GenX and The Culture of Restoration

Preface

“When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”

― P.J. O'Rourke

That quote by P.J. O’Rourke perfectly sums up the current environment that we all find ourselves living in at the moment. 

It’s emblematic of the deterioration of our American culture, but even more so the deterioration of Western culture at large. Now just in case you’re wondering exactly how that is, allow me to elaborate on this a bit more. 

In clarifying my analysis on this I want to take you on a quick little journey back in time to the 1980’s in order to better explain my position and to draw some stark differences between where our country was during the 1980’s compared to today. By the way, I covered this in an earlier episode of mine that ended up being one of the two most viewed and most downloaded podcast episodes I’ve ever done. You can view that episode here titled A Cultural Metamorphosis. 

You see when Ronald Reagan came to office on January 20th, 1981 he was faced with a huge mess to clean up with the country from Jimmy Carter having run the country off the cliff. Regardless, Donald Trump will be in a very similar situation in that regard although he’ll be facing a mess that is currently many magnitudes worse than what Reagan had in front of him during his time stepping into the office due to the institutional and cultural rot that has infected the entire federal government. 

Aside from all the normal problems associated with the bureaucracy of government, economics, geo-politics, and poor leadership prior to Reagan’s arrival to the White House I wanted to shift the focus to the one area I believe was responsible for pulling the country out of that dark place that Jimmy Carter drove it into prior to Reagan’s arrival. 

So what specific area am I referring to outside of the normal issues I previously mentioned in regards to the state of the country in the 1980s? 

The area I’m referring to is The American Culture. 

That’s right, the culture throughout the 1980s consisted of a very patriotic and Pro-American mood that was emblematic of the America First movement that we see rising now. In the 1980s the country was building strength under Ronald Reagan and this isn’t hyperbole. The strength in understanding that when America was strong the result of this could literally be seen with the rest of the world as Patriotism was soaring like the eagle and communism was on its back heel throughout the globe. Additionally, and most importantly, the country embraced God instead mocking him. 

In fact, communism was collapsing all over the globe and this result of having a strong America could directly be seen as producing a safer world where communism was a failing system of corruption. The collapse of communism could be seen like a line of dominoes falling in unison as America picked up steam with a strong economy, a strong military, and in my view a strong culture of Americanism through entertainment, the youth, and the overall attitude in the country that shaped the entire zeitgeist. 

You could literally see the evidence of it with the collapse of the Berlin wall in November of 1989, as well as, the downward pressure that a strong United States was creating resulting in the dominoes of communism falling throughout the Eastern block of Europe eventually leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union itself in August of 1991. 

Enter GenX and The Action Hero

I’m unmistakably a child of the 1980s and as a GenXer I can tell you that my generation is a strong product of our culture which is still strong within all of us hardcore GenXers to this very day. 

So you’re probably wondering Brandon, what does that mean? 

What that means is that as a GenXer we’ve never cared a single bit about having safe spaces, or having our men compete against women in sports if they couldn’t hack it in their normal sport, and we sure as heck didn’t care about your feelings being placed above facts, particularly when facts were a matter of life or death (for a sound reference on this see the pandemic). 

Furthermore, in the 1980s I can remember growing up wrestling my little brother in the living room as my mother yelled at us on a pretty consistent basis to not break the furniture and to not hurt one another. These wrestling matches were a result of Saturday morning professional wrestling (also known as wrestling entertainment) that would come on TV where iconic wrestlers such as Ric Flair and Sting and Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant would yell insults at each other and then turn around and beat the crap out of each other. This was a staple in the culture of GenX Saturday mornings.  

These athletes always displayed strength and highlighted the beauty in the conflict of the age old story of the good guy versus the bad guy. In addition to pro-wrestling this same theme in the 1980s was also beautifully displayed in the movies that dominated the big screen as well.  

That’s right, just in case you weren’t already aware, or if you just needed a good old fashioned reminder there was no other time in the history of filmmaking than the 1980s where the action hero dominated the theme of every major motion picture. 

The era of the 1980s action hero was something that exploded in the culture because it was something that was representative of a strong male figure that kicked a lot of a*s which was representative of the real life culture of the time. The theme was clear with the display of the good guy versus the bad guy and believe it or not the good guy would win. 

I mean films such as Rocky, Mad Max, Lethal Weapon, Young Guns, Die Hard, Terminator, Blood Sport, and Robocop were just a few that all served to point to the significance of the hero and the outlaw. 

The 1980s action hero shaped a lot of GenX and paved the way to the rebellious anti-establishment attitude that both myself and many of my fellow GenXers who understood the message still wear as a badge of honor to this very day. In the face of a current culture that demands that you just shut up, sit down, do what you’re told, and be a consumer we GenXers are exhibiting that rebellious attitude nowadays more than ever, and boy is it NEEDED more than ever. 

In this literal global struggle between good and evil in the real world I’ve seen a tremendous show of anti-establishment and rebellious attitude from GenXers who haven’t shied away from the culture war and have relentlessly stepped into the breach by being brilliant meme and information warriors in this digital age. Despite the current environment being a far cry from those days in the 1980s GenX, as usual, has displayed an incredible ability to adapt to the new modern day environment by stepping into the breach to fight this culture war on modern turf as a new breed of Digital Ronin. 

The Modern Era of The Hero

In this modern time where the culture has worked very hard to destroy the hero and glorify the victim mentality while propping up the attitude of woe is me by pretty much turning it into an Olympic sport thankfully the current environment that we’re facing with liberty teetering on the brink of destruction is resulting in more and more heroes coming into the light everyday.  

The cowardly attempt on Donald Trump’s life was no doubt a representation of this modern culture of rot, but his fist pumping reaction of defiance very much mirrored the courage and attitude of the 80’s action hero. Because of that type of courage and attitude you also have Patriots that are coming online every single day with alternative media platforms like Joe Rogan (another GenXer) who has popularized and demonstrated this with the explosion of his hit podcast. 

Other platforms such as Real America’s Voice, OAN, and new social media outlets such as this very platform here with Substack have come online giving GenX Patriots a megaphone to get their message out in order to impact and shape the current culture. 

Heroes can come in many forms and the truth is that everyone from the soldier who has faced combat to the Digital Ronin that can take the fight to the enemy directly online are all contributing to win this physical, informational, financial, and culture war in the greatest war our country has ever faced. 

The Wrap Up

In closing, I’m honored to be a part of GenX, especially during this time in our history. I personally don’t think much about how bad things are, or how bad they will be as much as I work at thinking about what strategic actions I can take in order to contribute to defeating the enemy.  

After all, I started this Substack for that very reason and to hopefully contribute to the Great Awakening in order to throw fuel on that fire with my fellow GenXers (and all the rest) who want to destroy the existing cultural rot and to bring forth a strong and respected Culture of Restoration that can rival, or perhaps even surpass, the one all of us GenXers experienced back in the 1980s.

I hope you enjoyed today’s article.

If so I hope you would choose to support this platform as part of the patriot economy as well. Be an Emissary of Freedom and help to push this piece out to your friends, family, and coworkers. In order for BOTH you and me to influence and strengthen our society we must not stay idle so please make sure you hit the subscribe and share buttons here below.

Spreading messages like this one is how we influence our culture and I need your help in order to do it.

Also to connect with me please make sure you join me here on Facebook, GETTR, Truth Social, and now Substack’s new social media called Notes.

Stay strong. Stay focused. Stay active.