A BRIEF HISTORY
Before 2016, disagreement over politics, economics, and religion was more or less tolerated in our society. During the Obama years, the corporate press ramped up more division. However, I don’t think the public was prepared for what was to come. In response to this division, the American people responded with the presidential election of Donald Trump. That was when the world changed forever.
What was once tolerable disagreements became central in the most personal relationships. We all lost a friend one way or another based off how we viewed the former President and the political climate around him. We heard of spouses divorcing over how they voted. We heard of family members distancing from their Trump-supporting relatives. We heard of employers treating Trump-supporting employees differently or even finding a reason to fire them. This election tore into the essential fabric of society. How did it come this far?
This is a question I’ve been exploring since 2016. The world moves so fast these days that it’s difficult to keep up. The way I examine the world has undergone vast layers of development and maturity. In 2012, I was politically awakened by the presidential campaign of Ron Paul. I was introduced to the ideas of libertarianism and individual liberty at large. This began a journey of free market economics, private property, and their relationship to the cooperation of civilization. In 2013, I was spiritually awakened when my old college roommate introduced me to an early 20th century English thinker named G.K. Chesterton. His masterpiece Orthodoxy shaped the “moral imagination” so profoundly expressed in Christian scriptures, classic literature, and the more. With the discovery of individual liberty and orthodox Christianity, I began developing a worldview outside of the prism of two party politics and modern day evangelical protestantism.
Even as enlightening as these views were, I was often left confused over the social climate unfolding in front of me. I couldn’t dive deep enough into libertarianism to explain why the supporting or revolting against Trump was a life or death situation; or why the corporate press ramped up division to unspeakable levels; or why they are pushing so hard for masks, vaccines, and lockdowns in response to Covid-19. It doesn’t matter what logical or common sense point you might make on any of these issues— there are a sizable amount of people who will immediately defend the status quo or worse make you into a heretic. There is no sufficient political explanation for these behaviors.
DISCOVERING THE SACRED
I converted to Catholicism in 2021 in large part from the path Chesterton set before me. During this journey, I discovered one of my spiritual heroes Bishop Robert Barron from Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. Bishop Barron introduced me to another hero of mine—French anthropologist and Catholic thinker named René Girard. He is a big reason I’m starting this blog today. As we’ll discuss more on this substack, Girard found what created peaceful and orderly societies was the use of violent scapegoating to correct mimetic desires among a community. If you’re not sure what that means, I’ll explain more here and future posts.
In addition to Girard, I’ve been heavily inspired by the work of Michael Malice. Malice is a self-described anarchist whose ideas of voluntary cooperation are becoming more mainstream than ever. Whether or not you agree with anarchism, a more valuable insight he provides is his examination of “the cathedral.” Coined by writer Curtis Yarvin, it classifies the government, universities, the corporate press, and many of our civil institutions as different branches of the same tree. The State is the head hosting the seat of the bishop. The universities act like seminaries; the corporate press is the public relations arm; big tech serves as an inquisition for heretics— the list goes on.
This is where it began to come together for me. Girard examined ancient and “uncivilized” communities of the past and modern day in relation to mythology and the Bible. What he reveals is that communities attempt to maintain order by performing an act of collective, sacrificial violence. If you combine this with the description of the cathedral, you see that political explanations alone can’t sufficiently explain these concepts. We are dealing with a once invisible and sacred institution experiencing a sacrificial crisis.
I propose the Trump presidency and the rise of social media unintentionally exposed what was behind the curtain of the cathedral revealing a once sacred institution that is in the midst of its greatest sacrificial crisis in history. This is the source of the outrage tearing the fabric of society explaining the behaviors of many of these people. It’s from this hypothesis that we will examine the past and current political and social climate to make sense of what’s unfolding before our eyes. I hope you partake in this intellectual journey as we look through the stained glass.