I want to address the black-pillers out there, and not just the black-pillers but those who have friends, or family or people in their lives who are black-pillers.
The Western world is assailed on all sides. Not only has Christendom failed to maintain its glory, but we have also imported all the pagan ideologies which enslaved the peoples of the rest of the world.
We converted the Vikings, we made devil worshippers and human sacrificing heathen, who raped and pillaged the coastlines of Europe into the builders of the great northern European churches and castles. We did a lot of great things like this, but for too long now we have failed to defend our borders, and because of this we see the Western civilisation that was made by men who were far greater than us breaking down in every way possible.
In the last 100 years, the Western world has fatally wounded itself with three civil wars, World War 1, World War 2 and the Cold War. These were not civil wars within national borders, but civil wars within Christendom. The Western culture which took parliaments, indoor plumbing and Rugby League to primitive lands like Australia, is now teetering on the edge of something really bad.
You can see it, I can see it. There will be war, it will likely be sooner rather than later, and the resultant horrors which will follow that will torment humanity for some time to come. A study of history shows us that when complicated civilisations go through major upheaval and collapse that there will be famines, drought and disease.
Cities that were once places of bustling life become too dangerous and too expensive to maintain. Populations spread out, as they seek somewhere safer to live and to farm or raise livestock. Technology starts to fail as the complicated systems which enabled it to function lack the manpower, or knowledge to maintain them.
The result of all this upheaval is increasing migrations of people that fight with previously settled populations, or other moving peoples, and this accelerates the collapse and causes all of the problems of declining civilisation to be exacerbated.
Maybe it won’t get that bad, maybe it will be much, much worse. Who knows, maybe modern society has another 100 years under its belt. But the signs of decay tell you and me, and others something different.
And the response of some of you is to take the black-pill. For those not familiar with this term, though I am sure most of this readership is, the black-pill is a step removed from the red-pill. Being red-pilled is when you see the world the way it really is, in all it’s confronting reality. But the black-pilled person says there is nothing we can do about it, we may as well accept it and let the inevitable happen.
I couldn’t think of a more non-Christian perspective to have.
Yes, we learn from history that periods of civilizational decline are hard times… so, what? We also learn that we are the descendants of those who did not give up when things got tough.
Do you think it is bad now? What about when the black plague struck Europe? When the black plague struck Europe it created devastation like you can only imagine if you picture what happened with the Ebola virus in Liberia a few years ago, and you multiply it across all of Europe and beyond.
The Black Death was devastating. Listen to this description from Schaff’s A History of Christianity:
During Clements Pontificate, 1348-1349, The Black Death swept over Europe from Hungary to Scotland and from Spain to Sweden, one of the most awful and mysterious scourges that has even visited mankind. It was reported by all the chroniclers of the time, and described by Boccaccio in the introduction to his novels. According to Villani, the disease appeared as carbuncles under the armpits or in the groin, sometimes as big as an egg, and was accompanied with devouring fever and vomiting blood. It also involved a gangrenous inflammation of the lungs and throat and a fetid odor of breath. In describing the virulence of the infection, a contemporary said that one sick person was sufficient to infect the whole world. The patients lingered at most a day or two (Schaff, 99).
A large percent of western Europe fell to the pestilence. In Sienna, 80,000 were carried off; in Venice 100,000; in Bologna, two thirds of the population; and Florence, three fifths. In Marseilles the number who died in a single month is reported as 57,000. Nor was the papal city on the Rhone exempt. Nine cardinals, 70 prelates, and 17,000 males succumbed. Another writer, a cannon writing from the city to a friend in Flanders, reports that up to the date of his writing one-half of the population had died. The very cats, dogs, and chickens too the disease…No class was immune except in England, where the higher classes seem to have been exempt. The clergy yielded in great numbers, bishops, priests and monks. At least one archbishop of Canterbury, Bradwardine, was carried away by it. The brothers of the king of Sweden, Hacon and Knut, were among the victims. The unburied dead strewed the streets of Stockholm. Vessels freighted with cargoes were reported floating on the high seas with the last sailor dead. Convents were swept clear off all their inmates. The cemeteries were not large enough to hold the bodies, which were thrown into hastily dug pits. The danger of infection and the odors of the bodies were so great that often there was no one to give sepulture to the dead” (Schaff, 100).
It is estimated that half the population of England died (Schaff, 100-101). Of the rest of the known world, some people said it killed a third of the population, some said a half, others estimated that only 1/10th of mankind had survived (Schaff, 102).
Can you picture a more devastating thing that could have happened to Western Civilisation? I think the only things which come close are the Muslim Conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries, and World Wars 1 and 2. But even those events didn’t so thoroughly devastate Europe. Not that it’s a competition, none of those events would have been a wonderful joy to live through, and at least in the World Wars, you could go down fighting in a blaze of glory, rather than just dying painfully in a puddle of your own vomit, blood and puss.
If any generation deserved to black-pill and give up it was the generation of the Black Death. Yet not only did European civilisation continue, but it also flourished in the wake of the plague. People kept having babies, old structures which had grown stagnant and stale were overthrown by the sheer loss of people to maintain them, and Europe moved into a real golden age of inventions and cultural development. But none of that would have happened if people had had just given up, packed it in and waited for the end.
Many Christians today think the end is nigh, and therefore they don’t want to invest in society. There are reasonably strong, solid Christian couples, who don’t want to have children because they know things are getting worse. Why would we bring children into a world where drag queens do story hour at the local library Matt, a world we know is going to get worse? Why? Because those who have the most kids always win the next generation or the one after that. And those who don’t are utterly forgotten to history unless they are the Pauls or Isaac Newtons of the world.
Have you heard of the Shakers? Probably most of you haven’t, and why should you have heard of them? They were a break-off sect from the Quakers in the Mid-18th century, they moved to America and founded a society that was thoroughly egalitarian, giving equal leadership to men and women, oh, and they required all members, married or not, to be celibate. They had some success in the revivalist atmosphere of 18th century America.
They peaked at about 4000 members, and over 200 years about 20,000 Americans have been in their ranks at one time, spread between 18 different communities. A website dedicated to them says they are a great success because they still exist today. How many of them are there? 10, 10 living members.
Wikipedia, quite unironically points out that there are more descendants of those who abandoned the sect than those who founded it. For obvious reasons. I am amazed that they even got that many followers. But you can never underestimate the ability for stupid to be catching.
Compare the Shakers to the Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, or Puritan Presbyterians churches whose members literally gave birth to the American nation, among others, and who sustain many societies to this day. It’s not even a comparison really, having babies is the best way to win the future, at least, it is the best way that the average person has.
If you want to win history, the least you can do is make sure your name shows up for the generation after yours. The Church has always believed, throughout history, that this is the first and foremost way of growing the Church. Even the Catholic Church recognizes this, which is why birth control is against Catholic policy.
If you don’t like the way the world is going, that’s good, we shouldn’t. The devil who rules this world seems to be having a field day with Western civilisation right now. But to quote Jerry Seinfeld, “Fathers just say, to hell with the world, I’ll make my own people.” That is the attitude we need to have, not the attitude of Seinfeld, but of the fathers who say to hell with what’s happening in the world, we will make our own people.
Men of the West rise, fight for your civilisation, fight for the future, have babies while the plague is raging. Because those who win the future are those who show up for it. Let me finish with the words of Aragorn at the final battle, in The Return of the King:
“Hold your ground! Hold your ground! Sons of Gondor! Rohan! My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails. When we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down. But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on the good earth I bid you stand, Men of the West!”
References:
Schaff, Philip 1989, A History of the Christian Church Volume 6: The Middle Ages, William B Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King
