Julian’s Empty Temples Mirror The State Of Modern Conservatism

From 361 to 363 AD, Rome was ruled by emperor Julian. If you know your Roman history, at the time, Rome had already converted to Christianity with the previous emperor Constantine, who had accepted Christianity on his deathbed. When Julian came to power, he brought with him an agenda of reforms that would restore the greatness of the Roman empire. In his mind, it only made sense to start with political and religious reforms. He blamed Christianity for the state of the Roman empire and he also blamed Constantine for the state of the administration and for having abandoned the traditions of the past.

Wikipedia summarizes this as:

He restored pagan temples which had been confiscated since Constantine’s time, or simply appropriated by wealthy citizens; he repealed the stipends that Constantine had awarded to Christian bishops, and removed their other privileges, including a right to be consulted on appointments and to act as private courts…

On 4 February 362, Julian promulgated an edict to guarantee freedom of religion. This edict proclaimed that all the religions were equal before the law, and that the Roman Empire had to return to its original religious eclecticism, according to which the Roman state did not impose any religion on its provinces. Practically however, it had as its purpose the restoration of paganism at the expense of Christianity.

To his surprise, however, he failed spectacularly in his efforts. This is all the more surprising considering that Christianity was not yet the predominant religion of the empire, but rather still another sect among many. The pagan temples were already empty, abandoned, or under new ownership by Christians who had simply moved in.

This is a startling story because it raises many parallels with the situation that we find in America. The old religion is dying; the idea of a liberal, democratic and prosperous society built upon the premise of the American Dream has disappeared. Americans more and more wistfully look at the past with its assurances of a stable job with benefits, a loyal and feminine wife, and an assurance that future generations will have it better than you.

Unfortunately, things are deteriorating, and have been for a while. Occasionally we get a pep talk from the emperor-in-chief about how we will revive the middle-class and restore American values back to their proper place on the bow of the HMS Progress. Jobs will come back and, with them, the white picket fences will pop back up. Illegal immigration will be resolved, Ebola contained, race issues in America cordially concluded once and for all. We may as well be promised that women will no longer be taught to be empowered sluts, and frustrated beta males will be able to find wives again.

The truth of the matter, however, is that Pandora’s box has opened and the toxic sludge of equalism with all its attendant derivatives (feminism, historical revisionism, racial self-abasement) continues to ooze out. It wont stop, and the old traditions won’t come back, even if a sympathetic emperor were to try and stem the tide. The nostalgia is not strong enough, the churches are empty, and the new visionaries continue to chant “progress” over a cacophony of equalist pablum that drowns out the old truisms and traditions and labels them heretical.

Feebly clinging to the moderate ideologies of the last several decades is a sure way of ending up like Julian’s pagans. Turning the clock back 10, 20, maybe 50 years is a sure-fire path to failure, as Julian found out. Reaction is not about trying to stave off “progress,” consigning oneself to fighting a rear-guard action against the forces of “reform” as they nip at the heels of a disorderly and retreating army.

Most American conservatism in this sense is just a reaction to whatever current trend of progressivism happens to be most prevalent. What good is it then to constantly dig one’s heels in, knowing that eventually and assuredly, the enemy will continue to press the advance and retreat will be inevitable? What passes for modern conservatism in America is little more than a knee-jerk reaction that continues to have a clear trajectory leftward and downward.

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