It is a righteous anger. And it is bigly.
Why, you might ask?
It is because, over a year into the COVID epidemic, there are, as if this were even possible, no more answers to our many questions than when the virus first struck. To shutdown or not to shutdown? To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? Is hydroxychloroquine efficacious or is it not? To mask or not to mask? All these questions have been polluted with the evils of politics and of personal gain. In this post-modern, post-truth, post-Christian world, where we consider ourselves so advanced as to cancel history and to be our own god, we have almost unrivalled incompetence and failure. Why is this?
The answer has, for some time, been entirely obvious to the editors of this blog. And never more clear than yesterday, the day of the nose swab (Note 1).
The Facts Of Life Are Conservative
The arc of a civilized society lies on a continuum between anchored Conservatism at one end (Note 2) and anarchy at the other. Decay is a feature, not a bug (see the Second Law of Thermodynamics). There is no standing still or holding your own. Unless opposed, the created order moves inevitably and inexorably from anchored Conservatism to the complete decay of anarchy.
Facts in evidence can be seen in every organized society in the free world and beyond: the failure of the institutions of self-government, of the academy, of the scientific and medical communities, of legacy and social media.
The Failure of The Body of Christ To Model and Teach Truth
The pride and ignorance of our fellow man is one thing. But here is what we are most angry about. At the root of the failure of western society, is the failure of the Church, the Body of Christ, to stand on the eternal rules of order and right embedded in Revealed Truth, and instead sacrifice on the altar of abortion, of same sex marriage, of welfare and government dependence, of trans-sexual ordination. Revealed Truth is designed to help us live together, and ultimately to save us from ourselves. The failure of the Church to remind us of this consistently and regularly is a failure bordering on evil.
The root cause is everywhere here on display: https://bit.ly/3kYMGgx What happens when you teach Truth? The body thrives. And then from one of the great institutions of the followers of The Way, The Roman Catholic Church, comes the politicized call: ” Off with his head.” The deathbed utterance of G. K. Chesterton calls out: “The issue is now quite clear. It is between light and darkness and every one must choose his side.”
We are righteously angry. But it might be too late. Let us, then, in suitable humility, prepare for the exile.
Note 1: We had our noses swabbed yesterday. And were confirmed to have COVID. We were very well prepared. We had a plan. And Thy will be done. But it is depressing, inexcusable, and unacceptable that there are fewer clear answers to the most basic questions related to the disease than when the virus first struck. The reason is entirely attributable to the politicization of everything. And to the Pinocchio Theorem: A lie to cover the last lie is by necessity larger and exponentially decaying. Did we mention that we are righteously and bigly angry?
Note 2: Anchored Conservatism: the rules of moral and physical order ordained by Heaven itself and embodied in Judeo Christian principles. There may be fewer more clear explanations of the failure to adhere to these facts of life than that of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court: “No human society, has ever been able to maintain both order and freedom, both cohesiveness and liberty apart from the moral precepts of the Christian religion… should our Republic ever forget this fundamental precept of governance… this great experiment will then be surely doomed.”