Matejko, Christianisation of Poland, Credit Wikipedia
Poland, Defending Christendom
Gregory Slysz gives us chapter and verse
Leftist commentators in both Poland and abroad have expressed bafflement and alarm about the current position adopted by the Polish government on a host of cultural and political issues. Its refusal to receive thousands of Islamic migrants in breach of the EU’s migrant relocation programme and its reforms to the post-communist judiciary have elicited accusations of impending tyranny and dictatorship not to mention threats of EU sanctions. Has all this finally revealed Poland’s incompatibility with Western culture? Has its pretence of being part of the Western world been shattered? Yet once the finger pointing is put aside a more complex scenario emerges that harbours insights not only into Poland’s national identity but also into the future of Western civilisation itself. Could these accusations be turned on their heads? Has not Poland, through its steadfast defence of its sovereignty and Christian heritage, a greater claim to being a champion of the West’s cultural legacy than its self-proclaimed liberal defenders? Here one can add other Eastern European states, including Russia, which are also increasingly at odds with contemporary cultural trends and agendas in the West.
As Western liberal establishments grapple with the self-inflicted disasters of their post-modernist and multicultural experiments, they wax lyrical about the importance of preserving Western values in a bid to avoid societal disintegration. Of course, none among them can agree on what these values actually are, given that everything is considered relative. The key problem that they face is that what once passed for universal Western values was rooted in the Judeo-Christian inheritance of moral certainly, faith, family and national heritage. Attempts to recast these values in secular garb focus on commercial-juridical-technical elements to the exclusion of religion.[1]
However, shorn of its religious roots, the Judeo-Christian heritage is an empty shell. And the more that Western societies stray from their founding principles the more civilizational division is reinforced, as is so evident, between the nation-states of Eastern and Western Europe, as well as within western European societies amid tension between traditionalists and cultural relativists. Continue reading →
Like this:
Like Loading...
Cadres for Canadian Renewal
Cadres for Canadian Renewal
Mark Wegierski, on an under-estimated element in politics
Whether one calls them infrastructures or “cadres”, conservatives in Canada today are greatly in need of them. A truly consummate politician is able to utilize the self-interest of disparate groupings to work towards some common goal that only he or she has in mind. This process is exemplified by Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the Liberal Prime Minister of Canada from 1968-1984 (except for nine months in 1979-1980). Trudeau’s ability to turn both French- and English-speaking Canada to his own ends, with both parts of the country thinking they were pursuing their own self-interest, is the mark of an effective political figure.
Indeed, one of the most important elements in politics is the harnessing of the energies of others to consciously or unconsciously, willingly or inadvertently, work for your own goals. Cadres, broadly defined, are a key to history. Certainly, in the Twentieth Century, the exercise of social, political, and cultural power by various “cadres”, whether left-liberal, Leninist, fascist, nationalist, or theocratic (in Iran, for example) has had an enormous impact. Continue reading →
Share this:
Like this: