Introduction
The Seventh Crisis: Why Millennials Must Re-Establish Ordered Liberty is a very, very interesting book. Written by two of the main figures behind the Tea Party, Bob MacGuffie and Antony Stark, it’s a combination of viewing history through a cyclical lens, an examination of why modern American politics have gone so wrong and are headed in a bad direction, and what younger generations should do to preserve liberty.
As a disclosure, a free copy was sent to me by an interested reader that wanted me to review the book, but that will not affect my review of it.
So, without further ado, here’s my take on what The Seventh Crisis is about and why you should read it!
Summary of The Seventh Crisis by Bob MacGuffie and Antony Stark
The central premise of The Seventh Crisis is that history is cyclical. More specifically, it’s that history can be divided into different cycles and that those cycles and our reaction to them are driven forward by the generation or generations coming of age during the pivotal events of the crisis.
The authors posit that the current national crisis America is experiencing, one of incompetent, corrupt governance and a drifting creep toward socialism is the seventh one that the Anglosphere has experienced since Columbus’s arrival in the New World (hence the title) and that the way to overcome this current political, cultural, economic, and philosophical crisis is for Americans coming of age right now, especially the Millennials and Gen Z, to recover the concept of ordered liberty.
First, in the introduction, MacGuffie and Stark elaborate on both their cyclical view of history and what ordered liberty is. In their view, ordered liberty is how Enlightenment thinkers and their intellectual heirs, men such as Locke, Adam Smith, Burke, and Thomas Jefferson, conceived of liberty; it’s the idea that individual is above the collective and that the individual and the state, composed of individuals, should embrace Judeo-Christian values, capitalism, decentralized power, and republicanism over democracy.
Their concept of liberty is not one of “unlimited license without responsibility,” but rather liberty combined with rational use of tools, including a limited government, to restrain excesses and preserve the rights of all; it’s liberty with responsibility. Additionally, in the introduction, they elaborate on the four generational phases and how historical cycles can be used to view our current place in history.
The first main chapter is about the seventh crisis as they see it, a conception highly related to the ideas in The Fourth Turning. They see our current crisis as stemming from the advent of the New Left, critical theory, and political correctness in the 60s. The values of those horrid people and the rise of the importance of central banking, in the view of the authors, eventually led to both cultural clashes and economic problems, such as quantitative easing and a massively expanding national debt, that can only be solved with Ordered Liberty.
Along with the rise of economic deceit and critical theory, America has suffered because of an anti-American educational system and a media that constantly pushes progressive theory. Combined, all of those problems have led to a decline in patriotism, which the authors take pains to separate from nationalism. They conclude that the seventh crisis can only be overcome by fighting the culture war as a total war. There’s much more in this chapter, especially about Boomers and the dangers of social media, but those are the main points.
From there, the authors explain how the current, establishment duopoly of Democrats and corporate Republicans formed and how it’s leading America on a path to destruction. They show how that duopoly is a self-focused elite concerned with maintaining its own power rather than preserving the rights and liberties of the American people; establishment RINOs and the Democrat Pary both work to strengthen the central government and preserve the power of Big Business.
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They discuss TR and the liberal fascists that followed him, the history of both the Republican Party and Democrat Party, and show how the duopoly has meant that liberal advances in the culture war have almost never been rolled back when Republicans regain power. Eisenhower didn’t do away with the New Deal, after all.
However, there are some forces working in a way that benefits conservatives. Conservative journalism and writing, beginning with Buckley’s National Review and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, has inspired real conservatives and liberty-lovers to fight the duopoly. With Goldwater, real conservatives started rising to national prominence and, gradually, the RINO-types were kicked out. Romney and Cheney types still exist and hold some power, but far less than they used to.
With Reagan, then Gingrich, then Trump, conservatives have gradually taken the Republican Party away from RINOs. In the second half of chapter two of The Seventh Crisis, the authors show why those developments were important and how the fight between the conservative base and RINO establishment, a fight the base largely won, has created an opening for Ordered Liberty; whereas the RINOs wouldn’t, the new right will support the concept.
Out of that movement rose the Tea Party, which the authors describe as “the tip of the spear of the modern Liberty Movement.” They briefly give its history and describe what it stood for.
From there, the authors of The Seventh Crisis go into how the Deep State has fought back against the rise of real conservatives. The IRS attacked the Tea Party. Bureaucrats administer soft tyranny. Agencies like the Bureau of Land Management harass honest, hard-working Americans like the Bundies. Meanwhile, the radical left has completely captured academia and leftist NGOs, funded by the likes of George Soros, attack the roots of Western Civilization.
After showing what leftists in and close to the government are doing to attack liberty-lovers, the authors show what leftists outside of government are doing to attack real conservatives. From the failed “Occupy Wall St.” movement rose the likes of Antifa, BLM, and other violent street groups that behave in a fascistic manner to push their message and silent dissent.
Next, after describing all of the fighters, from the real conservatives to the Antifa goons, the authors describe the “fault lines” of engagement in the culture war as part of the Seventh Crisis. The left’s constantly pushed agenda has put America in a state of being a cold civil war and fault lines have developed between the leftist powers that be and the vast majority of real Americans. Justice is no longer blind, elites prosper while heartland Americans suffer, the media constantly lies in a way that helps the left, young Americans are sent to fight and die in pointless wars pushed by the bipartisan warmongers, and the few are generally detached from us unwashed masses of “deplorables.”
The authors perceive the endgame of all that as being a socialist dyspotia where the “great reset” has reached its conclusion. People won’t have real relationships, abortion will be pushed, most Americans own almost nothing, and dissent is ruthlessly punished by a social credit-like system. They show that bleak future by crafting a short, heart-wrenching story about what life might be like in such a dystopian future. Embracing a recent book, they call such a future “neo-feudalist.”
Once finished describing the horrible future the left wants, The Seventh Crisis goes into what the way forward is. We must have God and Ordered Liberty. Morality must reign in the excesses, anarchy, and chaos that would stem from unlimited freedom. This chapter finally ties back to the aforementioned cyclical view of history; we are, according to the authors, at the point where we need heroes and warriors willing to stand up and fight for Ordered Liberty to overcome the dangers posed by the Seventh Crisis.
Finally, The Seventh Crisis covers the battle terrain in the years ahead. The authors show what we must stand for, what we must protect, and what we must never allow to happen, along with what false narratives the left will likely push and how they will push them. Most importantly, this chapter focuses on why we must go on the offensive in the culture war rather than stay on the defensive.
My Take on The Seventh Crisis by Bob MacGuffie and Antony Stark
Overall, I thought The Seventh Crisis was excellent. Before going into what I saw as the best parts of it, I have three small gripes to discuss. They’re small issues, but ones you need to read about and are things that the authors might want to keep in mind if they produce another edition or a new book.
What Could Be Improved Upon:
First, I’ll confess that I was a bit weirded out by the cyclical view of history that they presented when I first started the book. It’s not that I thought it was wrong or that they’re pushing any sort of weird, new-age concept. the cyclical view of history they mention is one that has existed for quite a while now. Instead, I was just unfamiliar with the concept and confused as to how they would relate it to the culture war battle. However, after the introduction and first chapter, I felt much more comfortable with the concept and saw why it was an excellent lens through which to view the culture war and America’s present situation.
Because of the concept’s primacy to the book, little could have been done to mitigate that. All I can say is that if you find the concept odd and might not get or read the book because you think it’s weird or dumb, try to have an open mind. It makes sense once you read it.
Secondly, I wish that more book references were included in The Seventh Crisis. A few are, to be sure, and the authors cite a plethora of helpful articles that prove their point. However, I like checking the references of non-fiction books to find other, similar books to read and was disappointed that more books like The Seventh Crisis were not cited. That’s not because I didn’t believe the authors claims or thought that they were plagiarizing; I did believe them and didn’t at all think that. Rather, I greatly enjoyed the book and would have liked to read more books like it. A more robust citations section would have been beneficial for that reason.
Finally, my third gripe is that I found the brief section on the difference between patriotism and nationalism to be unnecessary. That fight is one that leftists will always refuse to honestly engage in; no matter what we say or how we differentiate, they will always attack nationalism in an unfair light.
I don’t see much of a point in letting their unfair criticism of it define our struggle or stop us from using the term if applicable. I’m a nationalist and proud to be one. The fact that a blue-haired chick freaks out more when I say that than if I were to call myself a patriot is irrelevant. Who cares if lefties or the establishment RINOS get offended?
Most of the new right people that will be interested in The Seventh Crisis are nationalists; they believe in the importance and primacy of this nation, its borders, and its people. We’re better than the rest and must defend what we have.
But that’s a minor, minor point. The authors never even say that nationalism is a bad thing and the section is no more than a few paragraphs. I just took issue with the way they discussed the topic.
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The Many Good Aspects:
In any case, the rest of The Seventh Crisis is excellent. Their history of how the duopoly of RINOs and Democrats formed and how it has destroyed the country is superb, as is their discussion of how true conservatives rose against the RINO elite and gradually made the Republican party their own.
Also, their depiction of what the fight will look like and what proponents of Ordered Liberty must do in the coming years is one of the best depictions of what the culture war should look like that I have read. If you want to learn how to fight the culture war, I highly, highly suggest that you read it and learn from it.
Plus, the way they show exactly how the left is fighting conservatives is highly relevant and useful. The IRS targeting the Tea Party, Obama sending feds to target Gibson Guitars, the owner of which was a conservative donor, and Antifa thugs attacking conservatives are events about which we must learn because they will likely only grow more common. To know how to defeat the enemy’s tactics, we must first learn about what those tactics are. MacGuffie and Stark will teach you in The Seventh Crisis.
Finally, I think that the focus of the authors on the idea of Ordered Liberty is the best possible choice they could have made for the book. Conservatives often spend too much time quibbling over small details: specific tax rates, exactly when we should intervene in foreign affairs, the morality of drug legalization, etc. Those issues are all important, to be sure, but they’re not crucial. They’re small points to debate later, not the roots of western civilization that must be defended at all costs.
Liberty, specifically ordered liberty, however, is. Without being free to do what we ought, Americans are nothing. If we’re controlled by the government and unable to live as our conscience commands, America as we know it will be gone forever.
For that reason, Ordered Liberty is absolutely what we should be focusing on. The authors’ description of what it is and how it can be fought for and preserved is commendable and just what young people need to read.
Conclusion
If you’re a conservative, you must read The Seventh Crisis and recommend it to everyone you know. Liberty must be fought for and preserved. We can’t give in to the radical left. This terrific book will give you the history lesson you need and then show you how to fight and what to fight for. Read it ASAP!
By: Gen Z Conservative. Follow me on Parler, Gab, and Facebook
