Your Intellectual and Spiritual Journey

Well I am not going to dox myself here, but suffice it to say Irish nationalism was always a part of my life, even if I didn't necessarily fully understand, or have it explained to me, growing up. I took interest in legends, myths, stories which of course, lead to a life long interest in history, from surface level spectacle to deeper interest. I am also somewhat militant in my outlook with favourable views on militarism and suchlike (I concede I do not necessarily want a militarist state, after having had these views challenged by a friend recently) which led me to have a high degree of interest in military history and theory. This led to me having some silly views on things which I never expressed, such as some minor admiration for soviet Russia when all I knew about them was what I learned growing up playing the command and conquer series of videogames (needless to say I changed this right quick after learning what the soviet union really was.

All of this laid the groundwork for my later beliefs as I began learning about the deeper history of Ireland, the wider celtic peoples and their relations and the ancient world, Rome and other empires, etc, etc, etc, there was a lot of the History channel in my teenage years. Actual individual thinkers and authors never really had the impact on me that they seemed to have on other intellectuals, which is why I hardly ever mention any, though I did like the pithy quotations from Chesterton which I enjoyed reading in my spare time. I generally preferred to adopt axioms and perspectives I liked and reject or dismantled those I dislike or disagreed with, which, looking back on it, may have been a haphazard way to develop one's opinions. My only grace in this regard, is that from a young age I decided by an act of will to assume the Church's teachings were right as an axiomatic truth, even if things seemed to contradict them at times, I was to quiet think on it rather than abandon it, which I believe served me well in later life. Eventually I began learning about the Gaelic revival and the nationalist movement throughout the 19th century of Ireland during studies at school and so forth. It should be noted, I have never considered myself a terribly logical man, I am a rhetorical thinker and prone to some level of emotionalism and I try to reign that in as best I can and couch my rhetoric with rational terminology and consistency if possible.

It wasn't really until the Lisbon treaty referendum and re-referendum that I seriously began changing my beliefs. It shattered my faith in democracy and wounded my pride in Ireland, my last link to such views was Sinn Fein who I had already begun seriously doubting after learning of the incongruity of socialism and nationalism (inb4 nazi jokes) and it was at a speech after a march attended by none other than Gerry Adams himself that I abandoned my republicanism. They were not for 'Ireland' nor the Irish people but we and our country were grisle for the millstone of their revolution, and the more the years past, the more feminism, socialism and such rot became evident in their rhetoric (I still take part in some marches out of a sense of tradition and honouring of the dead, but not as an ideological virtue signalling). I had been flirting with monarchism for a while before that, not necessarily as something believe in but as something 'acceptable' to my views on nationalism and what is good for the Irish people and nation. However this was a cynical time for me where I was deconstructing everything, so when I took the time to look at monarchism, I decided to call to mind every evil and flaw I could regarding it. Wars? Yes. Tyrannies? Yes. Slavery? Yes. On and on and on and on I went through the list, and every evil I could ascribe to Monarchism, other ideas had to greater or lesser degree, which I came to realise, is because of the flaw of Mankind itself, where we angels, we would not need these rulerships, were we ruled by angels, all would be well, but since we are men ruled by men, evil was inevitable, it could only be mitigated, discouraged with virtue encouraged and promoted. So with this common link, through my yellow tinted glasses, I looked at the one thing I could find about Monarchism that it had that say, fascism, did not have.

It was honest.

It was honest in what it was, it was honest in the faults of men, it was honest in the needs of men, it was honest in the wants of men, it was honest int he realities of inequalities amongst men, it was honest in the desire of justice amongst men. The key difference here between monarchism and just a dictatorship (one of the challenges I was asked once was 'why specifically a monarchy? Why not a Catholic dictatorship, why wouldn't that do?) whereas a dictatorship is easy, a monarchy is hard, even with a thousand years of tradition. It is hard because it acknowledges a brutal, uncompromising truth that even Fascism, that brutal hellenic philosophy that prides itself on being brutally honest about the state of man. Man is fallen, yes, but man is still the son of God. Even the pagan monarchies to some extent recognised this truth, and always, always connected their monarch to Heaven in some manner. The Kingdom of Egypt is actually evident in this reality, whereas int he early dynasties it was believed that only the royalty had souls and the commoners did not, but later dynasties realised this was not enough and their realisation of the soul and commonality of man increased. Fascism and all the other ideaologies say that only the body needs food and man will be well. Monarchism states clearly that man does not live on bread alone. It is why it is good to see the king, dressed int he regalia of the king, for their to be honour in society, that man should have a place, even if he were poor and of a minority race or stature, that the king is not just one's ruler but the patriarch of his nation. That he is king to rich man and poor man alike and not merely benefactor but father as well. If I may wax Catholic for a moment, it is the closest we can in the ordering of our society to reflect the manner in which God rules in Heaven.

But I shall stop here lest I go on too long.

Sorry I posted it too early and edited in the remainder.