Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West

by R.R. Reno

The cultural imperatives follow. Artists need to cultivate transgression! Corporations must celebrate diversity! At every turn, strenuous effort is put into weakening consolidating institutions and convictions. Religious faith, patriotism, the marriage covenant—responsible, establishment people believe that their duty as citizens in an open society is to “problematize” these traditional loyalties. Educators and cultural leaders cannot always succeed. The less educated tend to cling to their guns and religion. But we need not despair. The ruling class, educated in how “meanings” are produced and sensitive to “historical and cultural context,” will manage these loyalties with techniques of disenchantment. Trained in the “production of meaning,” they will use multicultural themes and diversity-talk to draw the sting out of potential conflicts, drive old loyalties to the margins of respectability, and otherwise advance the cause of an open society and open minds.