Posted on 01/04/2023 7:31:47 AM PST by Heartlander
The idea of a conservative counterculture might seem like an oxymoron. The term itself has been colored by the 1960s, when left-wing intellectuals, revolutionaries, and artists captured the spirit of revolt against a suptposedly homogenous, oppressive, conformist America. That old counterculture has become the dominant culture, having been absorbed into the bureaucracies of universities, schools, government, and now major corporations. The left-wing culture no longer carries a critique; it is the status quo.
This reversal has created an opening for a new counterculture that challenges the orthodoxy of the “successor ideology” and reveals the hollowness of left-wing institutional management. Though many conservatives have seen the opportunity, they have been pessimistic about its prospects. Conservative critics have long lamented the lack of right-wing pop-culture production; some have rallied to such troubled figures as Kanye West, hoping that dissident celebrities could break through the stranglehold of left-wing ideological control.
But this pessimism is misplaced. The solution to left-wing cultural dominance is neither to embrace any celebrity who casts a glance rightward nor to mimic the artistic production of the cultural Left. It is to go deeper—to rebuild the structures that provide the basis for healthy, integrated human development: families, schools, churches, neighborhoods.
Though few have noticed, this is already happening. A “Quiet Right” is patiently, and nearly invisibly, building a viable counterculture.
The main locus of this movement is in education, where conservative families have created robust alternatives to the secular and predominantly left-wing public education system. Many have turned to homeschooling, which has seen double-digit growth in recent years. Others have enrolled their children in a fast-growing network of “classical schools,” which have returned to the traditional liberal arts curriculum of logic, rhetoric, grammar, mathematics, Latin, and music. And the small but influential network of traditional, faith-based colleges, such as Hillsdale, Benedictine, Thomas Aquinas, and University of Dallas, have seen record-breaking enrollment.
In the cultural domain, the Quiet Right has broken significant new ground. In the arts, right-wing pseudonymous authors have created new magazines, publishing houses, and literary prizes. More mainstream companies, such as the Daily Wire, have sought to create conservative media institutions at industrial scale. Figurative painting and neo-classical architecture have gained appreciation. At the grassroots level, faith-based and family-oriented social media content have seen rapid growth, with “mom bloggers” revalorizing family and motherhood and a “back-to-the-land” movement appealing to classic Americana imagery and offering an alternative to millennial aesthetics.
The Quiet Right is also reshaping America’s social geography. The past decade has seen a movement to repopulate small towns and create culturally moderate communities that offer an alternative to misgoverned coastal enclaves. Covid-19 accelerated this shift, with many families packing their bags and seeking more ideologically compatible communities. They fled California, Illinois, and New York for Florida and Texas. Even within states, the flight to the suburbs is, in large part, a flight from left-wing culture and policy.
Though it might not make headlines, the Quiet Right represents a key social shift. Its adherents believe that human life is not cultivated primarily in the abstract—through ideology, media, and technology—but in the flesh. They sense the danger of captured institutions and are determined to build viable alternatives, substitutes, and replacements. As the New Year begins, it’s worth remembering, before falling into the regular tumult of the political, that the Quiet Right is where conservatives should devote their energy. It is home to the things that will last.
Yeah, the old silent majority. Silent? Yes. Majority? I have my doubts.
Could be too late though. The left was building a counterculture in the 50s, and even before that. But just counting from the 50s, it took them almost 60 years before they were able to capture most of the institutions by this strategy. It’s a long game and I’m afraid we don’t have enough time to play it like that.
This has merit.
I'll repeat myself: a VERY WISE FReeper said the endocrine system's clash with environmental factors may play a part in the trans "movement. and the nasty food allergies and overuse of ADHD drugs.
Far too many household products contain toxins that are known endocrine disruptors. Way too many foods are Frankenfoods, full of garbage and fillers God did not design us to ingest. Toys, water bottles, toothpaste, and more are slowly poisoning our children. That, combined with a lack of exercise and sunshine, is doing long-term damage to our kids.
Counterculture promoted homeopathy, natural and pesticide-free foods. Nowadays, it is the Administrative Ruling Class and their retinue in the medical industry has moved towards affirmation instead of cause and cure. They reassign the confused children and drug the hyperactive ones, with the sanction of the "authorities." It's a ghastly as Tuskegee, except the authorities are targeting on the basis of mindcrime.
I never thought promoting peace and love and (real) justice, and treating our minds and bodies as a temple on loan from God was radical. The poles have flipped. We may have more in common with punk rockers.
I happen to know several trans people who grew up in organic homeschooled non chemical environments
Nice theory but it doesnt hold water.
I theorize it is the electronics. Cell, Wifi, screens
This should be mandatory reading. Thanks for posting.
Our main focus should be on encouraging non-believers to become believers in Christ, and encouraging people who are already fellow Christians into being deep-down, sure 'nuff, no matter what, no matter who type Christians. This is how both the atheist left and the Muslims play the long game.
Quiet? No. Seething? You betcha.
Perhaps. But when everything built by the left implodes, those who will be left to pick up the pieces and start again will be this somewhat hidden, low key, conservative counter culture that has laid low and learned how to survive.
At least, in theory.
Absolutely, we are the radicals now.
Question authority. Do your own research. Think outside the box.
Our children’s lives depend on it.
Quiet Riot..... now I’m really confused.
I love this, because now that it’s ‘cool’ to be a ‘freak’ — I went from slam dancing and pink hair to voting R (well, in honesty, I’ve voted R since 1988 (when I was 20 years old WITH a mohawk). I still vote R, still have a quasi mohawk and am still edgy . I avoid all garbage food (except when we go to the Super Asian Buffet and I eat my little deepfried sugar donuts) and mostly avoid wheat, corn, etc. I’m 54, have more energy than most teenagers (although my hips and knees are all shot to heck from weightlifting) and have finally given my life to Christ (who I am fully willing to give my life for.)
The crazy thing — back in the 70s, my Repub mom was part of the counter culture and was all into homeopathic medicine, yoga, health food, etc. She and dad were Beats in the 50s (and all of the Beats were radical right wingers.)
We are not the sheep.
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