> crowds conglomerate around rallying points, "influencers" or leaders and collective myths, totems, symbols, traditions, ancestor spirits, sacred soil, heimat west's unique predicament is that our civilization, especially our cultural elites, lost that sense of shared centre, first the cross, then the flag and replaced it with a negative identity, that projects the longing for meaning on the other. the past became an enemy country, they committed unforgivable sins there, to paraphrase l.p. hartley. the animating force of the cultural left that overtook our institutions can be visualized as a centrifugal escape from 1914-45. narrative of heroes and golden ages was replaced with sinners and spiritual homelessness, as the hell that lurks in the past offers no home. a sort of secular variety of christian sense of guilt and damnation with no hope of redemption, no cities on the hill to look forward to, only endless atonoment and self-flagellation. past heroes are denigrated, statues taken down, borders and treasuries are opened to the other, ascent in social hierarchies is attained by identification with the other (gays, transsexuals become epitomes of saints). it is a civilization of poisoned soil, dark totems, of desecration, pilgrimage into emptiness and illusions. the tribulation we are living through is a reality in which everything has been permeated by negation to the extent people have started to experience it as normal. art with uplifting beauty, affirming collective rituals, vitality of shared communities have withered away. entertainment has flourished; the more hollow the deeper substratums of a civilization, the more need there is for escapism for life to be bearable. but seeking out superficial pleasures won't keep people forever content, cracks are opening, yearning for deeper meaning is growing, we want the positive stories we tell of ourselves back, we want horizons that offer hope. trump's popularity drew from that discontent and longing.
Finland