Rod Dreher's recent post "Are We Declining? Are We Falling?" raised in my mind the spectrum of possible Christian responses to our cultural meltdown. Dreher quotes his friend Rusty Reno and then, as often, begs to differ. I beg to differ even further.
In fact I don't have much patience with Reno. I read his pieces now and then, waiting for one to impress me as more than just fluff. It hasn’t happened yet. Reno is like the David Brooks of First Things--so middle of the road he’s not on any road at all. But the column inches keep piling up, don’t they?
Sorry if that doesn't seem very Christian. I've grown exasperated with pundits who can’t see the cliff we’re heading toward.
Rod’s paragraphs in answer to Reno raise the real questions. (I won't summarize Rod's piece here. Go read it and some of the comments if you like.)
Just in time to save the day rather than answer those questions is "Kara", whose comment posted first, arriving brtight and confident in the findings of a decade of postmodern identity masturbation. Kara comes to show us the Maoists at the gates! Her eagerness to get the rehabilitation camps built ASAP for all those who don’t check the right boxes--it's actually palpable. And Kara may succeed too. Because the Maoists now have all the assets of Silicon Valley and the trendy corporations ready to flatter and virtue-signal their Miley-level dogmas to the Win. Gulags in Nebraska! After which, Rusty Reno (and maybe David Brooks too) will be led away muttering: “But can’t we talk about this?”
Which is why, though I subscribe to Rod’s general thinking on the Benedict Option, on the cultural front, when I encounter these SJW hordes online or in public, I’m in favor of a more Milo-Yiannopoulos-style In Your Face Offend All Their Sensibilities Glee.
Yes, we need to offend their sensibilities (calmly, collectedly, and with glee) because 1) we need to remind them as often as possible that their sensibilities do not have the authority over us they imagine, and 2) their sensibilities are offensive to us.
Debate is dead with these people, and we really have nothing to lose. Except this war.
Check out my Idiocy, Ltd. and begin the long, hard reckoning.
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