Ok, let me play devils advocate here. All of you preaching Catholic Action and rebuilding the guilds and all of this, i'm all for it, and IN THEORY, it's a great idea. But how do we do it, PRACTICALLY? I think that's what Matthew and I are arguing, the practicality of it.
But, as you say, God will bless efforts if we start. I don't want to be pessimistic and use that as an excuse to be lazy.
We have no power to reform the existing governments and culture of Western nations, yet we do currently have the power to internally secede to varying degrees from the dominant culture. The goal of this movement should be to facilitate such in-place or virtual secession to a much greater degree than is now practical. For the purpose of this post, I will refer to this movement as the Catholic Cultural Reconstruction (CCR). A successful CCR movement would start to rebuild Catholic alternatives for:
1. Secular corporate and governmental employment
Example: Facilitate development and promote the patronization of guild-member businesses especially family business to begin while the main bread-winner is still conventionally employed.
2. Career education, training, and apprenticeship
Example: Guild-members with marketable skills could compile training materials such as publications, videos and software for preparing aspirants to join their field. Members could profit by hand-picking the most able of the aspirants for workers in their own consulting businesses.
Much of engineering these days involves the specialized use of powerful engineering software. A bright junior guild-member who took the time to learn software like AutoCad, MathCad, LabView, Solidworks, Flow-3D, HydroCad, ArcGIS, PetroMod, etc. could be a great asset to senior guild-member's engineering consultancy. This software is usually expensive but can be obtained for free or at a discount for educational purposes. The senior member could start his consultancy part-time while he was still employed or have a guild-brother start it if there were contractual impediments with his employer. Members seeking a mid-life career change could also benefit from such an arrangement.
Software programmers along with systems, network, and database administrators would be even more able to train junior partners because there is so much free and low-cost online material for available for training, almost too much. So trainees would greatly benefit from experienced mentors curating a curriculum for them based on what is really most demanded in the current marketplace.
Electricians, HVAC technicians, auto mechanics, and many other trades could also train or partially train apprentices in this way.
3. Hollywood/pop music entertainment
Example: Train and promote classical and folk musician and collaborate to develop small-time, traditional-themed video productions. Entertainment may not seem like a high priority but Hollywood and pop music serve as powerful vectors for incrementally corrupting the minds of everyone and especially the youth. Many trad families imagine they can screen Hollywood movies to allow only the "good ones" but they are naive. Their faith may survive but will almost certainly be weakened. We need more who are powerful in the faith instead of just hanging on.
Collaborative studio production of music and video can take place remotely over the internet. Guilds should prioritize the patronage of traditionalist audio and video productions so that Catholic culture may once again flourish through the medium of art.
4. Central bank currencies
Example: Creating a Bitcoin-style crypto currency for particular interest groups is technically feasible and increasingly commonplace. Central banks literally "make" money and lend it to us at interest. Why not do the same for ourselves internally?
5. Food and consumer goods
Example: Guild-affiliated suppliers and co-ops
But the main problem, and a MAJOR difference between now and "Lepanto" times is that we catholics have no leader. We're fragmented (to put it mildly).
This issue is frequently brought up so let's analyze. The man the world recognizes as pope is heard breezily implying that "gαy" is okay and stating countless other outrages. Whatever our position on the legitimacy of his office, we trads do not follow in the direction he is leading or if we do then to that extent we are not traditional. When the king cannot lead, a steward or stewards are appointed. Traditionalist priest societies are providing stewardship in the religious sphere, but what of the temporal? The necessary temporal component for the Social Kingship of Christ has been mostly dormant for considerably longer than 1965. The prolonged temporal power vacuum may have made the 1960's religious collapse practically inevitable.
A fruitful CCR movement would decrease the vacuum in the temporal sphere as priest societies currently do in the religious.
So, who's gonna lead this movement? More importantly, who's gonna FOLLOW the leader? What's the plan? I cannot be more serious when i say that i will help in any way I can.
Who's gonna lead? Let's take a vote! (Just kidding.)
As a people seeking to throw off the tyrannical yoke of "Enlightenment" and the errors which led to it, we may find the currently dominant ideologies of political organization to be insufficient. We should demand a higher standard of leadership such as was enjoyed in healthier times. If the CCR movement begins to bear fruit, it will draw many newcomers to the faith. Some will see joining a guild as a pathway to wealth and power but will care little for the Church mission. Such people cannot be kept out of the church and will be difficult to keep out of the guilds entirely.
To deter the slide toward laxity which so often plagues traditionalist groups, we must erect safeguards in the form of barriers to positions of leadership. Untested newcomers should not be able to vote one of their own to guild leadership. Only those possessing the greatest aristocratic qualities of proven faith and ability should be allowed in the highest leadership positions and those of medium aristocratic qualities in the mid-level positions.
If we were fighting physical battles, then those most warlike would simply gravitate to the top. In our technological society, we must devise other means of determining rank. I have suggestions of how this might work but each guild would have to develop its own ranking system by trial and error. One method might be a weighted points scale measuring aristocratic qualities. Such qualities objectively measurable could include:
1. Faithfulness as measured by daily mass attendance.
2. Wealth as measured by religious donations and patronage of guild-affiliated businesses.
3. Seniority
4. Age
5. Number of children and grandchildren (overall, those who keep the faith, and those who join a guild)
6. Technical skills
7. Martial arts competition
8. Marksmanship
9. Worldly wisdom determined in chess or poker tournaments
10. Intelligence as measured by IQ score
11. Father or grandfather having membership in a guild
12. Parents and grandparents having the faith
13. Weight-lifting competition
There are many other potential measurements of aristocracy. Guild founders and leadership could weight the measurements according to whom they wished to see rise in rank for the purpose of ensuring worthy successors. Such a system might not pick the best leader but it probably would not pick the worst. If the leadership of a guild liberalized or became incompetent, lower-ranking members could break off and form their own guild. Some guilds might include all trad types while others might be sede or indult exclusive. However, I anticipate that most guilds will maintain business and cultural ties with the central CCR movement for the financial benefits alone, if nothing else.
Topic: SSPX mod - We cant have rampant dissent about the Pope (Read 8796 times)