Have just read it on Catholic Exchange. As usual, a great essay.
Love -'If babies are God's way of saying He thinks the world should continue, then contraception is man's way of saying it should end'.- how true.
Have just been reading Fr. John Laux's "Church History - A History of the Catholic Church to 1940."
Those early martyrs of the first 3 centuries certainly had the right focus.
Today , Secularism is the new Persecution, attempting to re-enliven Paganism and stamp out Christianity - the extreme fruit of the Reformation, methinks.
Our generation should be called generation "W"... for "whatever".
Mark is right, can people be stirred up to fight and die for "whatever"?
I pledge allegiance to... "whatever".
One Nation under... "whatever".
In "whatever" we trust.
God help us. A Catholic revival is the only hope for America.
Excellent article, Mark! I was thinking, "Lord, how he slams the moderns!" Which is exactly what I think when I read Chesterton's "Orthodoxy."
I think you are perhaps a spiritual son of Chesterton.
And Tim, Generation "W" - I love it!
Great essay, Mark!
Eastern Europe is looking better all the time.
Why couldn't I have lived during the reign of Constantine the Great instead of the reign of Constantine XI Paleologos.
Mark, this is great.
It reminds me of the following phrase that I say (to the irritation of my sons) when I accidently see the latest HOT mainstream news:
1) Paris Hilton/Lindsey Lohan/Britney Spears party photos
2) Fistfights and other violence over X-Boxes and Elmos.
3) Rosie O'Donnell engaging mouth before brain is in motion.
"This is why we deserve to be taken over by radical Muslims."
(Not that I want this to happen.)
Mark,
A depressingly accurate essay. I hate it when you're right about these things. You forgot the tagline, though: America is f**ked, because there is no way that a Catholic or even Christian revival will revitalize this country.
One thing about the "name" for 9-11. I wouldn't be too hard on America for not "naming" the day. Hell, I can't think of a name for it. And then again, the date actually seems to fit from a "logo" perspective, as people would draw 9-11 with the elevens shown as the Twin Towers. It seems to fit as a symbol of the things that were lost better than anything I can think of right now. God, I miss the Towers... If we win the war, maybe we can call it "Infidel day" where we all celebrate being infidels or something. I dunno.
Since we're probably going to lose anyway, it doesn't matter.
"If babies are God's way of saying he thinks the world should continue, then contraception is man's way of saying it should end."
One of those lines I wish I had thought of. I'm going to start using it all the time, both online and in conversation. I'll be sure and give you proper credit.
Broadly correct, Mark, but ironically your argument suffers from Boomer short-sightedness. It certainly appears that the disappearance of explicitly Christian values from "Western Values" in the past fifty years has sapped our will to fight. Then again, I don't take it as a given that explicitly Christian values had much to do with our will to fight before the 1960s.
I pause here to note that there is such a thing as "Western values," that much of it is positive, that it doesn't necessarily need scare quotes, and that not all of it consists of sneering at believers, sexualizing preteens, snorting coke off the blade of a knife, and giving a big thumbs-up to butt-sex. Perhaps it's my bias as an attorney, but I think our Anglo-American legal and political system, for example, is terrific. It certainly has been influenced by Christianity, but I classify it as "Western" rather than "Christian," as there are other legal systems that are compatable with Christianity. But sure, there's a lot of "western values" that are just horrid.
Americans(and the West generally) managed to sacrifice greatly in times of crisis without believing they were defending Christian values. I don't recall Christian values being a motivating factor in our willingness to fight in Korea or either of the world wars. If anything, what America defended was secular, and not much different from what's being defended today: Freedom, liberty, and democracy. Looking back further in our history, the motivations for fighing were even less Christian. What was Christian about the 19th century wars of expansion and imperialism? Even the American Revolution was mostly a tax revolt, with post-Christian deistic Enlightenment language tacked on.
I'm genuinely curious: was fighting to defend Jim Crow and the rights of robber barrons to deprive workers of just wages better or worse than fighting to defend the right of some singing tramp to whore it up on stage? Maybe "Western Values," whether of the 1780, 1840, 1910, or 2006 variety were never really worth defending. Would you shoulder arms to defend slavery? Maybe we've collectively wised up. But let's not create the myth of a Precious Moments(tm) time in the West's history when the whole enterprise was worth defending. It always had blemishes. I don't see today's as being particularly awful.
Given that you're writing a Jeremiad, you focus on Western/American vices to the exclusion of our virtues.
But aside from that, I think your take on 9/11 is mistaken. We do after all have the Fourth of July or just "The Fourth" and other countries recall Cinco de Maio or "the '98" or "the '45" so I don't see that giving the event a number instead of spelling out the words really matters. The attack was spread out in three places and the numerical designation recall the emergency number 911.
And of the top of your head. do you know what "the '98" and "the '45" refer to?
I don't see today's as being particularly awful.
In all of the previous times you mentioned, K, the Western culture that was sinning at least at some level believed in the concept of sin, at least had a moral code to violate. Even the Deists believed that much. Even the Roman pagans believed that much.
Only two historical comparisons come to mind, but it's too close to Christmas to have someone invoking Godwin's law.
Sandra Meisel:
Not to mention the "cultural hollowness" of the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia 76ers. Back in my day, we had the moral clarity to name our teams properly, dag-nabbit!
Those who complain about "9/11" should come up with a succint term of their own. And while they're at it, it would be awesome if they could explain what's so great about "Pearl Harbor Day." "Pearl Harbor" isn't an event. It's just a place where ships dock. How culturally hollow we are that we couldn't come up with something more descriptive than the place where Japan first attacked America! If "Pearl Harbor Day" is great, then "Manhattan-Arlington-Pennsylvania Day" is great, too.
Annony:
The West still has a concept of sin. Most of it is confused, but Michael Richards can tell you that the West still knows right and wrong sometimes. The principal sin, of course, is "intolerance." It's not one that I would put on the top of my list, but hey, I do think the west is on to something with the whole "racism is bad" thing.
I have seen the West starting to take a Kafkaesque turn in this area, though: one of the things that we're now supposed to tolerate is the intolerance of others. We have to respect in Muslim culture, for example, things that we would not tolerate for a second in Christian culture, even in a much milder form. But this is nothing new; it's the same Noble Savage stuff we've been dealing with for centuries.
I'm probably older than most of you here, having been born in the 30s. This society has *changed*. It is continuing to do so more rapidly. Judeo-Christian faiths are still alive, but technological and social change goes on, and accelerates.
Dig in and pray. This is what I wrote to Mark in an email:
I fear for us, not because I think that Islam is going to sweep through Western societies and convert everyone, but because of the changes in consciousness and form I see all around me - though I'm not particularly well-versed in contemporary culture. Perhaps that's why I can see those changes, because I'm standing off at a distance from them.
It's not only that many of us lose religious faith - faith can be regained. It's not only that community is being dissolved - what has been dissolved can be re-formed, though not without great difficulty, and in a changed shape. I think I can foresee the loss not of community - there are many conceivable types of community - or of faith - faith is perennial in human beings because it is reality based - but a loss of our humanity. I don't meant that in a symbolic way. I mean literally a loss of humanity. The technology for it begins to form and so does the ideology.
There are hopeful developments: The Net is one of them, or rather can be one of them, but information and communication technology has obviously not achieved anything like a mature structure.
Watch genetics and its attendant techniques. Watch social control and its methods and technologies. All it takes is a shock that crystallizes what is potential into the actual. The social and technological changes ongoing are shock enough. There may be more - an acceleration. A great struggle for the soul of this species is about to begin, or has already begun.
It should make any thoughtful person feel very small as an individual. I think we need to learn how to pray with a purpose, because divine help is the only thing that is going to be effective.
The West still has a concept of sin. Most of it is confused, but Michael Richards can tell you that the West still knows right and wrong sometimes. The principal sin, of course, is "intolerance." It's not one that I would put on the top of my list, but hey, I do think the west is on to something with the whole "racism is bad" thing.
If you can't see the difference between this society and all previous ones (with a couple of terrible, short-lived exceptions), I don't know what to tell you. The sin of "intolerance" is exactly the point - what they are calling a sin is the calling of anything else a sin. Talk to any random sampling of high schoolers.
There's a fundamental breakdown happening. It's not just the sixth commandment. It's lying. It's shoplifting. It's cheating on tests. It's dishonoring parents and elders. It's spitting on God. It's murdering babies and old people - and often enough classmates. All without a trace of a sense of sin. The "loss of a sense of sin" has been a theme for several recent popes. Look at the line for confession in your own parish - among Catholics who are supposed to know better.
I think our Anglo-American legal and political system, for example, is terrific.
K of C: I'm not a cynical guy as a rule, but having seen way more than I want of American divorce court, I am strongly revolted at that aspect of the American legal system.
The 98 is the Irish Rebellion/Rising of 1798.
The 45 is the 1745-6 Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland.
The 98...
"All along the singing river that black mass of men was seen,
High above their shining weapons flew their own beloved green,
Death to every foe and traitor! Whistle out the marching tune,
And hurrah, me boys, for freedom, 'tis the rising of the moon."
"The 45 is the 1745-6 Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland."
Commemorated in that great Monarch of Liqueurs, Drambuie.
9/11 is not a particularly evocative name, but I find understandable the difficulty in coming up with a better name.
All in one day! World Trade Tower I. Then World Trade Tower II. Then the Pentagon. Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. It seemed to those of us in the area that the whole mid-Atlantic was under attack.
My husband was driving me to Baltimore-Washington airport that morning, and we heard on the radio news that "a plane" had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. "What a shame!" I said to my husband, "I suppose the pilot was killed instantly - I hope no one else was hurt." We both assumed it was just a twin-engine that had lost its way!
"But the weather is clear," my husband said, squinting in puzzlement through the windshield at a clear, lovely, blue September sky. Surely Manhattan - just a few hundred miles to the north was enjoying the same fair conditions! Why should a pilot crash his plane into a building on a perfectly clear day?
We heard nothing more until we arrived at the airport, and pulled up to the curb to offload my luggage. The place seemed eerily quiet and empty. "Sir!" a nearby skycap called to my husband, "don't bother removing your items from the car. No planes flying today."
I thought the man had taken leave of his senses. "Why ever not?" I asked him.
"President shut down all the airports all across the country," he replied, "Someone crashed an airplane into the Pentagon."
"No, not the Pentagon." I confidently assured the man, "It was the World Trade Center they crashed into."
"I don't know nothing about no World Trade Center, ma'am. But the Pentagon is going up in flames. A lotta people dead. No planes flying outa here today."
My husband and I looked at each other in utter bafflement. We turned around and returned to our home, a suburb of Washington. When we got home, we watched the TV news coverage of the half-destroyed Pentagon, while I spoke on the telephone to my aunt in New York. "I'm watching it right across the river," she told me, "I can see the flames from both towers now." She later watched as the first tower collapsed.
9-11. What else do you call it?
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