@Political Interest , thanks for your reply my friend. On my comment from Scripture about the special role of Physicians that is so timely today, you agreed, saying;
Thank you for sharing this. It is very important.
You also responded to my reiteration of the problems of modern Capitalism, to which you said something I really want to expand upon;
Hence why we need state socialism and why we should not view there to be a contradiction between conservatism and socialism.
I have noticed that many if not most people i've talked to outside the United States, and particularly from what we US Americans call the ''Old World'', have no problem making the statement you made here. I personally agree wholeheartedly with there being no ''contradiction between conservatism and socialism''. Would that make me a poor Marxist? Perhaps, but would it make me less in conformity with the reality of the situation? I have my doubts.
And are the errors of the Marxists central to their primary socio-economic claims themselves? The near-total Atheism of it's partisans (never clear to me anyway if that's truly the case, but certainly Anti-clerical/Anti-Theist) and the horrible crimes against Man and God committed?
On realistic expectations of a spiritual regeneration of the West, collectively speaking, you said;
If the very extreme faction of Islamists ever did threaten the West in a truly apparent existential way it is highly unlikely the West would restore its inner and spiritual qualities in time for their arrival. Most Westerners would probably be in complete denial that it is evening happening, much in the same way a lot of them have denied the existence of COVID-19. In other words we are completely unprepared to face threats of an existential nature. This could be said not only of extreme Islamists but also even possibly of the PRC, for example.
Or even maybe more fearful an outcome in my opinion, a false ''spiritual regeneration'' that succeeded in re-animating some of the West's original hubris and universal pretensions...
Which is why your next comment bothers me even as it also offers a glimmer of optimism;
Most people know there is a huge problem and that not all is right in the West at the moment. The problem is people can't identify why, they are at a loss as to what is going on. A lot of people don't want to engage in inrospection and a number are even scared of doing so. There is a great illness in Western civilisation today, we are in the middle of a civilisational crisis. The people are looking for answers, there is a tremendous awakening of thinking but no one really knows what to do. The solution would be a change in course and spiritual revival but yet very few people realise this for now.
Which is why it's dangerously easy to just fall back upon a more reactionary false solution to this existential crisis, and why wisdom is so sorely needed.
Very interesting.
Yes, I do happen to believe ever more strongly that ''Western Civilization'' began with the Greeks (and is thus really ''Hellenic Civilization''), and having conquered the conquering Romans, was submerged by Christianity from about 500 to 1500 AD. Only to be slowly reborn and ''blossom'' once more, increasingly more explicitly Anti-Christian and Anti-Monotheist than in the previous 20 centuries.
Thank you, sir.
And what you say about considering fellow man and making a positive difference while not surrendering beliefs and principles is all anyone can do.
Yes, even if it becomes harder, more intensely difficult to do, in my corner of the World.
On failures of leadership and clear vision, it's definite lack;
It most certainly isn't. This is leading to further stagnation and problems. The lack of fresh ideas and a refusal to do what it is designed to do will cause tremendous problems down the line.
A crisis, fortunately, often produces the people to deal with it, to solve problems. I think it's the Divine-Human Synergy at work.
As you say;
... it's not merely an act of will that draws us to heroes but rather forces beyond our control. This all speaks to the mystery of life and of man's fate in the world.
On the false ideologies being offered as options to modern man by the Elites;
Slavery sold as freedom. We can be certain that the growing leftism would be used as a tool and exploited by corporatists of this type. The far left and far right are fueling each other, as in the past.
I agree my friend. All the more reason to find sensible solutions that keep in mind the temporal common sense of the forefathers, the timeless eternal truths, and the future opportunities of a truly progressive worldview, interested in the common good.
When I mentioned my opinion on the polytheism being the ''default position'' of fallen natural mankind, you said;
Well especially within post-modernity there is this notion that non-monotheist belief systems are more amenable to personal freedom. There are people with a passing interest in Buddhism, and that's not a new trend. You've always had Westerners wanting an alternative to Christianity, but then they rarely adopt the Indian religions in their full orthodoxy, they often take on watered down versions. Little do a lot of these people know that the authentic expressions of these eastern confessions contain just as much dogma and stipulations upon their followers as Christianity or Islam.
Which would make a return to these traditions all the more deceptive in it's seduction, a right wing temptation which I've seen myself. Antichrist, I do not think will be a Western style liberal secularist.
Of the fall from grace of the spiritually proud;
It's disastrous and terrifying to think that people can be spiritually inclined and yet not assume the good. It would probably be better to be a non-thinking normal post-modern than be among the uniquely evil.
Indeed, it's one thing I try to ask God to help me be on guard against.
When I discussed the ''Declaration of the Rights of Man'', you replied;
Although most Westerners would agree with the fundamental principles laid out in this document the day to day functioning of Western democracies has taken its own course.
Liberty in the hands of people who know what they're doing is very good, but when it descends into intrigue and misrule by the misinformed, stupid and deliberately wicked it becomes dysfunctional.
While it is a good idea in theory it is cumbersome in practice. We also know very well the power of money can influence this political system very easily.
But because the people in the West have food and are for the most part generally comfortabe no one is bothered, they become essentially apolitical. However, this is slowly changing. The post war settlement that existed from 1945 to 2015 at its height is collapsing. The guarantee of stable incomes, housing and other essentials is slowly disappearing.
Yes, the experiment is over, only some refuse to accept that just yet. If they hate Trump, just imagine how appalled they will be in the not to distant future...
The Franco-American Western Revolution is still ongoing but near its end. It's now in its own stagnation period. We are essentially in what the Khruschev era was to the Soviet Union, and we will soon enter our equivalent of the Brezhnev era.
Nobody believes in the ideology, but some hang on to it and it's slogans and shibboleths because doing so still favors them and their allies personally. Political adventurers and ideologues of another sort threaten to upset the gravy train.
On the judgement that is befalling the collection of dolts and knaves, and their willful leaping into the Abyss;
They will do it because a lot of them are unpardonably thick.
Absolutely, all the while senselessly castigating those who do not.
On the tension between the politics of the spiritual and the earthly;
They are the affairs of men and the world but that is not to say our politics cannot be informed by spiritual realities, in fact they should be. However, religion should not be used for politics but rather as a reference for fundamental truth.
Yes, the ''Axis Mundi'' around which our lives should turn. I am reminded that in the prayers we still pray for Emperors and Patriarchs, even if there are no Emperors or Patriarchs, not because of the present temporal situation but because the way of life which is expressed by this sense of timelessness. Will there be a Tsar again? I do not know. What I do know however is that there is a Heavenly Tsar, and for my life I will render unto Him an Account on That Day.