We Must Not Let Fear Stop Us!

Introduction 3: The When Is Now, and the Choice Is Ours

Cover page | Preface | Introduction 1 | Introduction 2 | Introduction 3 |

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Introduction 3

WHEN

The quickest answer I can give to the question of when is that we should have gotten this started yesterday. Or a year ago. Or a thousand years ago. But it is what it is. We’re doing it now. This book is our first step.

I hope you won’t be too disappointed to learn that there are no quick fixes to the predicament we’re in. I am reluctant to use clichés—especially really cliché clichés like, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”—but there is a reason why such aphorisms are so durable. Anything worth doing takes time.

It took a long time for humanity to get this lost. Those of us who want a new life cannot simply snap our fingers and be in the promised land. We need to find our way. We must blaze a trail, lay a path, and then build a road for our progeny to follow.

I know how badly we all want a quick fix. I am right there with you. But quick fixes are rare. Large projects require dedication and patience.

A century ago, Antonio Gramsci and the western Marxists committed to a generational project. They began their “long march through the institutions” with a set of simple goals:

1. Gain control of the mechanisms of information dissemination—academia, media, culture, and even churches.

2. Influence, change, and ultimately control the social narrative.

3. Use that control to gain power.

Well, here we are, a hundred years later—their plan has succeeded beyond even their wildest dreams. They got there because they remained committed to the project, within their own lives and across generations.

I am not saying our project will definitely take 100 years. Indeed, there are some plausible scenarios in which we may be able to accomplish many of our objectives in a very short time. But whether the pace is quick, gradual, or even generational, someone has to get the ball rolling. We cannot just sit and do nothing for want of a quick fix.

I know that voting isn’t “nothing.” But it is next to nothing. At best, it’s bailing water out of a ship that’s going nowhere. We stay afloat, but nothing more.

True human independence will not be reclaimed in a day. A path is laid one stone at a time, and that is how we shall proceed. At the end of Part II, we will lay out a schedule of implementation: benchmark objectives in the ongoing realization of our vision.

Some of these will be steps each of us, as individuals, can take right away. Some will be for families and small groups. There will be a series of objectives needed to grow this new kind of “nation” in size and clout, and steps to carry our vision into the future.

There will always be external circumstances outside of our control. Some of these will make things more difficult. Others will redound to our benefit. Events may shift the timetable in one direction or another, and we will adjust as needed.

We mustn’t let fear stop us—cowering in our respective corners, popping black pills all day. We mustn’t allow ourselves to be discouraged by the obstacles, or to allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good.

Despair gets us nowhere.

And we absolutely must not fail to get started just because all of our objectives will not be realized in a day. Instant gratification is for toddlers. We are better than that.

It is time to start living our values. It is time to set an example. We owe it to ourselves and our descendants. The when is now. The who is us.

The how?

With optimism and hope. With grit and commitment.

With patience. 

With courage.

As a movie hero once said, “The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.”

We have two choices before us: 

1. Do nothing and accept our fate.

2. Do something and change our fate.

The hour is late and the choice is ours. Let’s get started.