The Tide Is Turning
We have but a brief window of opportunity to seize the moment and rewind the clock back to sanity.
Charlie Kirk’s assassination has served as a catalyst for turning a new leaf in our civilizational return to sanity. In a fascinating recent podcast, titled “Western Civilization Has Reached Its Turning Point After Charlie Kirk’s Death,” Victor Davis Hanson remarks:
Something is happening in the United States, … worldwide, too. [T]he death of Charlie Kirk ignited it. It’s not a top-down DEI mandate. It’s a grassroot kind of collective shrug throughout Western civilization [that] could be characterized as “enough is enough.”
We’re witnessing largescale demonstrations in Ireland, Great Britain. The government of France has fallen. …. [T]here is unrest in the Netherlands. We used to think … that Eastern Europe was supposedly backward politically under the Soviet sway, economically stagnant. But … lately, the Eastern Europeans seem the most sensible of all Westerners. They believe in tradition. They believe in borders. They believe in legal only immigration. They believe in fossil fuel development…. And yet, they are also having a reinforcing moment.
Hanson elaborates on this moment, characterized as the West’s “collective shrug”:
What is this moment? We are seeing it in the United States with thousands of people … commemorating the death of Charlie Kirk. There’s no tolerance for the usual left-wing socialist craziness, the abhorrent violent smears of conservatives who’ve died. And you don’t see major bureaucrats or generals or Hollywood figures increasingly … coming out and rejoicing, because they feel that they’re going to get a big push back.
This is not violent. It’s just a collective shrug. And what is the shrug? Basically, it’s saying we’re tolerant of people with alternate lifestyles, but whether we like it or not, the nuclear two-parent family for 2,500 years has ensured the survival of Western civilization….
We have a multi-racial, multicultural population. But whether we like it or not, the foundations of the United States are Judeo-Christian, as they are of Western civilization in general. We have no apologies for that…
We also are tired of what I call boutique anti-Americanism… It doesn’t mean we’re going to outlaw free speech or try to do use the same tactics as the critics of America do. But what we’re saying is we’re a unique place. We’re better than the alternative. We don’t have to be perfect to be good. So, you can say all you want, but we’re going to not just ignore you. We’re going to do our best to make sure your voices have no influence…
Hanson concludes:
[P]eople throughout the West say … we have let in millions … that do not like us and do not share our values. We have opted for economic irrationalism that has … harmed our economies and hurt our lifestyles. We have embraced critical legal theory, critical race theory that suggested the criminal is a victim rather than a victimizer. And we see the effects, and the verdict is in: it doesn’t work.
And we see that our governments, our bureaucracy, our culture at large doesn’t want to hear this message. And we know they’re influential in the media, in the corporate boardroom, in the university, but … they don’t represent 51% of the people ….
Crowds are now marching in Europe in the United States, and the message is: what has worked in the past does not have to be perfect …. It’s better the than the alternative, and we’re going to return to it, and we wish you would join us. But if you don’t want to join us and you want to dismantle Western civilization, or you hate the United States, or you despise your particular European country, then you’re going to be voted out of office and you’re going to have zero political power as it should be.
This grassroots moment reminds me of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Eastern Europe rejected totalitarian socialism. After decades of being brutally coerced into a serf-like subsistence, people awakened with the realization that “enough was enough.” They simply refused to tolerate the tyranny of the absurd any longer.
Similar to the woke usurpation of language in recent years, we were forced to use preposterous fake terms and live by lies in our public existence. As the Berlin Wall collapsed, so did the double-speak and absurd terminology.
In November of 1989, I attended a rally to restore free speech and oppose communism. One of the speakers addressed us as “Ladies and Gentlemen.” After decades of being compelled to ubiquitously employ the absurd address “Comrade,” regardless of whether we were speaking to a superior or a subordinate, we couldn’t believe we were hearing the normal, traditional, and meaningful “Ladies and Gentlemen.” And we said, “Enough is enough.”
Overnight, the ridiculous address “Comrade” disappeared from public speech. I was warned by my family to wait a bit before calling my teachers or other adults “Mr.” and “Mrs.” With the boldness of youth, I disregarded the warning and took special delight in greeting everyone I saw with the respectful and time-honored forms of address. This might seem trivial, but it is symbolic of something much greater — the long-overdue return to tradition and sanity. Let’s not forget that the woke language police in the West also tried to outlaw “Ladies and Gentlemen.” Swiftly, other areas of social life followed suit and returned to normalcy.
We experienced the same “collective shrug,” just as people in the West now are sick and tired of being browbeaten by the woke insanity. As it often happens in history, we needed a few courageous individuals to lead the way. Back in Eastern Europe, we were inspired by figures such as Reagan, Thatcher, and John-Paull II. Today, people in the West are fortunate to have courageous statesmen and influencers who were ahead of the curve.
We have but a brief window of opportunity to seize the moment and rewind the clock back to sanity. Only thus can we rebuild the rock-solid foundations of a tradition that has worked best in human history and provides the only viable hope for the future.
Nora D. Clinton is a Research Scholar at the Legal Insurrection Foundation. She was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria. She holds a PhD in Classics and has published extensively on ancient documents on stone. In 2020, she authored the popular memoir Quarantine Reflections Across Two Worlds. Nora is a co-founder of two partner charities dedicated to academic cooperation and American values. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and son.
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Comments
“[P]eople throughout the West say … we have let in millions … that do not like us and do not share our values.”
Take up the White Man’s burden-
And reap its old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard-
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:-
“Why brought ye us from bondage,
our loved Egyptian night?”
–RUDYARD KIPLING
I read today that Stockholm is the second highest rape city in the world. Most of the victims are blonde and most of the rapist are Muslim. When do we start showing protests against this abomination called Islam? In Germany 67% of viloent crime is from immigrants. GB is all but Muslim and France is a cauldron of Muslim violence and hate. Where are the countries or cities that are prospering under Islamic rule? Where are the countries where people are trying to immigrate to? When does it become obvious even to the left that our laws and culture are not compatible with Islam?
Might as well put “never let a tragedy go to waste” to use. Use their rules against them. I’ve heard Kirk’s assassination called the right’s MLK moment.
The hatred on the left for Charlie Kirk was indeed because of his brilliant defense of Western Civilization and Judeo/Christian values and beliefs.
On a practical level his real threat to their power and influence was his effective arguments against DEI which was rapidly changing the ideological balance of power among college and even high school students.
The pivot on the left to attacking him as a racist because of his opposition to DEI is just a blatant attempt to hang on to their patronage money and power scheme.
DEI was not designed to open up opportunities for minorities. It was designed and used to put leftwing ideologues in government, business and education positions where they could control access to money, power and jobs.
The elimination of DEI structures in academia, government and corporations has cut off a vast empire of power, money and control from the radical leftist movement.
We have a long way to go and the insane left have not stopped trying to murder us all
Until people are put in prison, top shelf people, this will continue
Bondi is not up to it
But I believe Trump is coming around to her not being up to the task
I’ve been saying for decades that normal people should not be going to schools run by commies. Really, what did you think was going to happen? Did you think that if the commies gave the poison kool-aid with appealing flavor and in small sips that it wouldn’t turn your mind to worthless mush?
How in the name of anything remotely not vile could parents send their kids to ideological gulags and Lai Gai’s?
If you don’t stop the indoctrination, anything else done will be a waste of time in the long run.
Tides don’t “turn”. Once freedom is lost the only way to get it back is through violence. What Hanson is describing is wishful thinking because the Left isn’t going to go away on its own. They have started shooting at us… and we are going to do what, exactly? Shame them with eloquence and prose?
Here’s a few things we can without violence;
1. Vote the wokiesta leftists and the collaborators out of office where possible.
2. Replace the squishy Reps and especially the Senators from deep Red jurisdictions who campaign on one set of policies but in DC vote for another set.
3. Stop conducting commerce with lefty wokiesta brands.
4. Stop hiring/promoting by DEI nonsense in center/right entities.
5. If the place you work demands attendance at DEI workshops make it plain you would prefer not to attend but if they make you show up then vigorously, ruthlessly ‘participate’ to the point you hijack the event using facts, logic, evidence in a ‘happy warrior’ communication style.
6. When friends, family, acquaintances choose to lecture you about lefty wokiesta nonsense then engage with them using same as above tactics until they quit.
7. Show up in large numbers to public meetings; city council, county commission, school board to voice dissent and disagreement with whatever lefty wokiesta nonsense is going on.
8. Get involved in your local County GoP to create a critical mass of folks committed to a realistic policy agenda and candidates which are at least as center/right as the constituents. Don’t tolerate backsliding.
9. Shun, shame the nutty leftist wokiestas; if someone with power/prominence in your area celebrated the murder of Kirk they should be hounded and ridiculed out of ‘police society’.
10. Reach out to other like minded people but always keep in mind the goal of a big tent, that some differences will emerge, no ‘purity’ tests other than very clear bright line issues; no Tranny nonsense for children is an example.
11. Demand investigation of lefty NGO, entities, orgs even tangentially involved in wrong doing (one of their employees, vendors or affiliates) and prosecution for any criminal actions.
12. Demand investigations and prosecution of those who finance or otherwise facilitate mob violence.
There’s a.dozen viable points of action. I’m sure others can offer even more. There’s a long way to go before we
get to ‘civil war’. We shouldn’t want one b/c once begun there’s no quick button to push to turn it off and things will spiral out of control quickly. Old feuds, animosity for this or that person, neighbors with a property boundary dispute, gangs, criminals all will use the cover/excuse of a ‘civil war’ to seek retribution.
I am confused by all this talk of shrugging.
To me, shrugging denotes a lack of caring, a “so what” attitude, “whatever”, “no big deal”.
This is none of those things. To me, the rising attitude seems to be a calm, cool, reasoned “Stop.” “Not one more inch.” “No longer.”
And lastly, “If you aren’t going to help us fix this, then we’ll find someone who will.”
This 100%.
I interpreted “shrug” as in Atlas Shrugged. To remove the burden from one’s shoulders.
That and to stop paying attention or giving credence to those shouting that this/that person is some variety of an ‘ist full of isms’. When the wokiesta/lefty (or goons on the right for that matter) start trying to turn fairly innocuous statements into incitement or start getting upset about factual statements it’s time to tune them out. The tone policing of the pearl clutching country club types is something else to ignore. Those folks had their opportunity, blew it so in the tradition of lead,.follow or get out of the way …they can opt to follow or get out of the way.
For 2 decades, America has been a giant charging bull elephant turned into a complete and utterly useless coward at the sound of smallest most ineffectual mouse screeching “racist” on the internet.
Once upon a time it was said that you don’t fire your weapon until you see the white of their eyes.
We have seen far beyond their eyes, and directly into the soulless abyss that has manifested within.
I’m afraid the time to fire has passed us by.
After an extremely long winning streak, the devil is finally having a bad year. Too bad he chose to martyr Charlie Kirk at the turn of the tide.
Be advised, he won’t go quietly. I don’t think we’ve seen the last attempt on Trump.
Worth repeating, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” – Edmund Burke.
To abandon hope is the ultimate defeat — at one’s own hands.
I see a lot of “inspirational” chatter that resembles the usual reaction to the left’s most recent outrage, only to die out as the right adjusts, loses its fervor, and returns to their usual state of torpor. We’ll see whether the worm has turned or not with the midterm elections.
We’ll see sooner than that in VA and NJ elections this year. Not to mention whether folks who claim to care about issues will put in the time and effort to show up to their local school board and city council meetings…or join the local County GoP and remain actively involved in shaping how things play out local v remaining passive.
I suspect that your prediction about most folks is all too accurate. Most won’t be bothered to do the heavy lifting to make real change in their own communities when needed.
This is how the leftists have gotten where they have — apathy of the masses.
“PATHETIC” is 88.8+% of “apathetic”.