One of the particular issues of the Present Trial we face is an appalling depletion of the Spiritual Capital of the Public Square, or society, however you chose to construct it. Spiritual Capital is something that is only beginning to emerge as an understood concept, but the nucleus of this idea is fairly self-explanatory. At a recent conference put on by Yale, Ted Malloch said,
"There are moral preconditions in a market economy: the sentiments of sympathy, benevolence and compassion, of approval; disapproval and indignation, which underpinned the social order and make it possible to engage in business in the first place. Human beings and the corporations they originate are not just profit-maximizers. They have moral scruples, personal commitments and the desire for happiness. These set limits to their plans for personal profit, and also stimulate them to pursue profit in ways that honor their higher values and generosity. Many companies, large and small, public and private, around the world and from each tradition exhibit these, live and conduct business by these values thereby exhibiting their spiritual capital.”1
America’s Spiritual Capital has been fading. The clubs, organizations, friendships, and churches that once stood as founts are being depleted as the Empire navigates several severe structural limitations at the same time it must work to ward off attempts by foreign powers to challenge the American Unipolarity established by the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Cold War is actually instructive upon this point, as America spent much of her Spiritual Capital in that conflict, one that stretched across the entire globe and whose geopolitical proportions are as yet unmatched. The thing about Spiritual Capital is, like actual Capital, it bleeds if you fail to use it. America, from the days of de Tocqueville, has never been shy of spending her Spiritual Capital, and the Cold War was no exception. Jonathan P. Herzog wrote of it
“During the first half of the twentieth century, the United States boasted unequaled economic power, but government, business, and religious leaders wondered if their nation was becoming too materialistic and spiritually bankrupt to win a holy war. In speeches and advertisements, in pledge drives and military training facilities, in schools and movie theaters, the engineers of spiritual mobilization set out to create a citizenry immune to the atheistic, immoral, and corporeal siren song of Communist ideology. Through their efforts religious faith became the bedrock of freedom and the lodestone of Americanism.”2
This ‘capital spending’ actually works. Whittaker Chambers and Bella Dodd ‘converted’ from communism as the victorious nation sought to pour her spiritual capital into creating Tri-Faith America.
Spiritual Capital might be understood as the creative force behind material forces. It is what spills out on the blank sheet of paper, the aesthetics, direction, sentiment, ideas, and all that undergird civilization as such. Herzog further states “Religion was thus America’s ideological armor. Allowing it to rust would open a host of national institutions to direct attack. Reforging it, as the HUAC advocated, would provide an impenetrable defense”3
Religion and Church of course were only a component of American spiritual capital, yet the lengths that this coalition went to trying to reinforce American Christianity via the Tri-Faith project demonstrate the critical role they believed it to hold.
In 1954 the state of Massachusetts would pass a resolution calling for the amendment of the pledge of allegiance which stated
“Spiritual values are every bit as important to the defense and safety of our nation as are military and economic values.”4
In this civilizational conflict, America’s spiritual capital was so important the nation itself flocked to the banner of a united front telling every American that attending church was critical in the fight against Communism. And the thing is, they were right. This is the forgotten part of the culture war, that for your civilization to endure, you cannot merely be a partisan for it. You must be a living embodiment, breathing life into it every day the same way you draw breath for your own life.
Every time you celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving, or patronize a production of Shakespeare, or the Symphony, you are spending spiritual capital. As with material capital, some investments are wiser than others and more lucrative than others. But you must sow to reap. For it is written,
“For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”5
So when I speak of intelligent investment in America’s spiritual capital, I am not speaking about abstractions of the culture war. I am speaking to you, my fellow Americans. It is you and I who must spend our spiritual capital, who must be not only defenders of our particular civilization but living, breathing, embodiments of it. So spend freely, and spend wisely.
Ted Malloch, (Q&A, Yale Conference on Practical Wisdom in Management, July 2013)
Jonathan P. Herzog. The Spiritual-Industrial Complex: America's Religious Battle Against Communism in the Early Cold War (Oxford University Press USA, 2011), p. 6
Ibid, p. 87
Ibid, p. 105
Matthew 25:29, (KJV)
I was thinking about this the other day when bringing my children to a kid’s shoe store that was closing nearby. I wish I could tell you that we are people who eschew online shopping for the old brick and mortar, but we don’t. In fact, this was the first time we shopped at that store. Point being, we didn’t use our spiritual capital in advance of community and what we’ll get next is...nothing. Just an un-community.
I realize this is a low res take on your post, but I honestly think most ‘normie’ folks and even DR folks often assume that the heavy lifting of keeping a community intact is being done by *somebody.* It has become clear that it is not. And if our spiritual capital does not circulate, we will live in a no man’s land. Obviously, Christianity is our bedrock more so than a shoe store, but I think this too is assumed to just ‘be around’ whenever we get around to it. And the gospel will always be, but a lot can be lost in the meantime.