How Bad Is It Really?

 

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How Bad Is It Really?

Well the answer is pretty bad. The state of morality is bad. The state of civilisation is currently bad. The state of higher education is bad. The state of the collected wisdom of the leaders of the West is bad. The state of the average person’s understanding of what is right is bad. So, in many ways the state of our society is in bad shape. This cannot be denied. But there is an aspect of this in which I find encouragement. Micah the prophet helps me here. 

Note what Micah says in chapter 7 of his small prophetic book,

1 Woe is me! For I have become
    as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
    as when the grapes have been gleaned:
there is no cluster to eat,
    no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
2 The godly has perished from the earth,
    and there is no one upright among mankind;
they all lie in wait for blood,
    and each hunts the other with a net.
3 Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
    the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
    thus they weave it together.
4 The best of them is like a brier,
    the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
    now their confusion is at hand.
5 Put no trust in a neighbour;
    have no confidence in a friend;
guard the doors of your mouth
    from her who lies in your arms;
6 for the son treats the father with contempt,
    the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
    a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord;
    I will wait for the God of my salvation;
    my God will hear me.
8 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
    when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
    the Lord will be a light to me.
9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord
    because I have sinned against him,
until he pleads my cause
    and executes judgement for me.
He will bring me out to the light;
    I shall look upon his vindication.
10 Then my enemy will see,
    and shame will cover her who said to me,
    “Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will look upon her;
    now she will be trampled down
    like the mire of the streets.
11 A day for the building of your walls!
    In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
12 In that day they will come to you,
    from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
and from Egypt to the River,
    from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13 But the earth will be desolate
    because of its inhabitants,
    for the fruit of their deeds.
14 Shepherd your people with your staff,
    the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
    in the midst of a garden land;
let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
    as in the days of old.
15 As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
    I will show them marvellous things.
16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
    their ears shall be deaf;
17 they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
    like the crawling things of the earth;
they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
    they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,
    and they shall be in fear of you.

18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
    and passing over transgression
    for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger for ever,
    because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will again have compassion on us;
    he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
    into the depths of the sea.
20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob
    and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
    from the days of old.”

Micah is describing a nation, two nations really, that are in a sorry state of moral decay. They are declining. They are on their way down. They have probably hit close to moral rock bottom already.

The leaders are evil. The people are evil. Neighbours cannot be trusted. The great among them leads their people to evil. Family is turning upon family. Israel and Judah are in a wicked state, a terrible state. "Woe is me!" he says, because all around him is reasons for woe. 

But what encourages me about this is that we are reading this letter.

What do I mean?

I mean, that obviously Micah managed to pass on his stand for righteousness to someone else, someone of the next generation, who passed it on to someone else, who passed it on to others, who have brought it all the way down to us. In other words, though society got this bad, the righteous still made it through, and have not been destroyed from the face of the earth. Generation after generation have risen up to take the place of the Micah’s of this world. And those of us who stand for righteousness today are in his line. And be encouraged, because we will pass it on to another generation, and so will it continue until our Lord returns.

Goodness will be harassed, pilloried, attacked, maligned, persecuted, rejected and shunned. But it will march on, because it is supported and empowered by our great and good God, and activated in this world by imperfect but noble and trusting people who know their God is on their side and on the side of goodness. We who believe are in this line, and because of this we are on the winning team.

Trust in God, because he will prove himself faithful, “20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.” Do not give up your hope and faith in Jesus, because it is a sure hope, a stable and secure hope. When you are tempted to give up, just note that a man like Micah, against all odds, could successfully past his faith on, and so too can we. If we keep the hope alive, and praise God, many of us will. Be among that many. Continue to hope and trust in the Lord, no matter how the world looks. 

 

 

What Ended Western Civilisation?

 

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This question will be the task for future historians and archaeologists to answer. Of course our civilisation has not yet ended, and most people have no idea that a civilisation as old and as advanced as ours could end. But this is precisely what people in Italy would have thought about the Roman civilisation. This is what Macedonians in the time of Alexander the great would have believed of ancient Greece. This too is what Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians and others would have believed. Almost no one in the age of Cyrus the Great would have believed that the city Babylon itself would become a desolate waste land, in what is today a relatively poor country, rather than the centre of civilisation as it had been as long as anyone its peak era could remember. But these civilisations came to an end, and just as surely so too will ours.

So, what ended western civilisation, from the perspective of our future inquirer? Well, there are many candidates for the answer to this question? The fact that children are now castrated for gender ideology would be one. The fact that abortion and euthanasia of the old and sick (and sometimes well) have both become in the eyes of many healthcare, would be another strong candidate. The fact that the West decided it was ok to abort their own children and then import people from third world countries to pad up their population figures would also be at the top of this list. But there is another candidate as well.

This is a candidate that 50 years or so ago, most westerners could not have conceived as even possible to return and be one, but so it has. It is the idea of sacred ground. The theory of modernity was that humanity was rejecting the idea of the sacred and spiritual for the supremacy of the secular and tangible. The so-called “backward” ideology of Christianity was going to be rejected for the relentless pursuit of secular, atheistic and rationalistic human progress. This was the theory at least. The reality is that this secular utopia is crashing hard and fast, and in spectacular fashion, all around us.

For instance, this article from The Conversation titled, “Raw materials, or sacred beings? Lithium extraction puts two worldviews into tension”[i] which discusses the old pagan concept of rocks, mountains, lakes and the earth being living beings of a kind.

What is remarkable about this article is that it suggests we take this old pagan approach on board and apply it to our modern societies. The article notes,

“Similarly, highland groups recognize mountains not as a set of inert rocks, but as ancestral guardians called “Achachilas” in Aymara and “Apus” in Quechua. Each Andean community praises a nearby mountain whom they believe protects and oversees their lives.

In Uyuni, for example, where one of the two new lithium plants will be constructed, Indigenous communities acknowledge the presence of these sacred beings. To this day, worshipers in nearby Lipez region explain the salt flat’s origin with a traditional legend: It is the mother’s milk of their Apu, a female volcano named Tunupa.

However, religious concepts such as “sacred” or “divine” do not necessarily capture the relationships that Andean Indigenous people have long established with these more-than-human beings, who have been known since pre-colonial times as “huacas.” These entities are not considered “gods,” or thought of as dealing with otherworldly beliefs. Rather, they are treated as integral to people’s earthly everyday life…

…But in addition, perhaps other cultures could learn from Andean relations with nature as more-than-human beings: an inspiration to rethink development and turn our own way of living into something less destructive.”[ii]

It is incredible that someone would suggest this as a serious proposal in this day and age. But then again, maybe it is not incredible. Such is the state of the modern world; paganism is on the march again. Christianity was not dethroned to enable a secular utopia, in reality Christianity has been dethroned to create a vacuum and that vacuum is being filled by the ancient pagan ideas our society once rejected. This was not what was promised by the advocates of the modern era. But it is what was always inevitable. Christianity made modern scientific progress possible, its abandonment was always going to lead to the return of the old gods and spiritualities.

Imagine what is going to happen to the resource sector if a particular area (x1000 examples) cannot be dug up because of an ancient rock spirit, or river spirit, or mountain spirit. Life producing minerals will be left in the ground because they are underneath some supposed “sacred being” or “scared entity”. This animism or pantheism, or spiritualism, is rampant in the pagan worldview and will bring progress to a screeching halt. 

If you don’t see how the removal of Christianity has caused this, note what the article says,

“The Catholic Church and the Spanish Empire later used this medieval understanding of matter as something passive, without spirit, to justify the extraction of resources during colonial times. The closer things were to prime matter, their argument supposed, the more they needed human imprint and an external purpose to make them valuable.

This notion was also used by Christian colonizers who were intent on destroying traditions that they saw as idolatrous. In their eyes, reverence toward a mountain or the earth itself was worshiping a mere “thing,” a false god. The church and the empire believed it was critical to desacralize these more-than-human beings and treat them as mere resources.”[iii]

It was the Christian worldview which made the exploration and use of many of these resources and minerals possible. Without it, they would have remained objects of worship and reverence, or spiritual taboo, and would not have been unlocked to support our modern civilisation and technology. The writer of this piece frames this in a negative view, but without the extraction of such resources neither you or I would be able to live as we do. All forms of paganism fell under the sway of nature being sacred in some way, rather than nature existing to serve humanity, as the Bible teaches.

You cannot retain the idea that nature exists to serve humanity and reject Christianity at the same time, the two ideas are interlocked, they are based on the concept in Genesis that mankind was created to subject the earth, and that it is sinful to worship creation. The Christian worldview is necessary for both of these beliefs, and both of these beliefs are necessary for the kind of advanced civilisation we live in today.

Nature should be exploited in a sustainable and wise way, this is for sure. But saying it should not be exploited is wrong, and dys-civilisational. Such dys-civilisational policies are becoming increasingly common aren’t they? If they continue to be advanced and then instituted as practice, then they have the potential to make our entire way of life impossible, because whether you like it or not, our modern way of life is not possible without the ability to dig up earth and mountains, this is just a fact.

References

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[i] Mario Orospe Hernandez, 2023, “Raw materials, or sacred beings? Lithium extraction puts two worldviews into tension”, https://theconversation.com/amp/raw-materials-or-sacred-beings-lithium-extraction-puts-two-worldviews-into-tension-200047

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Ibid.

The Blessing of Feudalism

 

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Feudalism gets a short thrift often in modern discourse. It is particularly maligned by Hollywood and other aspects of the modern elite and intelligencia. And there are aspects of it that many moderns will not be fond of, of course.

But without feudalism the progress of the West towards advanced civilisation could not have happened. Indeed, without it, the West would be stuck in the same backwards state as many other parts of the world. As G.K. Chesterton explains, 

“By a process very much more indirect even than that of the Church, this decentralization and drift also worked against the slave-state of antiquity. The localism did indeed produce that choice of territorial chieftains which came to be called Feudalism, and of which we shall speak later. But the direct possession of man by man the same localism tended to destroy; though this negative influence upon it bears no kind of proportion to the positive influence of the Catholic Church. The later pagan slavery, like our own industrial labour which increasingly resembles it, was worked on a larger and larger scale; and it was at last too large to control. The bondman found the visible Lord more distant than the new invisible one. The slave became the serf; that is, he could be shut in, but not shut out. When once he belonged to the land, it could not be long before the land belonged to him. Even in the old and rather fictitious language of chattel slavery, there is here a difference. It is the difference between a man being a chair and a man being a house. Canute might call for his throne; but if he wanted his throne-room he must go and get it himself. Similarly, he could tell his slave to run, but he could only tell his serf to stay. Thus the two slow changes of the time both tended to transform the tool into a man. His status began to have roots; and whatever has roots will have rights.”[i]

Feudalism gave the west the decentralisation it needed to succeed, without which our society may have stagnated as did China. Without a centrally controlling bureaucracy the West was able to produce localized initiative across the breadth of the European people’s, which increased the ability for western people’s to succeed.

As we now face the potential collapse of the Imperial bureaucracy which rules the current western world, we should not forget that the legacy of the west was not just overcoming this, but turning such a situation into an ability to get ahead of the rest of the world. People scorn feudalism, but really we should be studying the originators of the feudal system in the late Roman Empire and the early medieval world and taking notes, because it may come in handy very soon. But even aside from that we should recognize how decentralization enabled the west to become anti-fragile. Where there was once one head, during the medieval era there became across the western world a hydra of localities, societies and kingdoms which were continually able to rise up and face the challenges which may have defeated their neighbours. Also, the ability for the state to oppress was severely hampered because of the lack of centralised control. This, and other blessings of feudalism are part of the remarkable success of the history of Europe. Too often we scorn what we should learn from instead.

 

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[i] A Short History of England (pp. 11-12). Kindle Edition.   

Better To Have Loved

 

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Have you ever heard the old saying, “Better to have loved and to have lost, than to have never loved at all.” This is as true a Proverb as any and I found it interesting how it is illustrated by this short account from the life of Solon in Plutarch’s Lives,

“On his visit to Thales at Miletus, Solon is said to have expressed astonishment that his host was wholly indifferent to marriage and the getting of children. At the time Thales made no answer, but a few days afterwards he contrived to have a stranger say that he was just arrived after a ten days' journey from Athens. When Solon asked what news there was at Athens, the man, who was under instructions what to say, answered: "None other than the funeral of a young man, who was followed to the grave by the whole city. For he was the son, as I was told, of an honoured citizen who excelled all others in virtue; he was not at the funeral of his son; they told me that he had been travelling abroad for a long time."

"O the miserable man!" said Solon; "pray, what was his name?"

"I heard the name," the man said, "but I cannot recall it; only there was great talk of his wisdom and justice."

Thus every answer heightened Solon's fears, and at last, in great distress of soul, he told his name to the stranger and asked him if it was Solon's son that was dead. The man said it was; whereupon Solon began to beat his head and to do and say everything else that betokens a transport of grief.

But Thales took him by the hand and said, with a smile, "This it is, O Solon, which keeps me from marriage and the getting of children; it overwhelms even thee, who art the most stout-hearted of men. But be not dismayed at this story, for it is not true." Such, at any rate, according to Hermippus, is the story of Pataecus, who used to boast that he had Aesop's soul.

However, it is irrational and ignoble to renounce the acquisition of what we want for fear of losing it; for on this principle a man cannot be gratified by the possession of wealth, or honour, or wisdom for fear he may be deprived of them. Indeed, even virtue, the most valuable and pleasing possession in the world, is often banished by sickness and drugs. And Thales himself, though unmarried, was nevertheless not wholly free from apprehension unless he also avoided having friends, or relations, or country. On the contrary, he had a son by his own adoption, as we are told: Cybisthus, his sister's son.

For the soul has in itself a capacity for affection and loves just as naturally as it perceives, understands, and remembers. It clothes itself in this capacity and attaches itself to those who are not akin to it, and just as if it were a house or an estate that lacks lawful heirs, this craving for affection is entered and occupied by alien and illegitimate children, or retainers, who, along with love for them, inspire anxiety and fear in their behalf. So that you will find men of a somewhat rugged nature who argue against marriage and the begetting of children, and then, when children of their servants or offspring of their concubines fall sick and die, these same men are racked with sorrow and lament abjectly. Some, too, at the death even of dogs and horses have been plunged into shameful and intolerable grief. But others have borne the loss of noble sons without terrible sorrow or unworthy conduct and have conformed the rest of their lives to the dictates of reason. For it is weakness, not kindness, that brings men into endless pains and terrors when they are not trained by reason to endure the assaults of fortune. Such men do not even enjoy what they long for when they get it, but are filled with continual pangs, tremors, and struggles by the fear of future loss. However, we must be fortified not by poverty against deprivation of worldly goods, nor by friendlessness against loss of friends, nor by childlessness against death of children, but by reason against all adversities. This, under present circumstances, is more than enough on this head.[i]

In other words, it is better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all, is what Plutarch is saying. Because the truth is that mankind is created to form attachments, this is inbuilt in our nature, and we cannot avoid it. So pursue the highest forms of love with fervour. 

A man who shuns wife and child, will find himself attached to his friends, or his pets. While it is just and good to have affection for your friends and your pets, these are no substitute for the joy that comes from a good wife and healthy children. To risk not having these things because you risk losing them is, as Plutarch says, not kindness, but weakness.

Just something to ponder.

Reference

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[i] Plutarch’s Lives. Volume One, The Life of Solon, Castalia Library, pp118-119.

Men Less Spiritual Than Women?

 

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Another paragraph from a book I am writing:

"Related to this is the weird view that women are generally more spiritual than men. But this is not, and really cannot be, true. Both men and women are created in the image of God, they both bear his stamp and this has great bearing on our spirituality. It may be true to say that some individuals are more spiritual than others, but not that men are less spiritual than women. Plus, remember in the scriptures and in the Christian worldview, physical work, physical labour, tilling the ground, working to produce, building, creating, writing, and all other forms of legitimate work are spiritual acts. Men are just geared to express their spirituality differently."

I have always found the idea that women are more spiritual than men a little odd and frankly a bit subversive. How could this be the case if God has placed spiritual headship in the home and in the church on the men[1]? It does not make sense and is another example of one of those commonly held but actually quite poisonous ideas. 

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[1] In the case of the church only some men.

Convenient, Isn’t It

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Isn’t it just so convenient that current cost of living issues help our society move towards certain climate agenda goals? You might think I am being too cynical with this observation, but various state and federal government policies are guaranteed to contribute to the cost of living increase, making it even harder for Australians to sustain their way of life[1]as reported by news.com.au,  

“Some Australians are being forced to make huge dietary changes as a result of soaring food costs that are impacting their purchasing power at the supermarket.

New data shows that “famously carnivorous” Australia is turning to vegetarian and plant-based options in order to bring down the cost of their weekly shop.

Around 37 per cent of surveyed consumers are already buying fewer meat products in an effort to save money, according to research conducted by Perspectus Global and the No Meat May campaign.

On top of that, 61 per cent are considering increasing their plant-based intake as the cost of living continues to rise.”

It is very likely this article is seeking to influence not just inform us about this trend towards eating less meat. But is it not a remarkable coincidence that the flow on effect of the Covid policies of the last few years is to make our way of life more and more unattainable?

Especially when you consider how certain current government policies are contributing to this financial attack on our way of life. Australia's policy on Ukraine is driving up energy cost, so are climate policies. The combination of rate rises with immigration rises is having the double impact of driving house prices and housing costs out of reach of the average Australian family. Interest rate rises make borrowing to buy a home harder, which itself would not be a negative, if immigration was not being used at the same time to float the economy and having the effect of pushing house prices up further. So more expensive homes and more expensive rates have the double effect of making it impossible for more and more Aussies to pay rent or pay their loans.

It is simple mathematics: more people competing for less homes drives up the cost of those homes. This is what we should expect to happen and it is what is happening.

This flows on to people’s ability to buy certain foods, drive their car, travel and do all sorts of things. Which then has a flow on effect of helping the climate goals of current elites be reached.

Awfully convenient.

The passivity of the population during the covid years has had many effects, one is that it has told those in power they can go much further in how they corral the population than they ever considered would be doable. The current cost of rents should have Aussies marching in the streets protesting and at least demanding reductions to immigration targets to ease the housing issue and more be done to curb houses falling into the hands of the wealthy. But Australians seem content to be made poorer and poorer. It is fascinating to watch.

References

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[1] Eli Green, 2023, “More Australians turning off meet as inflation rises”, https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/more-australians-turning-off-meat-as-inflation-rises/news-story/5ada620614aa6c5622bd01980677e54e

All Can Do Their Part

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A paragraph in a book I am writing:

"The reality is there are ways that anyone can do this in just basic day to day living. Not everyone plays the same role in the culture wars. We will come back to this later in the book, but for now recognize that following Jesus, reading his word, sharing the gospel, going to church, helping your church flourish, getting married, having kids, focusing on family over career, sports or other endeavours, are all things that anyone can do to help win the culture war against evil. Conversely the devil spends a fair proportion of his time trying to stop us from doing these basic things. Which shows just how vital they all are."