Manifesto.
The Honor State Manifesto
The vision for Honor State came to me when I was heading westbound on State Highway 212 in southern Montana, en route to Missouri. This was a scouting trip, and I was driving the two-thousand mile journey from the once-beautiful city of Seattle, a city that radical leftists have turned into a veritable Zombieland of legalized criminality, fentanyl overdoses, and woke bullroar. I was headed to see my best friend and business partner who had moved previously to Missouri for the very same reason.
I listened to several podcasts on my trip, and surprise surprise, even the artsy ones that should be miles away from politics had a paternalistic wink-and-nod to the rest of us from a certain point-of-view.
Just outside the geographic center of our nation–Belle Fourche, South Dakota–I found myself hunting for an agenda-free distraction. So I tried a podcast that consisted of a couple of smart-sounding people analyzing modern cultural phenomena.
The host was talking with a psychiatrist about a phenomenon called “honor culture.”
According to the American Psychological Association, honor culture is defined as:
“a cultural norm in a region, nation, or ethnic group prescribing definitive retribution as the preferred reaction to a transgression, particularly one that threatens a person’s reputation.”
Translated: “Walk softly, and carry a big stick.” Or put another way, “I have a line, and while it may take some time to cross to my line, may God help you if you do.” This is the culture of respect; of the peaceful warrior, and is an ethos that I, as a God-fearing man, and an American, value deeply. Actually:
I believe the fear of retribution from irreverent acts actually holds society together.
If you want to find out what the opposite of honor culture looks like, look no further than neo-Marxist “utopias” like Los Angeles, Chicago or Seattle.
“F*** the police!”
“Smash the patriarchy!”
“Math is racist!” (seriously, Duck Duck Go that one)
In these cities and ones like them, people walk around perpetually offended, yet looking to offend. It’s not enough for these folks to express themselves, they have to take that expression to the Nth degree, and if you take issue with that, you’re “perpetuating violence,” or “committing genocide” and need to be “cancelled.”
It’s a culture of outrage, offense, reactivity, and irreverence toward everything but The Current Thing.. But respect? Respect is nowhere to be found in this tasteless gumbo.
There’s another class of folks, livers an even lighter shade of lily, who opt to scream things at people virtually, things they would never have the haggis to say to those same people in real life.
Both of these groups seem to be fueled by an odd mix of viciousness and passivity. Like a chihuahua yapping through the bars of its cage.
Those of us who get it understand that it was engineered this way. After all:
…people who are easily offended are easily controlled.
So anyway, back to the podcast. The host’s guest mentioned that strength, bravery, loyalty–valorous behavior–were highly prized in honor cultures. Being from a family of LEO’s and Marines, I wholeheartedly agree.
With the high-handed curiosity that only Liberal academics can muster, he went on to stain honor cultures as violence-prone, barbaric relics of the past that modern progressives must unearth and eradicate to get to the next phase of cultural enlightenment. Safe to say, I wholeheartedly disagree.
Which brought them to the question of where honor cultures still exist in the USA.
The answer?
Honor states.
Honor states–as in certain states in the United States–are places where mutual respect, honor and traditional values are still prized. Places where people listen to their elders; where respect still reigns, and where the lack thereof will earn you a smack upside the head, or worse.
Perhaps you live in an honor state, or like me, are trying to get back to one.
But I’m not just talking about a state bound by borders. I’m talking about:
…a state of MIND.
And we’re going to have to get our minds right if we’re to have any hope of freeing ourselves from the neo-Marxist rot that continues to defile it.
We’re also going to need:
- A wholesale return to traditional values... Values of respect, honor, dignity and the fear of God Almighty.
- We need more folks like us to step up. Peaceful warriors who walk softly, carry big sticks, and protect our own from those who would wish us harm.
- We need to show everyone who we are so our spirits are lifted by constant reminders that there are more of us than we thought.
- We need to stop giving money to woke corporations whose shadowy paymasters would love nothing more than to eradicate what’s in our minds and hearts and enslave us.
Instead, we will uphold our values and our desired way of life by supporting each other in that most uniquely American way–economically.
I want to create a thriving economic and spiritual community based on old-fashioned American values. An economy parallel to the one that seems to thrive off of outrage, degradation, and division.
That, in a nutshell, is what HONOR STATE is about.
In other words, T-shirts, mugs and bumper stickers are just the beginning.
God bless you,
Patrick
