Awarding Tradition
Is there a heaven? Is there reward for good behavior? Why merit the good? For goodness’ sake, I suppose. And for no other cause? Not even for the cause of enriching civilization by inspiring to good behavior. Awarding tradition.
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Perhaps you gray-cloth-coat-Republicans have noticed that a corrupting progression of awards now circles you, screams in your ears, chokes civilization, and glories in your defeat. The noose has long tightened around your armored think-tanks and now you are stalled on the field without reinforcement, your tracks shot-through. What happened? You lost the battle of arts because you are weak, because you did not believe in civilization, not really, yours was a pretend conservation.
How was the battle lost? Why did you lose? Because you did not fight. You haven’t the strength, the will to create, you haven’t the belief necessary to bring strong things into being. You talked, and talked, and you made, nothing. Into this nothing the Progressive arts have grown. Foolish Republicans.
Worse, great works of our Classive posterity given into your charge are being annihilated. The brother statue of the Grant equestrian at the Capitol’s base, the General Lee equestrian of Charlottesville* will be melted, likely recast as a heroine of the LGBTQI+. Other statues are being toppled, noosed, stomped into deformity, Classive civilization’s pictures are be decommissioned, and you talk airily in immaterial opinion of unreal things. Statues are real, pictures are real, verse, dance, theatre are real, these were in your charge and you forsook them, betrayed them all. You Republicans are not worthy of the civilization given into your charge. You are a disappointment to your fathers.
The nation, the physical nation through which all that is comes into being is now Progressive. You surrendered Classive civilization to Progressive architecture, Progressive sculpture, theatre, language, and you now live, as must we all, in ugly cities cynically fashioned, corrupted by vulgar entertainments. Shame on you. And look: corporate products are commercially streamed into your machines, see Progressive actors wearing your clothes, in your houses, assuming your traditions, and most fitting in punishment, you stand-in at playing the clown, the joke’s butt. Do not doubt me: you, a defeated population, are being erased. Welcome to Hell.
Not long ago, you had opportunity to inspire youth, to award with prizes virtuous behavior. You had the opportunity to credit heroes, leaders, to create Classive medals and statues and plays and you talked and Progressives created awards and sculptures and plays** and your culture was erased, defeated by those passionate in belief.
You Republicans, a vacuous people, posed in cloth coats and Reagan ties exchanging cards at cocktail parties. Did you credit the good, did you reward promising behavior, did you initiate awards celebrating Classive civilization? No. You Republicans donated to institutions destructive of civilization, Progressive universities, narrow parties, and empty not-for-profits. Meantime, brave youth eager to engage were abandoned on the field. No, not your interns, these were promoted up rank, safe and secured; those thousands at battle in the field, the heroic Classive poets, sculptors, painters, architects, dancers, playwrights, were not provisioned, were slaughtered because unprotected, and this is why you’ve no one to win back Classive civilization.
Do you know: there were Classive Michelangelos, Raphaels, Leonardos of recent generations, and you failed to award them work, you failed civilization, you left little worthy of remembrance, worthy of the nation’s Founders. You failed, and now you are dying without legacy, without issue.
In fairness, I should acknowledge some few Classive societies that formed without your assistance, without your notice, The Society of Classical Poets, The National Civic Art Society, The Common Sense Society, valiant citizens who achieved without help from you. You should help, you should supply those at battle in the field, those who protect beauty, who champion truth and sustain the good: these are your defenders, those who create civilization while you talk. Pay up, or accept without whimper the civilization you lost.
*Henry Merwin Shrady sculptor of the General Monument at the base of The United States Capitol Building, designed the General Lee Equestrian statue for Charlottesville, Virginia.
**A few links to Progressive artistic awards and competitions: New York Playwrights; Codaworx; E-Architect, et cetera. Classive awards and competitions are not listed, because they do not exist. Awarding Tradition.
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