Thoughts on Naomi Wolf's 'The Death of Culture: How Lies Killed Books'
A lament, a warning, and a hope for a better future
I read Naomi Wolf’s recent essay with great intrigue. (Click the link below to read for yourself.)
She, after all, has been a longstanding first-rate member rallying the message of the left, the equality for all, the women’s rights, minority rights, rights all the way around. She was dealt a huge blow during the tumultuous years of Covid insanity when she realized the buttress of truth she embraced for so many years has aligned itself with the rites of totalitarian dictatorship, not the fair-weather ideas of a burgeoning democracy.
In her recent essay, “The Death of Culture: How Lies Killed Books,” she discusses her recent visit to the city where she perused the aisles of her once-beloved used bookstores. She discovers the great voices of the day have abandoned discussions of the current cultural malaise. Like Nazi’s fire-bombing their own libraries in an attempt to erase history, she notices the writers of the day mysteriously avoiding the giant elephant in the room. Where are the books discussing the last three years, the damage done to our children, the mandatory vaccination campaign, the totalitarian fascistic behavior of the government colluding with big tech corporations, the articles highlighting how banks locked down member accounts because of wrong-speak? Orwell rolls. The list goes on.
Children, remember, were forced out of schools, sent home to rot in a cauldron of boredom and idle hand-wringing. The left’s push for equality only sent more women to the house who were deemed nonessential because of their job status. Men, emasculated by entertainment and idleness, accepted their fates, collapsed into their Lazy-boys and drowned their sorrows beneath a malaise of pills and pornography and binging Netflix.
The churches cow-towed and towed the party line. Rome was burning while pastors continued book studies directed at our fragile emotions. The American church leaders avoided the topic at all cost. We learned of Christ, the gentle and lowly messenger, but this figment would never disrupt the money changers or toss the commerce aside that had crept into the church and corrupted his gospel. He was too docile, too emotionally spent, to take down a force of evil as large as the state apparatus that colluded with the religious agitators of the day.
Wolf’s essay lamented all the recent book titles that pursued the emotional tendencies of our pets, the best path toward fermented beverages and the experience of daily naps and “how many friends do you really need?”
The topics missing: what the hell happened over the last three years and why were we all so gullible as to become bamboozled by bureaucratic lunatics?
I’m guessing, based on the past three years, we all need at least one or two really good friends. Unfortunately, for so many people caught up in the ether of fear and stigmatized grandstanding, many of us lost close friends and found ourselves alone, confused, blown by the winds of paranoia that swept our cultural landscape.
I remember a friend once visiting during the early days of “15 days to flatten the curve.” Mind you, the 15 days had already passed, but the government was still up to its usual trickery. We were still smashing that curve and my friend wouldn’t get within 10 feet of me. “Six foot safe,” after all. He wouldn’t shake my hand. I had become his enemy. He wouldn’t see it that way but the feeling of abandonment was there. The awestruck and brutal machine had churned its visceral meat grinder into the soul of my friend and caused him to pause, to reflect — perhaps a handshake is too risky, perhaps an embrace with a fellow human is too much to bear at this moment in history.
My own parents stood on their stoop as my children huddled into the doorway of our mini-van, not understanding why grandma and grandpa were no longer giving hugs. I don’t blame them, God bless them for their fortuitous fight. But the history of the moment was wrong. Even with age-adjusted death rates, we knew within the first two weeks that Covid drastically affected those with multiple co-morbidities. Like two or three major co-morbidities. None of this mattered. Fear is a mighty weapon.
Wolf concluded with these words:
“And we fight so that little children whom we will never live to see, will grow up free.
“But it is painful to witness the beating heart of what had been a great culture, stunned and muted in denial, and unable to function intellectually.
“I guess we just need to leave the sadly rotting carcass of the establishment culture of lies and denial behind.”
She continues.
“I say that with sorrow. I will miss the bookstores, universities, newspapers that I once revered.
“I guess we have to follow the voices of the truth-tellers of the moment, to other, surprising, beleaguered campfires.
“I guess we need to pitch our tents in new fields, outside the walls of the crumbling, breached, and decadent city.
“I guess we need to learn new songs and tell new stories, as we find ourselves alongside other — surprising — fierce, and unbowed, and determined, new comrades in arms.”
Her guesses have consequences. The truth behind those assumptions means we must start anew. We must find new friends, new comrades who won’t cow-tow when the next wave of fear sweeps the culture — for surely it will, as sure as the sun rises tomorrow.
If the culture continues its trajectory, which it surely must, a collapse is on the way. Hard and fast and disruptive. Life will change more rapidly than you’re prepared to handle. A bug-out bag won’t be enough preparation. You’ll need a good head on your shoulders and one or two of those really faithful friends by your side.
You’ll need your wife and kids to agree with you — not then — but now, regarding the state of where this world is heading. You’ll need a gospel-centered church not afraid to heap coals of hot ash on wickedness, to call out the degradation of culture which has reared its dragon-like head in the form of confused men dressing like women.
Do practical things to prepare for tomorrow:
Homeschool your kids.
Grow a garden.
Buy a dairy goat and milk her every day.
Find a church that cares more about the preached word than the Sunday song list or the number of instruments on the stage.
Start a neighborhood library and sneak in long books like “Human Action” and anything by Solzhenitsyn.
Remember Richard Wurmbrand. He was willing to suffer for the gospel and continued to pray for his persecutors even as their lashings continued.
Read good books. Build a library.
Ditch your TV.
Read Naomi Wolf’s recent essay, and perhaps, avoid the vapid, hollow stories that now adorn the rankings of the maligned cultural elite.
So apros po! If America and the world doesn't wake up they will be no more it's true. We cannot ignore this anymore. Thanks for the wake up call I wish people would listen to us.