Thanks for all the wonderful work you do here on this site.
A few weeks back you posted a very moving and heartfelt
letter from a young man named Brandon who looked forward with trepidation to a future of trying to live as a traditional man in today’s hostile environment. Your advice to him was generally excellent, so please excuse me if I focus on one small point to which I might take exception.
You wrote:
“Ostracism As a traditionalist who affirms enduring values, who rejects sexual hedonism and consumerism, you will encounter hostility. There will be occasions when you simply can’t hide who you are and people will find out. They will not like you and they will make this clear in various passive-aggressive or openly hostile ways, as you already know. But, these are only momentary encounters, passing headaches. The truth is, you don’t need them. You can build a life entirely without them in all meaningful senses. While preserving your social equanimity and outward good will, direct none of your energies to being liked by those who stand on the other side. Remind yourself of this again and again.”
While your advice is generally on target, my experience of living for the past few decades the kind of life that Brandon envisions in the future indicates that these encounters will not be “momentary passing headaches.” They will be significant attacks that will seriously try to destroy his life. And rather than being momentary, they will be persistent and repeated until they achieve their aim.
That doesn’t mean that he should despair or give up. “Forewarned is forearmed,” and your advice will help Brandon be forewarned and forearmed. In my own experience I found that I was surprised and perplexed every time I experienced these violent attacks, and once having passed, I naively believed the crisis was over and behind me. But like the monster in horror movies, they never died but were always resurrrected a while later in some new even more virulent form.
“Man’s life is a warfare,” and when a man undertakes to go against the zeitgeist of the day, he will find the world rising up against him, even if he never had any intention taking them on and had hoped to go his own way in peace and quiet.
My only advice as to how to perservere in the face of such a daunting challenge is to stay focused on one’s goal which should be the salvation of one’s own soul and the souls for which God has made you responsible. Having acknowledged that reaching this goal is completely impossible once you succumb to the belief system of the world, then surrender isn’t an option since it means immediate defeat, and the only way forward is to continue the struggle.
Laura writes:
Yes, thank you for the correction. What you say is entirely right.
To live well, now more than ever, means acquiring battle scars.
— Comments —
Jesse Powell writes:
I think Laura was correct when she said, “The truth is, you don’t need them. You can build a life entirely without them in all meaningful senses. While preserving your social equanimity and outward good will, direct none of your energies to being liked by those who stand on the other side.”
The reader above is also right when he says, “They will be significant attacks that will seriously try to destroy his life. And rather than being momentary, they will be persistent and repeated until they achieve their aim.” What I’d like to point out is that no man is an island. The mere presence of people like Brandon is a threat to the liberal / feminist mindset; that is why those on “the other side” won’t leave him alone or give up on their efforts to convert him back to their way of thinking. Even if Brandon merely seeks to mind his own business and live his personal life in the best way he can, according to his traditionalist values, his very example of an alternative way of being will positively influence those around him, and it is this positive influence on the wider culture that will lead to the attacks against him.So, even though holding to traditionalist values is a great struggle that never ends, know that the continuing attacks against you are proof of the positive effect you are having on those around you, and know that if your inner fortitude is strong enough to maintain your independence while those around you buckle and conform to the prevailing ideology, that the power of your example will prove all the greater and your ability to benefit those around you will only increase.
Brandon B. writes:
I appreciate the feedback that your readers have so graciously provided to my original post. Ever since the age that I was even mildly cognizant of liberalism, I have known that in order to fit in to society’s dominant paradigm I would have to renounce my skin color, my masculinity, and my heterosexuality. In short, my entire identity. I refuse to do this. Life would be meaningless. So I would say to all, have faith in me. I made it through 12 years of corrupt public education with my values more or less intact (I graduated from Columbine High School ’06). College hasn’t fazed me, even though on my campus in the heart of Denver, I see the disturbing effects of liberal culture daily. I may be a lone wolf, but I am resilient.
Also, I’d like to share something. The tradition-minded country singer, Jamey Johnson, whose new album came out today, has a song entitled “Can’t Cash My Checks” with some pertinent lyrics:
It’s hard to stay honest, in a world that’s headed to Hell
You can’t make a good living these days ’cause the truth just won’t sell
and the chorus:
and you can’t cash my checks
and you can’t feel this hunger
You can push me into the water
but you can’t hold me under
You can bring me down
but you can’t make beg
You can take my word
but you can’t cash my checks
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