Open Letter to Traditionalists

(Originally posted to the UMP Blog on July 1st, 2022)

Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500-1558)

First, I think it is necessary to define what a Traditionalist is, or rather how I interpret Traditionalism. Simply put, it is a worldview which finds value and direct applications for historical principles or institutions in the “modern” world. Not as a form of nostalgia, of regression, or of despotism; but as the best means to secure our culture, history, and vitality as a civilization. It is an evolutionary Not revolutionary frame.

It is one of those rare moments of agreement between two groups so different as Traditionalists and Modernists. What I am referring to of course is the irreplaceability or irreplicability of our previous social, cultural, and/or political state. Traditionalists see it as a more virtuous time, a better time in human affairs, but one which cannot be restored because it was a product of high civilization and religion, both of which have either decayed or have been destroyed by forces of modernity (secularism, atheism, egalitarianism, socialism, etc.). For traditionalists any hope of mending what was broken or restoring what was lost died in the fires of the revolutions which spread across the world in the last +200 years. Modernists on the other hand see a period that cannot be restored because we have naturally outgrown those old and outdated forms and ideas from the past. Modernists view the last 2,000 years as an age of oppression, exploitation, profiteering, conquest, and undue suffering to a massive degree from anything before the end of the Cold War. It would be an understatement to say that their window of reference is very limited. Well, I’m here to say to the trads and moderns, both of you are wrong! The past cannot be revived as it was, this is true, but analogues can indeed be created that mirror and subsequently regenerate, to a greater or lesser degree, those qualities of the past which are so sought after.

As is often said, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. It won’t be a LARPing quest or a fake revival as modernists often accuse any restoration of being, it will be a real transformation with the past as our guide. Accusations of nostalgia or backsliding are always leveled against any form of “fake” revival no matter the area or discipline; Architecture, Education, Fashion, Social arrangements, etc. because for modernists everything is in the moment. Something’s proper place is that EXACT point in time. History therefore is regarded as largely overrated; a past to be heavily criticized with hindsight, but certainly not something to be inspired by. “Unironically” advocating for monarchism, traditional ways of practicing religion, respecting hierarchy and showing deference to rank, all will probably result in you being branded as a relic. The mudslinging goes so low sometimes that accusations of mental deficiencies are leveled. Modernists are literally incapable of understanding the world in any other way than the “here and now”, and what we have now is obviously superior to anything and everything from the past.

The Huge problem with that sort of thinking is that it is fleeting, everything is hanging in the air and permanently deracinated. At its most extreme it borders on Solipsism. So at this point, modernism doesn’t really need to be referenced or consulted, especially “woke” modernism, they have nothing of substance to offer or say on the matter other than “the past has no value.” Traditionalists do see value in the past and so I am here to draw them out of their depressed slump! To encourage them to be more active, and in different ways from previously.

The past was itself a creation, an amalgamation of many different factors, perhaps not a conscious creation, but those ingredients which encompassed former western civilization were themselves consciously enacted and pursued. Some cultural, some political, some religious, and some philosophical. Not all of those ingredients are necessarily “equal” however. While they are all important, their relative impact on the desired ends could prove decisive. Many traditionalists view religion and social norms as important, but those are really products or successful flowerings of the two most important factors, which I believe are Government and Philosophy. So here again I am to tell trads that mass conversions are not even that important, at least not currently.

We just need to travel back in time a little bit, back to the foundations of Western civilization: Rome. Though ancient Greece definitely had an impact on the development of the West, it was largely the conquests of Rome which turned those civilizational qualities of the Mediterranean world into a truly Transalpine, European, and Western civilization and identity. The Accomplishments, Grandeur, and Prestige of Rome were not lost even on the Germanic Tribes that settled western lands as Roman rule faded there, but I’m getting ahead of myself just a bit.

Rome was a culture and civilization that began in 753 BC and lasted as a Kingdom until the year 509 when the Kings were ousted and a Republic established. Roman offices such as Consuls, Tribunes, Praetors, Quaestors, and institutions like the Senate, along with various forms of law and customs were developed and evolved during this time. During the latter half of the first century BC Rome evolved yet again into an Empire, due in large part to the corrupted nature of the Republican institutions and the inability of the government to take decisive and necessary action during times of crisis for the Republic. Julius Caesar and later his grandnephew Augustus Caesar would both reform and transform the Roman Government, a decision that would have profound implications for the next 1,800 – 1,900 years at least.

The crisis of the Third Century nearly saw Rome rip itself apart, but it was able to survive the maelstrom with the brilliance, talent, and marshal ability of various Emperor’s, many of whom had far shorter tenures than they should have had or otherwise could have had. At the end of this crisis the emperor Diocletian rose to power and attempted to resolve many of the crucial issues within the empire, one was Imperial management, and the other was social order. Diocletian’s solution to the former was dividing Imperial administration between two senior Emperors, known as Augustus, and two junior Emperors, known as Caesar. Diocletian’s solution to the latter issue would, like Augustus and Julius Caesar, have profound implications for the next 900 – 1,000 years, and it was twofold; creating the system we now know as serfdom to solve the issues surrounding employment and agriculture, as the chaos of the civil wars had seen many roman citizens flee the countryside and their farms for the relative safety of the cities. The second was to remedy the religious issue and resulted in many persecutions of Christians. The Christian faith was in many ways diametrically opposed in its philosophy and theology to roman religion, culture, and values; as such many roman Emperor’s, especially Diocletian, saw them as a seditious group towards which tolerance was not extended as it was to other religions throughout the Empire.

After Diocletian another civil war began and when the dust settled the emperor Constantine, later St. Constantine the Great, arose as sole Emperor of Rome. He, like Diocletian, would have a profound impact on the Western world, this time right up until today; He legalized Christianity. After nearly 300 years of persecution, Christian’s could come out of secrecy and hiding and practice their faith in the open alongside the other faiths of the Empire. Several Emperor’s later and Theodosius the Great would make Christianity the official and only religion of the Roman Empire. Though the devotees of the old faiths were not dead, and could not be killed off so easily, even by Theodosius’s decree, they eventually faded, either going underground or officially converting. The Frankish Kingdom and Empire under the Merovingians and Carolingians would set the foundations of a Catholic France and Germany. The Visigoths in Iberia whose heirs of Portugal, Castile, and Aragon would preserve Christianity in the North of the peninsula until the final ending of the Reconquista in 1492 AD after its beginning in 801 AD.

All of this might seem like pointless history, but it actually has a profound point to make, especially to traditionalists who, as I had said before, see religion and social norms as being of most importance, sometimes to the sacrifice of all else. But as demonstrated here, Christianity, the religion western civilization most adheres to, did not spread and effect us in a vacuum, it had solid and important institutions into which it grew and through which it spread. The Catholic Church ironically uses the exact same organizational hierarchy that was developed by Emperor Diocletian, one of the faiths most rigid oppressors. And it was only 8 years from the retirement of Diocletian in 305 to the Edict of Milan by Constantine which extended toleration to Christianity and legalized it in 313; it was an extremely fast adjustment! Really it amounted to an about-face in terms of imperial policy.

My ultimate point here is to demonstrate to the trads that you are attempting to grow your crops in a soil that has been sown with salt. There is poison in this environment that will not admit the roots you are attempting to lay down. First of all, that poison must be removed, it must be flushed out. In other words, you cannot lay down religious and cultural roots before you fertilize the corrupted soil where all of that will grow. The Roman Empire was the plow of the past that prepared the field of Europe for further planting, and it allowed for the countries of the west to rise. The same fields prepared by Constantine and Theodosius allowed for them to flower and bear fruit in a certain way, a cornucopia of history that we recognize.

Traditional/Christian Kingship in late antiquity and the Early-Middle Ages existed because there were Kingdoms in existence that preceded the faith’s migration. Christianity may have alchemically transmuted those Kingdoms, but it certainly did not make them on its own or by its own merits. Western civilization, from late antiquity to the Middle-Ages, and from the Renaissance to the Early Modern Period, was and is not just a product of the dominant faith, it is just as much a product of the intellectual and political inheritances as well. There are important reasons why a rich corpus of knowledge form antiquity survived; why abbeys preserved and copied the works of Plato and Aristotle, why speeches of Cicero survived, why Julius Caesars Gallic Wars survived, why Courthouses look like Roman temples, why Christian cathedrals are shaped like Roman Basilicas, why we remember Charlemagne as reviving Rome in the west, why so many Kingdoms sought to emulate the might and glory of Rome, on and on we could go!

It is my opinion and advice to trads (and one in which I hope they will take up!) that politics, government, and philosophy are far more important objectives to focus on in the public sphere, not mass conversions. When it comes to reviving or emulating the past forms and ideals through which our civilization flourished, developed, and was secure; the ground must first be tilled and fertilized before the seeds can be sown. Religious practice and social etiquette are harder things to achieve on a mass scale if the political, intellectual, and philosophical structures that exist currently do not easily or readily admit, support, or partner with them.

History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes; and it might be difficult for you to admit that this rhyme could be far older than you would like it to be. But if it is true that this song has its origin over 1,800 years ago, we definitely need to recognize that, accept it, and work with it, not against it. You pray for a Constantine or Theodosius, I pray for an Aurelian or Julian, but I’m sure we can both agree that praying for an Augustus wouldn’t be half bad!

Best and Warmest Regards,

~ Augustus