When There’s Nothing Left to Say

It has been a while since I’ve approached the blank page. Not for a lack of things to say, a cautionary word, or a bit of rediscovered wisdom to pass along from a historical analog. Quite the opposite. 

In context of our shared concerns and the disorienting and perilous moment in history, there’s a great deal that can be said. The problem is, there really is nothing left to say. 

Like preparing for a storm that’s grinding toward landfall but still days away, once prepared, you simply wait for the impact. 

There’s little, if anything, that will meaningfully contribute to the edification of an already well-versed and hyper-informed group regarding the nature and the number of the problems facing us. The storm will either break on our heads and we’re prepared, or it will divert away, and we’ll be as we are at this very moment. 

Here’s the concern, and it’s a real one. 

I’m old enough to remember things and there are concerning signs within Southern Nationalism and dissident groups but also in the more mainstream Right-leaning activists and outlets in general. These signs increasingly and eerily resemble the tenor, fixation and near fetishization of the issues that were happening among the myriad of now defunct anti-communist groups and the ever-splintering and too narrowly defined special interest factions that existed into the 1990s. 

Most collapsed into obscurity or irrelevance once their opposition weakened, re-branded, or were defeated. For all their witty and penetrating critique and commentary, in the end, they were pointing toward nothing and had no answer for what to do (God forbid) they actually won. Rather than building toward a vision of permanence and doing the hard work of how to reconstruct the family, communities, and a people, they existed for the drama, the fleeting attention, and, in many cases, simply a paycheck. They wasted an opportunity. 

We cannot let this happen.

Mesmerized by the Abyss

Most of us, myself included, pride ourselves on being informed and plugged into the various dissident and alternative sources of domestic and global news. We aggregate, discuss, and even contribute to the great debate. It consumes a significant amount of our mental bandwidth and time. We convince ourselves that it is our duty and our contribution to the important work and resistance in service to The Cause. 

And what has become the driving occasion for dissident communities to even come together? To share and comment on the latest outrage, the newest twist in the plot, offer our two cents on whether the newest character introduced into the narrative is a villain or ally. It is addicting. 

It is easy for this to become entertainment and a self indulgent hobby at the expense of the hard work needing to be done we pretend to not see.  

If it weren’t for the perpetual crisis, I suspect a great many would slip into mourning, struggling with profound boredom now that the entertainment has ended. 

Others would have an identity crisis because they’ve existed for too long only as man-in-opposition-to-the-enemy, an enemy it turns out he desperately needs to exist so that he has purpose. 

The danger is analogous to the husband and wife who for decades excessively focus on the children but neglected each other. One morning after the last child has left the nest, they stare across the breakfast table in an empty and quiet house and realize they have little to say because they no longer know each other.  

I’m close to many in leadership in the pro-life movement and since the overturning of Roe, while their need has never been more critical, as individuals, you might be surprised how many are struggling with what to do with themselves. 

We tell ourselves we’re afraid that The Enemy will unleash their legions onto the streets and into our neighborhoods to confiscate our weapons and commandeer our chickens, maybe force the Mark of the Beast upon us! But I suspect it is closer to the truth to say that we fear it won’t happen. If it doesn’t, we have no reason to be going through all this effort, indulging in all the discussion, all the prepping, all the avoidance of other things (the real people in our lives) that need our attention.  

Yes, we live in a deranged age. But too much of our collective energy to chronicle and monitor the spectacle is, in fact, a great distraction, a very near and real occasion of sin. 

We know more about subtle and nuanced political movements, about the figures and the minutiae of events in distant lands and even events 80 years ago than we do about ourselves and the very people we supposedly love and are fighting for. 

Dear reader and fellow contributors, it is important to pay attention and offer insight, but if we are not also daily building the real structures, friendships, communities, networks and institutions that must be in place for our future, it is all for naught. There is little left to say, action alone will save us.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever…
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done;
and there is nothing new under the sun.

7 comments

  1. Well said. We need to focus not on the Enemy but on building the wellbeing of what remains of the Southern people.

  2. Hear ye! ALL alt news sites, “inundate the sheeple with information, overwhelming them into inaction … NEVER FOR THE LIFE OF ( ANY OF ) THEM PRESENTING OR HAVING A GUEST ON THAT, PRESENTS “ANY” SOLUTION “EVER!!!” Once you’ve watched, read and listened to all of them for a year or so ( since about 2005 for me ), you are “informed.” You can then stop watching, reading and listening to them … and nothing changes. They’re all pathetic.

    We need a plan … a vision. A nation of our own that we ARE building … and yes, it means doing things now BUT, always with as close as we can get to a perfect CSA II as the main goal. Keeping in mind of course that CSA II is really all of us and our loved ones collectively. So of course much of our plan must include bettering ourselves and preparing ourselves to survive and thrive through anything AS we slowly massage CSA II into existence.

    Start with God. Then health. Then money. You need a skill and a trade. An online skill / business and rolls and rolls of silver. Your backyard should be a mini organic farm. Water filters gas masks night vision body armor ammo … oh and, “industrial fire proof your house.” Look into it. New buildings have to have this done. There’s levels of protection. Bullet proof your home to if you can.

    The storm is here and it’s not diverting. Our military is useless and we’re on our own …

  3. Great article.

    There used to be a blog called The Last Psychiatrist that I’m just now starting to read the archives of. One of the things he points out is that talking and researching can be a proxy for doing; we can either do or talk/ research, but doing is hard so we default to talk/ research. Like a kid confronted with a choice between cookies or broccoli, we choose the cookie.

    As you say we are now at the point where there is nothing left to say and nothing left to research. We have far more knowledge about the problems and issues than we need to come up with solutions. And I think most of us know the solutions, but they are harder than continuing to discuss and research.

    Get to know your neighbors. Build local resiliency. Become or look for leaders at the local and state level. Do more than vote, volunteer. Get to know the local movers and shakers, become one.

  4. It’s important to maintain perspective and never neglect any of our earthly duties. At the same time, never, never, never allow your enemy to slip out of your peripheral vision. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” – 1 Peter 5:8.

    That enemy will not peacefully coexist with you, or willingly yield you even one moment of ‘a quiet a peaceable life.’

  5. Excellent comments here and encouraging: We all “know” what has to be done in real life. We can’t change the world but if once a week we helped change the world for just one person in our immediate area, it does make a big difference. A family member, even a neighbor you don’t particularly like but needs a hand, just do it. Mow his overgrown lawn, buy groceries for someone, just be there to let someone else have a moment to tell another human what’s eating at them.

    Will be checking out the The Last Psychiatrist as well.

  6. The South is full of struggling single mothers with children forced into degrading public schools where they will never get any education that will help them progress. How about a great charitable program for that to help rebuild and strengthen the South.

    1. I’m not a fan of the SBA (small business admin) but they have a program called SCORE which is a volunteer pool of mostly retired expert business people that mentor aspiring entrepreneurs plan, launch, manage etc… all for free. ID would be doing a huge service to replicate this, not just with business advice, but across the spectrum of professional services. Working even for a few hours with one of these single moms to coach them on how to budget, what skills and how to get them (cheap to free), resume prep, you name it…it could change their lives. Big Brothers/Sisters is another program that could also be replicated to intercede into the what in many cases are genuinely desperate lives on a terrible trajectory. As individuals we can do this today. As a community it would be a noble goal.

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