“Envy the country that has heroes, huh? I say pity the country that needs them.” – Reign of Fire
My book on the Nordic nations is really difficult to write. I’m not sure I can Finnish.
There are institutions in this country that are fundamental in shaping it. Two, in particular, helped define the 20th century in the United States of America:
- Hollywood®
- Boy Scouting
Both were a product of the American expansion between 1850 and 1940, and both were forged in the American West.
Boy Scouting? American?
The official story is that Boy Scouts was brought to the United States from Great Britain. In the immortal words of Jules, “Please allow me to retort”: Sir Robert Baden-Powell was the guy who “officially” started Boy Scouting, but given his aristocratic upbringing, Baden-Powell’s idea of camping was spending an afternoon on the patio with only one servant and no ice for his gin.
The truth is much more American: Baden-Powell based Scouting on Frederick Russell Burnham, who was born in Minnesota and crossed paths with outlaws and thieves as he learned the tricks from old cavalry scouts that served in the Indian Wars. Once all the Indians were killed or in a reservation, Burnham got bored and hitched a ride to South Africa to kill and conquer that continent, too.
In South Africa, Burnham was eventually made Chief of Scouts of the British South African Army in one of the Boer Wars. The Boer Wars were that time when the British found out that the Boers were sitting on the biggest gold strike in the world, and decided that all that was required was to get those pesky Boers off of all of that obviously British gold. I first heard of Burnham while reading this amazing true story (LINK). It’s long-ish, but amazing because it’s true.
Why do Scoutmasters wear that hat? This guy. This picture was taken after he was personally decorated by the King with the second-highest award given by Britain to soldiers, and given a permanent rank in the British Army. Also given personally by the King.
Why do Boy Scouts wear neckerchiefs? Because Burnham wore a neckerchief. In Baden-Powell’s estimation, the goal of Boy Scouts was to turn boys into men like Burnham.
Scouting was built on just that American ideal – individual ruggedness and preparedness. Baden-Powell said it very well, “A Scout is never taken by surprise; he knows exactly what to do when something unexpected happens.”
Scouting, in one quote that I read sometimes back, was based in the preparation of an ideal citizen – one that could contribute, one that could learn, and one that was not reliant on the government. It created capable, rugged boys who in turn became capable, rugged men.
Scouting found very fertile ground in the United States. Very soon there was a shortage of little old ladies to escort across the street, and they had to take shifts so the Boy Scouts could assist.
I kid.
But there are very few organizations (outside of churches) that have done as much good for the United States as the Boy Scouts.
Sadly, Boy Scouts is essentially dead. The last decade killed it.
Well, you can’t say the Left isn’t good at something.
It had already been on life support. The peak number of Boy Scouts was in the early 1970s at about five million boys. To have a similar number today would mean that there would be ten million Scouts. There aren’t. I expect that the number (when it is announced later this month) will certainly be less than two million, and probably closer to one million than two. The graph I put together (there are many conflicting sources, and I put this together using the most accurate numbers I could find, along with some guesswork and interpolation) shows that the number of Scouts is consistently declining.
I guess that nobody asked the Scouts what their opinion was.
This utter collapse in the number of Scouts is despite the tricks that the national leadership has employed to keep numbers up: they added kindergarteners, the glue eating set, to a new program called Lions. Since the name “Boy Scouts of America” wasn’t clear to them, they decided to add girls to the program and rebrand it as Scouts BSA® where BSA™ doesn’t stand for anything really. It was all an effort to keep the numbers up.
I don’t have high hopes for the girls involved in Scouts BSA™. One local Scouts BSA© leader took girls out camping. One of them snuck a spare cell phone, called a boy with a car, and disappeared with him for a week. Somehow, that didn’t make the local papers.
If you look at the graph, the Boy Scouts had been in trouble before. In the 1980s they realized the program had deviated from what made it popular: being rugged. They reintroduced the old-school methods, and popularity surged.
In 2014, they admitted homosexuals as youth. In 2015, they admitted open homosexuals as leaders. In 2017, girls who think they are boys were allowed to join. Deciding that none of that mattered anymore, in 2019 girls could become Boy Scouts Scouts BSA™ members. At every point, the Left made the point: it’s not enough. Now they want atheists to be able to join.
The Boy Scouts® used to stand for something. Scouts BSA™ stands as just the latest conquest by the Social Justice Warriors. Note that commies throughout history have hated the Scouts. Now that they own it, they can finally kill it.
This is just one story. You can find attack after attack on the Boy Scouts from the Left since the Scouts were founded. Why? Boy Scouts until 2010 was the thing that scared Leftists the most: strong individuals who were responsible for their own actions.
Hollywood© is a similar American story – rooted in the West. About the time that Burnham was killing his way across South Africa and unwittingly starting a youth movement that would transform the 20th century, the movie industry cranked up in California. Why? Well, Edison owned patents, and California was a very long way away from Edison’s lab in New Jersey. The bandits that Burnham knew in California didn’t disappear – they just turned into businessmen.
See? I can do a transition!
Hollywood™ has been a similar success story, though with a few twists and turns. For a large number of years, films coming out of Hollywood© mirrored (in many cases) the Rightist views of the American public. In the height of the Vietnam War protests, John Wayne starred in The Green Berets. Even as late as 2002, Disney® put out Reign of Fire, which was staunchly Right in attitude.
I’m not ashamed to say that I love movies. There are those who say that’s silly, and you’re more than welcome to your opinion. I see them as a way to thrill to bravery and watch as Good defeats Evil. It is a myth-making process that can showcase the very best of what we, as humans, can be.
Duty. Honor. Tradition. Cannons, pistols, and swords. French people being shot. How can you not love this movie? Did I mention French people being shot?
Now, in Current Year, Hollywood™ has managed to mangle several amazing film franchises because they had to inject either gender or identity politics into the films, and not in a light way. The latest Star Wars™ films? Pretty bad, like eye-rollingly bad. It wasn’t the effects, mind you. Those were amazing. It wasn’t the actors – Hollywood© is a consistently ruthless meritocracy of talent.
It was the stories.
Once upon a time, movies were fun. Really fun. Some, of course, still are. But what happened to the funny teen comedy? Well, comedy requires that someone is made fun of. So? Comedy is out.
No, today movies have to be “woke” and parrot the Social Justice Warrior line and teach an important moral. It’s funny when that moral isn’t what China likes, so that Hollywood™ has to change their picture, or change posters to minimize black cast members so Chinese people will go to see the movie.
Hmmm, I wonder if BLM® approved of the poster change? Think they speak Chinese?
Perhaps the reason for the injection of the Leftism is the studio executives wanting to placate their talent or their audience?
It doesn’t matter. It failed horribly.
Sure, it’s a Wilder Bikini Graph®. I was so very not going to do a bikini graph for the Boy Scouts.
Just like in Boy Scouts, now that the Left has fully taken Hollywood®, the rot has set in, and it begins to decay. People don’t want to tune in to see what Leftist fantasy has won this year’s Leftist award.
Neither one of these losses of the Left is a win for the Right. The world was better when we had Boy Scouts. The world was better when we had more movies with better heroes, and comedies that made fun of everyone.
Thankfully, I have a sea of old movies that I can watch. Also, thankfully, something will come to replace the Boy Scouts in time. Politics is downstream of Culture, and Boy Scouts and Hollywood® are part of a culture that no longer exists as it did for nearly 100 years.
That’s okay. We will rebuild. We will create institutions that will renew our culture.
Just like Burnham taught us: we will never give up. We will keep the flame alive, and fight when the odds are stacked against us.
Why?
Because we are so very pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let Western Civilization die.