Don't Become Delusional!

I recently encountered some folks on our side who are mad at me for what they call “retreating.” There’s a group of people on our side of the Great Divide (as Zman calls it) who believe that our people shouldn’t abandon cities. If the epoch we were living in possessed a different geist, that would make sense. In this one, it does not.

Living in a rural area where people’s values are different, 5–10 who are of like mind—and will—could drive the politics and culture of their polity. Taking into consideration the worldview of most people living in cities, their focus on keeping politics and culture moving in a left-ward direction, and the realities of how lawfare is being used against even the most wealthy among us, you’d have to be a complete ideologue to try to convince people you claim to care about to stay in cities—or even the suburbs at this point. Or, you’re a malicious actor (although I believe those are fewer in number than the most online of people would claim).

We, in fact, live in a time when it is dangerous for those of us who think like we do to be situated near centers of regime power. I understand there are people who are stuck there due to their employment. I’ve been screaming at you for a few years now to plan your exit. I hope you’ve made progress. If you haven’t, please get involved in a church or some community organization that has historically helped to shield people from the iron fist of the regime. Family has always been the greatest tool in that shed, but if your extended family is in cities and suburbs, I can’t tell you to break that bond. I would only pray that you have some influence in convincing them that you all have to leave. Historically, uprooting generations of people has only been caused by famine or war, but I would hope many have come to realize the very real war we are in and where the frontlines are located.

I am always hopeful that things are getting better. Even after the tragedy that was 2020, I could look at the situation and have some short-term hope (I always have long-term hope), but the rising costs of food and the weaponized lawfare are far too dangerous to ignore. Cities have been lost for good people like us. Can they be won back? I believe it would take social and political events so far outside of people’s comfort zones that to expect it in the lifetime of a person brought up in this civic religion is foolishness.