We Can Have Nice Things Again

1,069 words

If I had to choose a single word to describe the United States in the current year, it would be decay. Society, law, and standards of living are in free fall, and this spiritual decay is mirrored in the physical realm in crumbling infrastructure and the woke destruction of monuments.

A recent trip through Hungary was a welcome reprieve. Along with happier and healthier people, there is extensive renovation and construction. It is joked that the national bird of Hungary is the crane, due to the proliferation of construction cranes. I can only imagine that the pride stirring in my heart at the sight is an echo of the optimism our ancestors felt when the great cities of America such as Los Angeles, Detroit, and Chicago were synonymous with growth rather than decay.

The contrast between Hungary and the US is even more striking because Hungary was on the losing side of the Second World War and subsequently occupied by Communists for decades. The “victor” whose homeland was never bombed while the rest of the civilized world was reduced to rubble, and which has always portrayed itself as the freest and most prosperous nation, is now crumbling like Joe Biden’s health. History is written in blood and iron, but are wars really won or lost on the battlefield?

In 1934, during Miklós Horthy’s reign, the Monument to National Martyrs was erected to honor the victims of the brief but bloody red terror of 1919. The monument depicted an armored woman on one side and a virile youth conquering a dragon on the other. The armored woman represented Hungary, and the youth represented nationalism, with the conquered dragon representing the chaos of Communism. There is also a coffin atop the monument to honor the martyrs.

In 1945, the occupying Soviet forces destroyed the Monument of National Martyrs — but this was not its end. In 2019 the monument was reconstructed using old photos and documents and placed exactly where it had been before.[1] If I hadn’t learned of its history from a friend, I would never have suspected that it was not the original.

Iconoclasm is temporary, especially given modern technology. It is permanent only if we allow it to be so. A nation’s monuments might be destroyed, but if the nation remains intact in blood and spirit, its monuments can be rebuilt. Rome rebounded after its sacking by the Gauls and even exacted vengeance centuries later. Nations, assuming they are strong, are longer lasting than transitory forms of government — a fact that civic nationalists, with their inordinate emphasis on constitutionalism, would be wise to consider. Barring total genocide, nations can outlast even the most brutal of occupations in a quiet battle of wills. The conquered mourns, the conqueror is undone.

White monuments are targeted for destruction because they are representations of the white American nation. The rationale behind the removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville — that the statue, and by extension the entire legacy of the Confederacy, was a symbol of “hate” — was a mere pretext. Woke iconoclasm is now targeting the monuments of any and all white men simply for being white. Hence even statues of Abraham Lincoln are now being targeted.[2][3]

This is precisely what the protestors at Charlottesville predicted, like the chorus in a Greek tragedy. Conservatives, failing to conserve much of anything as usual, have either compromised, turned a blind eye, or even dogpiled on the Charlottesville protestors in a futile attempt to spare their own skins from being targeted next.

Some might argue that our monuments are a lost cause. Rearranging monuments is usually what a conqueror does after, and not before, a victory. This is similar to the claim that the holding of mass rallies represents a victory lap. But this is a culture war, not a conventional war. Destroying our monuments is meant to demoralize our people. It is all part of the Great Replacement. They are destroying us in effigy first.

But we can always recreate the statues the Left has destroyed. In fact, we could make them bigger and better to show our resolve.

The Fundamental Law of Hungary recognizes that the nation lost its sovereignty between 1945 and 1990. America likewise lost its sovereignty in 2020, albeit as the result of a stolen election rather than an invasion. It is debatable whether America in fact lost its sovereignty earlier, but 2020 was when the façade of democratic legitimacy finally crumbled, as outlined in The Year America Died by Dr. Greg Johnson. We are now undeniably occupied.

White America can survive its occupation, just as Hungary did. The best way to do so is by never forgetting that we are indeed occupied, as this will undermine the regime’s legitimacy. Every political order needs legitimacy to function. Even the Soviet Union was desperate for legitimacy, otherwise it would not have expended so much effort on propaganda.

Rather than waiting for the regime to fall, we can hasten its passing through symbolic acts of defiance, such as by reforging broken monuments in places where they will be protected and enjoyed. In a way, it is as if the statues of our heroes are moving to a better, more welcoming home rather than being destroyed.

After the regime change, most of the Communist monuments in Budapest were not destroyed but politely moved to Monument Park, an open-air museum of bad taste. Others had context added to them. For example, the Soviet War Memorial still stands in Liberty Square — but it has new neighbors, namely statues of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, which were erected for their roles in ending the Cold War. One can imagine all sorts of ways to add context to the monuments of the woke anti-white occupation.

One memory of Soviet occupation which I hope is not renovated are the bullet holes you occasionally see in the facades of buildings all over Budapest, which date from either 1945 or the 1956 Uprising. This is because a nation should wear its scars with pride like a seasoned warrior.

White America now lives under a soft totalitarian surveillance state, complete with political prisoners and blatant election interference. Trying to minimize this reality as a coping mechanism is both cowardly and dishonest. But Hungary was also hit hard. Budapest was littered with dead bodies when the  Battle of Budapest ended in 1945 and when the 1956 Uprising was crushed. But the Hungarian nation still stands defiant. Hungary has not only survived; it is striding forward, while the Soviets are dust.

One day, the current regime in the United States will be dust as well. White America will remain, and our current decay will be replaced with growth. And we will have nice things again.

Notes

[1] https://hungarytoday.hu/reconstructed-monument-of-national-martyrs-inaugurated-in-budapest/

[2] https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/mar/3/history-it-happens-lincoln-and-woke-left/

[3] https://badgerherald.com/news/2020/06/26/uw-students-petition-to-remove-abraham-lincoln-statue-on-bascom-hill/

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