Eltham Traditionalists

Welcome to Eltham Traditionalists!

2010-02-17T10:45:00.001+11:00

You've arrived at Eltham Traditionalists, a site intended to connect traditionalists in our suburb and surrounding area and to explain the basic ideas of traditionalism to interested readers.

Where to begin browsing this site? There's a page explaining who we are here. If you'd like to know the aims of our group you could visit this page. For an update on our recent activities see here.

For a more detailed explanation of traditionalist ideas there's a further reading section in the sidebar.

Update

2010-02-17T10:17:00.008+11:00

Update: 31/01/12 Distribution of the leaflet "The Closing of Politics?" is underway in central Eltham.

We'd like to make 2012 a big year for Eltham Traditionalists. We'd like to increase membership, complete and distribute pamphlets and continue to build up a local presence.

If you're interested in helping out please get in touch. You can contact Mark Richardson at swerting@bigpond.com.

Our aims

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I'll begin with what we are opposed to, as this leads on to what we wish to achieve.

Against liberal modernity

The dominant influence on the West is a political theory, liberalism. Liberalism has been around for generations now, gradually bringing society into line with its own first principles.

Liberalism is a radically reductive philosophy. It recognises one supreme good in society, namely individual autonomy. The aim is to have a society of equally autonomous individuals, each one determining his or her own self.

This means that individuals have to be liberated from anything that can't be self-determined.

Our sex is not something that we determine for ourselves. Therefore, under the logic of liberalism, it has to be made not to matter. Liberals have declared masculinity and femininity to be artificial social constructs. They cannot accept a distinction in sex roles between men and women, including a distinction between the roles played by men and women within the family.

Our ethnicity is not something we determine for ourselves. Therefore, liberals cannot identify positively with their own ethnic tradition. Liberals are so oriented to the autonomous individual that they don't have a strong sense of the value of the communities that individuals form, whether these are neighbourhoods, families or nations.

We do not get to determine the basic form of the family. Therefore, liberals want multiple, fluid forms of family life, in which a family is anything we ourselves determine it to be. Liberals do not, for this reason, aim to uphold the traditional family as an ideal.

Nor can liberals aim to uphold moral standards. We do not get to determine for ourselves an objective morality, in which acts are held to be inherently right or wrong. Liberals therefore reject traditional moral codes in favour of the idea that something is made moral if it is freely chosen by the individual (and if it doesn't impede someone else's autonomy).

The overall consequence of adopting individual autonomy as a supreme good is a socially suicidal one. It provides no basis in principle for the defence of any existing community, culture, people or tradition.

Resisting liberalism

What would it take to make a community or a tradition viable?

The most important thing would be to reject the idea that individual autonomy, or any other single good, can work as an organising principle of society. Reality is too complex and multi-layered for this.

A traditionalist movement would aim to reassert the truth that sex distinctions are natural, that our manhood and womanhood are inseparable to our sense of identity, that there are positive ideals of masculinity and femininity, and that men and women stand in a mostly complementary relationship to each other.

A traditionalist movement would also seek to uphold a culture of family life, in which the conditions for family formation were deliberately encouraged, in which motherhood was recognised as vital to a community and as a worthwhile focus of a woman's life, and in which a distinctly masculine role for men within the family was upheld as an ideal (and was not undermined by the state).

A traditionalist movement would act to preserve existing communities. This might mean acting to preserve the valued character of local communities or suburbs. In this country it could also include a commitment to the Anglo-Australian tradition, at least among those who identify with it.

These are some of the larger aims of a traditionalist movement. The more immediate aim of Eltham Traditionalists is simply to get organised. It's a temptation to think that whatever is wrong will be put right by someone already in a position of authority. This isn't likely to happen as the Australian political class is firmly committed to liberalism. Nor is it possible to rely on one individual acting alone to put things right. One individual acting alone cannot change a culture or form a more viable community.

What's needed is for a small number of people to begin to act together, to show some leadership on these issues within their own communities.

For information on how to get connected click here.

About Eltham

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Eltham is a suburb of around 25,000 people on the north-eastern fringe of Melbourne, Victoria.

The early pioneers of the suburb arrived in the 1840s. Major Charles Newman, a retired soldier who served in the East India Company, was one of the first to arrive in the district. He built a homestead in 1843 just across the Yarra River from Eltham which is still standing.

Eltham has long been associated with the arts. In 1903 one of the most prominent of Australian painters, Walter Withers, settled here. In 1935 the remarkable artists' colony of Montsalvat was founded in Eltham.

Eltham is known for its gum trees. It's a leafy suburb, with many parks, on the urban fringe. We still have a lot of native wildlife here: it's possible to sight kangaroos, koalas, tawny frogmouths, wombats, echidnas, platypuses, possums, sugar gliders, kookaburras, as well as a host of colourful Australian birds, particularly rainbow lorikeets, king parrots and eastern rosellas.

It's a great place for raising families, with good schools, many walking and cycling paths, a community farm, an excellent library complex, sporting clubs and lots of open space.

F.A.Q.

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Q. Does traditionalism mean that you support everything in the past?

Not at all. In fact, traditionalists can like certain aspects of modern society and dislike aspects of traditional societies. It is also possible for traditionalists to be future-oriented - to be concerned about building for the future, rather than looking back to the past.

The meaning of traditionalism is quite specific. It is about opposing the negative consequences of liberal modernity, particularly insofar as these undermine the future of our own Western tradition.

Q. Do I need to live in Eltham to take part?

No. The name of Eltham Traditionalists was chosen to connect the group to a real community. It's open, though, to anyone who is sympathetic to the traditionalism described at this site and who would be able to drive here for gatherings or activities.

Getting connected

2009-10-03T13:43:00.006+10:00

If you're sympathetic to traditionalism I encourage you to get in touch. There's not much that anyone can do on their own. If we want to hold some ground then we need to get together.

You won't be committing to anything onerous. The minimum that is required is for you to send an email with at least a first name and a contact email address to me at swerting@bigpond.com, indicating your interest in Eltham Traditionalists. I'll email back within a week or so. Your contact details will be kept private.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Mark Richardson

About us

2009-10-02T17:20:00.006+10:00

This site exists to help traditionalists in Eltham and the north-east of Melbourne get connected.

Why traditionalism? Modern Western societies have been shaped by a belief system called liberalism. Liberalism claims that the highest good in society is individual autonomy. This means that the individual must be self-determining: that we must self-create who we are from our own will and reason.

But this rules out much that traditional societies considered significant in life. For instance, we don't get to self-determine our own sex, our own ethnicity, objective standards of morality or the basic form of the family. Liberal moderns are committed to making these aspects of life not matter.

But they do matter. They are important to our self-identity, to our relationships, to community life, and to the most significant of our personal aspirations.

What is worse, the liberal principle undermines the future of our own distinctive Western tradition. It is a principle which only recognises the atomised individual and not the larger culture and civilisation he or she belongs to.

Most people are not liberals, but the Western political class is. The major political parties, the media, the schools and the universities are committed to liberal modernity. We cannot look to these institutions to act on our behalf.

We are going to have to act for ourselves. It makes sense to do this locally, in the communities we live in. However, this does require a small critical mass of people to get things started (of perhaps a dozen or more people).

Eltham Traditionalists is an attempt to get this happening here in the north-east of Melbourne. The idea is that interested people would supply a first name and a contact email address. Over time, if there is enough interest, it may be possible to meet more formally as a group.

There is more information on the aims of Eltham Traditionalists here. For more information on contacting the webmaster or getting involved click here.

Mark Richardson
swerting@bigpond.com