The Neccessity of Counter-Revolution Between the Sexes

The Answer to the Disconnect Between Genders Today is Traditional Catholic Values

Marriage of Philip and Marie

Introduction

 

In my quest to become a man of the world that I might better lead the NSIR and fulfill my vocation, I set out very early on committed to becoming a man of the world - well informed, well cultured, well traveled, well trained, and well read. This has lead to many interesting adventures and forays, particularly that of my surprisingly successful tumblr page. This naturally lead to me being exposed to a whole new world of political insanity: tumblr feminism, to name one such wild kingdom. I was exposed to a perspective on things I didn't even know one could have on things. You see, tumblr feminism - what we may some day call Fourth Wave Feminism - isn't just about obtaining equal rights and standing in law for women. No, it takes every single trial a woman faces in her daily life and makes it symptomatic of a larger system in place that's designed to keep women down.

Now, for most Catholic Traditionalists/Reactionaries/Monarchists, this may be easily dismissed as liberal nonsense. All gender theory and feminism these days is to them is just another modernist assault on time-honored cultural values. While they are right in one sense, there is more to this multi-headed beast than meets the eye. I am on record as saying that, "Perception is reality." This is incredibly true when it comes to politics and activism therein. It didn't matter whether or not the people of France were actually oppressed under the Bourbons, they all thought and were convinced that they were. It did not matter whether or not Spain and Portugal's colonies were beneficial to the people and places where they spanned, the inhabitants didn't think so. It doesn't matter whether or not the latest cases of police brutality in the US actually are results of racism, racial minorities and their sympathizes think they do. While mob rule cannot change immutable truth and facts supporting it, "truth" or what one thinks it is can be heavily manipulated by those who are masters of deception. Our strategy is not to play the game of lies and deceit, but to break it down with immutable fact and truth. Only this is an assured path to total victory.

So you see, it doesn't matter to Tumblr Feminists if the Patriarchy is real or not. They believe it is, and will act accordingly unless something comes along and changes their mind on the matter - and that's assuming their minds can be changed. Feminists ardently believe they experience a system where men are favored over women and they are dehumanized for it. As anyone familiar with them knows, the rhetoric is often very hostile towards men on principle and even women who don't believe in this ideology. As attacking a large group of people often does without provocation, this has provoked an equal and opposite reaction. Feminism, ironically, gave birth to something it claimed to have already existed: Men's Rights Activists, some of whom see themselves as the veritable right hand of the Patriarchy. Others simply see themselves as protecting the traditional place of men in society.

Believe it or not though, there have been Men's Rights Activists as long as there have been Women's Rights Activists. All had very humble beginnings, from fighting for equal representation in divorce court to fair and balanced negotiation in prenuptial agreements and even child custody. It is important to note, however, that even the oldest incarnations of these movements does not predate the 18th century - at least in the usage of certain words or in primordial incarnations of what would later be described as more radical fringes.

Most among you who are astute historians of Catholic history will note that the 18th century was about the time when the political power of the Catholic Church in Europe and the unity of Christendom was little more than hollow pronunciations made with no force to back up the authority of the Papacy nor any intellectual inclination to submit to the will of the Pontifex Maximus. Most "Catholic" monarchies were either in constant conflict with Rome over jurisdiction or apostatizing in their own subtle ways by this point. These are important facts to understand going forward, because to fix a problem you must first understand where it began.

 

Background

Voltaire

By the mid 1700s the seeds of the Enlightenment were being planted in the minds of men. Large amounts of wealth and a rising middle class along with urban sprawl had lead to the abandonment of the mostly agrarian and self-sufficient locally-based economies in which traditional cultural values thrive. With less time to devote to work, less reliance on the land, and more time to simply sit back and enjoy wealth and comfort, what we might call "Penny Philosophers" became very popular. Now that it seemed the time of hardships were becoming more distant, everyone was questioning everything. Things that were necessary facets of public order up until now and well understood suddenly seemed to be questionable. Among such things were the roles of the genders. While men retained their status as breadwinners, women became less important in the middle class. Most child-rearing was done by parochial schools and there wasn't too terribly much for a woman to do in the way of home maintenance or even chores as some in especially France had indentured servants. So this left women at home, largely occupied with literature, hobbies, social time with one another, or spending time with those children who were taught at home. This unwisely caused males to take a dim view of female counterparts, seeing their function as little more than maids with benefits rather than a valued part of the family.

While we generally ascribe the Enlightenment Philosophers to Liberalism, their ideas about women would be largely unrecognizable to liberals of today and definitely not tumblr liberals. Most Enlightenment Era folks regarded women as being inferior to men. In fact in the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, women were in a position of subservience they never found themselves in before. Not allowed to speak in public or even in some cases leave home without their husbands' express permission. Even before the Revolution, these ideas about women were becoming increasingly popular and prevalent with man - understandably so, perhaps - all throughout Europe. Naturally, combined with all this, male dominance began to take hold in the minds of Europeans. If women were so weak and inferior, then men must obviously be absolutely superior. This caused a certain chauvinism to take hold, which would begin the slow process of driving a wedge between the sexes. Let's not forget that First Wave Feminism began as a reaction to the injustices done to women by men. My grandmother remembers a time when a man could divorce a wife by putting all her things on the front porch, changing the locks, and running her off if she showed her face on the property.

Though the French Revolution and its subsequent Bonapartist Empire did not succeed in military conquest of Europe, its ideas were there to stay. This included ideas about women, gender roles, and family life. On the surface one might think these weren't too different from those ideas common in Old Catholic Europe, but that assumption is wrong. The traditional understanding of marriage as promulgated in Christendom was that men were to love their wives as Christ loves His Church, and vice versa. Women were not delegated absolutely to solely maternal roles - they were masters of their households while their husbands worked and plied their trades or when they went off to war. This meant even sometimes handling matters of property and finances. This was incredibly crucial to the domestic health of the Christian homefront during wartime and the Crusades, much as it was for the US during World War II. Many historians have said the only reason the European economy survived the Crusades was because the women so effectively governed in the place of their husbands!

The Catholic Church of course, in the process of Christianizing and Romanizing Europeans introduced Chivalry to the culture of Europe. While respect for women and a military code of conduct always existed in some form, Europe was still a savage shatter belt. Violence was almost the go-to for resolving problems, even domestic disputes. A huge part of chivalry was respect for ladies as the, "fairer sex." This was not however a one-way street. Women too were expected to maintain standards of piety and moral purity in their lives, just as much as the men were. There were no double-standards in Catholicism; both genders were expected to practice moral uprightness and sexual chastity, and vocational discernment was much the same and a matter of great prayer.

Barthélemy d'Eyck's chivalrous and romantic leaf from his Livre du cœur d'Amour épris, c. 1458–60

Men and women were of course recognized as being different, with separate bodily functions and capabilities inherent in their design. They were acknowledged as being fundamentally different, but this did not impugn upon how they were treated nor on their advancement opportunities. It was however, due to a woman's natural maternal instincts, expected that a mother would care for children and a man would provide for them. Both had obligations they had to fulfill. Both supported one another not just materially, but in their vocation so they might attain salvation.

These are not ideas that have faded with the Middle Ages - they are principles which Catholic families have upheld since time immemorial. The Hapsburgs always strove, "to keep order in the family and regard it as one of the highest goods." Many happy and holy marital couples have existed in the history of the Church, including Blessed Kaiser Karl and Saint Empress Zita.

So, what happened? Why do Catholic families face most of the same struggles of other families? Why so few children? Why so few families to begin with? Why do so many marriages end in divorce? Aside from the simple answer of the fallen nature of the human condition, the answer is the same for why lay Catholics are facing so many other challenges: we have forgotten the answers to our problems given to us by our ancestors, who faced them long before they even knew the Americas existed. It is a return to the traditional values we once held dear that will help alleviate this crisis.

The Crisis at Hand: Men v. Women

In a healthy culture for interaction between the sexes, both groups in this situation are guilty of offenses against chastity and morality - in fact, this wouldn't even be a comparison discussion. I could pull up millions of pictures like this - Feminist and MRA - going back and forth about this sort of thing.

Third and "Fourth Wave" Tumblr Feminism have gone beyond simply advocating for equal rights for women. Bitterness over poor experience and the travails of life have lead to attacking men and blaming them from everything to the inability to find a job to the reason why they're single. MRA's are much the same now, acting out in backlash against Modern Feminism ranging from those simply offended by Feminism's words to outright spiteful and misogynistic single men bitter over their failed courtships and seeking an acceptable channel to send their spite through.

When you couple this with a morally bankrupt society that possesses no universal moral code of conduct, you find yourself in a hostile environment that makes family life unattractive and commitment hard to come by. The society at hand simply no longer values these things as moral virtues and why should they? It does not accept them as enshrined moral values, and the climate itself is hostile to it. In the Old Order there was no spite between the genders. There was no "Women are from Venus, Men are from Hell." The different roads men and women take to happiness were acknowledged and accepted, but there were no laws as appeared in the Early Modern Era restricting women's ability. It was the society and people themselves that accepted the order to be as it was, based on their personal religious convictions. Their laws did reflect this, but it was by no means an order kept my Altar and Throne alone.

Families are the central component of society. If the family unit is destroyed, then society will be destroyed or all its people will become dependent on a Nanny State inevitably, bereft of all guidance. That, or it will simply dissolve into individualistic pandemonium. The rise of ideas about women being inferior coupled with male misogyny, further aggravated by today's gender-based political discourse, has caused absolute chaos. Once more, progress in the wrong direction and without any regard to the lessons of the past has sent society on a crash-course for failure - but there is still hope.

Philip Hermogenes Calderon, Home After Victory, 1867

The Solution: Catholic Counter-Revolution

There is much Catholics can do to set a better example for society, to be a Light upon a Hill and a Sign of Contradiction. Above all we must turn back to the Church with a heart for prayer and a mind in tune with the Church. We must be in the world, but not of it. There are some very simple things we can do as a start.

The wedding feast of St Elizabeth and Louis of Thuringia in the Wartburg

Firstly, let men be men! Our Catholic boys need an earnest instruction in masculine piety and virtue. If nothing else they must be brought up to be knights, if not in body then in mind and soul. Teach them skills and trades that will be useful to them in life and instill in them a spirit of militant piety. Give them high standards and place great importance on dating. A date is not simply just a fling for fun, it is courting a woman whom you consider may be your potential life partner and helpmate. Teach them to always be respectful of women and to give them their due space and courtesy, and do not be in such a rush to make them comfortable around the ladies you neglect to be sure they form healthy relationships with their peers. Teach them to work and play not just hard but fair. Show them how to dress for the occasion with modesty, dignity, and functionality - whether it be for manual labor, sports, or formal occasions. Give them good examples from our storied history and the lives of the saints of manly virtue and piety.

A Landscknecht and His Lady on Horseback

We must also not neglect the ladies. We must hold our men and women to equal standards of moral and sexual chastity, and we must teach them to support each other and not to be in childish competition. In many ways we must teach our men and girls the same things, but in different ways. This is the key to ending gender discrimination in our time without bringing about a situation where one side is superior over the other: we must acknowledge that men and women are valuable, but in different capacities. There are certain things only a woman could accomplish and certain things only a man could accomplish. Men and women are fundamentally different, but this does not make one less valuable than the other on principle. We must teach girls to embrace their femininity, and to not regard "womanhood" as being synonymous with weakness. There are plenty of female warrior-figures in our history.

To simply make laws alleviating this situation and restricting the choices men and women can make would be unwise. First must come the counter-revolution of the mind and heart, or any law that contradicts the status quo will smack of tyranny and oppression rather than a guard rail to keep humanity from swerving off the edge.

Charles X of France, Monarch of the Bourbon Restoration of the Kingdom of France, passed laws respecting the traditional rights of the Catholic Church and protecting it from acts of public and willful sacrilege. However, because most of the population of France was not Royalist or ascribing to their (right) ideas about religion, they rebelled against the measures and this was instrumental to building support to bring about the end of the Bourbon Restoration. Had Charles X approached the problem differently and first worked on Hearts and Minds from his secure position of authority, things might've gone differently.

We need to work on getting the sanctity and importance of matrimony back into the minds of Catholics. Divorce has been the death of Catholic families long before Gay Marriage was an issue. But more importantly how we've been approaching courtship and dating with such a lackadaisical attitude has been even worse. We should teach our boys and girls to not judge their worth based solely on how many partners they have, nor too simply date for fun and fancy. Every courtship is a learning experience and a chance to discern for the married life and to decide of someone is the right match for you or not.

But most of all we must return one simple fact to the forefront: a key aspect of marriage is that you are helping another person get to heaven, and vice versa. Men and women are not meant to be in conflict with one another, men and women are meant to help one another. Men and women compliment one another. Mankind cannot survive without womankind, and neither can womankind survive without mankind. If that were meant to be so, God would've designed the human race to reproduce asexually and given men and women the same basic traits in a single Superhuman. There are many creatures designed this way, why not humans? It is clear based on the design of God that for the survival of the human race, the genders must work together and be united.

Conclusion

Expulsion of Adam and Eve - John Faed, 1880

In the beginning, Eve was made to help Adam, but Adam was also to take care of Eve. By all accounts, Adam forgave Eve for her sin and did not hold it against her - the first married couple in history would go on to become the parents of the entire human race. God could have, in addition to casting our first parents out of Paradise, deprived them of one another. By all accounts, Adam and Eve were in love. There is nothing worse in life than to lose someone we love. God could have very well punished Adam and Eve with just such a fate, but he does not. Instead, for better or worse, richer or poorer, Adam and Eve work together to create the first family from which we are all descended.

Friends, I don't pretend to think these measures alone will establish familial utopia and a new era of trust between the sexes. I think, based on the traditions of our ancestors, these are the best steps forward. That is all we can truly hope for in this life: the best. We forfeited Paradise by our first sin, and it will be our continual sins against one another that will compound and culminate into more and more woes to the human race which we shall have brought upon ourselves. God left us one aspect from Eden, one thing we can still experience from that place, and one of the highest human emotions in the world which has mystified writers and artists for centuries: the love and intimacy between a man an a woman. Let us not squander that; let us go forth, hand in hand, in mutual respect and adoration as Josephs and Marys, bringing the Gospel to the world.