We used to be a civilization capable of making moral judgements, worshipping the divine, celebrating the heroic and modeling our lives after positive archetypes. On the other hand, we used to recognize degeneracy and filth before they became cornerstones of our society. And when bad ideas did take root, we were capable of rooting out the cultural rot so as to instead elevate the beautiful and divine.
We knew, without squabble or debate, those things which rooted us to the past and provided meaning and purpose today, and those things which degraded us, lowered us and made us poorer, spiritually and physically.
We see the results of this change everywhere. Pride parades, pornography, transgenderism, anti-Christian sentiment and displays of civilizational shame are encouraged, while self-control, delayed gratification, faith in God and a celebration of Western heritage are discouraged.
We often see this ideology manifest in macro areas like national identity and historic remembrance, but we see the same trend in micro areas. We tend to spend more time discussing high level ideas, but there is something equally disturbing about our society’s interest in undermining the smaller areas of our lives.
From the perspectives of our elites, drag queens reading stories to children is a good thing, but removing sexually explicit books from elementary school libraries is bad. Physical exercise is a fascist activity (even Hitler loved it!) and might turn you into a far-right extremist. Movements that help men overcome pornography addiction are dangerous, and masturbation abstinence is similarly concerning. Being a slut is healthy, while women who value their virginity are prudes. Traditional values are a form of extremism, while puberty blockers for children are healthy and normal.
Our elites turn everything on its head and fit perfectly the woeful sinners of Isaiah 5:20. They call good evil and evil good, darkness light and light darkness, sweet bitter and bitter sweet. Our society has a nasty tendency to decry things which are good and elevate things which are mundane, ugly and destructive.
It is difficult to know definitively the intentions behind these views. We can, however, notice trends, and they always seem to point in one direction. The inference one can draw from many mainstream institutions is that our elites would prefer us placated, lazy, degenerate, addicted and weak.
The reason so many young people, young men in particular, are engaging with alternative groups and organizations is because they sense, correctly, the destructive lies emanating from much of the mainstream. It seems likely, however, that powerful actors in our culture will continue leading us down a path of degeneracy and destruction, and young people—the ones who are paying attention—will continue to move farther and farther to the fringes.
And who can blame them.