the fact that the liberal beliefs that everyone subscribes to and considers unchallengeable are the very source of the catastrophe, the fact that the only possible cure is traditionalism, including among other things a restored sense of peoplehood, means that we, few though we are, are actually in an extraordinarily promising situation. So, on one hand, we are absolutely powerless and without influence; on the other hand, we possess the correct diagnosis of the mortal sickness of our civilization and the cure for it.

Does that necessarily mean we are going to prevail? No. On the pragmatic level, we may just continue to lose. But it does mean, at the very least, that on the spiritual or intellectual level we are in a unique position to confront the disorders of our time. And out of that, possibly, much more could arise, namely that traditionalist understandings could begin to have a broader influence and become a social force in resisting and pushing back the prevailing liberalism. Wouldn’t that be something? I feel that and see that as a possibility. It is something worth living for and striving for.

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Mark P writes:

I think what Russell needs to understand, what probably most young, conservative traditionalists need to realize, is that the United States will not be able to return to its cultural and historical moorings without bloodshed. They need to jettison whatever hopes they may have of maintaining what they like about modern civilization and resign themselves to the fact that large sections of the United States must be written off. In other words, if liberalism is to be defeated, then the “Blue” areas of the country must be treated like what the Muslims quaintly call “The House of War.”

This is often very hard for Traditional Conservatives to understand, especially those who live in large Democrat cities. It’s very difficult to imagine the cities of their birth becoming urban war zones, whether by a Muslim nuke, massive foreign rioting, or an invasion by angry, heavily armed Red-State neighbors tired of sending their kids to fight so Manhattanites, Rodeo Drivers, Gold Coasters and others can shop in safety. [LA note: That last scenario is ridiculously over the top. It sounds like something you’d expect to see in The American Conservative calling for a civil war against Jewish neoconservatives.] There is simply too much “conserving” in traditional conservatism and that is one thing that must go.

On that note, I am happy to report that, with President Bush’s “invasion by Mexico” plans safely assured, the inevitable destruction of blue-state America continues apace.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 19, 2006 08:02 AM | Send