Fragile Victories, Permanent Struggles

January was a difficult month for so many Americans. Thousands of Californians lost their homes, and their lives will continue to be upended by what most consider to be a short-term news story. They will have to rebuild or abandon their locations, knowing that so much will never be as it was. A similar dynamic is playing out in the mountains of North Carolina, where horrendous flooding swept away homes and even lives.

Whatever emerges from the reconstruction efforts, memories were lost with the buildings and possessions that had served as reminders. Neighbors who had shared streets for decades will no longer live together. There can be no return to exactly what was. This kind of life disruption is beyond what we can prepare for. It’s beyond what we like to think about.

We tell ourselves in tired maxims that nothing lasts forever, but we’re prepared (at best) only for some meager disruption. The drama that unsettles us has to exist in a predictable and expected way for us to be able to grapple with it. More than that and we do not want to look at it or think about it for too long. Hence, the catastrophes on both coasts leave the news cycle. It’s not that there is nothing to say—it’s that people stop clicking on the headlines. The news cycle quickly moves people beyond the limit of what they can see, hear, and bear.

These catastrophes are especially disturbing when they happen in the midst of what people believe to be a state of calm. This is relevant as we look at the state of the country today. There’s a huge sense of optimism as real progress is being made:

Immigrants who have committed criminal offenses are being deported, trans inmates in federal prisons are being returned to the prison population of the same biological sex, DEI programs in government agencies are being abandoned, and the private sector is following suit. These are objectively good things.

However, we must pause to inquire of their permanency. While there’s no fault in celebrating victories, know that most of these changes are being made via executive order. They are not being written in the law. Therefore, they are as easy for the next administration to revoke as they were for this one to enact. It is not the case that our cultural enemies have ceased to exist merely because they are not celebrating public victories.

Rather, they plan, scheme, and build networks. Most of their victories were achieved without fanfare. While conservatives were still fighting against sexualized teaching in public schools, leftists were inserting DEI hiring and training procedures in the military and at police departments. It is a mistake to expect a massive roll-back or surrender by those who literally want to see children’s genitals mutilated. These are not small differences, and the cultural gap between us is so wide that there is no chance of these issues simply going away.

During this time, when things do not seem so dire, we must resist the temptation to complacency—to returning to the way we lived before things spiraled out of control. The isolated modern man (and woman) who has no connections in his real-world community cannot be the norm. It is unhealthy, inhuman, and unsustainable. It is dangerous for not just him alone, but all those who are around him, because it is through communal relations that we fight against the tide that seeks to destroy the Christian supports of our civilization.

We must do more to build defense networks against the kind of evil that is always festering just under the surface. It is not enough to merely have work colleagues for our connections, as is so often the case for younger generations. We must be bound to those around us by shared values, shared love, and shared faith. If we want stability of any lasting kind, it must come from the eternal. The nations of the West have been unstable because they lack foundational ethos. If we choose to change that now, we can set up defenses that will endure for the next generation, thereby fulfilling our obligation to posterity.