I'm a regular reader of Chris Bray's, Tell Me How This Ends. Chris usually covers underreported but important stories and current events. Occasionally he'll make excursions into the heartland of the country and share what he finds there with his readers. He published one such piece recently and it really resonated with me.
The thrust of the essay is that as he explores the more remote and rural areas of the country, he is noticing an emerging trend. Young people are retreating from decaying urban centers and heading to more secluded areas in order to build families and live lives of simplicity and connection to their local community. Rejecting modern excess and decadent pursuits, these people are falling back to the countryside as the storm clouds of a "New Dark Age" form on the horizon.
I can't say that I disagree with anyone who feels this way. For a long time, but especially over the last four years, it's been very difficult to shake the sense that wherever we go as a society from here, it likely won't be in the right direction. These people share that feeling and are striking out from the epicenters of cultural rot and moral inversion to build something new and genuine, far away from the chaos.
We hear a lot about culture war and ongoing clashes over values and even the nature of reality itself. The people in these rural areas seem to have realized that the better strategy is to simply walk out of the arena altogether. Instead of a prolonged and exhausting culture war, why not just go set up shop elsewhere with like-minded people? That this is even an option seems to have escaped many of us.
The common refrain from those who would continue the fight is that by refusing to play the game, we lose. I would respond with the question: Lose what?
The overwhelming majority of this country has capitulated entirely to the chaotic nihilism of secular modernity. Those who see the coming of a "New Dark Age" and withdraw from greater society aren't being defeatist. They leave because they understand that the present state of society is the inevitable result of the widespread abandonment of objective morality, tradition, familial bonds and desire for intimate connection with others. They understand that the urban population centers exist and operate as they do because of a fundamental rejection of their own worldview and values. There is no common ground.
What exactly is there to fight over?
The people building their families in these small and distant communities understand something that others haven't figured out yet. They understand that the fight is already over, and has been for some time. The good news is that the outcome is what is best for all involved. Let those who would reject reality have dominion over the artificial centers of population. Let those who will embrace reality go with their loved ones to live and grow in it.
The people who live in and are heading to these small towns and rural areas understand that a fight over cultural dominance is ultimately a waste of energy in pursuit of the wrong goal. Chris mentions a family owned coffee shop that he visited in a very remote area. For the mother running the coffee shop/homestead, the world, at least the part of it that matters, is right in front of her. Her children, husband, friends and small community are the places from which her life will derive meaning and satisfaction. Such a view of the world would likely be sneered at by elitists as being “provincial”. A “small-minded” approach to life. We might ask:
“What has the all-important "worldly" approach rewarded the secular world with?”
“For all the "Broadened Horizons" and "Open-Mindedness" of the cosmopolitan elites, what has any of it reaped other than confusion, division and a cold, bitter void where meaning and humanity used to live?”
The latter half of the twentieth century, for America at least, was a time of unprecedented prosperity and growth. We didn't harness that energy properly. We let the good times roll, until eventually they rolled right off a cliff. For many, that fall took humanity, connection and meaning along with it. The people who recognize the emptiness and insanity of life in modern society are moving away from the train wreck, rather than sticking around to fight over the debris.
The government, the media, and institutions as old as our country have been exposed completely. All have failed us. So be it. We'll make note of what went wrong and build our own, or more likely, try to live in such a way that we don't need them at all.
People often speak of the decay of society in a mournful way, a lament for a lost high point. I understand the feelings of nostalgia we all experience, but that time is gone. We can argue over when it ended exactly or who to hold responsible, it'll be gone all the same. It's important to remember though, that however rosy our view of the past may be, the situation we find ourselves in now is a direct result of those times and the people who occupied them. There were serpents lurking in Eden long before Eve ran into one and set the chain of corruption into motion.
If the end-product of the good times is the state of things today, how good were those times to begin with? With that question in mind, we can start to rethink the best way for all of us to spend our time on earth. It surely won't mirror the conclusions arrived at by the previous few generations. In pursuit of material excess and worldly experiences, they sacrificed the only things that mattered. A life well lived, with those we love. Experiencing life's gifts in a place that doesn't distract us endlessly, or numb our senses with its endless, screeching chaos.
Chris highlights a small bookstore that he came across in Wichita, Kansas. Eighth Day Books specializes in literature with a focus on theology and philosophy, along with texts that explore issues of virtue, morality and ethics. The store also stocks materials with these themes for use in homeschooling curriculum.
…we eschew the trendy, and do not carry books solely based on their saleability. Instead, we're selective, offering an eccentric community of books based on this organizing principle: if a book (be it literary, scientific, historical, or theological) sheds light on ultimate questions in an excellent way, then it's a worthy candidate for inclusion in our catalog.
It gives me hope to know that there are still people like this out there. That there are still some who see just how fallen and corrupt society has become, and where that will lead. They also seem to understand that in such times, the few who can recognize things with true value have the responsibility to hold on to those things, and pass them along to new generations.
The New Dark Age won't be dark for those who can hold on to the light. If half the world is actively trying to tear down all those things that make life worth living, and the other half is too distracted or easily manipulated to notice, then those who do recognize truth and understand what has real value will have the duty to carry the light forward. They seem happy to meet the challenge.
Yeah, I think we all, to one degree or another, share this sense of existential, civilizational dread, a permanent background sinking feeling of the loathsomeness of contemporary culture....a pleasure to read you and Bray and others, and I'm buying a book from Eighth Day Books, cheers!
Really well written, thank you for writing this. I know little about the American heartland, since I live in a small town in northern Austria. The culture war is obviously also trickling into this somewhat rural area, since young (and many older) people spend a lot of time on social media and form their opinion on the world according to the algorithms of Instagram and TikTok. I also notice the decay of our local Catholic church parish. I am often among the only people my age at congregations and it's getting harder to find volunteers for all the work that's required to happen to keep things running. The cold hard truth is that I probably won't be able to course-correct the macro cultural changes that are happening. What I can do is to point out what I notice, mend wounds where I am, try to explain and encourage a way of life that I find salutary. I can't keep things from withering away and dying on my own. We have to cultivate a certain distance to the maelstrom of time and concentrate on our circle of influence in order not to get sucked in and crushed by it.