In the West we seem to be sliding down a slippery slope towards a diabolical post-humanism. There exists a certain project, something along the lines of what CS Lewis imagined in That Hideous Strength, which the highest-profile global élites – the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg – want to put into action. I am convinced that they already believe themselves to be something not-quite-human, more-than-human, and are attempting to implement measures that will reduce those who are not in their clique to a realm of the less-than-human. I think Elon Musk tends to be the one who has the least verbal filter when it comes to things like a post-Earth society for the one-percenters or man-machine interfaces. But these are priorities which are shared across at least the Western billionaire caste.
Personally I am not sure that they can be stopped by conventional means. It may end up taking a full-scale civilisational collapse to bring about their downfall: a collapse we seem to be in the middle of already. Then: there was also a wealthy élite class that thought they were going to rule forever. Then: there was also a protracted state of political crisis that the élite class could not and did not care to address. Then: when the structures of the state fell down around them, hastened by barbarian invasions, they retreated into their own private infrastructure and left the rest of humanity to fend for themselves. Then: Benedictinism and land-sharing schemes rose to fill the void, and at least some semblance of culture was preserved.
I admit, I do not have much respect for the attempts, at least in America, to throw weight behind a purely negative cultural counter-elitism which has nothing of substance to offer. There is nothing true, or good, or beautiful about the Trump brand, which was and always will be a façade, a ruse to fool the gullible. Likewise with the attempts in some corners of Europe – such as Poland and Hungary – to attempt to decree a better order, inspired by a Gothic æsthetic, back into existence from the commanding heights. (We can see how well this is working out.) These soi-disant saviours of Western civilisation only hurry its ruin.
I know, and I have been told several times by my frustrated comrades, that my outlook is fairly bleak and cynical, and that I do not seem to have a way out. It’s true. I don’t. Speaking from a local perspective: I have no love or respect for a cruel, crass status quo ante which could suffocate George Floyd without a qualm. But I have even less love or respect for the sort of blind, unfeeling rage that only wants to tear it all down – or, worse still, the cold indifference that can look on as one’s own city burns and applaud the people doing it from a vantage of safety. I am angry, and have been for a long time, at those who saw the death of a man undeserving of death, and used it as an opportunity for plunder. I still seethe at the attempt to justify looting behind words of high principle, as though the first reaction upon seeing a murder in the street is to break into your neighbour’s house and steal his tableware! George Floyd’s murder is deserving of justice. How is justice for him achieved by out-of-state agitators setting fire to our town? How is justice for him achieved by leaving the black protesters in the daylight to take the blame? How is justice for him achieved by pundits living in safety, piously folding their hands? Yes, I accuse them all: both the nihilists and the fascists. Sadly, we now have a ‘woke’ liberal centre that is fine with such nihilists in its midst. And we now have a far-right that is fine with fascists in its midst.
So where are the people who are building things of beauty – or at least doing the best to preserve what things of beauty they already have? Where are the people who genuinely feel there is something worth saving on this earth? Where are the people who can look at their past and not see only shame and brokenness? Where are the people who can look at their present and still feel some glimmer of hope? Don’t look now: I think they may be in Moldova.
Moldova was – and is – one of the poorest countries in Europe. (Long story short: it got hit hard by Western-imposed shock therapy and never recovered.) It is riven by culture war battles over whether or not it is culturally Romanian. It is riven by a political crisis in the breakaway province of Transnistria that is still unresolved. But its political leadership, under Igor Dodon and the PSRM, has been heavily investing in public infrastructure – things like parks, playgrounds and schools – and also trying to reinvigorate Moldova’s public architecture, including its distinctive mediæval religious architecture, by sending young architects to Italy to study reconstruction and restoration.
Any idiot can tear down a statue. It takes real talent, real creative ingenuity and constant effort, to conserve what is already beautiful in the public space, and then add to it. One of the things that the Moldovan architects had to learn, in the key architectural difference between reconstruction and restoration, was humility. The restoring architect has to restrain his own ego, to quiet his own judgement. If an architect wants to preserve something effectively, he first has to sit down and learn how the original was built. And once he has done that and he is ready to proceed himself, he can’t copy the original too perfectly, lest later builders coming after him who might have better techniques for restoring old buildings want to improve on his work without damaging what is left of the original.
There is wisdom in what Igor Dodon is doing in his country – quietly and almost unnoticed. It’s not glamourous, it doesn’t grab headlines. He isn’t blaming other countries for what has gone wrong in his own. He isn’t telling the Molodaya gvardiya to go out and tear down statues of Ștefan cel Mare. On the contrary, his party lays claim to the great Prince Ștefan’s material and cultural legacy! But he is sending out young Moldovans to learn how to care for what is old and beautiful. Left parties in the West desperately need to take a leaf out of the book of the Moldovan socialists. (And right parties, too, for that matter.)
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