Don't Let the Pendulum Hit You on the Way Back

 

It is clear the world is descending into chaos. No truth, no morality, no beauty. Nevertheless, I remain optimistic. 

Not because of any faith in God. Why would God save us from our folly, any more than he saved Sodom and Gomorrah? How can we assume we’re the good guys?

Because of faith in history. 

We have seen cultures go mad in the past, and things did straighten out. They might not if there were some near outsider culture to take over; but I don’t see one on the horizon. The whole world is going mad together. 

The Romantic period, paired with the French Revolution, similarly threw out morality, any sense of abiding reality, and just about any tradition they could get by the throat. Yet it stabilized into the long optimistic peace of the Victorian Era. 

Then there was another time of tumult in the Edwardian period, aka the Jazz age, with art nouveau, then dada, women trying to look like men, Josephine Baker dancing nude, an “eat, drink, and be merry” doomed gaiety. But that settled down into the grim and culturally conservative thirties, forties, and fifties—except for the weird tumorous growth of Nazism and Fascism in parts of Europe, at once a violation of all cultural norms, of notions of truth and morality, and yet imposing social conformity and a rigid code of conduct. But Nazism too was self-limiting.

Back further, the Elizabethan Age in England was riotous; with the ancient verities of Catholicism challenged. Then the Puritans descended and shut things down. 

Then the Restoration was riotous again.

The pendulum swings. 

We can see it swinging already, and some people, like Bud Light, are getting caught out. More will.

My fear now is that it may swing too far the other way. We may get another hybrid tumor like the Nazis; or the Puritans; in reaction and revulsion. 

How safe is it that so much money and power and trust is becoming concentrated in the hands of one man, Elon Musk? He has the money to defy everyone. He has his hands on all the latest technology and technology trends. He may soon be in total control of the public square, if everyone migrates to X. He seems to be a good man; but he is a man. It is well to remember Lord Acton’s axiom. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Or can we really trust Donald Trump? He says good things, and we naturally want to support him in the face of obvious persecution. But how deep is his commitment to anything but power? What is he in this for?

It is dangerous to put so much of our hopes and our trust on one man.

Let’s keep our heads, if we can.