The Goals of Edan: Fighting for Ideas

[by Prince Jonathan]

  In continuing the article series on the goals of Edan, it must be noted that one of the ways in which Edan differs most strongly from the more established nations of our day is that it as an idea, not an institution. The actual government and apparatus of the kingdom are secondary features of the greater concept and ideals of the kingdom, unlike, for example, the United States, whose ideals of being the Land of the Free and of Opportunity are auxiliary to the rule of its government. The effects of this divide in nature are subtle and far-reaching, and are seen most clearly in an analysis of national goals. Indeed, most of the things in the Edanian agenda that seem most irrational and naïve fall neatly into place when this difference is considered. After all, if Edan was an institution first, we would indeed be acting irrationally and naïvely by following our current strategy. Our first priority would have to be the acquisition of territory under our direct control, along with wealth, influence, military power, and the loyal population required to sustain such things; and then we would have to use this power base to work for the growth and prestige of our institution in competition against the various other national institutions of the world. But, fortunately, these goals are not the goals of Edan, because they do not suit Edan. As was previously stated, Edan is an idea, so to promote its expansion and well-being, our priority and goal must be to convince more people that our ideas are true and good, thus causing them to live according to these ideas. The power and size of the kingdom is not measured in square miles, nor in gold reserves, nor in military budget, but in the number of people who live the Edanian way of life, even if they are not actually sworn as citizens. Understanding this truth is absolutely critical to understanding Edan itself.

     For example, this makes Edan's plans for future expansion radically different from what the dominant contemporary paradigm would lead one to expect. Our single, solitary long-term goal related to increasing our own power base is to proselytize for the Edanian ideals of subsidiarity, solidarity, Traditional values, family living, and an integrated life. This is all we need, and, in fact, all we can need, to grow. Territory, money, international diplomacy, and all the other tools of the modern nation-state are useful to us only as means to this end, and the ends of our other major goals. They are not the prize, but rather, tools to gain the prize, which is an organic and voluntary re-ordering of society along Traditionalist lines.

     Our short and mid-term goals in service of this end, therefore, must necessarily be just as incongruous and strange to the modern eye. They must, in just the same way as the ultimate goal they advance, be ordered not to acquiring temporal power for our government, but to making people desire to be Edanians. They must, in short, uphold our ideas, while pushing back the rule of rival ideas. 

     While this may seem to be a difficult purpose to serve, it is actually one of the easiest, and one of the ones that we will get to soonest. A very important short-term goal that the kingdom is soon to complete is the foundation of a group called the Knights of St. Maurice. This will be an organization, similar in a few superficial respects to the American Boy Scouts, that will take in boys as young as 12 as members, and train them in the practice and theory of Traditional Catholic Masculinity. It will teach them physical and mental discipline, both the theory and the practice of authentic courtesy, the basics of how to grow in the Spiritual Life through sacrifice and work, leadership, and every other masculine skill denied to them by modernity; all while fortifying them with a sturdy foundation of apologetics in defence of both the One True Church and the Western Civilization built upon it. The end result of this will be, if all goes well, that the boys who enter the organization as unprepared youths will leave it with all the tools they need to live as men and fight in defence of the Edanian Way. In other words, it will expand the influence and power of Tradition in the world, thereby expanding the Kingdom of Edan, even in the unlikely event that none of the newly-trained knights become citizens. And, while it may seem that this organization will be hard to create and support, it will actually require very little real work, if its members are willing.

     This order will also serve as a mould and model for future organizations of similar nature and the same purpose. Some of these groups will be discussed in greater detail in future articles, and we will doubtlessly come up with more ideas and inspirations for them as the kingdom grows, but a good example to bring up now in synergy with the Order of Saint Maurice is the concept, long deliberated upon by the Royal Family, of an Order of Motherhood. The exact details of this organization have yet to be codified, as its creation is a mid-term goal not likely to be completed soon, but its basic nature is simple. It will reward and honour those mothers throughout the citizenry, and, in exceptional cases, throughout the world, who go above and beyond the call of duty within their maternal vocation. Based upon how many children they have and what notable things those children go on to do, such as joining the Edanian military, the mothers thus honoured would receive a variety of minor medals, ribbons, titles, and privileges, as well as, once the kingdom's infrastructure is advanced enough, monetary awards. This practice would have many benefits to the kingdom: it would reinforce within Edanian culture the Traditional truth that motherhood deserves to be honoured and defended; it would clearly illustrate to the post-Enlightenment world that, far from oppressing them, the Edanian way of life aids and rewards women; it would encourage young women amongst the citizens to take up the maternal vocation themselves; and it would give patriotic citizens a way of clearly showing their Traditionalist identity to the world. Thus, by merely bearing witness to our internal ideology with external signs, we could quicken the pace of the kingdom's growth ever further, and do a tremendous amount of good in the world besides, as is right and just.

     And these orders, these simple defences of masculinity and femininity, are only the beginning. With these organizations and the others that we will doubtlessly create over time, we will build up a foundation that will eventually flower into our true goal in the pursuit of growth: the emergence of a distinct Edanian culture. As our way of life is taught to and internalized by more and more people through the actions of these teaching organizations, and as the visibility of the kingdom increases through cosmetic additions like distinctive modes of dress or specifically Edanian holidays, and as the political influence of the kingdom grows through the increase of the citizenry, it is inevitable that the concept and ideal of Edan will gradually crystallize into a truly distinct society, a community of people living the Edanian life. If we can succeed in doing this, if we actually create a distinct contingent of the population that has rejected the flawed paradigm of the modern world in favour of Tradition, Distributism, Catholicity, and Justice, the Kingdom of Edan will have definitively and irrevocably succeeded. Even if our government should be overthrown and our Royal Family wiped out and our oaths forgotten, if our ideals live on in the world, Edan will survive and, I can confidently say, thrive.

     So, to summarize, the only way to understand the kingdom's methods of and goals for expansion and growth is to understand that we are playing a very, very different game from that of any other country that currently exists. We win not through the acquisition of land, power, and prestige, but through bearing witness to the goodness and strength of our ideology. Our dream is not a thriving economy, a powerful military, diplomatic hegemony, and ever-spreading borders, but a distinct culture, a place in the mainstream political debate, people who leave liberalism for Tradition, and communities being founded according to the rule we embrace. We work not for the exaltation of Edan, but for the exaltation of the Edanian life. We are an idea, not an institution.

Knighthood

  Recently Prince Jonathan turned 18 years old. That weekend was a celebratory one, of course, but HRH Jonathan did not party, or travel, or carouse.
  On the evening of January 24th Prince Jonathan entered the parish church of the royal family. It was 10 pm on an unusually cold Winter night and the temperature inside the church hovered around 50 degrees. The prince placed a bible and a copy of The Imitation of Christ on a pew and his sword at the altar rail and he began to pray.

  He stayed in that cold church throughout the night in a Knight's Vigil, praying that God would give him the graces necessary for life as a Catholic leader. At the top of each hour he would go to the altar rail to pray a decade of the Rosary. At the bottom of each hour he would ask for the prayers of the Blessed Virgin and of St. Joseph.

  Eight hours later as dawn approached King Richard joined him, prayed with him, and together they performed the ceremony of knighthood. There was no pomp, no music, no pageantry, no witness other than God, the Saints, and the angels.
  The oath reminds the knight that he will be hated for his honesty, mocked for his chastity, and despised for his courage. It also reminds him that his life is not his own, but God's and that he must be ready and willing to die for the Lord.
When the ceremony was complete Prince Jonathan was given his sword and greeted as what he is - a Catholic leader.

 
  The king and the prince spoke together and prayed for a short time until the pastor arrived. Soon thereafter Prince Jonathan gave his Confession and then Richard and Jonathan attended Mass.

  Prince Jonathan is now the Knight Commander of the Order of St. Maurice. He will begin seeking out other young Catholic men so that they, too, may become knights.

The Truly Lost

  I had an interesting encounter yesterday, one that was illuminating while failing to be enjoyable. The Kingdom is not as active on social media as we are told we 'should' be, but from time to time I will spend some energy on twitter. Yesterday I made a rather tangental reply to the tweet of a young Catholic lady. It turned out that each of us had been unclear (I blame the terse format) and off we went.
  But others, followers of the young lady, were incensed by my statement. Three young men in general, one of them in particular, were very openly angry about my statement. Despite my attempts to point out that they had made the same error as the young lady I was replying to, thus their emotions were based on a misapprehension, they grew more and more angry. Slurs, curses, and vile invective of all sorts spewed forth as this young man worked himself into a lather.
  He accused me of wishing to grind others (particularly children!) under the boot heel of tyranny; that I am a power-mad dictator in waiting, eager to oppress and enslave the entire world in my mad thirst for conquest. In between curses he also threw in such epithets as 'tyrant' and 'big government stooge' but the slur he obviously felt was the most powerful and dirtiest thing he could call me was 'statist'.
  By now you are probably making assumptions about the topic in discussion. Was he furious at me for being a Monarchist? No. Was it that I am a king? No. Was it my rejection of Democracy? No. Was it the structure or nature of Edan? No.Was it about Edan being officially Catholic? No. Was it the most common topic of outrage from outsiders, that women do not get the vote in Edan? No.
  This young man was full of rage because he mistakenly thought I advocate for a requirement that children have a permit for lemonade stands.
  Yes, his fury was about food safety permits for children. I had mistakenly thought the young lady was speaking about professional (adult) vendors and she mistakenly thought I was discussing children in their own family's yards. Regardless of my attempts to tell these young men my actual topic, they refused to believe it. I believe they wished to revel in their righteous anger.
  Early on I almost terminated the conversation, but I persisted. Why? I was curious as to how angry they would become and hoped that their emotional state would reveal why they were so angry. And I believe that these young men did teach me something, something important.
  These young men feel powerless. And this is no illusion, they largely are powerless. They were all Americans, White, male, and under the age of 26. While I read online many people calling this combination one of 'privilege', I disagree. They have no real economic power, no political influence, they have no 'leaders' who are not corporate-controlled entertainers, and there is no special-interest lobby working for them. They face barriers in many ways - poor education, expensive education, limited job prospects, a legal system that favors others, and being told they are privileged, as well. Western society has been busily redefining their role for so long and in so many conflicting ways they have no clear concept of what they should be doing or why and certainly no higher calling, which often leads to a lack of higher aspirations. Secular, unchurched, or 'post-Christian Protestant' they have no underlying moral framework, religious community, or spiritual support to call upon. In short, these young men are truly lost.
  These young men are not stupid; they felt powerless, examined their lives and concluded that they are powerless. And they are correct - in any democratic system people without wealth or pull are powerless. They then tried to determine the primary reason that they are powerless and concluded that it is because of their government. This is also largely correct; the governmental system is the primary reason they are disenfranchised. But this is actually the start of the problem at hand - once they determined that the primary reason that they are powerless is the government, they stopped asking more questions. The next logical step should be to ask 'why is the particular form of government I live in making me powerless?'. That is the step that leads people in search of alternates to the system in which they live. Instead, these young men (as well as the majority of Anarchists, Libertarians, etc.) didn't ask the next question, instead reaching a conclusion. Their investigation went something like this;

"I feel powerless. Am I truly powerless?"
  They examine their lives and determine they are, in fact, powerless.
  "I am powerless. What is the primary reason I am powerless?"
  They examine their world and determine the government is the primary reason they are powerless.
  "The government is the primary reason I am Powerless."
  "Therefore, all governments are Bad."

  Yes, I am aware that there is a fair amount of political thought about such topics as Anarchy, Anarcho-Capitalism, Libertarianism, etc. I am focusing on the majority of people who adopt these positions and why they do so. After all, a lot of the young people who do ask 'what is it about my government that makes me feel powerless?' end up becoming Communists, National Socialists, etc. because they assume anything else is better than what they have. I will need to write about that in the future.
  Once these young adults reach their conclusion, that all government is bad, then it is a short trip to the belief that any regulation is bad simply because a government must exist to enforce it. Before too long this can lead to the conclusion that any form of authority is bad and that Anarchy is the only solution.
  Again, how can you blame these young adults? They have never been taught about true alternatives to the world they live in, they have often never been trained to question. They instinctively know something is wrong and are doing their level best to identify and correct the problem. They have never been taught about morals and ethics and in the absence of knowledge of actual morality they struggle to build a framework so that they can identify Good and Evil. Since the only certainty they have been able to build for themselves is Government = Bad their natural passion for goodness and justice is funneled into opposition to government.
  Thus, belief that someone wants kids to get a permit for lemonade drives them to righteous fury. In the absence of a real knowledge of good and evil; in a society that fails to guide them to their place in the world; in a culture that mocks concepts of honor, duty, and courtesy; and in a milieu that praises license as liberty it is almost all they have.
  My question for you is - how do we reach these people? How do we break through to them and show them a larger world? How do we teach them true morality and save them?

Virtue, Masculinity, and the Manosphere [by Prince Jonathan]

  There are few political concepts which truly anger me; whether this is to my pride or to my shame depends upon your point of view. The definition of all morality in terms of freedom angers me, attempts to paint history in modern light irritate me, serious errors about the basic teachings of the Church frustrate me, and the increasing hypersexualization of the culture fills me with rage. But what angers me the most is the alpha-male/beta-male concept, and the Manosphere discussing it. This concept arouses my particular ire because it is one of those subtle, seductive evils which builds lies on top of truth so that they cannot be spotted, and has thereby succeeded in insinuating itself into many bastions of Catholicism and Traditionalism. 

   These corrupted centres of Tradition are known collectively as the Manosphere, and I consider them one of the greatest threats to authentic Traditionalism and Catholic Culture. Even leaving out those groups which embody promiscuity and nihilism, the Manosphere is still critically flawed in thought. It is barbaric, modern, and doomed to failure; although perhaps not through any fault of its own. It is flawed because its foundation is flawed, and that foundation is the alpha-male/beta-male concept. To sum this concept up: it divides men into two camps, the first, more common group being the betas, passive men who act with neither initiative nor leadership; the second, rarer group being the alphas, who take the lead and move with self-confidence. It goes on to say that since the essence of masculinity is action and women are attracted to men who take the lead, alphas are superior to their beta cousins. Indeed, it is often stated that only alpha men deserve to find love, since only they act as men ought. 

   The Manosphere is built upon this concept, and dedicates itself to cultivating alpha-ness; alphitas, if you will. It attempts to build up this alphitas in its own members and in the Culture as a whole by spreading the word and attacking the passivity of the modern world. It encourages men to take an active role, to date aggressively, to not be afraid to confess love, to not back down from threats, and to comport themselves well. What really makes the alpha-male/beta-male concept frightening and dangerous is the same thing that makes anarchism frightening and dangerous: the fact that it is built upon a core of truth. Passive men really are the majority in our present day. Those who refuse to act in a masculine way and still expect to be treated as men really are dominant in the Culture. 

   It takes only a bit of thought to make it patently obvious where this trend comes from. We live in an anomalous age, and one of the most dangerous anomalies is the ever-increasing passivity forced upon children by the Societal Engine. Passivity is the water that must be swum in in the public school system and the political correctness that it has birthed. Girls have a capacity to resist this, due to their greater innate affinity for passiveness giving them strength to resist its use as a weapon. Boys, on the other hand, have been ruined. Passivity is the antithesis of masculinity, and males have almost no ability to work within passive structures. Thus, authentic manhood is ruined, and has been ruined for generations; with only a scant handful of survivors, and even fewer men lucky enough to avoid the issue entirely. 

  The Manosphere, therefore, is a rebellion against the modern destruction of masculinity; and inasmuch as this is true, it must be praised. The Manosphere is an attempt to take manhood back and fight against the feminization pressing in on all sides in the modern world. It holds as its cause the defence of coming generations from the mistakes of today, and this cause is most laudable. Indeed, it is a cause necessary for the survival of civilization. 

   Why, then, do I hate the Manosphere? Because it has failed! It has made one of the most fundamental moral mistakes, and in doing so has made something just as inimical to masculinity as the passivity it hates. In the absence of a firm tradition, in the absence of any sort of precedent, and in the absence of guiding religion; the Manosphere has attempted to define masculinity as a negative. The alpha-male/beta-male concept does an excellent job of defining what it fights against, but it does not define what it fights for, thereby causing masculinity to be defined as the absence of passivity. This is a disaster! The opposite of being a follower is not being a leader, it is being a rebel; the opposite of loneliness is not love, it is promiscuity; the opposite of being shy is not being outgoing, it is being a boor; the opposite of shame is not honour, it is arrogance; the opposite of being a beta is not being a man, it is being an alpha. 

  All these things are obvious in the Manosphere; one must only look to see. So what is masculinity, then? Why, we all know what it is! It is what the Church has always said it is. It is the prudence and justice to know how to act, and the temperance and fortitude to be able to act; all in a masculine manner, which is to say, in leading and in sacrificing. Men are meant to lead, and they are called to sacrifice themselves for others; therefore, being able to do these things virtuously is the epitome of manhood. That is masculinity. It is simple, and it comes naturally, but it can only be perfected by God. It is the call to step into that area of the world men are meant to fill, and to do it well. All that this is is a particular application of the virtues. It is therefore blissfully simple and terribly difficult, and that is its beauty; because it is, in the end, a tangible thing, not a mere absence.