We are living through the final days of the old order, the decline and fall of Western Civilization, of the Rule of Law, of safe and secure trade, free of piracy, of Just War, and of the ordered principles of Christendom that so many take for granted, even as they tread upon them.

There are yet a few cards to be played, and the exact nature of the decline remains to be seen, but that there will be a decline is a foregone conclusion.

A barbarian invasion is fomenting in the Middle East; do not mistake them for the Romanized Goths from sixteen centuries back who merely deposed the corrupt and callow leadership in Rome. This enemy seeks nothing short of our complete and total submission… or elimination.

50 years of economic cannibalism have eroded the Western economies. Factories lie stripped, infrastructure is teetering on its last legs, and the populace has neither the will, the training, nor the desire to fix this.

200 years of revolution have poisoned the well of values which creates the necessary substrate for a just and ordered society. Words such as “equality”, “freedom”, “entitlement”, and “right” have become muddled and confused. Higher political discourse is impossible as the terms necessary for speech have lost their meaning.

Crass materialism and political machiavellianism have become their own self-fulfilling justifications. Well-being is considered a function of wealth, all conflicts between nations and groups are amoral power struggles, and while the cost of everything is calculated by ivory tower experts, the value of nothing is considered. Killing the goose which lays the golden egg will increase the price of shares in the corporation, and will guarantee a re-election.

Rampant financial chicanery – the worship of Mammon in utter disregard for the price he always demands – has bolstered the actively destructive sectors of the economy, stagnated money and value instead of pushing it towards re-investment, and raised the Sword of Damocles above all financial institutions.

The hedonistic corruption of our native populations has resulted in a populace that is incapable of reproducing or raising a new generation that can reproduce; instead we have parasites raising parasites.

The structural logic of our political institutions gives us leaders who promote strife between internal groups, rather than creating unity to oppose external groups.

Martial valour is disappearing from our armed forces, as social experimentation takes over; degenerate concepts of equality and universality are replacing honour, loyalty, and service. The strong must be brought low to empower the weak, even in the realm of national defense.

A Dark Age is coming, right on schedule. Rome was founded in 753 BC; it fell in 410 AD. It lasted for 1200 years, through three distinct stages: the springtime youth of Romulus and Remus, where the passion and valour of the Roman Kingdom guided the population; the summer of the Roman Republic, where civility, law, and expansion were established; and the autumn of Empire and decline, followed by its inevitable winter came.

Four centuries later, Western Civilization awoke from its slumber. The seeds of Christianity had been laid throughout the empire during the previous fall, and in 850 AD they began to blossom. Charlemagne and his Paladins reasserted the fighting spirit of the Western man, they reembodied the values of the Holy Roman Emperor and the valour of the Roman Centurions, only this time they were bolstered by the zeal of righteousness. Pushing back the Muslim hordes, they likewise established the glorious monarchies of Europe; what had merely been rich merchants and manse holders, conscripting peasants for periodic battles, became nobility. Our Summer came in 1200s; the Magna Carta of 1215 bound kings to law in the North, while in 1346 the Black Death eliminated the last remaining corrupt elements in our society; an explosion of art, culture, and the Age of Exploration resulted. By 1600 the autumnal age of Mercantilism and Empire arose, leading to the 20th Century’s demagogues and democracy.

We are about to enter a new Winter; it is right on schedule.

During the previous Dark Age, it was the monasteries which guarded the candle flame of civilization. The monks protected the knowledge of past generations in their libraries, they maintained peaceful communes for and safe spaces for travellers to rest, and they worked to slowly Christianize the warlords. Those who had inherited the title Dux – the Roman term for the commander of a provincial militia – became the new Dukes, a leader in both politics and war, who was expected to embody the principles of Christian Chivalry.

The world about us is falling to ignorance, to unrestrained sexuality, to cowardice; libraries are not at risk as they once were, what is at risk is understanding the importance of what’s in them; what is at risk is our civilization’s soul. The modern scholar is a callow intellectual, a man with a big brain, big gonads, and an empty chest; an incessant arguer who never puts virtue into practice – who doesn’t even realize that there is virtue in what he reads.

It is men with chests full of courage that we are losing. Professional militaries didn’t survive the last Dark Age, and they won’t survive this one, either.

Mercenaries, militias, and marauders might all display martial excellence, but there is more to soldiering than cheap murder, as any who have served in a national army can attest. Understanding why we serve is just as important as the service itself. These core values, all derived from the Chivalric Codes of yore, are what we are presently losing, and once those are gone, force of arms becomes nothing more than “Might Makes Right”; the basest of thuggeries.

It is time for groups of men to band together to protect the values we have striven all these centuries to protect. Dedication to God can overcome the impossible, it can outlast the Dark Age. Some are already feeling this calling, though they have trouble putting it into words.

The long night is coming. It is the new Fraternal Orders of Knights, Templars, and Paladins of the present age who are called upon to preserve civilization’s light. They are called to protect the just and innocent, to remember and understand our history, to embody the seven Heavenly virtues – they are not called upon to enable the collapse by aiding and abetting those who seek their own destruction.

Charlemagne’s Paladins were known as the Twelve Peers; each equal to one another, as were King Arthur’s Knight’s who sat at his round table. This is the only time you will find equality; when men dedicate themselves to the Glory of God.

Brothers, I beseech you to listen to your heart, and hear what you are called to do. All of us have a role to play in the coming years and decades. It is incumbent upon us to preserve the light.

Image Source: Crusader by Station X