REBUILDING CIVILIZATION: A Prophet Rises From Quebec and YouTube

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/dreher/jonathan-pageau-a-prophet-rises-from-quebec-and-youtube/

... All cultures have categories for those they consider to be on the margins. Today, Western cultures have not only brought the formerly marginalized in from the peripheries, but have also enshrined them as the new normal. Look around you, says Pageau: our culture, both popular and elite, celebrates bizarre sexualities, multiple identities, racial difference, and what you might call the “monsterization” of humanity—that is, the valorization of the weird. We have created a society in which we train ourselves to love that which is “not us” more than we love ourselves.

...

We have been presented, says Pageau, with an image of reality that is false. We have been taught to disdain the things that bind us together in our diversity, and to lean into the things that separate us. ... What will this lead to? An “absolute state” in which the masses live in total fragmentation and isolation, while a disconnected elite controls all. We aren’t necessarily going to arrive at this system, he says, but that is where the logic is leading.

Thankfully, the article does not end with merely describing the problem, but actually points to a solution--one which others have mentioned as well, and which resolates as true:

Under Communist tyranny, the late Catholic intellectual Vaclav Benda recognized that dissidents could not possibly hope to defeat the state. But he also recognized that the state maintained its grip by keeping everyone isolated and afraid of each other. Dr. Benda’s response was to call people out of their homes, and bring them together simply to know each other, and to realize that they weren’t alone. Jonathan Pageau counsels the same thing.

In 2019, Zsofia Romaszewska, a Polish hero of the Solidarity trade union, told me that the most important thing for people to do today is to leave their isolation and come together in person, around common goals. It doesn’t have to be political; it can be around something as simple as playing sports. The point, she said, is to form human bonds, face to face, as opposed to virtual connections online. Pageau emphasizes this point too.

We've got a bit of that going here. u/Slechta5614 has a "prayer garden" initiative https://discord.com/invite/CeCma435

There are other communities to join like https://amrron.com/ for the ham radio enthusiasts and https://corac.co/ for prepper Catholics.

But "in real life" contacts are the most valuable, starting with your local Church and local pro-life groups as well as joining and participating in a political party at the electoral district level and HOAs and community associations.

Are you in a Professional Association or a Union? Yes, it might be dominated by leftists, but if you and your friends start going to executive meetings and run for office in the union, then it won't be.

I personally have to make more of an effort to connect to people "in real life" as well as online. We've started to go to more "Church social" events, which can be kinda corny, but have made some good and sympatico friends there. I have to keep going in that direction.