As described in earlier posts on this collection, R. R. Reno believes that what he calls the sturdy gods should return to public life. This isn’t one thing he sees as fascinating, per se – it’s one thing he sees as inevitable. A method or one other, the sturdy gods will return:
We yearn to affix ourselves to others, not solely within the bonds of matrimony however in civic and non secular bonds as properly. The “we” arises out of affection, a ferocious energy that seeks to relaxation in one thing higher than oneself…Our hearts stay stressed. They search to relaxation in loyalty to sturdy gods worthy of affection’s devotion and sacrifice. And our hearts will discover what they search.
This can take work, and lively effort. One key characteristic that separates unifying sturdy gods from divisive weak gods is that the unifying sturdy gods require sustained dedication and energy:
The solidarity discovered within the “we” is at all times political within the broadest sense. As a result of the “we” isn’t pure – that’s, it’s not merely a consequence of our shared humanity or a organic dynamic of genetic connection – its particularity requires intentional effort to create, information, and maintain. In brief, the “we” doesn’t simply occur.
The identical can’t be stated for the darkish gods of identification politics:
They don’t require free exercise to maintain and promote a shared love. They’re gods of identification, not of political neighborhood…That reminiscence and that flourishing require human company, for what has been endured have to be retold, and the bonds of solidarity have to be renewed. Against this, the brute truth of shared pores and skin coloration requires no such human company, though within the synthetic setting of universities an ersatz “we” has fashioned round grievances and theories of systemic injustice.
So what’s going to make sure the return of sturdy benevolent gods, relatively than sturdy darkish gods? Reno has a couple of options. Individuals have to be motivated not by grievance, nor by a merely damaging notions of vices that needs to be prevented, however by a shared sense of affection – “love of the divine, love of fact, love of nation, love of household…It impels us exterior ourselves, breaking the boundaries of me-centered existence. Love seeks to unite with and relaxation in that which is liked.”
However, Reno says, these uniting loves are handled with disdain by the elites – they’re “loves which the highly effective appear to not share.” For instance, elites “take issues concerning the stability of the household in twenty-first century America to be expressions of ‘patriarchy’ or ‘heteronormativity.’ Patriotic appeals are ‘unmasked’ as racist or xenophobic…In these and different methods, our management class treats unwelcome political challenges as phobias to be denounced relatively than concepts to be grappled with on their very own phrases.’”
Reno, in contrast, sees patriotic loyalty as a necessary sturdy god for holding the folks of a nation collectively:
Our shared loves – love of our land, our historical past, our founding myths, our warriors and heroes – elevate us to the next vantage level. We see our personal curiosity as half of a bigger entire, the “we” that calls upon our freedom to serve the physique politic with intelligence and loyalty. As Aristotle acknowledged, this loyalty is intrinsically fulfilling, for it satisfies the human need for transcendence.
True patriotism can also be a counterweight in opposition to the rise of strongmen and harmful leaders:
For disadvantaged of true and ennobling loves, of which the patriotic ardor is unquestionably one, folks will flip to demagogues and charlatans who supply them false and debasing loves.
Household loyalty and non secular communities are additionally sturdy gods that have to be emphasised – not least of which is as a result of they too function a countervailing pressure in opposition to the sturdy gods of a perverse nationalism:
Modernity encourages us to present our hearts to politics and the nations, which is why ideological passions are so simply triggered. We simply think about the nation as greater than our civic house; it’s our savior. To fight this idolatry, we have to nurture to primeval sources of solidarity that restrict the claims of the civic “we”: the home society of marriage and the supernatural neighborhood of the church, synagogue, and different communities of transcendence.
When these three social forces are all handled with the proper of reverence, they obtain a sort of concord that brings out the perfect in all of them:
All through the historical past of the West, communities of transcendence have pinioned the nation from above, whereas the marital and home bonds of household loyalty have pinioned it from beneath. Allow us to study from this historical past: The very best safeguards in opposition to the risks of affection’s perversion are the loves that ennoble us and provides us relaxation. The solidarities of home life and non secular neighborhood are usually not at odds with the civic “we.” Quite the opposite, the sturdy gods can reinforce one another, making ready our hearts for loves many devotions.
Reno thinks there “is a political element to this restoration. Tax and employment insurance policies can affect the margins.” However political coverage can’t be the primary driver – “cultural politics are extra necessary.” Those that search to make sure that the noblest variations of the sturdy gods return should grow to be engaged and drive the dialog ahead:
Our process, due to this fact, is to revive public life within the West by growing a language of affection and a imaginative and prescient of the “we” that befits our dignity and appeals to our cause in addition to to our hearts. We should attend to the sturdy gods who come from above and animate the perfect of our traditions. Solely that sort of management will forestall the return of the darkish gods who stand up from beneath.
This wraps up my abstract of Reno’s e book. Within the subsequent posts, I’ll be outlining what I believe Reno will get proper, and the place I believe he goes incorrect.
