The following was sent to me by my dear friend Dr. Boyd Cathey. His message is in response to my recent blog post “Oh, just a little critique of the biggest film ever!” Ever the supportive mentor and Southern gentleman, he has given me permission to republish his wise words here.
I salute you for your many labors on behalf of our Southern heritage, culture, and traditions which are under such severe attack.
I tell my friends and acquaintances, and sometimes mention it in my columns, that the key to the massive subversion and perversion in our society is primarily our educational system, but I would I also emphasize that education is encompassed in and a part of the general cultural environment that has dominated us–strangled us–progressively since World War II. And, as we know, it actually began its traversal through our institutions long before that.
Obviously, a major practical campaign on the part of trads/conservatives must be the progressive privatization of education, and radical reform on the collegiate level, as well. Far too often the GOP feels that it must be competitive with the Dems (and fend off criticism) by tossing more money to public education, to teachers (most of whom are trained in far left teachers’ colleges), building new buildings, adding to the bureaucracy, etc. Far from real solutions….
But, there is even a more fundamental problem here: what I would call “the hegemony of the idea of Progress,” that is, that all history in some way, eventually, always moves forward, and that “forward” always means away from older traditions, belief, culture.
The confusion here is over the real differences between the quantitative sciences (e.g., medicine, physics, biology, etc.) which can indeed be measured and improved upon with experimentation, and thus subject to “change” which we denominate as “good” or “progressive,” and on the other hand, the ineradicable and inherited characteristics of humankind and human nature. And human nature and natural law are immutable and unchanging.
But the practitioners of “progressivism” maintain that not only can there be beneficial developments in the sciences, but that human nature, also, can be altered, and many times forcibly so.
Thus, the “woke” attempts to do just that. If humans don’t keep up with the Progressivists’ vision of the future, then the problem is them, and they literally must be forced to adapt, even if it produces incredible societal disaster and eventually collapse.
Thus our task is overwhelming and immense, for it involves the reversal of a dominant template which has controlled and held hegemonic control over our society since at least the French Revolution…and in a real sense, has been around, on the peripheries for a millennium.
Our enemies have carefully prepared and worked to get their vision established. Our situation did not just happen over the last decade; rather, it just emerged more fully in view these past few years, exercising its real visible control. And more of our folks perhaps have recognized that.
On our side we are a disparate group, not necessarily united like the cultural Marxists of the 1920s (e.g., Antonio Gramsci, Gyorgy Lukacs, Michel Foucault, etc.). They understood that the real battle against Christian civilization was through culture “writ large”–in the arts, music, architecture, in literature, and then in film, and more recently in sports. Of course, radio and TV became objects of this as well. These attacks are, as you see, multifaceted…and those on our side who attempt to rebut or counter them find themselves woefully outnumbered, and in far too many cases, unprepared and without a popular means of expression. Far too often those on our side did not see or recognize what was occurring, back 50, 60 or 100 years ago, when we stood a better chance of stopping the rot.
So now, in too many cases, belatedly, we are compelled to act, as if one hand is tied behind our backs. The media and entertainment are largely controlled by our Enemies. We fight back as we can, and that fight demands imagination and farsighted vision. Each of us, each in his or her own way, by himself or with others, is forcibly engaged, whether or not we desire it. For the Enemy forces itself on us and demands submission.
Our advantage, if we choose to avail ourselves of it, is the Grace and Power of Our Blessed Lord and the Intercession of His Blessed Mother. We know as certainty that His promises will prevail. We do not know exactly when or exactly in what manner; we simply know that He is Absolute King of All Creation, by His Birth and by His Conquest on the Cross, and that He will triumph.
This, then, must give us courage and confidence to continue our fight…which in a real sense, is His fight by proxy.
I always cite my Spanish friend of 50 years ago, Teofilo Andueza. One day, after Mass at the Pamplona Cathedral, I went with him and his wife Josefa to their ancestral home atop a small mountain in the Pyrenees range. As we stood there looking in the distance at the city of Pamplona, Teofilo became emotional. And he related that in July 1936, he (as a 14 year old teenager), his father, and his grandfather went off to fight Spain’s Red republican regime, joining a Carlist traditionalist Tercio [regiment] with the slogan of “Viva Cristo Rey”–“Long Live Christ the King!” Then, he took me by the shoulder and said: “Boyd, even if it were just you and me, and we were on Our Lord’s side, we would be victorious, in Him!”
I’ve never forgotten that moment; it gives me hope in the midst of despair, as I see beloved traditions, monuments, beliefs disappear. For we must be “fortes in Fide,” strong in the Faith, no matter what…”even if it were just you and me, and we were on Our Lord’s side, we would be victorious, in Him!”
That’s why despite everything we can still smile and go forward.
Boyd Cathey
Be sure to check out my 2-part series, Boyd Cathey: Barbarism resistor & storyteller and Boyd Cathey: Christian warrior & mentor, and visit his thought-provoking blog, My Corner.
