Category Archives: Catholicpunk

“Reclaiming What We Lost…”

“The Dave Cullen Show” is one of the fandom YouTube channels I watch frequently. The channel…

“is dedicated to Movie Reviews, Film critique, discussion of TV Shows, Pop Culture, and Video Games in my usual caustic and sardonic manner.”

Much of his work involves fandoms, and I largely concur with what he says about them (except for his love for the 1970s TV show, Space: 1999. But I digress.)

This embedded video is a recent one. It embodies much of the reasoning behind why I wrote The Catholicpunk Manifesto. I don’t know what, if any, religious faith Cullen has, but that’s no matter. His thesis is that recent pop culture fandoms (Star Trek, Marvel Cinematic, Star Wars, Disney, etc.) have all sold out to the extremist left-wing agenda and are pandering to satisfy the social justice warrior ‘woke’ crowd. I can only really speak for Star Trek, but I think he’s spot-on. I don’t watch the other current fandom offerings much, I stick to Star Trek and retro fandoms from decades ago. My knowledge of other current fandoms, such as the Star Wars, etc. that I cited, is informed by the opinions of a diverse group of online people whose opinions I respect, and they would agree with Cullen.

One of the intriguing things he proposes in this video is that fans should try and, well, ‘reclaim what we lost’ by creating new works of fiction. Give up patronizing the current pop cultural offerings and just build our own new culture. This is straight-up *punking and I cover a Catholic version of this in the entire Catholicpunk Manifesto.

He offers an interesting plan: start by creating fan fiction. Fan fiction is original creative works that are set in the established works of others. For example, let’s say you really, really, love Star Trek. So you write your own works set in the Star Trek universe. You can’t make any money off of this as it’s someone else’s intellectual property, so you do it for love (true amateur work.) If you have the technical chops for it, create Star Trek fan films. Again, you can’t make money, but Cullen’s point is that in doing all this you connect to a built-in fanbase that will critique your work and your craft will improve. After a fashion, you can utilize your sharpened creative talents and begin making your own original work.

Ultimately, a counterculture of alternative fandoms will arise and grow. Perhaps, if the current culture continues along its trajectory of self-destruction, this ‘alternative’ pop culture will become the dominant. 

Again, as I said in Catholicpunk Manifesto, punkers should provide a way out of the current cultural decline. Or, a way out of the apocalyptic mess the elites are sending us towards.

If you wish to explore written fan fiction, take a look at FanFictionNet and the Archive of Our Own. For filmed works, go to YouTube and just type in the search bar the name of the fandom and ‘fan films’ (i.e. ’Star Trek fan films’) or similar search terms.

PS: ‘Woke’ and ‘woke-ism’ as I understand it, is that sudden ‘awakening’ to the injustices of society and the radical need to eradicate them. Nothing wrong with that, except for the way the wokesters go about it:  unilaterally imposing a radical, extremist left-wing ideology upon society. There is no tolerance for divergent points of view. No mercy or sympathy for those who aren’t woke: they are ‘canceled’ (deprived of a livelihood, de-platformed from social media, and the whole, typical left-wing banishment to a (symbolic) gulag. I have no problem with the concept of social justice, in principle. But the ‘woke’ way is destructive and will lead to a backlash by the extremist right-wing anti-wokesters. 

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

An Agrarian hope through Catholicpunk?

At the root of The Catholicpunk Manifesto is the notion that the contemporary world has lost its way and needs redirecting. Jesus Christ is “The Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and He established the Catholic Church to promulgate and defend His teachings, all with the idea of guiding souls to Heaven. Therefore, the Catholicpunk Movement that will hopefully arise from the book is one method by which Catholic creatives will participate in that mission.

All Catholic Christians are called to evangelize. It springs forth from our Baptism and especially from our Confirmation. We are to be ‘Christ-bearers’ to others. 

As I said in this earlier post:

It’s one thing to preach the Gospel by talking about Jesus; it has worked successfully for 2,000 years. But there are additional avenues that the Catholic evangelist can walk down in attempting to convert the world for Jesus.

One method is creating a fictional world that is in marked contrast to our own. I have a belief, unsure where I got it, it might be an actual Original Thought, or it might be derived from someone else, that technology is a sign of a Fallen world. We read in Genesis 3 that Adam and his descendants have to work by the sweat of their brow. Before this, theologians had thought that Adam and Eve were people who had their needs met by God. They didn’t have to ‘work’ for their food. They dwelt in Paradise and had it easy. But that was spoiled by their rebellion and henceforth people have to struggle to meet their needs.

Society is rushing headlong into deeper decadence and depravity; these were motivating factors in my writing the book. And I do not think that the fact that our technology is also developing at an exponential rate is just a coincidence. Technology is not evil in itself; it’s just a  tool. And since Adam after the Fall needed tools to meet his and Eve’s needs, tools have been part and parcel of our march down through the millennia. Often for good; but often for evil. But always to make life easier in response to its difficulties. And this may have moral or immoral qualities. 

Rather than continue in this post on technological development, I’ll switch to the “creating a fictional world that is in marked contrast to our own” point I mentioned earlier. 

While we will probably never return to an idyllic agrarian past, except perhaps as a highly positive or proactive response to a post-apocalyptic scenario, we could take the example of JRR Tolkien’s Shire, and create stories set in an ‘idealized’ non-technological world. While not practically advocating such a future, (except for the post-apocalyptic idea in the previous sentence) creating an idealistic, hopeful setting, and providing therapy for contemporary folk, can at the same time offer radical solutions or alternatives to contemporary problems. How? Have you ever heard the advice about “aim for the highest, so that if you miss, you’ll still land higher than if you settled on a lower target?” That isn’t the exact wording, I searched and kept coming up with Andrew Carnegie quotes and other non-relevant things like song lyrics. But you get the idea. “Don’t sell yourself short,” is another way of putting it. Now, take that concept and extend it to society and culture as a whole. Fundamental problems require radical solutions. Aspiring to create a slower, more peaceful, and humane world by intentionally limiting technology may get people to take a look around and give pause to advancing ever further towards a dehumanizing future. A more balanced society, with technology being responsibly developed with due regard for morality, ethics, and maintaining our essential humanity.

This can be attempted with agrarian fiction, be it science-fiction or fantasy. If you say that science-fiction cannot be ‘agrarian,’ then your perception is biased or you never read Clifford Simak and pastoral science-fiction. One of the definitions of science-fiction that I read when I was growing up and reading Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and so on was something like it is ‘humanity’s response to the advances in science and technology.’ So, what if that response to science and technology was to rein it in? And so this is a perfect concept for Catholicpunkers.

This is a continuation of the previous post, “Peter Maurin and Catholicpunking” and develops it a bit.

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Peter Maurin and Catholicpunking

In my new book, The Catholicpunk Manifesto, I refer to Peter Maurin a few times. He was the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement with Servant of God Dorothy Day.

Of the things he contributed to the CW Movement, two stand out: his “Easy Essays,” which were short verses that explained complicated concepts. The other was his “Agronomic Universities,” where scholars and farm laborers would work together. Scholars would spend time on CW farms (the “Universities” in the idea) and teach the laborers things, while the laborers would educate the scholars on the value of good, hard work. The idea was more than just that: he envisioned the Agronomic Universities as a means of reinvigorating Catholic rural life and forming a nucleus of vibrant, stable communities. He often said something to the effect that ‘there is no unemployment on the land,’ meaning that living ‘off the land’ should be able to provide a family and the surrounding community with all the basics they need.

Three acres and a cow

This is very close to (if not an outright expression of) the “3 Acres and a Cow made popular by GK Chesterton in his writings on Distributism. The notion was that three acres plus a farm animal were sufficient to provide for a family. There would be enough land to grow their food and support the cow for the meat and milk it provided, and if I’m not mistaken, Chesterton wrote that an artisan’s shop may provide the rest. This is an overly simplistic rendering of the idea, but the point is made that a stable, rural culture can be a reaction to an ever-growing complicated, and problematic society.

You’ll notice I mentioned ‘nucleus,’ ‘stable’ and ‘sufficient.’ These are hallmarks of a culture that is well-ordered, free, and not prone to massive swings in fortune since the economy is largely (not exclusively) local.

What does this have to do with Catholicpunking? Maurin foresaw that society as it had been progressing in the late 19th-mid-20th Century was unstable and he felt that a collapse was inevitable. One of his sayings was a slogan he borrowed from the International Workers of the World labor union, “Creating a new society within the shell of the old.” This meant not waiting for the society to collapse before responding, but putting the new institutions in place, up and operational before the collapse, so that they can serve as the nucleus of the new society that emerges from the ruins of the old.

OK, I’m asking again: “What does this have to do with Catholicpunking?” Easy! Like I said about the book:

“Catholicpunk addresses how the future might look if humanity survives the contemporary social and moral collapse plaguing the Western world and the poverty and oppression prevalent in the Global South and the East. Catholicpunk illustrates how applying CST solves major contemporary challenges made by globalism, militarism, and the anti-life and sexual libertine agendas. When Catholicpunk emphasizes sustainability, it will be with an eye towards responsible management of resources so that there will be plenty for future generations, and not through restrictions on population such as aggressive birth control and abortion agendas. People from womb-to-tomb will be viewed as resources to be cherished and valued, not as parasites or polluters.”

Catholicpunk creatives can take a look at Maurin’s Easy Essays, and Chesterton’s Distributist writings, and create art that can:

…lead the world away from the cliff of self-destruction it is heading towards. It is a literary and artistic movement I am proposing that envisions a society ordered according to Catholic Social Teachings (CST), particularly incorporating the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy, the Sermon on the Mount; as well as any political and economic forms that might be imaginatively derived from CST, such as Christian Democracy, Catholic Monarchism, Subsidiarism and Solidarism, or a host of so-called ‘fringe’ ideas.” (From: The Catholicpunk Manifesto Page.)

If you read them (see the link in the 2nd paragraph) you can see that Maurin’s Easy Essays are very Catholicpunky since they creatively show a Catholic solution to problems.

“Appendix B” of The Catholicpunk Manifesto is nothing but pages and pages of “Creative Prompts.” Many are agrarian and distributist in nature. Buy the book to check them out 🙂 or study Maurin and Chesterton and get inspiration from them. The culture you save may be your own. Or, as the byline of the book reads: “Creatives of Catholicism, unite! You have everything to gain, especially souls!”

So, Peter Maurin might just like the Catholicpunk Artistic Movement. But he might propose artist’s communes? Perhaps he can eventually be a patron saint of Catholicpunk?

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

So, what is ‘Catholicpunk’ and what’s a Catholicpunker?

And thus begins a series of posts on who is a Catholicpunker what Catholicpunk is! 

A Catholicpunker is someone who Catholicpunks. Essentially, you are a creative Catholic who believes that there is something seriously wrong with the world and you believe that the Catholic Faith has the answer. After all, Jesus is ‘The Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and He established the Catholic Church to shepherd the world on its way Home to the Lord.

And so you wish to evangelize. Then it hits you: “I can evangelize through my art!” Therefore, you begin to infuse your art with Catholic teachings. It could be easy if you’re a writer of fiction or you make movies and television shows (any type of fiction or filmed stories). Create a world that reflects the doctrines of the Church. There’s the Beatitudes, the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. There’s an entire economic theory that’s founded on Papal writings: Distributism. There are numerous Catholic political theories: Subsidiarity, Solidarity, Christian Democracy (which incorporates Subsidiarity, Solidarity, and Distributism), and even Catholic Monarchism! Whether you create contemporary dramas or veil your Catholicpunking plans in fantasy or science-fiction, it doesn’t matter. 

But you show via the written word or visual images an alternative to the craziness abounding today. You Catholicpunk. It’s one thing to preach the Gospel by talking about Jesus; it has worked successfully for 2,000 years. But there are additional avenues that the Catholic evangelist can walk down in attempting to convert the world for Jesus. Expressing a Christian culture through art isn’t new, but I think it’s time that we ‘ramp it up’ a lot and engage people that way!

If you engage in other forms of art, I’ll address that in another post soon!

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Catholicpunker updates

Go here for a complete list of stuff: The Catholicpunk Manifesto Page.

BUT, there’s a Twitter (or ‘X’) feed now: Catholicpunker on ‘X’.

Also a Facebook Page! The Catholicpunk Manifesto on Facebook

I’ll be adding Reddit, Mastodon (maybe) and Tumblr (even though I just deleted my Tumblr account, I’ll resurrect a new one specifically for this. Tumblr is good for fandoms and artsy, writery stuff. I might add a LinkedIn Page and a MeWe group or account….

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

“The Catholicpunk Manifesto” paperback may soon be available!

UPDATE!

Screenshot 2023 09 28 at 3 02 43 PMMy new book, inspired by St. Maximilian Kolbe and my way of working out Total Consecration to Mary, is now available in paperback through Amazon! Some of you were waiting for this! (Thank you in advance!)

AMAZON LINK TO PURCHASE THE PAPERBACK!! 

For info on where you can purchase the ebook version (available NOW!) visit: The Catholicpunk Manifesto

Are you a creative Catholic? "The Catholicpunk Manifesto" is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone, perhaps yourself, who might like Catholic devotionals for alcoholics? Please take a look at my books! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)