Post-war Europe has been under the cultural influence of anti-national, internationalist left for some time now. Their world view and philosophy is the mainstream of (post-) modern society. The word “culture” itself, when used in modern context, usually refers these days to the works of some “aspiring artist” in some field or other of abstract art. Culture in that sense has become very detached from the common man and from the common people. This culture is created and consumed by the same cultural elite. Collective culture, national culture, local culture, any culture in the true meaning of the word is not represented, but is rather replaced by some pseudo-artistic mumbo-jumbo that attempts to be creative, revolutionary and taboo-breaking, but usually falls back on its own lack of substance and hollowness. Nonetheless, art and culture have become synonymous with a certain social and cultural trend – the dominant one. Culture in the traditional sense does not interest them and indeed, in keeping with the liberal tradition, the new cultural elite has been working hard to break all ties to that traditional culture and ‘create culture anew’, as it were. However, their culture is as hollow as the halls of the galleries and museums it decorates.
Art and culture are often thought to be separated from politics, but this is not the case. Everything we see around us influences us, and when something as significant as “culture” is monopolized by a certain political trend, it has tremendous impact on the rest of society. There is a constant flow of, if not politically then at least metapolitically motivated art being produced and hung up in our “museums of modern art”, but where are the true cultural icons of our peoples today? What is there for us of a more traditionalist disposition, where is the art of the Finnish or the Portuguese or any European nation? It is out there, but these artists and cultural figures are few and far between – and don’t expect them to feature in any mainstream media.
European nationalists are a counterculture, and in order for that counterculture to be successful, it needs to be immersed in a vigorous culture of its own, with its own music, literature, art, you name it. When I open the television to see what’s on, I see very little that speaks to me, that I find appealing in this cultural context. Watching MTV makes me sick within the minute and it saddens me that it, as a medium for the culture we are in rebellion against, has been so successful in promoting its social, cultural and ultimately political ideology.
Therefore we as a counterculture need to create and maintain our own social ideology via a strong culture, which will hopefully become a true alternative to the post-modernist mainstream. I know that this has happened to some extent in Germany, where the national movement is very prominent from the grass-roots to higher up in society and social institutions. They organize youth events and other social happenings, become members and run all kinds of volunteer orgnizations, establish their own kindergardens and so on. The same is true with such organizations as Hamas and Hizbollah, and they have massive support among the common people. A good article detailing the situation in Germany, On Kameradschaft written by Welf Herfurth , can be found in the online cultural journal Synthesis.
In order to do our part in this countercultural renaissance, we here at Velhametsä have decided to start a countercultural category. As we are no singers or painters ourselves, we will be presenting and promoting the countercultural figures of our times. They may be consciously political and metapolitical in their work, or they may simply be artists, who we find are in line with the idea of the countercultural movement.
I think that there has been a deterioration of different cultures around the world and that it has been hastened by television. Although, I´m not advocating getting rid of television, but when everyone around the world is watching the same shows, then the local culture and creativity become lost and cultures become homogenized. I see that as a bad thing. There is another part to this, as newer generations may want to distance themselves from the previous generation and distance themselves from the culture. Ultimately, I think a generation or two removed have more fascination with the local cultures of the past and will embrace it.
This also has alot to do with the fact that Media is becoming more and more concentrated into fewer hands all the time – when the flow information originates from the same source for everyone, the emphasis on locality disappears. We need more independent, regional and local media.