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Notes -
Yeah.
There's a saying that "EVERYTHING is Political" and I vehemently disagree with it. There are many things one can do and enjoy without there being any political valence to it whatsoever.
But the problem is... You can add politics to anything. so "Anything CAN BE Political" is a statement I do agree with.
And so the asshole types who say "Everything is Political!" are using that, functionally, as an excuse to inject politics into everything, then using the existence of politics in the space to retroactively prove their original statement.
And my point is "no, you're not uncovering a feature of the scene that everyone was studiously ignoring, you are intentionally adding this feature that everyone was very happy was absent, then getting up in arms that people don't like you changing the ground rules without so much as a discussion." Gatekeeping such persons out is critical but also difficult because the motivation for them to smuggle in the politics is substantial and you only have to let one or two in for things to derail.
I think it’s a feature of our ideas about legitimacy. Since our idea of legitimate government is democracy and consent of the governed, the people who want to govern must “launder” their ideas into the culture, and thus it becomes imperative to capture any institution that imparts ideas to the public (which is, to be blunt, all of culture). Then you can firehose out your agenda in every way the cathedral can get a message out, and eventually, unless you are an extreme contrarian or opt out of most of mainstream society, you’re very likely to get caught up in the zeitgeist of the media culture you saturate in.
I consider it late-stage democracy. Democracy cannot function unless the public goes along with good ideas. Which means that you can’t just let the public form their own organic culture or community which is likely to have the wrong sorts of ideas. Instead the elites have to make the culture over to their tastes and if you can’t take over the institution, it must be discredited or destroyed.
That's pretty insightful, especially the need to launder politics through culture in order to manufacture consent. Hadn't thought of it in those terms.
Related to the "You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you" point.
Any culture that's not under control of the political edifice is, potentially, a method for alternative systems and resistance to organize and arise. The state would see this as an intolerable possible threat to sovereignty. On top of that any popular cultural outlet or gate can be turned into a propaganda organ, can't expect them to ignore that.
I've arranged my immediate affairs so that I have as few as possible intersections with political authority. Quite literally, I chose the location of my house in large part because it has the fewest political bodies with jurisdiction over its physical location (i.e. it is outside of the nearest city's limits in unincorporated territory, has no HOA, and has extremely permissive zoning).
And yet, AND YET I know that I can't afford to ignore politics because the political-minded will constantly seek to bring me and my property under their ambit, and it is NOT enough to just retreat, run, and try to stay outside their grasp, it requires active, intelligent resistance and even then its not guaranteed b/c the state has infinite patience.
I agree with that, but I’m more thinking about cultural organs as well. Things like religion, particularly organized religion, the family, education, clubs, etc. are potentially points of resistance. I see this as a weak point of the Benedict option. Unless you’re living in a commune owned by a church and have no cell phones and filtered internet, the chances of keeping your community intact and fairly pure are small. Zoning laws, school testing requirements, nondiscrimination laws, and so on will conspire to force you to conform, and entryism will be tried.
The Benedict option worked pretty well for the Amish, the Hasidim and the SSPX, and the Hasidim even know how to use state power to their advantage. It doesn't work very well for normie conservatives trying to live in the world.
Who managed to blow up any remaining goodwill for them and are now excommunicated, meaning they can dwindle into yet another schismatic tiny sect out there competing in the marketplace of religion, just like any American non-denominational ministry where the founder decides he is now a bishop, demands to be addressed as such, and needs all your donations for his private jet.
Well yeah but that's entirely their own fault. The FSSP shows the church would have let them exist and be trads just fine.
Yes, so long as they accepted oversight. They insisted on "eff you" and this is what happens.
The current round isn't technically an 'oversight' fight- the FSSP gets away with everything the SSPX would want to do, in practice.
The SSPX wanted new bishops now, because one of their preexisting bishops has recent health issues and won't be able to take flights soon. The Vatican wanted them to wait until a permanent deal was signed and then discuss the possibility of new bishops- and the permanent deal would have to wait until the SSPX held new elections in 2030, to give their leadership a mandate to negotiate on the wording of the joint doctrinal declaration(the 2018 elections were held in the pope Francis era and elected leadership with a considerably more hardline attitude than the median senior SSPX priest).
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