The Long Campaign: The Reconquista and Dixie

One tendency among the Right that bothers me, even as I am guilty of falling into this line of thinking sometimes, is this reverse-Whig theory of history. This narrative is one where, instead of history as constant improvement, history is in constant decline with society getting worse and worse. It’s a tendency I can certainly understand, as I have seen society degrade significantly in my lifetime.

I grew up in a world where the Confederate flag flew proudly and without shame, something that feels very alien today. As tempting as this reverse-Whig theory is, it’s also poison to the Right as it encourages defeatism and hopelessness. A more proper view of history is to see it as a process that ebbs and flows. We are not in a battle of day-to-day, year-to-year, or even decade-to-decade. Our crusade is much longer than that. And, by focusing on how much worse things are now than they were ten years ago, we lose track of our goals. Sometimes, victory takes centuries.

Consider the case of Spain. In 711 AD, the Umayyad Caliphate, the most powerful Islamic state to ever exist, began its invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, which would be completed by 722 AD. The once dominant Christians were driven to a tiny strip of land in the far northern part of the Iberian Peninsula with the establishment of the Kingdom of Asturias in 722 AD. Reduced to a tiny mountain eyrie in a land his ancestors once called home, King Pelayo, the founder of Asturias, proclaimed: “Our hope is in Christ! This little mountain will be the salvation of Spain!” Fom there, a 770 year war would rage over the control of the Iberian Peninsula, one that Christian Spain would eventually win and go on to establish one of the greatest empires the world has ever known. They accomplished this by retaking their land slowly, foot by foot, until all of the Iberian Peninsula was under a Christian monarch. Taken as a single war, it is the longest war in the history of the world.

Along with the Portuguese, the Spanish were prepared for a long battle. I am sure, to use modern terminology, they were tempted to be “blackpilled” in 722 AD. They had been reduced to a tiny sliver of land and the most powerful empire in the world at that time was knocking on the door. It looked as if all was lost. Slowly but surely, the Iberian Peninsula was recaptured. It would be a mistake to think of the Reconquista as a series of constant military victories, even if taking centuries, there were times when the Islamic states would reconquer gains from the Christian kingdoms, erasing what gains had been made. All of this would continue until the fall of Granada in 1491 AD, bringing all of the Iberian Peninsula under Christian rule.

We can learn from the Spanish example. Today we are going through something that feels very much like the Christians must have felt in 722 AD. It looks as if all is lost. Statues are coming down all over Dixie, as well as Heritage America. Virginia has been consumed by radicals and North Carolina is not far behind. Georgia and Texas will likely soon follow. Our flag is being driven from the public square. Even in Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi, Dixie is being attacked. Mississippi’s flag will be a tremendous loss. NASCAR has banned the Confederate flag. All of this would have been unthinkable twenty years ago. But, this is not a twenty year struggle, it is longer than that and we must be prepared that it may take centuries.

Even if traditional Dixie is reduced to a single county and in a single state, we must continue. It is victory we may not see in our lifetimes, but we must begin laying the groundwork for victory, just as King Pelayo. From this single county we must win the neighboring county for Dixie, and that county’s neighboring county, and then that county’s neighboring county, until we have regained our homeland. For now, this will mean picking what battles to fight and doing so wisely. Remember, monuments can be rebuilt at another time, which is why moving monuments to private property will be a wise idea, especially in a state that is close to falling. Keep every shred of memorabilia you can find of traditional Dixie and show them to your children. Go ahead and get that physical copy of Gone with the Wind. Make it to where the government would have to break into your house to stop you from watching it, as opposed to merely pushing a button to stream it. If you can, start your own business and offer a family wage for our people. All of these steps will lay the groundwork for our retaking of Dixie.

It took 770 years to retake the Iberian Peninsula for Christ. Not only did the men who started the campaign never live to see final victory, neither did their children, their grandchildren, or even their great grandchildren. Some say their fathers’ victories were rolled back, but still the Reconquista went on. And, so must we. Do not be disheartened by the current state of things and think all is lost. For as dire as it was in the far northern reaches of Spain in 722 AD, this tiny strip of land planted the seed that would eventually grow to the Spanish Empire.

These have been some of the darkest days for Dixie seen since 1865, help plant the seeds for the eventual springing of a free nation. Let lesser men worry about the next year or even worse, the next election cycle. Focus on the long term, just as the patriots of Spain did. It took 770 years to retake Spain, even if it takes 1,000 years to retake Dixie, what will arise from that will be worth it. When the battle begun, it looked as if Islam was destined to take over the world. In less than 100 years since the death of Muhammad, Islam had arisen from the Arabian Peninsula and conquered three of the five major cities of ancient Christendom (Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch). They had almost destroyed the Byzantine Empire and were now approaching Western Europe. It looked as if Christian civilization would be destroyed.

But history did not turn out that way because of the grace of God and the bravery of generations of men and women. Look to them as an example to save our Dixie.

-By Harmonica

6 comments

  1. Once the North collapses, things will go much faster. If people in what used to be Michigan or Illinois are too busy trying to find food and stay alive, they won’t be coming here anymore, federal judges in tow, to stop us from reclaiming our country.

  2. As someone who takes the long view, this view is even greater than mine. Thank you. what are we doing about the black thugs taking over Stone Mountain??? While hope and comfort can be found hopefully in the future, actions that take place now are the pathway to that time.

    1. Hopefully this isn’t putting too fine a point on it. But if action is what you see as necessary, these folks aren’t going to be involved. This seems to be the headspace of the entire dissident movement anymore. Resignation, defeatism and escapism into history of “better tines”.

      You won’t see any of the writers here advocating for any action in the here and now. This is a think tank, its not in the genetic make up of the thing.

      Scholars write treatises on war while other people fight and die in them, until the war is over, then they write the history of the war.

      Last time I asked why nobody is discussing what we should actually do instead of navel gazing over history, I got called me names by one of the authors. Lol

      The orcs that conquered stone mountain could walk up on these folks porch and they would still feel like they needed to write a treatise on how its analogous to something something history etc… before they decided they should go inside where its quiet enough to keep reading books about dead people doing only tangentially related things in roughly similar circumstances.

      Truth hurts, when you know its true.

      The dissident right has explanations for why we are here. But no answers or conclusions what to do about it.

  3. Yes on the long view. Yes on an outside the system strategy. Yes on hope and faith.

    But I think the more analogous historical Spanish example is their civil war. The energy, culture, actual rule, and goals of the caliphate were of an entirely different nature than the communists. Worse by far, is that a strong case can be made that the technocratic reach, intent, funding, and global scale of today’s leftists (“Leftists” simply for the ease of argument) should cast a VERY different urgency and finality to what looks like is in fact unfolding now.

    Sometimes the pendulum not only stops swinging but crashes to the floor from the mounts. Sometimes things do end.

    The great handicap of the well-read and literate Right is that we see that war rarely plays out as hoped for. For the vanquished, it really can be a total loss. Consequently, the reflections of Nisbet or Kirk or any of the paleo pantheon have created a great reserve when it comes to acting. We like to think of ourselves as Rohan and the Riders of the Mark in waiting when in reality we’ve really just become Ents.

    The point here is to consider–strongly–that the potential of total subjugation and actual death is very real. That too is a lesson from history.

    It seems this is rarely openly discussed on our side soberly and strategically but instead left to the provocateurs, the immature, and the psychos. This is not a call for violence or stupid activism but to recognize that we are far away from having the leadership, organization, and funding to actual protect our selves geographically, let alone ideologically. It would seem playing out Pascal’s Wager and preparing to physically defend ourselves as a people should be where we focus now rather than how we re-emerge hundreds of years from now.

    And even if that preparation ends up not being needed (we “loose the wager”), as a by product of the effort, it would fast-track all the communal and networked goods we want anyway. Men want to come together do things that matter. There is nothing that would capture the interest of the man of the sides and motivate his commitment for what we pine for.

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