The Greek and Latin phrases, σπεῦδε βραδέως and festina linte, mean something like “more haste, less speed” or “make haste slowly.”
I came across these terms in my own study of the rule of Emperor Augustus (27 BC - AD 14) many years back. The Roman historian Suetonius records in his Lives of the Twelve Caesars that this adage was a favorite of Augustus’:
The two faults which he condemned most strongly in a military commander were haste and recklessness, and he constantly quotes such Greek proverbs as ‘More haste, less speed,’ and ‘Give me a safe commander, not a rash one,’ and the Latin tag: ‘Well done is quickly done.’ It was a principle of his that no campaign or battle should ever be fought unless the hope of victory was clearly greater than the fear of defeat; and he would compare those who took great risks in the hope of gaining some small advantage to a man who fishes with a golden hook, though aware that nothing he can catch will be valuable enough to justify its loss. (Div. Aug. 25.4)
Even though Suetonius applies to this Augustus’ military expectations, it is also a fitting motto for his entire career and reign: in the wake of a collapsing Roman Republic and its transition to a viable Empire, Augustus had to make haste in effecting the political, religious, and cultural changes that needed to take place; yet this had to be done slowly, prudentially, and not rashly, in a context of continuity and change that required retrieving certain core elements of the republican past even while innovating for political stability in the present and future. (For a superb and subtle account of Augustus’ life and reign, see Karl Galinsky, Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction [Princeton University Press, 1998]).
Today we face a similarly complex and bewildering cultural and political landscape. The America of the colonial era or the American founding is gone. Even the religious and cultural consensus of mid-20th century America is gone. Successful cultural revolutions and regime changes have completely gutted the core of a stable and healthy American identity and way of life, replacing them with their opposites—oligarchy replaced republicanism, radicalism for conservatism, secularism and pagan idolatry for Christianity, moral relativism for common-sense first principles, equity for equality, license for ordered liberty, slavery for freedom, atomism for family integrity, transhumanism for humanity. The list could go on, and it is depressing. Thus, if we want to preserve the little good that’s left in America and build something equally good that will last, we must make haste.
All political life and governance involve two things: a knowledge of the natures of natural and divine things (including foundational moral principles), and prudential judgment of how to apply this knowledge to one’s particular context in order to achieve good ends. Herein lies both moderation and haste. We cannot know what ought to be preserved in American life and culture or what must be rebuilt if we lack an understanding of the nature of things. Thus, a process of investigation and retrieval of this knowledge is of top priority. This is especially the case in our context where general ignorance, distraction, and ennui plague the souls and minds of American citizens and their self-appointed leaders—where universities have been overtaken by radical activists and toxic educational philosophies and so have abandoned the task and ability of genuine education.
On the other hand, prudence dictates that we act with haste and decisiveness. We cannot armchair philosophize or settle for ivory tower debates as our civilization collapses. Reading another book or attending another conference will change little. Men of action are urgently needed who can articulate both timeless truths and the best of American life and history, and who can galvanize and rally ordinary Americans who know that something is deeply amiss but are powerless to effect any meaningful change. Effective statesmanship is necessary to confront and guide us through the present and coming disruptions.
These disruptions include the following: a continued hollowing out of America’s interior while coastal urban political centers grow in power and dominance; the acceleration of critical and revolutionary approaches to race, gender, sex, and class that strive to implement involuntary racial reparations, emasculate men and feminize culture, and invert if not obliterate historical and natural relations (like the family and nation); the rise of China as the global superpower and the collapse of the American dollar as the world’s reserve currency; American financial bankruptcy, economic depression, and loss of productive capabilities (e.g., oil, pharmaceuticals, weapons, etc.); the re-entrenchment of an American political oligarchy that despises common citizens, denies them political representation and consent, and that rules only for themselves and their clients; the introduction and full implementation of a social credit system that will punish political dissenters and religious “bigots” (Christians who don’t bow to the sexual orthodoxy) by denying them access to basic essentials and freedoms, while solidifying our elite’s hold on the remaining and dwindling American power and wealth; a full redivivus of pagan idolatry as a total replacement for Christian faith and cultural Christianity; a massive increase of digital existence, including the “Metaverse” and various forms of transhuman experimentation that will only increase our withdrawal from real life into a fake and isolated virtual phantasm; and finally, the end of the nation-state and the acceptance of global political governance that will masquerade as the only remedy for a world littered with insecurity, economic want, factional conflict, natural disasters, and death.
This is why we must make haste, and yet it is also why we must be guided by knowledge of what is and has been so that we can offer people a good and desirable alternative to the possibilities above. The purpose of this substack, then, is to begin to do both of these things: to teach a knowledge of political life as such, including man’s essentially religious existence and relation to God, and to strategize and articulate effective ways to recapture political power and influence that can save our country from perpetual cultural revolution and final collapse.