The Right Religious Tradition
Enjoy the clever double-entendre as you read the article.
Back in December 2022, I ended my exploration of Julius Evola’s thought with the following conclusions:
The culture war cannot be won on a purely secular level. Spiritual forces are at work. Ignoring these forces seems to be a recipe for defeat.
Whatever spiritual or religious tradition the Right looks to for its support, that tradition must offer warriors a place within the sacred. Something like “muscular” Christianity, reimbued with the old virtues of chivalry, will be required.
American greatness cannot be restored just by passing the right set of rules or laws. Restoration will require great leadership from men of great character, a “virtuous elite,” possessed of what the Greeks dubbed arete and the Romans virtus.
A few weeks later I wrote a follow-up article exploring whether or not there was a theological framework for Christianity to meet this gap, and concluded that there was. Despite the assertions of so many liberal Christians today, there is a strong theological basis for muscular Christianity.
Today I want to approach the Evolian challenge from another perspective. Religions have been described as a form of social technology - that is, a set of tools which, given the input of human beings, creates particular types of societies.
To help frame this, let’s put ourselves in the mindset of game developers creating a simulation, something like Civilization or Master of Orion. It is traditional in these types of games that the players can choose cultures, religions, alien species, and so on for their civilizations, with each choice having pros and cons that affect their likelihood of success. It is also traditional that players be given customization options to, e.g. create their own from the game’s building blocks.
Our imaginary game starts in 2025 and is a simulation of the future of America. As a player, we run a “faction” of the culture war. Let us imagine ourselves as the player controlling the right-wing faction in an imaginary Sid Meier’s Civilization: Culture War and that we must choose or create the religion that will give our faction the best chance to succeed.