"Two paths" by Oliver Roos
The Benedict opt-out: Creating a principled parallel society
Rod Dreher, in The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation, suggests that we who are abused by anti-capitalist, globalist censors opt out of any leftist structures that reveal even a whiff of the noxious decomposition emanating from CRT and its permutations.
The Benedict Option is shorthand for a strategic withdrawal from society personified by St. Benedict, a 6th-century monk, who responded to Roman civilization's collapse by founding his own monastic order. Benedict recognized that people of decency, honor, and virtue could not fully participate in society if they wanted to maintain their virtuous lifestyle.
While Dreher's book advocates a Benedict-like strategy for Christians in our post-Christian nation, his advice speaks to all virtuous people of the Judeo-Christian ethic, whether religious or not. He writes:
Think of teachers who make sure kids learn things they won't get at government schools. Think of writers who write what they really believe and find ways to get it to the public, no matter what the cost. Think of priests and pastors who find a way to live out religious life despite condemnation and legal obstacles, and artists who don't give a rip for official opinion. Think of young people who decide not to care about success in society's eyes and who drop out to pursue a life of integrity, no matter what it costs them. These people who refuse to assimilate and instead build their own structures are living the Benedict Option.
It is clear that Americans who love liberty and the Founding Principles are on defense in preventing this country from falling into systemic Marxism, socialism, or communism. Education, entertainment, government, medicine, banking, news media, the military, courts, technology, science, and even rogue churches get sweaty palms every time someone or something reveals a malignant agenda to squash free speech.
Incoherently, they bray on about there being freedom in collectivism. They are not so much insane as catastrophically malevolent, which is the main reason to avoid their world if at all possible. Things have gone too far, and the pendulum is stuck on the left side. These leftists cannot be reasoned with, especially when they pontificate that hard work, being on time, delayed gratification, merit-based success are examples of "white privilege" and "systemic racism."
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google censor members who speak out against the Wokerati. People have been shoved off platforms, demonetized, and denied publication simply for expressing contrary views to the left's search-and-destroy mission against conservatives and White people.
But in the wings, waiting to serve homeless conservatives, are Rumble, Locals, Truth Social, and myriad long-form blogs and podcasts by Dave Rubin, Jordan Peterson, Dan Bongino, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan (no liberal, he), and others. They offer an uncensored platform to conservative thinkers and players in the intellectual dark web who are denied a voice on the blue channels.
The most sensible recourse sane conservatives of all colors possess is to fight leftists by forming a parallel economy. Remove your dollars and your patronage from organizations or businesses that adopt as part of their business model CRT (Critical Race Theory), SEL (Social Emotional Learning), DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), or ESG (Environmental Social Governance).
This putrefying alphabet soup of social deconstruction is what the left is relying on to destroy the traditional values that formed this nation. Leftists are making headway. If America is to survive as a free nation under God, we must deny them their corrosive passion for totalitarianism, and Dreher provides the answer: opt out and cripple their structures, both economic and cultural.
This is a time of great testing. People are forced to choose between jettisoning their virtue and honor and going along with the demented forces that would have their heads on a pike if given half a chance, or opting out as best they can. They should consider doing the latter and rather do business, politics, culture, and religion among their own every time it is possible to do so.
This is the opposite of the left's sacred diversity that we've been force-fed and may just be the only effective way to break its hold. Diversity fragments rather than promotes cohesion. You cannot fight a cohesive war for America's survival and win it when half the military won't fight for their country, having bought the CRT suicide pact.
We are standing at a cultural and moral crossroads. Honorable people of all colors and languages stand at the crux of it, shouting, "Not now, not ever!"
In Alice through the Looking Glass, Alice stands at a crossroads, asking the Cheshire Cat which road she should take. Cheshire answers by saying, "That depends on where you are going." The road we take depends on where we are going and upon our resolve to get there.
