Perhaps as the Dept. of Education is unwound, and we get back to teaching something important in schools, like how to do math and how to read, someone smart will say “Hey what about the music, art and shop classes we used to teach?” Then someone else smart would say “Yeah, what about it?!” A nation devoid of art and music and a people that can not read and write is doomed to fail. That is what many of the elite hyper wealthy pray for every night. They get all the goodies, the surfs? Well they are there are there for the pleasure of the wealthy elites. Crush the spirit of art and music in a soul and nothing good comes of it. Look at the music from the 1960’s, it burst with creativity on all levels. The stuff now? Need one say more.
Today it's commonly presumed that artists naturally lean left, and there might be something to that in that creative people who dream for a living might be disproportionately drawn to a more utopian worldview, but historically artists have also often been attracted to notions of natural hierarchy in which they are a special refined sort of human like their aristocratic patrons. Most of the politics probably comes down to patronage networks, and the right would be wise to not just cede that cultural territory.
If the 250th birthday celebration plans start to go woke and South, which looks likely, Trump can replace Rosie Rios with someone who actually likes our country, isn't a racist and respects the Founding Fathers. He should do that at the earliest opportunity. I hope someone in the administration is keeping an eye on this.
So, the Renaissance opened a new horizon of possibility by reclaiming the past (from medieval "dark age" stagnation to the ancient past of foundational discourses and values). Trying to wrest a future by deracinating the past is a one-way ticket to medievalism, regardless of whatever technological wizardly adorns it.
We currently live in a cryptic dark age as well, arguably since the 1970s at least but I know some (such as Steve Patterson) claim as early as the 19th century. There's something very Heideggerian about this move: meeting the past only-ever at the horizon. And with it comes implications (or at least questions) of authenticity, destiny, and all that juicy stuff.
Who is doing this? Hillsdale College for sure, a prime example. Smaller decentralized (and equally un-funded by the government) examples include the diaspora of "Juste-Milieu" ateliers (teaching 18th and 19th century fine art techniques otherwise lost in federally funded universities that fully embraced postmodernism). These began springing up across the US probably as far back as the 1980s, but really got going in the early-aughts.
But most importantly are the individuals of course, too many to list here, but the writers, heterodox thinkers, inventors, craftsmen, luthiers, true statesmen as our founders imagined they would be first and foremost patriotic citizens and not career politicians (e.g. Ron Johnson, Thomas Massie, etc).
From the top we got that Trump EO about beautiful architecture, and that's not nothing:
As someone who studied architecture (of course, "bauhaus" postmodern nihilistic globalist garbage) but wished I could've been trained in the preceding style of "Beaux-Arts" this executive order resonates with me. Especially in the context of civic architecture, the classical never gets old.
What will "subvert the [communist] subversion" however is for sure a shift in education and values – for whatever reason homeschooled kids are always incredibly proficient in music, and often other art forms as well. I think when you liberate any burgeoning imagination from institutionalization, the pursuit of meaning is prioritized as it is all of our true calling.
The following passage is from Viktor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning:
"People have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning. To be sure, some do not even have the means. In particular, I think of the mass of people who are today unemployed. Fifty years ago, I published a study devoted to a specific type of depression I had diagnosed in cases of young patients suffering from what I called ‘unemployment neurosis.’ And I could show that this neurosis really originated in a twofold erroneous identification: being jobless was equated with being useless, and being useless was equated with having a meaningless life. Consequently, whenever I succeeded in persuading the patients to volunteer in youth organizations, adult education, public libraries and the like—in other words, as soon as they could fill their abundant free time with some sort of unpaid but meaningful activity—their depression disappeared although their economic situation had not changed and their hunger was the same. The truth is that man does not live by welfare alone."
Out with the dark age of feudal "welfare" and into the luminous pursuit of meaning!
Art was a side gig for Michelangelo. His day job was as a military engineer. He even published a brochure saying that which is in the possession of an Italian library. Da Vinci had the same occupation and Rubens worked as a diplomat.
I just found back a book I downloaded years ago by Masanobu Fukuoka - how to make Earth beautiful again. How to live with nature. How to stop growing grass and start growing food again. Not in large monoculture but amongst nature - like Amazonian people still do... so may be there is something true in South-American people are the future? maybe not Mexicans... they are the ones that grow the grass.
Classical liberal education needs to make a comeback in places where everyone has access. And trade schools need to be destigmatized. Then, maybe, there will come a new desire for beauty.
Also, something that's crossed my mind especially since 2022 is the difference between what one might call "reactive conservatism" and "proactive conservatism".
An overly-simple example of reactive conservatism is "owning the libs" – meming them apropos their hypocrisy and unscrupulous nonsense. But that doesn't really build anything of enduring value.
Ironically, at least within the arts, proactive conservatism is in no small part upheld by liberals (e.g. go to any literal "conservatory" and most enrolled there will be metropolitan liberals). So, the "new right" is for sure taking ownership of this across the board, but in general the onus is on us to engage in proactive conservatism in all domains and mediums: getting ahead (not just getting back).
Perhaps as the Dept. of Education is unwound, and we get back to teaching something important in schools, like how to do math and how to read, someone smart will say “Hey what about the music, art and shop classes we used to teach?” Then someone else smart would say “Yeah, what about it?!” A nation devoid of art and music and a people that can not read and write is doomed to fail. That is what many of the elite hyper wealthy pray for every night. They get all the goodies, the surfs? Well they are there are there for the pleasure of the wealthy elites. Crush the spirit of art and music in a soul and nothing good comes of it. Look at the music from the 1960’s, it burst with creativity on all levels. The stuff now? Need one say more.
I often wonder where all the hate in the world comes from and, you are correct, it's the destruction of beauty and God - well done Mr. Bezmenov.
Today it's commonly presumed that artists naturally lean left, and there might be something to that in that creative people who dream for a living might be disproportionately drawn to a more utopian worldview, but historically artists have also often been attracted to notions of natural hierarchy in which they are a special refined sort of human like their aristocratic patrons. Most of the politics probably comes down to patronage networks, and the right would be wise to not just cede that cultural territory.
If the 250th birthday celebration plans start to go woke and South, which looks likely, Trump can replace Rosie Rios with someone who actually likes our country, isn't a racist and respects the Founding Fathers. He should do that at the earliest opportunity. I hope someone in the administration is keeping an eye on this.
Got on to post a similar remark. I hope she is gone asap
So, the Renaissance opened a new horizon of possibility by reclaiming the past (from medieval "dark age" stagnation to the ancient past of foundational discourses and values). Trying to wrest a future by deracinating the past is a one-way ticket to medievalism, regardless of whatever technological wizardly adorns it.
We currently live in a cryptic dark age as well, arguably since the 1970s at least but I know some (such as Steve Patterson) claim as early as the 19th century. There's something very Heideggerian about this move: meeting the past only-ever at the horizon. And with it comes implications (or at least questions) of authenticity, destiny, and all that juicy stuff.
Who is doing this? Hillsdale College for sure, a prime example. Smaller decentralized (and equally un-funded by the government) examples include the diaspora of "Juste-Milieu" ateliers (teaching 18th and 19th century fine art techniques otherwise lost in federally funded universities that fully embraced postmodernism). These began springing up across the US probably as far back as the 1980s, but really got going in the early-aughts.
But most importantly are the individuals of course, too many to list here, but the writers, heterodox thinkers, inventors, craftsmen, luthiers, true statesmen as our founders imagined they would be first and foremost patriotic citizens and not career politicians (e.g. Ron Johnson, Thomas Massie, etc).
From the top we got that Trump EO about beautiful architecture, and that's not nothing:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/promoting-beautiful-federal-civic-architecture/
As someone who studied architecture (of course, "bauhaus" postmodern nihilistic globalist garbage) but wished I could've been trained in the preceding style of "Beaux-Arts" this executive order resonates with me. Especially in the context of civic architecture, the classical never gets old.
What will "subvert the [communist] subversion" however is for sure a shift in education and values – for whatever reason homeschooled kids are always incredibly proficient in music, and often other art forms as well. I think when you liberate any burgeoning imagination from institutionalization, the pursuit of meaning is prioritized as it is all of our true calling.
The following passage is from Viktor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning:
"People have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning. To be sure, some do not even have the means. In particular, I think of the mass of people who are today unemployed. Fifty years ago, I published a study devoted to a specific type of depression I had diagnosed in cases of young patients suffering from what I called ‘unemployment neurosis.’ And I could show that this neurosis really originated in a twofold erroneous identification: being jobless was equated with being useless, and being useless was equated with having a meaningless life. Consequently, whenever I succeeded in persuading the patients to volunteer in youth organizations, adult education, public libraries and the like—in other words, as soon as they could fill their abundant free time with some sort of unpaid but meaningful activity—their depression disappeared although their economic situation had not changed and their hunger was the same. The truth is that man does not live by welfare alone."
Out with the dark age of feudal "welfare" and into the luminous pursuit of meaning!
Indeed. I can sooth my poor nerves by looking at pictures of Palladio's villas in the Veneto.
In the early 2000s there was a brief revival of swing music, with young artists composing new swing tunes. It was very nice.
But at this point, the radio would be much improved with a revival of disco and funk -- as long as there is no autotune.
The best book on the subject (and one of the funniest books I have ever read) is "Loki's Child" by Fenris Wulf. Not for sale any more, but it can be downloaded: https://annas-archive.org/md5/6c04a45716eadc33bc3ad77cb5663f4b
I hate autotune. Hate.
Except when it's used for comedy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw
Art was a side gig for Michelangelo. His day job was as a military engineer. He even published a brochure saying that which is in the possession of an Italian library. Da Vinci had the same occupation and Rubens worked as a diplomat.
I just found back a book I downloaded years ago by Masanobu Fukuoka - how to make Earth beautiful again. How to live with nature. How to stop growing grass and start growing food again. Not in large monoculture but amongst nature - like Amazonian people still do... so may be there is something true in South-American people are the future? maybe not Mexicans... they are the ones that grow the grass.
It was nice of that Italian family to take care of the ninja turtles.
Classical liberal education needs to make a comeback in places where everyone has access. And trade schools need to be destigmatized. Then, maybe, there will come a new desire for beauty.
Agreed, but we need to Make America Clean Again, first: https://lizlasorte.substack.com/p/make-america-clean-again?r=76q58
Rod Dreher often tells how he became a Christian as a young man largely because he was blown away by visiting a European cathedral.
IS GOD FICKLE?
God allows disasters and evil to happen and yet prayers for deliverance may not come.
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
-Epicurus, Ancient Greek Philosopher
I wrote a fantasy novel where God is a major character and The Golden Rule a major theme. I hope to influence the culture of young men.
(Especially nerds who might go on to be artists or intellectuals.)
It's free and ad-free: http://www.thedragonbehindthecrown.com/
Also, something that's crossed my mind especially since 2022 is the difference between what one might call "reactive conservatism" and "proactive conservatism".
An overly-simple example of reactive conservatism is "owning the libs" – meming them apropos their hypocrisy and unscrupulous nonsense. But that doesn't really build anything of enduring value.
Ironically, at least within the arts, proactive conservatism is in no small part upheld by liberals (e.g. go to any literal "conservatory" and most enrolled there will be metropolitan liberals). So, the "new right" is for sure taking ownership of this across the board, but in general the onus is on us to engage in proactive conservatism in all domains and mediums: getting ahead (not just getting back).