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William Murphy's avatar

I am surprised that you do not mention some of the older school integralists. Many are still around and the influence of the deceased is still felt. An obvious example would be the late Michael Davies, though much of his writing was on other Catholic topics.

The long deceased Father Denis Fahey (+1954) may be making a minor comeback, mainly in his native Ireland. But the Internet can spread anyone's fame, though I suspect most people will now find Fahey's tomes nearly unreadable and further burdened with anti-Semitic tones. And there are other writers of Fahey's era who might be resurrected.

More recently we have Doctor Thomas Storck, with his 1998 Foundations of a Catholic Poitical Order and many other articles and essays. He is primarily a theorist on integralism. But even the theorists can't avoid strategy completely. They feel forced to come up with at least a few answers to practical questions and usually come seriously unstuck at that point.

Hence the appendix in "Foundations" describing the fictional country of Ruritania, an island way out in some ocean remote from any neighbours. Storck is very conscious of the corrupting influence of England on what used to be 90% Catholic Ireland. BBC TV could be picked up in parts of Eire long before Irish TV was created. But even after abolishing its own TV service, you can see that Ruritania's woes are just beginning. Abolishing fossil fuels and drastically rationing the hydro electricity supply come next, along with sacking and/or exiling subversive teachers. None of this is going to work.... Maybe if you tried integralism before the Greta Thunberg zealotry?? But that probably wouldn't save it.

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Tom's avatar

The "left integralists" were very much aligned with the others (strategist and theorist both) for several years after 2016. The break between the two camps happened in 2020.

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