Clan Allegiances: New Identities in a Post-Cultural World

The failures of a materialist society will create new esoteric allegiances

Sep 05, 2024

This article was first posted by Liberty Magazine. Give them some friendly attention.

While I am an advocate for a universal monotheist moral perspective, that isn’t how humanity works at the cultural level. Humanity has never been socially universalist. The concept of the nation-state only developed in the last thousand years or so. What we’re observing here in the early 21st century is the re-creation of social clans through modern means: technological, socio-regional, and philosophical. The rebuilding of neo-clans is beginning to reshape community organization.

Nihilist Cultural Dislocation

It was predicted by Spengler that a sense of cultural dislocation would permeate the post-war era across the West. What remained unprecedented was the radical turn that technology would take at the beginning of the 21st century. If one were to mark the period where a generalized cultural nihilism appeared in the post-war era one might expect the mid to late 1990s.

Theadore Kaczynski noted that as high technology develops, the machine of industrial production and consumption will crush the human spirit into a progressively smaller volume. People are useful as components of production, not as individuals with cultural or philosophical aspirations. As shown in Leviathan and its Enemies, it’s difficult for the managerial class, now the operators of the global production engine, to place populations into spreadsheets. Much easier to smash them down to simplified forms: accolades, degrees, years of experience.

What began as a cultural nihilism in the 1990s generating films like Fight Club has fully transcended the cultural zeitgeist in totality. With the expression of high technology, there now no longer is a singular cultural zeitgeist. No single television show most people watch, no film most people are talking about, and no political event that captures the collective imagination. Even the attempted assassination of Donald Trump only weeks before the publication of this article only managed to maintain the interest of the generalized public for a few days.

Across the west nihilism of culture died a quiet death and now there is nothing. Over-socialized zealots take it upon themselves to uphold the greatest traditions of their own micro-sub-cultural niche, but that hardly even makes the News any more. Western culture quietly ceased to exist a few years ago and no one even noticed when it disappeared.

The posit is this: that there is no longer a single unified American or British or German culture any more. That the nihilism of the post-industrial age combined with the flood of content produced and accessed digitally has succeeded in breaking what was once cohesive national cultures into smaller and smaller sub-cultures then micro-cultures.

Every one still speaks the same language (for the most part, no cap I swear on god) but the capacity to interchange complex ideals with simple symbols has been dramatically eroded in a general sense. We live in a post-cultural era…

The vanishing of a mon-culture has created something we’ve not seen in the world since the fall of Rome. Opportunities.

Clans

The endless stream of digital content (particularly now that AI has gotten in on the game) has reduced culture to easily digestible sound-bytes. Simultaneously it has opened the entire world to specific micro-cultures to form in online discord chats, telegram channels, and twitter groups. Violent woke progressive zealots, far-right political philosophers, enthusiasts for specific videogames or films have formed localized cultures with no formal sets of social rules. This is why normal cultural interactions seem so sanitized and orthodox across the West: because we do not share a cultural identity. Instead we must formalize all interaction outside of specific niche microcultures.

The result is the creation of distributed cultural clans, and the opening of the door to localization. Modern clans are taking on the form first of identities distributed across the entire English speaking world as individuals of common interest make contact with one another. It appears likely that the near future will also see a form of cultural localization as some of those international contacts are transformed into local contacts through migration and communities form stronger inter-connected bonds.

The “Normie” culture of modern neoliberal dogma is slowly aging and dying. What will replace it may be more easily defined as sets of clannish identities more than a single emergent culture. For the time being the conversion of clans from the international-digital to the geographical may form a bulwark against cultural corrosion; the cumulative negative effects of modern neoliberalism and Woke progressive stochastic terrorism.

Open Clans

Digital systems and social media have resulted in the slow death of the cultural zeitgeist. Rarely any more are there major films or books or events that are of universal public interest. Instead we have seen the precipitation of micro-cultures spread across the world among groups with specific interests.

The clans created in this way are highly open and subject to flux with members joining and leaving on whims of interest and attention. Structurally, these clans maintain relevance by developing a shared micro-cultural narrative. This can be focused on specific videogames, martial arts, cars and mechanics, aircraft, warfare or other niche interests. Microcultures do not have enough substance to make up a cultural zeitgeist themselves, but they’re far more real and interactive than the broad cultural remainder in the West.

Closed Clans

Closed clans are still few and far between, but appearing more and more as identity becomes a major driver in civilization. Racial identity, spiritual identity, one of the most powerful drivers is the micro-cultural identity. Meeting another individual from the same micro-culture (or an adjacent micro-culture) results in the quick formation of lasting friendships. Those drifting through the progressive myopia of modern civilizations who do not join abstract weird micro-cultures find it almost impossible to form close relationships at all.

Geographically localized groups form closed clans with barriers of entry, rites of passage, and generalized structure. Some churches are beginning to form closed community based clans. Many are not, and are thus seeing their attendance drop precipitously. It turns out most people want to belong to an identity and consider themselves to be part of a larger inheritance. Hedonism can take you only so far in long-term psychological and community health.

With that in mind, it is necessary to consider how to localize clans. Considering ones self as part of a group separate from the decayed body politic of the 21st century is going to be a necessity. We are not merely citizens, we are individuals defined by specific values that are drawn from unique heritage. Localizing individuals based on shared interest is the first step in developing a clan. For something as simple as worship of God it’s a bit easier, the more niche the micro-culture the more difficult it will be to localize. Ultimately some of the most successful clans will be those that find a way to pull some individuals from the digital micro-cultures into a single geographic region and unify them around a shared identity.

Note: for long-term viability this means an inter-generational identity that can be observed as separate from the larger body politic while remaining embedded in it. A group of guys who have no kids is going to get nowhere.

Historical Precedence

In Rome there was a concept of household gods, a deity that represented a specific expanded family, clan, or bloodline. In china through daoism, in India through hinduism there were similar ideas where a given village or expanded family would have their own spiritual practices in parallel with the larger society.

Given the state of the larger society, the next spiritual rebellion will be the development of a spiritual and social clans. A group of 20 families who began by sharing interest in a digital micro-culture or two move into close proximity. The shared identity of the micro-culture can be converted to that of a cohesive high-trust clan that survives while embedded in a socially acidic liberal culture. The clan remains insular; a bulwark against cultural decay. To do so, thought must be given to reconstructing the sacred in terms of heritage and practices in addition to traditional religion: Worship of a face of God, Angels. or Saints, or resurrecting Pagan ideas.

On Community Development Critiques

To preempt a reasonable criticism I am not recommending isolationism. Roughing it in the woods wares thin quickly and separates you from the levers of power. To discuss the best methodologies for rebuilding a clans, focus on economic sustainability above all else. 5 families as co-owners of an llc that owns their homes and land can accomplish a tremendous amount by de-isolating themselves.

A neo-clan methodology is not explicit towards Christian identity. Each clan will have its own heritage and spirituality. Each recognizes their own identity as separate from the larger body politic, defending the sacred in mutual defense from outsiders; private practices that separate our people, our clan, morally, from foreigners.

Power structures in the West

Remaining power structures in the West are economic or political. It is a rare town or small city that keeps a strong local culture independent of national forces. Community groups, veterans clubs, even churches used to represent the sacred heart of a the town square. They no longer do in most places, nothing does. Without community it is easy for a small high-trust clan to march into decaying institutions.

In many countries national power is relatively centralized to the capital cities: London, Berlin, Brussels, etc. In the United States, state-structure creates some decentralization. The individual states in the USA are semi-autonomous entities and because of that the levers of power exist in many different locations: county seats, state seats. Each level exists with the tacit ascent of those below.

In particularly large nations like China, Russia, and the United States, this distributed governance system is required due to cultural and environmental distinctions between regions. At least on paper it’s easier to gain local control, especially in places where the standing guard of boomers have begun aging out of existence.

There is also a weak local community in most areas, thus no bulwark against hostile migration: an example being the lack of pushback Californians have received when fleeing their state to rural Texas or Idaho. This state of affairs isn’t stable, but does present a significant opportunity. With a relatively small group of relatively modestly funded individuals it is possible to become economically central, and politically powerful over a locality while retaining a distinct community-centric culture. This must be thought of inter-generationally at the level of a city or county. 5 families, 15 kids, 2 become doctors, 3 become lawyers, and 4 run for office or start businesses.

If one can retain the clan-loyalty inter-generationally by creating a high bar of entry, that provides the larger clan with significant regional power over time. Yes, this is how some groups of Orthodox Jews have managed to attain power in various Burroughs in places like New York. Don’t argue about the morality of it, acknowledge that it works and learn how to accomplish it.

Rather than retaking a nation, a noble if ill-fated endeavor, develop a patchwork of allied, but semi-independent clans. Get your buddy in as local sheriff or mayor or district attorney or county commissioner and as long as you’re not overly rapacious the community need only give lip-service to federal and state oversight. Whomever leverages of the micro-cultures of the digital age into a localized neo-clan will be a notable founder in 50 or 100 years.

Spiritual Separation and Social Integration

Many people to choose between a community oriented clan-focused model of wellbeing vs an individualist economic focused model of well being. The boomer mentality of “well the rapture is coming soon so the next generation isn’t my problem” hasn’t helped.

Rebuilding the clan model is something that we all have the ability to do with either sufficient charisma, wealth, or both. One can have a group of 5 families economically viable in farmland just as easily as in an urban center. Mutual support, sharing of resources, and a focus on the group… first developed simply under shared interests and shared economic hardships will be enough.

Creating a spiritual separation will require an esotericism that’s already provided by the digital micro-culture model. The digital micro-culture has lore, heroes villains and an understanding of a specific subject. Combine that penchant for the esoteric and an interest in real spiritualism and the clan can quickly form a community around a sense of shared spiritual loyalty and heritage. That builds a necessary division, then, between an in-group of the clan and the out-group of strangers.

The in-group represent a high-trust core that otherwise integrates economically and politically with the larger local community by:

Patronizing local businesses.
Running for local political seats.
Purchasing local businesses, especially community hubs like bars.
Developing community projects and events.
Making friends with the remnants of other community groups
Becoming well known and well liked by the locals.

Over the last 50 to 70 years, it has become standard practice to eschew multigenerational homes and properties. It has become culturally normal to move hundreds or thousands of miles from friends or family in exchange for a soul-crushing office job. It has become standard to work for 30 years and then retire on a pension for your last 10 years of life effectively abandoned by ones closest family now themselves on the far side of the country working. Not any more. The Digital Revolution has come for culture.

Work from Home has become a relatively common phenomena. There are new options in the workplace, even for those members of a clan that do not work in or buy local businesses.

It is possible to have people working for national firms or in enormous office jobs while able to live in small rural communities. It is possible to rebuild multigenerational households as the household leaders now remain home most of the time: grandparents can take care of kids while the worker for the home stays in the home office. Family meals are coming back too.

Expand that from 1 family in 1 house to 3 or 4 or 5 families on one estate. It is possible to expand from a nuclear family of 4 to a clan of 40. Economic forces are already forcing people together into higher density and less comfortable living arrangements. We have the opportunity and the capacity and the communication necessary to organize. It is not necessary to mix finances or property for the privilege of living in close proximity. It is now possible, for the first time since the 1800s to build meta-socially.

On Rebuilding the Sacred Locally

Once we realize it’s possible to rebuild clans that are socially and economically integrated while remaining culturally and spiritually distinct, it’s time to get to work. F

We organize and build. The spiritual process is emergent from culture and happens dynamically over time. This is not a recipe for creating an Angel or God, people cannot do that. The spiritually sacred requires the following components:

Ritual and Rites
Community Involvement
Designation of a Higher Power
A Clan In-Group Separate from the Outside Society.

Rites are created dynamically over time. It’s not going to be possible to get a group of people develop their in-group out-group preference over night. It’s economics (cost of owning a home) and microculture interests (gun culture, car culture, etc.) that will first drive people together.

The esoteric portion of creating rites and an in-group out-group division is going to take time and require a form of spiritual investment. You’re organizing multiple families to found a new heritage, it’s going to take time. Just getting people in one place is the tricky part.

The appearance of the Dissident Right has been a blessing in that it has allowed like-minded people to connect in a way that hasn’t been really available before. Those dissatisfied with vacuous consumerism. Huge swaths of the Dissident Right form a variety of micro-cultures already with sufficient spiritual and economic interest in mutual support that organizing them is not a huge ask.

Once you get to that part, however, it is possible to develop that esotericism over time. Remember, this isn’t for you it is for your grand-children. Once the people are together and the basic plan is laid out this is how you begin creating the new clan mythology and heritage:

Organize an outing of some type. Either a bonfire, or a camping trip. Do it at some point in time that’s important like a holiday or Solstice or Equinox. Something that’ll be easy to remember in each upcoming year. Depending on the makeup there may be drinking, other drugs, or no drugs.

Make a simple pledge to the respective patron, deity, or saint as a part of the trip. Do not try to design a ritual, do not try to perform anything elaborate. Ritual and rites are emergent, they cannot be built by intent in a way that is spiritually meaningful. Don’t try. It’s important that there is belief in a patron higher power, ritual will develop over time.

Once every season, do something similar, reputation of a clan-rite or outing. If the people involved believe it matters and have the same goal, the event will grow organically over time. Eventually the following will begin to take place by collective interest:

A shrine will be put together at a sacred location. Either inside the home directly, or at a ritual site, or both.
A proper metaphysical heritage will develop that will include an esoteric framework and iconography.
Many participants will desire to expand the clan, good if done carefully with a high barrier of entry.
Most importantly; an in-group and out-group will develop as a social structure among participants.

Implementation

Implementation is always the hard part. Trying to herd a digital micro-culture into a form of radical esoteric collectivism is difficult. Economic forces and the corrosion of culture both benefit the project. Were it not for a need to develop collective interests, this article would never have been written in the first place. The following is needed:

Leadership (A respected individual has to be leader, if you are not worthy of respect or treated with defense, find some one who is and hope they have the same goal).
Interest (A group with no interest in organization and localization is going to get nowhere. This is why micro-cultures present such an excellent opportunity. Artists live together all the time. There’s no reason mechanics or firearms specialists can’t too).
Wealth (Enough collective wealth has to be dedicated by all members that housing and support can be provided by all members. This may be one member taking the seat of a local Lord by utilizing his own wealth, or this may take the form of collective resources allocated from all participants).

Location matters for community development. We aren’t homesteading, we are designating a small locality/municipality and entering it with the intent to dominate the local economic and political culture. Ideally that is done in a relatively small community while maintaining connections with other growing clans.

Localizing an open digital micro-culture is difficult and only some of those cultures will even be interested in the idea. Of those that are, less than 5% of participants will follow through on their interest. Focus on taking on those who are mature enough to already live as a couple and intend to have kids. These clans aren’t meant to be mono-generational before falling apart again.

Once people are collected, and a target township is selected, then buying land and businesses begins. For those who are particularly well funded, buy your own home, land, and business in the target location.

The clan may leverage the benefits of a Limited Liability Cooperation (llc). That will be the legal entity that holds the primary real-estate you’ll need. A primary actor/leader will hold in trust the CEO position in llc and the men (family leaders) of the clan will be the board members in a legal sense with voting privileges over land-use. This will tend towards monarchy… which is an intended side effect.

If possible, build real estate with extremely preferential contracts for clan members. You don’t need a large home. In fact, small homes are recommended with a central Clan Hall or Longhouse that serves various needs in terms of space, events, or storage. Experimentation will need to be done to determine what community designs are effective here. This may lead to a lot of angry city code-inspectors, so keep that in mind.

The Clan is regional. The clan integrates into the local political and economic strata while remaining culturally distinct. Given the lack of an opposing monoculture, retaining a unique cultural heritage will not be seen as any sort of actionable threat. Digital micro-cultures are often esoteric enough that outsiders find them impenetrable anyway… this is merely an economic localization of existing cultural identities.

As a clan grows, it may expand beyond local boundaries. The maximum scale of a single clan should not exceed the distance one can easily travel in a day. (This is why the clan-systems of the true elites are global: modern travel allows them to easily traverse hemispheres in under 12 hours). Our own clans must be smaller, able to exert precision leverage on the scale of a municipality.

Clan systems have been used by European Peoples for centuries. Liberalism killed what remained of them because they’re difficult to control either politically or economically, it’s time we brought them back.

If you get this far, then the rest is straight forward: Get to know the locals in town. Become friends with the locals. Buy the local bar. Buy the local mechanics ship or grocery store. Put on community events with the township. Have kids.

If things go tits-up in the West, the clan becomes a single defensive unit, a tough nut for outside forces to crack. Kings of a tiny new nation. If they don’t go tits up, then sit back and watch your kids grow up to build their own homes and have their own families. Let social Darwinism takeover: your people flourish while hostile forces decay beneath their own cultural baggage. If the broken institutions of the West won’t let us have a homeland any more, we’ll build a new one for ourselves and armor it against those who would undo our spirit.

Always The Horizon

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