From Huter der Irminsul

“For the good of the German people”—these words should be more than just a formula in an oath. They stand for responsibility, for duty, and for the promise to serve humanity and protect it from harm.

The ancients believed that an oath was sacred. Not because ink on paper made it significant, but because a person’s word determined their worth. An oath was a bond, an honor, and a responsibility. Whoever broke it lost more than trust—they lost a part of their dignity.

And today?

Perhaps the most dangerous development is not anger. Not conflict. Not differing opinions. The greatest danger begins where people stop believing that words still carry weight. Where promises are made, but no one expects them to be kept. Where trust slowly dies—not loudly, but day by day.

Justice does not mean that the powerful can do as they please while the people silently bear the consequences. Responsibility does not end with an election, and an oath does not end with the spoken sentence.

A people has the right to ask questions. A people has the right to criticize. And a people has the right to demand accountability.

For whoever makes a promise must be held accountable. Words without deeds are merely shadows—and shadows do not build a future.

And woe to him who breaks his oath.

The ancients said:

“A sword can be reforged. A house can be rebuilt. But a broken word leaves a crack that even time does not always heal.”

Perhaps therein lies a message that still holds true today: A people does not live on walls, wealth, or power. It lives on trust. And when words lose their value, something begins to break that no gold or strength in the world can replace.

My Reaction to Huter

We no longer live in a high trust society. There are many reasons; differing religions, races, cultures, ideologies. But one of the most glaring is the failure of those in authority to keep their word. Elected officials are required to swear an oath of allegiance to the Constitution. Once elected, they routinely violate that oath. Election promises become mere blather to trick the voter with no intention of ever being kept (I’m talking to you, Donald J. Trump as well as the rest).

And woe to him who breaks his oath? Not today. We fail to hold anyone accountable for their violations and lies. Until we do, all of us will continue to suffer and they will continue to gain power and riches.

We must return to The Old Ways, to Folkishness. We begin by withdrawing our support for and obedience to such people. We begin by keeping our own words and speaking truth. It’s a start.

Trust is something inherently personal; it is produced in families and neighbourhoods, as well as cultic communities. It results from kinship, or else from shared work and shared hardship. The nation draws upon this social capital, but it does not produce it by itself.

We should think of social capital like any other capital—as a resource which must be replenished. Nationalism depends on a reservoir of trust produced by lower forms of life. If nationalism dissolves those lower forms, it drains the reservoir from which it draws its own strength.