Counter-Currents
Ivan Kramskoy, Christ in the Wilderness (1872)
1,465 words
I started to seriously observe Lent with my grandmother on my mom’s side of the family about 15 years ago. She was Eastern Orthodox, and I am too – or at least I was baptized as such as a baby. On Fat Tuesday I usually stop eating around lunch. I fast on Ash Wednesday with no food, just water and black coffee. Then, sometime on Thursday I break the fast and start my Lenten restrictions (or Lenten sacrifice). My grandparents usually gave up meat for the entire 40 days, representing the 40 days Jesus Christ spent in the desert enduring constant temptation by Satan.
I must admit that I am not a very religious man in the traditional sense, or at least as that is commonly understood. I do not go to regular church services, read the Bible, or consult scripture or priests when I am dealing with difficult times. I am agnostic in relation to the Abrahamic traditions, if anything. With that said, I participate in the Orthodox traditions and Lent for many reasons, and I believe that others can relate to them.
Most major religions and belief systems that deal with the metaphysical or divine in some way incorporate fasting in their practices. The reasons for it will vary, but there is a common idea that it brings your physical body and mind closer to the esoteric and sacrosanct. Fasting in the Christian tradition is said to cleanse both the soul and mind. In Eastern beliefs, fasting is a way to more fully experience your existence and senses while heightening clarity.
Raising one’s mental clarity through fasting is something I have experienced profoundly. When I restrict my calories or go without food for long periods (usually 12-48 hours), my thoughts and senses all become extremely sharp. My sense of smell is heightened to a degree I did not know possible. I experience no “brain fog,” and I find staying on task is effortless. There is something about hunger that drives us to become better. Perhaps it is an old evolutionary survival mechanism: our brains becoming very clear and focused when we need to find food. It is also worth noting that the idea of being “hungry for something” in the abstract sense, such as for success or some other goal unrelated to food, is a phrase we often hear but do not fully consider in a society where there is constant access to food. If you fast for any significant amount of time, you will have a new appreciation for the term.
When we go without something, be it a specific vice or calories in general, its absence becomes known and abundant. I find I tend to appreciate things more when they are not always available, and I think most others do as well. The void it leaves ends up filling entire rooms.
During Lent I always find myself experiencing the gray shades of winter and the slow transition between seasons, both ecological and personal. I later learned that the Orthodox Greeks have a term for this: charmolypê. Like all great words that cannot be directly translated into English, it has many meanings: bitter joy, brilliant sadness, or a type of mourning mixed with happiness are all possible interpretations. A brilliant sadness is a good way to express how I felt when I lost my grandmother, who was my longtime film matinee companion and Lenten sacrifice partner, among much else. I lost her in the middle of Lent, which seems almost cosmic now as it is the season I associate most closely with her.
Lenten sacrifices are a perfect time to rid yourself of a bad habit or to form new and better habits. The time it takes to break or form a habit varies between people and the specific habits in question, but the average seems to fall at around two to three months. A study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology found a range of 18 to 254 days, with an average of 66.[1] You may or may not fully break or make a habit in 40 days, but you will have a substantial start and will enter the Spring season with the groundwork for change laid. I am using this year’s season to limit the number of calories I eat per day to the minimum I need to function well while losing weight (about 1,700 per day), finishing up my cutting cycle to lose the last bit of fat I have before Spring begins. In essence, I am giving up any excess calories, which means I will not be enjoying pizza, pastries, beer, or soda, all things I take great pleasure in. There is not much else like being at the corner booth in a pizza shop on a Friday or Saturday night, listening to music while having a beer and soda with some food and friends. After Easter it will be that much better, which brings me to my next point about sacrifice, asceticism, and self-discipline.
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It stands to reason that if you can do or not do something for 40 days, you can continue well down that path for an untold number of months or years. Self-discipline is the foundation of all greatness, be it personal or on a civilizational scale. Without the ability to walk a careful path where one abstains from something now for greater benefit later, it becomes very difficult to build anything of substance, be it a fortune, a great physique, or a well-functioning civilization. There are choices we all make in life and as a society. A person can rarely spend frivolously and remain wealthy. It is likewise rare to indulge in every food craving and eat only the things one enjoys the most and maintain low body fat. We trade one thing for another, avoiding indulging in every desire in order to have something better later. In modern liberal society we often see short-term economic growth traded for long-term debt; the same goes for the short-term liberal “feel good policies” of being soft on crime and calling for open borders, which in the long term lead to less social stability and increasingly dangerous and crime-ridden cities. In another world, we might find it better to deal with the short-term backlash in reaction to illiberal policies that are harsh on crime and migration in the present for the future benefit of lower crime and greater stability.
Lent concludes on Good Friday, which commemorates the crucifixion of Christ; Holy Saturday, the day the body of Christ was laid in the tomb and He underwent the Harrowing of Hell; and finally Easter Sunday, the day of Resurrection. The fact that Easter falls near the Spring Equinox is similar to Christmas falling near the Winter Solstice. I can appreciate the many aspects of Easter even if I do not fully believe in them, from its pagan origins as a celebration of the spring goddess Ostara to the Christian celebration of the resurrection and rebirth of Christ. The relation of these traditions to each other and how they are practiced represents an interesting and often beautiful mix of the traditions of European peoples. The parallels between the rebirth of Christ and the return of the spring goddess are strong. Through the sacrifices made during Lent, we prepare the way for our rebirth as better men than when we started.
By Easter I will be far leaner than I was on Ash Wednesday. That means I will have a higher net worth, and with any luck on I will be on my way toward a better life. That’s how it has to be done, right? You make a decision and then take it one day at a time, day after day, letting all of the little changes and bits of progress add up over the years until one day you realize that it has added up to something magnificent.
My grandparents, all of whom are now gone, were very happy when I started to observe Lent traditions with them. At the time I was not sure why this was. I suspect they always knew I was not in fact moving closer to religion, but it was nevertheless a homecoming of sorts, being about tradition and the carrying on legacies and memories. It was something that brought us closer together. And in the end, that is how I’ve come to view all of Europe’s religious traditions. There is value in them, even if one is an agnostic who otherwise finds little value in the Abrahamic mythos.
I hope that all of you who observe it have a nice Lent.
Note
[1] Phillippa Lally, Cornelia H.M. van Jaarsveld, Henry W.W. Potts, & Jane Wardle, “How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world,” European Journal of Social Psychology (July 16, 2009), Vol. 40, No. 6, pp. 998-1009.
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8 comments
Our Traditions link us with our past, our people, our race. Those who want to destroy our race have worked diligently to belittle the beliefs and practices of our fathers in order to break us down. You don’t have to be a saint to take your family to church, you don’t even have to believe (plenty of your ancestors didn’t believe either), you go to tie your family and yourself to your people. The Orthodox might be the best at it.
Great piece, thanks for sharing Rich. I wasn’t even thinking about Lent when I started eating less a couple months ago. And this past week I did an impromptu 48hr fast, and it was surprisingly easy despite working full shifts (albeit not a very physical job). I’ve lost 24lbs in the past few months, and intend on losing another 24lbs this year. True, it’s annoying to forgo the snacks and extra helpings but it really feels right.
Doing the same things together but for different reasons is orthopraxis.
Used to be practicing Catholic because of one of my parents, and I remember going to Bullwinkle’s pizza place with a friend’s family on a Friday during one Lent as a third grader and being proud of myself for knowing not to order sausage pizza. But I ordered pepperoni, thinking it was okay, and then afterwards my aunt said to me in a mean way, “don’t you know that’s meat!” And I was very sad. I do remember Lent was meaningful to me, and I think it’s a good tradition. LDS have something similar, a fast Sunday during the first Sunday of the month.
Good for you man.
Not a Catholic or Orthodox but I feel compelled to participate in some of their traditions. I’ve made it a point to incorporate fish Friday’s into my weekly routine.
I’d encourage everyone to at least go to a Christmas Eve service, regardless of their beliefs.
A charming article that ties together many of the things I’ve been thinking about lately. MW recently said that Muslim men reject assimilation because White men are “ruled by their women.” I used to think this was just an outright bad-faith lie, given that men run everything still, not that I had a problem with that. Now, I see that it is more of a misconception.
Henrik and Lana played a clip on this week’s show wherein a bunch of club women say they don’t need a man. Then, they found a few men who said, yes we do need women. Why?
“Because they’re hot.”
“To do the dishes.”
According to Lana, this shows that men “worship women.” She sounded so unbelievably stupid, I actually felt kind of sorry for her for a second. (Then, in true mean girl form, she started laughing maliciously at “ugly girls” and that was the end of that.) Anyway, those two answers right there should tell you why we’re feminists. We don’t want any man who is looking for a maid with benefits. (Would you want to live with your boss?)
Anyway, back to the point. Every heterosexual male knows that he wants sex more than women. What to make of this fact is a natural question to ask. Many men, especially philosophers, conclude (explicitly or not) that women are superior to men. (Matthew 18:9) The Buddha likewise is said to have opined that Enlightenment would be impossible if another energy as strong as the sex drive existed to tempt people (i.e. men). The message is clear: Your sex drive, your problem.
Other men go down a darker path and decide that they are entitled to sex. When women got the right to support themselves with honest, dignified work, this looked like equality to us but oppressive “matriarchy” to them, because it appears to give women the “power of the least interest.”
Among several other things, this assumes that you can’t do without sex and/or wash your own dishes. You could learn to do the dishes without much trouble, but learning to do without sex is hard. A Lenten fast would be a very good place to start. No woman wants a man that is a slave to his libido, because you don’t marry such a man “for better or worse” but “for worse or for worse.” If he does well, he will cheat on you and feel well within his rights to do so, since, after all, he worked hard for “his money”! Why should he have to answer to you?
I know numerous women who don’t “rule over” their husbands. It’s not a pretty sight. Indeed, lots of men who are dead now would still be alive, and many incarcerated men still free, if their wives “ruled over” them. That is, unless you think women bully their husbands into running around committing crimes and shooting fentanyl.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/men-died-overdose-2-3-times-greater-rate-women-us-2020-2021
P.S.
Lana, if you see this, consider giving up makeup for Lent. Like Cher from Clueless, what you need is a makeover for your soul.
I’m going celibate for Lent. This is not because I want to, but because my wife had a baby on Valentine’s Day. It’s gonna be six long weeks until we can go again.
But it isn’t I who is jonesing for a romp in the hay. She is the one who really misses it. Even though many men lack sexual restraint, women generally yearn for intimacy more than men. Hence, I have the power of least interest in my scenario, as do many men who have at least a semblance of willpower, not that I am trying to be cruel to her. I love intimacy, too. Fortunately, there are many ways to be intimate.
Also, there is nothing wrong with women having the right to work, which has been the norm for some time. But prioritizing career over family formation has been terrible not just for the West, but every culture that embraces two income households and glorifies women “breaking the glass ceiling.” Just look at the TFRs and gender divides of anywhere from South Korea to the United States.
Try giving up egalitarianism for Lent.
If you can do it for race, you can do it for other categories.
But it isn’t I who is jonesing for a romp in the hay.
There’s always an anecdote, isn’t there.
women generally yearn for intimacy more than men.
Watch yourself. You might just shatter the delicate incel narrative into a million pieces and offend an indispensable donor base.
Also, there is nothing wrong with women having the right to work, which has been the norm for some time.
The fact that something “has been the norm for some time” in no way implies that it is a settled matter within the dissident right. Until someone tells me what the word “feminism” means to those who vehemently object to it, I am going to assume that the dread “feminism” label applies to the whole kit and kaboodle, all the way back to Pythagoras’ admission of women into his community, the Buddha’s ordination of female nuns, the Hebrew prophets’ concern for widows and orphans, etc. etc. etc.
But prioritizing career over family formation has been terrible not just for the West, but every culture that embraces two income households and glorifies women “breaking the glass ceiling.” Just look at the TFRs and gender divides of anywhere from South Korea to the United States.
Career must take priority over family formation. The ends must follow the means. You can’t get a mortgage for a house in “a good school district” without a secure income. This has always been the case.
every culture that embraces two income households and glorifies women “breaking the glass ceiling.” Just look at the TFRs and gender divides of anywhere from South Korea to the United States.
The data don’t support this view. The more educated a woman is, the more likely she is to marry and stay married for life. You must break the birth rate numbers down by race. High-achieving Black women have virtually no children. Asian culture is highly conformist, status-conscious, and materialistic. White women, by contrast, are peculiarly ideological. The highly-educated, fecund, and principled SAHM of 3-15 (of which I am one) is quintessentially White. Are we race realists are not?
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1238603/total-fertility-rate-us-education-ethnicity/
Try giving up egalitarianism for Lent.
There’s another word noone wants to define: egalitarian.
If you can do it for race, you can do it for other categories
This is the part-to-whole fallacy that will be the undoing of this cause. Egalitarians are wrong about some things, so they must be wrong about everything. Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. I find it interesting that people like Kevin McDonald and Jared Taylor will spend years collecting and analyzing data before they come to any unflattering conclusion about outgroups, and even then over very significant psychological resistance to the idea. Then, they go right along with armchair misogyny directed against White women without the slightest doubt or hesitation. They’re no different from the anti-White Left in that respect: They save up their most inveterate contempt for other Whites.
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