Stop with the Kipling posting

The Right risks becoming a cultural death cult

A polemic

Stop with the Kipling.

From the stalwart men of frog twitter to the less than savory manosphere grifters they all look to but one poet.

Kipling.

Let me get this out the way, I understand why. I have his complete collection. His poems are hugely popular for a reason but the continued limelight and attention a reposting of ‘If’ gets has become tiresome.

It displays a myopia of those in our spaces - where they look backwards. They confuse tradition with the worship of ashes instead of the preservation of fire. This accusation might sting a few people but as a poet of today who is also mainly interested in publishing new poets, in finding the next Kipling this is deeply unhelpful.

Why is this?

Because these people all worship the dead. They are hopelessly enslaved to the past without really following the principles at the core of art.

“Want to be a successful artist to the Right today? Die 100 years ago.” Another friend recently quipped to me in conversation. Where is the lie there?

Fighting in the present has become all about the elevation and worship of the past to a degree that people are inadvertently making things worse. To be in the present is to fight for the future, you must be part of it and engaged in new creation. One is certainly inspired by the past and the dead but they, the dead, are effectively being turned into a cult for the Right wing culture.

Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire.

Inspiration comes in many forms but the man who never tries, who does not attempt to emulate and truly become those he admires is forever doomed. Instead of posting a Kipling poem for the nth time this man should try to write his own poem, actually borrowing inspiration versus simple adulation. At some point it becomes odd, it is like the overweight or skinny man forever looking at peak Arnold or a Golden Age bodybuilder, never developing his own physique or flexing his own muscles.

Not everyone is creative or will be so inclined. A man can enjoy good literature and good wine without having to get the quill or stomp the grapes, but such a man is endowed with a richness only through sampling other wines or stories. He may return to a favorite wine but if he has developed his taste he will find new ones and continue to explore. This is what culture is all about - to a degree it does require a sense of openness, not always seen as a right wing trait.

The Right must ask themselves what they want? Do they want to devolve into a death cult that only worships the already dead or do they actually want to preserve culture and advance it. To tell stories of our time, to elevate poets of our age, that greatness is inherent within us still it needs to come out. It will only rise if people turn from the dead and realize there are still those of us living and fighting.

Or they could post another Kipling poem...

Want to help preserve our art and culture? Submit a poem of yours to The Passage Prize

https://passage.press/passage-prize/

Edit: If you are interested a more manifesto approach take a read of the following manifesto

Manifesto of the Actionary Artist