In many the minds of traditionalists, reflection on the past brings about a romanticization: one imagines the medieval manner, church square about the town, with a religious lord and lady. The times are ideal; without a corporate rat race, social decay, or any other of the myriads of problems facing the modern world, man supposedly can focus on much more eternal goods.
Or so one would think.
A brief examination of the lives of Christendom’s nobility demonstrates that often, peaceful, Christian life was not the case. Imagine living isolated, far apart from anything of interest in a murky estate, surrounded by the same people for days, months, years on end. A completely detached count raising his heir, who for his entire life has only been a blood line. Butlers and nannies, taking the place of his natural parents, with whom he has no bond, forcing posh habits, manners, and customs upon such a poor soul, who then is forced to marry a local baroness, whom he knows is dumb as a doorknob, to ensure the legacy of the only thing that matters: the bloodline.
Life was indeed better in times past, but there was not perfect age. With the above issues I mentioned, no one should be surprised at the amount of adultery, philandering, and corruption that took place for most of history.
Of late, a Youtube fitness guru whom I follow began to speak of and call himself a MGTOW. This acronym means men going their own way, and has become quite popular. Forums and sites all across the internet sprung up, all promoting this new lifestyle. Also called taking the red pill, with the economy rapidly declining, and society reeling from cultural, social, and sexual revolutions the world over, many men, fed up with how the system stacks the deck against them from day 1, have decided to call it “quits.” Such a path entails rejecting relationships with women, including marriage, the upbringing of children, and traditional, static, and corporate jobs. Another internet personality I follow, a libertarian, mentions many of the financial benefits of MGTOW, or “going Galt,” to enable a man to be immensely more happy than if he followed the usual path of becoming debt saddled, and paying it off with a corporate 9-5.
As Catholics, we know that all things must be held against the standard of our Faith, and MGTOW is simply incompatible with the ideal Catholic life for men.
I recognize that the feminist and sexual revolutions ravishing society for many decades have made life immensely more difficult for all, but have pointed a barrel at men. Becoming a breadwinner, finding a faithful woman who won’t snap, and bringing up children in this post-Christian world are not tasks for the weak or meek. As with manyother modern life plans, MGTOW is an overreaction to these social horrors, and ultimately leaves man lost and aloof.
By the grace of God, nearly a decade has passed since I became a traditional Roman Catholic. In that time, from my interactions with Catholics the world over, at various chapels, online sites, forums, and social media, I have met true friends and companions I am blessed to know. However, I know several women haters (apart from this one), conspiracy obsessed Jew haters and racists, and social wrecks, either because these poor folks lack fundamental social interactions, or their picayune obsessions prevent them from being in the world, not of it.
This forum user in question may be one of these Trad men afflicted with angst towards women, but in any case, the acceptance of a clash between the sexes is not Catholic. The Lord God created the two complimentary sexes to be aids to one another in getting to Heaven, which is the last end of every man and woman. Unless one is called to the religious or priestly state, or a single vocation, God calls the great majority of men to marriage, to find a love and helper, bring more children into the world, and perfect, if it were possible, the glory given to Almighty God. MGTOWers can reap the economic benefits of being free from the shackles of worthless material possessions, and find themselves enjoying life to a greater extent without corporate stress and the rat race, but most men will find themselves restless without a family. Yes, as the Apostle tells us, marry rather to burn in passion, but aside from carnality, the companionship and biologically ingrained fulfillment of the married household is that cross which will bring most men to their day of glory. Shrugging it off ought to be done with extreme care, lest one is woefully imprudent.
I also came across this video, where a prominent MGTOW advocate hears out the concerns of a self proclaimed trad Catholic MGTOW. The man in question, calling himself a “bisexual,” states that he does not have much issues with women, wanted to marry primarily for sex, and sees a clash between his Faith and his newfound philosophical pursuit. As he states in the video, this man will either give up his Catholicism, or the lifestyle he has enjoined himself to. Apart from the weak criticisms against the church the creator of the video makes (clerical celibacy being a “recent” creation, in spite of strong evidence of not only it’s patristic, but apostolic roots – read on St. Basil’s father, a bishop, and how he and his wife lived completely separate lives once the children were grown, hypocritical Church creating imposing churches, having a bank, whilst preaching poverty – poverty is a virtue that anyone in any state of life can live, and that the Christian ideal of raising as many children God deigns to bless a family with merely furthers the Church with numbers and wealth. Indeed, my grandfather, a man with not much beyond a fifth grade education, reared eleven children as a farmer, then janitor, and is the wisest, holiest man I know), Sandman makes it quite clear that the ultimate ideal of MGTOW is “self-ownership,” and that the inquirer in question will have to choose between his faith and the MGTOW philosophy, or he is “fooling himself.”
I strongly urge each reader to listen to this brief sermon here:
MGTOW has been tried in light of the Faith, and it has failed. MGTOW encourages men to shrug the individual cross and Calvary that leads one to everlasting glory, happiness, and peace.
The Islamic State, a legitimate Jihadist threat striving to reestablish caliphates of eons past, now has it’s eyes set on Russia. A Chechen ISIS officer told his father over the telephone that he and his fellow jihadists wanted to take the fight to Russia, bringing Chechnya under the Islamic umbrella.
The Chechen head honcho did not respond kindly, stating that this and other terrorist would soon be united in a supernatural place, but not the one they are expecting.
Soon, we will be celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Considering the temperament and character of Vladimir Putin, I say, bring it on. With a sterile West unable to face the menace of Mohammed as it did in dayspast, the status quo may find itself flipped on its head.
Here is every piece of Orwellian doublespeak from President Obama’s address to Millennials on the Economy:
“Today, more of you are earning college degrees than ever before—and more young people from low-income families are getting a shot at higher education than previous generations.”
No sir, a shot at crippling debt.
“Along with having higher education levels, you’ve got a lower gender pay gap than other generations?—?and we’re working to close it even further.”
“Take all those things together, and it’s no surprise that entrepreneurship is in your DNA. One survey found that more than half of Millennials expressed interest in starting (or have already started) their own business.”
“It’s why we’re giving nearly 5 million Americans the chance to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of their income. And thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the number of uninsured young adults has fallen by nearly 40 percent over the past four years.”
“In this new economy, an entrepreneur can start a new business and succeed, an older worker who sees opportunity in a new field has resources available to retool for that new job, and a student can graduate from college with the chance to advance through a vibrant job market.”
Ha.
“I’ve seen what your generation is capable of firsthand. And one of the reasons I’m so confident about America’s future is that I’m confident in you?—?a generation that’s more educated, diverse, and digitally fluent than any before you.”
Recently, a friend and I discussed our paths to traditional Catholicism. Some study history or theology directly, ultimately finding the truth. For others, an artistic experience initiates their road to the true Faith as our ancestors practiced it, pure and unadulterated. In my case, a little known piece from France served as my spiritual spark plug.
Gabriel Urbain Fauré, a French romantic, composed his Requiem as the 19th century neared completion. As an adolescent, many realized I had a knack for music. My grandmother forced me to audition for a well known choral group, and I made it. Nearly twenty years later, I am still associated with this chorus.
Fauré served as organist at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, France.
With each passing year, and more musical experience under my belt, I learned how to read music, sight sing, identify major and minor scales, and so on. After about six years, I progressed to the upper echelons. Although the first piece I sang at the top was Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria(itself deserving of a blog post), Fauré’s Requiem soon followed. If the work’s melancholic passion and beauty strikes the listener, imagine singing it in grand acoustics. Our brilliant director, who, like most of my colleagues, professed no religion, slowly explained the meaning of each movement. I learned that this was what the Church, in her divine wisdom, used for the funeral of every Catholic. Rest in peace was not a mere Halloween plot device. The faithful truly implored the Lord and King, Jesus Christ, to free them from the pains of eternal death. During the Libera Me, as everyone sings the dies irae, dies illa (day of wrath), trumpets blaze. As our assistant director, a true New Churcher, explained to us, this marked the arrival of the day of judgment, and one could sense terror in the accompaniment and vocals.
Eventually, we recorded this work at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch, and it has remained with me ever since. I still have most of it memorized.
The Requiem is not the most well known sample of Catholic artistry. Indeed, it even has theological problems. Fauré changed “deliver the souls of the faithful departed” to “deliver the souls of the departed.” The change in text changes the theology. Nevertheless, I cannot imagine how I would be who I am today had I not encountered this kind of music. I still read, prayed, cried, and lived a lot more as life progressed, but things ultimately worked for the best.
As a man of extraction from two great, Catholic cultures, my family, especially my mother, faced all of our problems with great diligence. Whether an aunt was sick, a cousin needed to be baby-sat, and grandmother needed medicine, or I slacked off in my students, we sought to find the root of our problems and eliminate them to make life easier. Although I am no longer a child, my family takes this same attitude towards me up to this day.
Unless one has completely missed what every trad, and even neo-con, has shouted from the rooftops, the state of the Church today is absolutely abysmal. We need not get into the details here. On top of theological, disciplinary, and liturgical crises, there is an appalling sexual abuse scandal that cries out to high Heaven. Yet, for whatever reason, those men who have the ability, and if one is a Guerardian, even the authority, to end this crisis, refuse to do so. Everything is a new springtime, and a new pentecost. Indeed, the Vatican recently rebuked “restorationists” as “pelagian” (though I don’t think they know what that word really means).
For good reason, the Society of Saint Pius X, along with many other traditional Catholic clergy and laity, operate apart from the mainstream church. They do this so that they can hear their Masses, teach their catechisms, and live their Faith just like their ancestors did, and they have every right to do as such. The current status quo of this Swiss-based religious congregation serves as the diving line of most of the serious Catholic world. Some who operate essentially as the SSPX do take the final step and realize that such irregularity would be impossible on the part of a true pope and magisterium, and impossible for clerics and laity to stand upon. These are the sedevacantists. Those who look at the Society’s path of resistance and see the impossibility but go the other way are the former indult or neo con crowd. I have been associated with all three of these groups.
The Church of Rome is the Mater et Magistra for every man and woman on earth. Just as my family went to extreme lengths to care for, and even baby me, the Roman Pontiff is bound with caring for all of our souls, and, notwithstanding his faults and limitations as a man, should strive to do so. Why is it, then, that Francis, Benedict XVI, soon to be “Saint” John Paul II, and Paul VI did so little to change the present condition of the Church? I highly doubt that popes of prior times, even the most scandalous of Renaissance or the Middle Ages, would allow such a situation to persist for decades. These men, in spite of their scandalous sins, took doctrine, as we say, dead seriously. Would Pius IX or Benedict XV ever allow a group as large as the SSPX to merely wallow in a state of uncertainty? I do not think so.
Lets say that in 1875, a Filipino religious congregation, with 500 priests around the world and about a million faithful in their chapels, conducted a state of affairs similar to what Écône does. Let’s say they feared the result of the Churh after the close of Vatican I, but after one examined their seminaries, priests, schools, etc., they were found to be faithful. Fidelis inveniatur.
I do not have a penumbra of doubt in my mind that Pius IX, then Leo XIII, and St. Pius X would conduct things the same way the conciliar popes have. These current leaders have no sense of urgency.
Even though it probably never happened, some 2000 years later, the man in charge fiddles not only as Rome burns, but millions of souls risk being burned to due his failings as Roman Pontiff. Because of recent attacks, such as the one in Boston, authorities at sporting events have tightened up. After 9/11 and other terrorists attacks, the powers that be, rightly or wrongly, subjected their citizens to a withering away of civil liberties all for the hopes of preventing another tragedy. Most people have been willing to surrender these benefits for that added sense of security, real or not. Would that those entrusted with a far greater responsibility did a fraction of this effort to prevent a far more dangerous and permanent tragedy.
Throughout the United States, and the world over, “positive thinking,” utilizing the power, and other ideas focusing on self-improvement find immense popularity. With propagators on the T.V. and all over the media, this is not a surprise; indeed, friends at my trad chapel urged me to watch a 2006 film promoting these ideas entitled The Secret. One can find the roots of these ideas in a relatively young system of thought called “New Age.” Also known as “New Thought,” this philosophy, which purports to have ancient roots, beginning with the ancient Egyptians, King Solomon, or the Knights Templar, came about during the mid-19th century. Born during the century of great philosophical confusion and evil, these ideas are ultimately incompatible with the Faith and Church of Jesus Christ.
Just as the masons, those dabbling in the occult, and other young sects, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Mormons, claim, the New Age presents itself as having the spiritual solution dating from antiquity. Finally, after centuries or millennia of obscurity or incomplete truths from institutions like the Church, men find themselves blessed with true spiritual treasure. The truth is not found in what Catholicism or any other religion offers, but after watching Oprah or another talking head and paying 19.95, life will suddenly improve. I would hope that this immediately stands out to informed Catholics. As St. Paul said, “Now the Spirit manifestly saith, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils.” (1 Tim. 4:1).
A major tenet of New Age is positive thinking. Immensely popular in workplaces, the “law of attraction” (LoA) posits that one should only focus on and emphasize positive thinking. Those who are overly pessimistic should be shunned for the benefit of those utilizing the LoA. It is true that we should seek to remain positive in the face of adversity, and Debbie Downers, eeyores, and other glass half empty types of people do make life more difficult. However, people will have their up and down periods in this adventure of life. One should pursue goals and dreams, but surrounding one’s self with yes men or those with unreasonable hopes do not eliminate the difficulty of life’s trials. Life does not become easier. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines hope as “the desire of something together with the expectation of obtaining it.” Yet, prudence dictates that one must weigh the good and bad in each situation. In practicing the LoA, nothing is too difficult, and this is beyond a psychological pump up a coach gives in a locker room. However, the true danger of this idea rests with all of the blame falling upon the shoulders of the practitioner.
Some time ago, a high school friend (an acquaintance, really) reconnected with me on Facebook. After the usual small talk, he inquired as to whether or not I had a job. I did not, but informed him of my desire to make fast money. In an amazing “coincidence,” I happened to come across the right person at the right time, it seemed, since he partly owned (through parents, I thought) a company that had an opening, and he needed a “smart guy” like me. To make a brutally long story short, he duped me into going to a multilevel marketing seminar for a supplement and vitamin company, with the ultimate hope that I’d pay $700 (by any means necessary. He sold all of his electronics to buy in) to work under him within his shady, pyramid scheme company. It was at this brainwashing session that I first encountered the New Age and the LoA head on. Most people who in invest in direct marketing fail miserably; they lose everything and then some. For every millionaire driving a Lamborghini, one thousand suckers lose thousands of dollars, slave away for months, and alienate any friends and relatives who refuse to chip in to their grand plan to be retired millionaires by age twenty-five. All they leave with is the bitter sting of defeat. This is necessarily the case, lest the pyramid collapse. At this crowded conference, with superficial “niceness,” PowerPoints, and a rah-rah mentality that would make Orwell proud (but positive), everyone who doubted or refused to join needed to be dismissed for their negativity. Legitimate concerns from family, those who know the mark best, and friends be damned. If one failed at this “millionaire by 25” endeavor, it was because they weren’t positive enough. THey didn’t believe enough, they gave up, or they faltered in following the perfect formula. The danger of this rosy-glassy philosophy rests with the guilt and blame the lemming will encounter, if not in business, elsewhere in life. This idea that anyone could have done right had they only done x, y, and z finds itself popular across the board. Many men find themselves enthralled with the player/pick up artist community online. Modern, post-Christian gurus, without a family of their own, offer basic dating tips to desperate men, some even willing to shell hundred of their hard-earned dollars. Apart from common sense, such as taking risks, getting out of one’s shell, being true to one’s self, and being confident, these hucksters promote ideas that ultimately belittle women as objects to be “picked up” for cheap thrills. When the average Joe fails in his attempts to be a wannabe Don Juan, it’s ultimately his fault for not following the flawless formula. He did not listen to the guru close enough. These new agers dismiss the possibility that some things are not meant to be, and that incompatibility exists. No matter how hard one tries, sometimes that person won’t give them the time of day. In spite of having a dazzling résumé, a well-kept appearance, and a suitable personality, that HR department, for whatever reason, decided to give the job to somebody else. Regardless of all of the effort and training, some do not succeed athletically for whatever reason (an injury, bad luck, or competition from others more talented). The New Age promotes the idea that, because the Higher Power is immanent with us all, each of us can achieve anything we set out to do, once we remove personal and social shackles. Apart from being philosophically flawed, some turn to rage when their efforts fail (see the sad story of George Sodini).
The good suffer, and our primary example should be He who suffered a most cruel passion, yet had not a penumbra of sin. Expectations will often not come to pass, but not because of personal failings. Success arrives in much the same way, in spite of personal achievement. Be hopeful, positive, and resilient, but know that success is truly not because of our own efforts.
1933 – This was the last time any party (in this case, the Republicans) in my home state of California maintained a legislative supermajority. Most Americans would find the state during the depression as foreign as Saudi Arabia. One could easily be thrown to jail under vagrancies laws, the majority of the populace viewed communists and other far-out leftists with scorn (now, they occupy Academia), and cultural views on abortion and marriage faced no debate.
Nearly 80 years later, the Democratic Party finds itself with a supermajority in the State Senate and Assembly. It last had one in 1883.
The Golden State, along with a fraction of other states, requires a 2/3 majority, and not a simply majority, to raised taxes and pass the budget. This began with Proposition 13 in 1978. The liberal majority now had to compromise with at least a few Republicans, and gridlock has ensued ever since. Democrats needed to pander with or court a few Republicans to pass any legislation of fiscal importance. Governor Jerry Brown (once a Jesuit seminarian), decried the gridlock as preventing him or his party from accomplishing anything. This led to Brown drafting and promoting what can so far be called the jewel of his second stint as governor, Proposition 30.
One can only wonder what will happen in this state. Atwater recently joined San Bernardino, Stockton, and Mammoth Lakes; all filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Another city, Vallejo, filed for bankruptcy in 2008.
Our liberal friends over at salon.com, citing “the increasing diversity of the electorate, the relative liberalism of the youth vote, [and] the declining influence of old white males,” view a California under the new supermajority with hope, finally freeing the state from the tyranny of the Proposition 13 (the last act of any importance of the white, conservative California of old).
In typical West Coast pride, Salon declares that “The rest of the nation is just catching up.”
The rest of the world will watch, as one of the world’s most populous, geographically largest, and culturally influential entities no longer has any excuse. There is nothing stopping California from leading the nation and the world further along to “Progress,” and whatever gains or mis-steps it makes in advancing green policies, statist economics, or conquering over the few obstacles resisting the “new normal” lie only with the liberals themselves.
Waking up the morning the November 6, 2012, I, along with many other conservatives and traditional Catholics, hoped that Barack Obama, hoped that somehow, Mitt Romney would emerge victorious and become the 45th President of the United States. Not because Mr. Romney is a better candidate; he isn’t (both will push the same imperialistic foreign policy, neither particular care for moral norms on marriage, contraception, or abortion, both will spend this country to oblivion, just at different rates, and, as this image illustrates, the same groups of people bankrolled their campaigns.
In spite of this, perhaps in a fit of pure schadenfreude, I wanted the President to lose. It’s easy to place economic blame on him (his administration’s first accomplishment, the stimulus, failed) even as his fiscal policies are simply exponentially exaggerated versions of Republican spending. His Republican challenger, whom the mainstream view as a “radical conservative,” notably opposed the GOP’s policies of the 1980s, as well as their social policy (his Senate run against Ted Kennedy illustrated all of this).
There was a hope, however small, that a Romney win would mean the re-implementation of the Mexico City Policy, conservative, pro-life Supreme Court Justices, an end to Obamacare (which John Birch types decried as “draconian” when it passed), and although he would not be able to stop the fiscal and moral direction of the country, perhaps the Governor could at least put the brakes on them.
Governor Romney, a liberal in 1994, a “moderate” in 2008, and a “conservative” in 2012, found himself lost and facing an electorate that found his views “too extreme,” and too conservative. I listened to Gary Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico and the Libertarian Party’s candidate for president, tell the Godless John Stossel that his former party would have to drop its out-of-touch social policy (meaning, fully embrace abortion “rights” and marriage “equality”), and adopt libertarian policy similar to his. In short, all that now matters is what the base (lower appetites, not voting demographic) wants. Free college, free food, and free contraception, either in a liberty obsessed, “right wing” form (it’s none of the government’s business), or from that which we have seen since Franklin Roosevelt, Big Daddy Government. As long as the benefits keep rolling, so will the votes. This is what “democracy” has been reduced to.
The disenchanted said that both were essentially the same candidates, and just shills for those who pulled the strings. All of this considered, I felt a certain disappointment upon hearing that Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, one by one, all went to Obama, dooming any chance Romney had. McCain stood absolutely no chance to President Obama in 2008, but this time, Romney, the guy everyone would want as a father-in-law, did.
All of the predictions calling for any kind of close race grossly erred. None of us, though, should really be surprised, because what we see and have seen since the 1960s (see this and this) were bound to happened. Once the framers placed legal and ethical decisions into the hands of “the people,” the country’s fate was sealed. A common understanding between most people held everything together until the 1960s, when liberalism finally destroyed this quasi-religious and moral ethos.
In short, we reaped what the founders sowed. As America and the West drifts further towards the abyss, society will continue to decay. That which was unthinkable soon becomes the norm, despite reassurances against the slippery slope.
What then is a Catholic or anyone of good will to do? Choosing between the lesser evil ultimately fails, just as picking one’s poison does. The solution, then, is simple. First worry not about the debt cliff or the direction of the foreign policy, but about one’s own spiritual and temporal well being, then the same for those charged under his care. Make sure the soul is well fed, for it matters not how healthy the mind and body is about the soul. Ultimately, we shall not see results until the country and the world once more embraces the sweet yoke of Christ. Our ancestors in Rome faced the same challenges. They were strangers in a land that ignored that most dear to them, but after a brutal period of persecution, Rome, Europe, and much of the world turned on its head and, for a short, embraced Catholicism. It is bittersweet to see how much has been lost, but we must strive for the same thing. Keep running the race, keep fighting the good fight. Christ will have to be King of this land in order for Truth to prevail.
“Fix your whole heart upon God, and love Him with all your strength, for without this no one can be saved or be of any worth…Love all good, and hate all evil, in whomsoever it may be.” – Saint Louis IX, King of France (1226-1270), Confessor, from Letter of Advice to the future Philip III.
Few saints capture the mind as does Saint Louis. King of France during the 13th Century, he reigned over the Eldest Daughter as Christendom, the Middle Ages, and the Church peaked in influence, importance, and power. Born to Blanche of Castille (who once told the Dauphin she would rather see him dead at her feet than had he commit a mortal sin, advice he certainly took seriously), and Louis VIII, the only French king ever canonized had Alphonse, Count of Toulose and Charles, King of Sicily, as brothers. His sister Isabelle, founded an abbey which lasted until the Revolution. She was also a saint.
Apart from unquestionable holiness (Boniface VIII canonized him a mere 27 years after his death), excellent administration and rule of his realm (a trait many, though not all, of the Capetians shared), some will be surprised to know that this man, who’s fame and importance would be akin to that of the president of the United States, went on a crusade twice, and died during the second of these travels. Both crusades achieved little and proved to be disastrous for Louis and the kingdom, with the first resulting in his kidnapping and ransom.
It is from Louis IX that this blog finds its inspiration. Times have certainly changed, but good Catholics can find some aspect of Louis’ life most invigorating.
As an undergraduate, I read Jean de Joinville’s Chronicles of the Crusades, without knowing much about medieval history nor Louis IX. Knowing a little bit about the Crusades, this blog draws it’s title from this work. Everyone should read it, if only for the small glimpse it gives us of Louis’ life.
A Catholic has always been in the world, not of it. In these times, as society has become so far removed, perhaps the most removed, from any kind of Christian standard, I seek to establish a contemporary chronicle of a Crusader simply trying to do what all Catholics ultimately seek, the salvation of his immortal soul. In the mean time, enjoy reading about that which occurs in this world.
Chronicles of a Crusader 
