Richard M. Weaver, an immanent philosopher of the 20^th century, described the foundation of any culture as something he termed its “metaphysical dream”. He defined the metaphysical dream as “an intuitive feeling about the immanent nature of reality, …the sanction to which both ideas and beliefs are ultimately referred for verification.” Furthermore, he asserted that “Without the metaphysical dream it is impossible to think of men living harmoniously over an extent of time.” The metaphysical dream is to the philosophy of a culture what axioms are to geometry and logic, givens that must be accepted before any further examination can progress.

To my mind, it is obvious that the contemporary Western world is suffering from the lack of consensus on our “metaphysical dream”, our weltanschauung. The West is internally divided and in conflict with its own sense of identity. The growing economic prowess of the Orient and the cultural hostility of the Middle East threaten to supplant or destroy the West, but we cannot summon the collective moral authority to deal with these issues. The moral vigor which called forth such enterprises as the Crusades (questionable though their enactment might have been) eludes us at every turn. How are we to understand our global rivals (friendly or otherwise) if we cannot understand our own legacy? In my opinion, this malaise is due to the infirmity of our metaphysical dream. To be sure, it has not perished altogether. It has survived in the basic impulses of our people, but we have denied the authority of the sources which nourished these impulses, hence they are never firmly backed by principles. How are we to confront this illness? In answer, our society is ever more in need of bards.

What is a bard? Perhaps we can gain a better understanding of this by first looking at what a bard is not. In our modern world, the majority of creative matter (books, music, art) is produced solely for the purpose of mass entertainment. As it is a commercial product for the masses, such matter often appeals to the lowest common denominator. In reaction to this, those who aspire to a higher level of literary or artistic achievement practically abandon the common culture and form their own super-culture of literati, composing without regard for the masses at all. In this view, the accomplished artist functions separately from society and culture, congratulating himself on his self-imposed isolation from it. So far I have only identified what I see as problems of modern society, so now I will turn to what I see as part of the solution, at least in literary terms. We must revive the time-honored model of the bards, scops, and skalds of the old cultures of Western Europe. The bard was neither vulgar entertainer nor did he dwell in an ivory tower. He was an integral and special part of a community, he communed with kings and commoners, and most importantly, he was the one responsible for preserving and nourishing the community’s metaphysical vision. He it was who passed on the myths and legends of a culture, and the values that went along with them. He did not just recount ribald yarns, nor did he sit about merely moralizing. Instead, he was a living reminder of that society’s ideals of right, truth, and beauty. Through the grand old tales which went naturally along with the hearth and the feast he communicated and perpetuated the weltanschauung. He was the thread which maintained the continuity of the tapestry of life. Today, there is a need for artists who neither succumb to the lowest common denominator nor secede from society in lofty disdain. The artist’s goal should not be mere self-realization, but to nourish and sublimate those things which are best in a culture.

Now, with all this talk of the metaphysical dream and its necessity, one might understandably wonder just what is that guiding vision which the West must recover. That is really the subject for another paper entirely, but I will attempt to attain some measure of resolution. In the face of the threat of collectivist systems some have come to the conclusion that our goal is maximum individual autonomy, that is, spiritual and moral individualism. However, that would seem to negate the very concept of culture. The purpose of the metaphysical dream, according to Weaver, is to carry, “an evaluation, which is the bond of spiritual community.” I will not seek to define our vision here, but I will say where I think it is to be found. It was foreshadowed by the pagan Greek philosophers, but they lacked the moral authority to imbue it to the common man. It was only with the advent of Christianity that the West gained this authority, and only there will we find it again. Is this to say that we must return to the Middle Ages, with all its bloodshed and brutal intolerance? No, but now that we have thrown out the bathwater of brutality, it is time to recover the baby of wisdom and spiritual vision which we threw out along with it. We must always temper moral certainty with the ethical restraint of a civilized society, but we must not be in a continual flux of doubt as to the virtue of our values. Rather we should sift out the chaff without destroying the grain. Without a defined system of authoritative ethics, we enter an age of vast technological potential at our grave social peril.