Kate, Carl and the Culture Wars

In the 1930s, Jung described the psychological changes that occur in midlife. Early on, men incline toward the external, wanting to master their surroundings, both material and social. The emphasis then shifts away from power, prowess and dialectical reasoning. The feminine side comes into play, offering the imaginative faculty an opportunity to explore human spirituality, creativeness and the emotional truth revealed through art, myth and narrative.

The "first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego," writes Jung, "the second half is going inward and letting go of it."

Western man is amidst a severe midlife crisis. Unbridled masculinity – dedicated to building civilization rather than matching the example of Jesus – has enabled much in the way of orderly progress. But the hubris and one-sidedness of our head-before-heart Promethean advance has come at great cost. Forgetful of the original Greek caveat regarding human limits, he refuses to concede, as Cave does, that "the rational, the verifiable, is not the only game in town".

"After centuries of global hegemony," says Kingsnorth, "it is our turn to experience the fear of loss, the fear of decline and fragmentation." This lacks imagination. The caustic element of the culture war is merely leveraging the material trappings of modernity in the name of a Christianity we've yet to experience. Western man is being called to finally muster the courage, now the foundational work is done, to be truly vulnerable, to rule by serving, to relinquish control and be led by the secret demands of life and love.

In Under Saturn's Shadow, Jungian psychologist James Hollis refers to the "necessary wound" incurred by men, a traumatic occurrence that compels us "to move out of the old dispensation into new life".

Intentionally provocative, #MeToo, DEI programs and general wokeism are designed to bring the anima story to its climax. These feminine forces don't want men to disavow, per se, traditional masculinity, reason, progress or hierarchy. Nor do they wish for the anarchy of a society governed solely by raw emotion. This is about the both-and, and the related truth that rules-based institutions, along with science and AI, can't ever render to God the things that are his.

This wounding moment is about Western man finally inverting opposites, taking up the radical challenge laid down by Jesus two millennia ago: "Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."

That all this goes unsaid is part of the test, a reluctance to spell things out intended to highlight that the activism is not rooted in some right-wrong argument. The final cause of Western exceptionalism is grounded in mythos, not logos. We are being asked to finally take our civilization beyond the empty promises of power and politics. Tarnas concludes The Passion of the Western Mind:

Today we are experiencing something that looks very much like the death of modern man, indeed that looks very much like the death of Western man. Perhaps the end of 'man' himself is at hand. But man is not a goal. Man is something that must be overcome – and fulfilled, in the embrace of the feminine.

Able to unify his thinking and feeling, Nickie Ferrante shows himself, in the end, to be worthy of his suffering. By finally sensing what Terry won't put into words, he locks in their Hollywood ending.

It took me somewhat longer to read between the lines.

March 2020 was the last time I saw or spoke with Kate. I got over emotional after two hours together in a café above the Queen Street mall. I pestered her to join me in New Zealand, which wasn't smart. I've since sent the occasional email. But no reply. I let her know when I'm visiting Australia, proposing a time and location to meet. She's yet to turn up.