newYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Editor’s Note: The following essay city journal.
The idea of a conservative counterculture may seem contradictory. The term itself was colored in the 1960s when left-wing intellectuals, revolutionaries, and artists captured the spirit of rebellion against a supposedly homogenous, repressive, and docile America.
That old counterculture has become the dominant culture, absorbed by the bureaucracies of universities, schools, governments and now big corporations. That’s the way it is.
This reversal is “successor thoughtMany conservatives have seen the opportunity, but have been pessimistic about the prospects.
Christopher F. Rufo is Senior Fellow and Director of the Manhattan Institute’s Critical Race Theory initiative. He is an investigative journalist and contributing editor for City Journal.
(Courtesy Christopher Rufo)
Conservative critics have long lamented the lack of right-wing pop culture production. Some people are rallying on troubled figures like Kanye West, hoping that dissident celebrities can break through the grip of control by left-wing ideologies.
DeSantis gives conservatives a roadmap on how to fight and win the culture war
But this pessimism is misplaced. The solution to the left’s cultural dominance is neither to embrace right-gaze celebrities nor to mimic the artistic production of the cultural left. It is about rebuilding the structures that provide the foundation for deeper, healthier and more integrated human development: families, schools, churches, neighborhood.
Few people are aware, but this has already happened. The Silent Right is patiently and almost invisiblely building a viable counterculture.
A major venue for this movement was education, where conservative families created a powerful alternative to the secular and largely left-wing public education system. Many are turning to homeschooling, which has seen double-digit growth in recent years.
It may not make headlines, but the Quiet Right represents an important social change. Its adherents believe that human life is nourished primarily in the abstract through ideology, media and technology, but in the flesh. They sense the dangers of their captive institutions and are determined to build viable alternatives, alternatives, and replacements.
Some enroll their children in the burgeoning network of “classical schools” that have returned to the traditional liberal arts curriculum of logic, rhetoric, grammar, mathematics, Latin, and music. And a small but influential network of traditional, faith-based colleges, including Hillsdale, Benedict, Thomas Aquinas, and the University of Dallas, has recorded record enrollments.
In the cultural realm, Quiet Right broke important new ground. In art, right-wing pseudonymous authors have created new magazines, publishers, and literary awards. More mainstream companies such as the Daily Wire have sought to create industry-wide, conservative media institutions.
Click here to get the opinion newsletter
It is acclaimed for its figurative paintings and neoclassical architecture. At the grassroots level, faith-based, family-friendly social media content is growing rapidly, with “mom bloggers” reassessing family and motherhood, and the “back to the land” movement turning classic Americana images. Complain and offer another option. To the aesthetics of the millennial generation.
The Quiet Right is also reshaping America’s sociogeography. The past decade has seen a move to repopulate small towns and create culturally benign communities that offer an alternative to poorly managed coastal enclaves.
COVID-19 has accelerated this change, with many families packing up and seeking more ideologically compatible communities. They fled California, Illinois and New York for Florida and Texas. Even within the state, escape to the suburbs is largely an escape from left-wing culture and policies.
It may not make headlines, but the Quiet Right represents an important social change. Its adherents believe that human life is nourished primarily in the abstract through ideology, media and technology, but in the flesh. They sense the dangers of their captive institutions and are determined to build viable alternatives, alternatives, and replacements.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
As the new year begins, it’s worth remembering that the Quiet Right is where conservatives should focus their efforts, before we descend into regular political turmoil.
It’s home to long-lasting things.
Click here to read more about Christopher Rufo
