The ineptitude of the political power
Following periods of absolute monarchy and republican fascism, the West is now becoming so used to democracy that it is taking it for granted, resulting in a general disinterest in politics. Like a runaway train without a conductor, Western countries are no longer masters of their own destinies, nor do they seem interested in reclaiming that role. On the one hand, it appears that they trust in their government too much, and on the other, they cannot be bothered with them because they believe the politicians do not actually rule on their behalf. In other words, the governing of the “Polis” (which means city in Greek) is no longer performed by the politicians.
In today’s world, the economy controls the politics, the markets control the economy, the finances control the markets, and the stock exchange controls the finances. The stock exchange is like a big Casino where money changes hands without ever producing wealth, each time concentrating into the hands of fewer and fewer individuals. This year of 2016, according to Oxfam International, 1% of this planet’s inhabitants possess more wealth than the remaining 99%; more precisely, this 1% owns 54% of the world’s wealth.
The public is somehow aware that some covert authority not easily identifiable is in fact in control and that the politicians are only puppets in the hands of the truly powerful who want to remain invisible, possibly because they fear for their own safety. As a result, the citizens have lost interest in electing their representatives because they know implicitly that whoever they elect will not be representing them but rather those CEOs and advisers of large multinational companies whom the people did not elect or know anything about.
The voter turnout for any given major election in the democratic West is in the range of fifty percent of eligible voters. In Portugal, the voter turnout was 46% in the last general election and 51% in the presidential election. It brings one to question the validity of these results when almost half, and in some cases more than half, of the eligible voters did not cast their votes. Before this political irresponsibility of so many citizens, would this not make a good case to make voting compulsory like in some countries? At least for a determined period of time as a teaching tool?
What was kept silent about the Bataclan
After having invoked and recited the Nicene Creed to the contrary: “I believe in one god the almighty Satan…”, at the very exact moment when the jihadists burst into the theater with machine guns, spraying bullets in all direction into the crowd, the American rock group the Eagles of Death Metal was in the middle of their performance singing a song pledging servitude and love to the devil. The fans were dancing and singing with the group, making the satanic ‘devil horns’ salute whom at the moment they were worshipping. The lyrics of the ‘song’ to the devil said: Who will love the devil? Who will sing his song? I’ll love the devil, I will kiss his tongue, I will kiss the devil on his tongue…
Despite the silence that political correctness imposed on this reality, some dared to observe the irony: they called upon the devil and he appeared. This is not, however, our interpretation because on that fateful night the terrorists’ targets were not only the Bataclan but also outside of Stade de France, the country’s national sports stadium, and in cafes and restaurants at random. Not all, therefore, were devil worshippers; many were there only to watch a soccer game or to have dinner with family and friends. No one deserved to die, not even the so-called devil worshippers if that was what they were and were not there just to have some fun.
There is absolutely no possible rationale that anyone can come up with to justify the actions of those Islamic terrorists. What makes me wonder, however, is why the young people at Bataclan and so many others have traded their rationally reasonable and plausible faith in the existence of God, and its revelation in Jesus of Nazareth - unquestionably the most perfect example of what it is to be human - for the superstitious belief of the devil’s existence, the personification of evil, violence, war and anarchy.
Like a reckless and rebellious infant, the Western world is biting the hand that feeds it. From any unbiased historian’s standpoint, it is undeniable that the Church, or Christianity, was and still is the “Mater et Magistra”, mother and teacher, of the Western culture. For all that the society tries to deny it, the values that the world calls civic values are the “copy and paste” of the Gospels. There was, however, not a single mention of the Church, or of Christianity, in the European Constitution drafted by the ex-President of France, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing – did he do this out of ignorance or was it on purpose?
One piece of evidence which shows that the Church still influences the Western culture appears in the Principle of Subsidiarity which became the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and one of the principles of the European Union which was formally enshrined by the Maastricht Treaty in Article 5. The Subsidiarity Principle did not derive from politics but from the social doctrine of the Church, which appeared for the first time in the encyclical Quadragesimo Anno of Pope Pius XI in 1931.
Starting with France, then Europe and the rest of the Western World, the society is in decline because being surrounded by luxury, and living in abundance of pleasure and pure worldliness, it has lost its faith, the guiding star, the ideals of Christian humanism, the reason to live… going forward one can only expect the worst, as the saying goes, “To whoever does not know where to navigate, there are no favourable winds."
Here come the barbarians – with a new age of darkness
The evidence, unfortunately, is that the West is not even remotely interested in mounting a defense of its values in the face of Muslim fanaticism. Worse still, there are signs that the West is even prepared to sacrifice some of its core values in order to appease those who have always despised these values. – Lee Harris
In the 8th century when the Muslims invaded Europe, and what was left of the Roman Empire of the East Byzantium, they destroyed and took control of the holy places and prevented Christians from visiting them. The West had a strong moral at the time: inspired by the ideals of chivalry, the nobles were truly “noble”, and were ready to give their lives for values greater than their own existence. The Crusades were primarily a movement of legitimate defense of Christian ideals.
“Enough is enough”, we have overly apologised for what some of these knights did and are even trying to hide the very concept of the Crusade behind a taboo because the Crusade has been deemed to be not politically correct. There is no denying that there were some abuses of power and self-indulgences committed by the Crusaders which are not morally justifiable; however, the problem with political correctness is that by swinging in favor of the Islamic world, we only get to see the flaws of the Crusaders while concealing their virtues. The politically correct people forget that if it was not for the Crusaders at that time, today they themselves would be prostrating five times a day while facing Mecca at the call to prayer of the muezzin atop the minaret.
The grey matter of the West has abandoned humanism, that is, the philosophical and ethical thinking, and is completely self-absorbed in science and technology. Without ideals, the Western Civilization suffers from AIDS… in other words, from a cultural immunodeficiency syndrome which makes it an easy prey to Muslim fanatics, who even manage to recruit our own young people those who were both born and brought up in the West. Why are these youngsters so easily deceived by the negative ideals of fanaticism? The answer is quite simple, it is because they grew up in a world devoid of ideals. Worse than having negative ideals is not having any ideals at all. The West has forgotten that “having a good life” from the materialistic point of view is not enough. Humans, especially the young, need to know what to live for.
The teenage phase of personal growth is a time to dream of a better world; the young are naturally and instinctively idealistic. If the Western society of Christian origin, even if it disclaims it, no longer offers nor educates its youth in the ideals of Christian humanism, they will end up seeking some counterfeit ideals elsewhere. In fact, far too many of them are now running away from the so-called values and ideals of secularism that the Western society offers them to opt for the sort of fanaticism that the Islamic State are imposing instead.
The Islamic terrorism that has plagued the West in recent times is not the work of Muslims who come from abroad, but of our own young people who were born in our countries, grew up in our neighborhoods, and went to school and were formed in our universities, but they do not belong to us because they do not share our ideals.
No one gives up their life for the so-called “secular values”
The so-called secular values do not aspire the same motivating form of action and behaviour that religious values do, simply because no one gives their life for them. One evidence of this is seen by the choice of the cover of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on the first anniversary of the massacre of some of its cartoonists, the January 6, 2016 issue.
On this cover, God is portrayed as an old man carrying a machine gun with blood on his hands and clothes. The special feature of this representation of God is that behind his head, with long hair and white beard, is a triangle that we all know as being the hallmark of the triune God of the Christian faith.
This portrayal of God is a cowardly criticism of the Muslim religious violence. The publishers of this magazine, who reserve for themselves the right to insult, throw the stone and then cowardly hide their hands behind their backs. They knew that they had nothing to fear from the Christians because we turn the other cheek. So it was easy and safe for them to use and abuse the “Christian God” in order to criticize the “Muslim God” and his followers.
It is very much like that employee who receives a slap on the face from his boss but unable to strike back for fear of losing his job, he slaps his wife when he gets home, and the latter slaps the oldest child in retaliation, who then slaps his younger sibling, who then slaps the dog or the cat.
When making the innocent God of the Christians as the scapegoat for the Muslim violence, the publishers of Charlie Hebdo made, inadvertently and ironically, a profession of faith in Him who indeed without guilt died for the sins of others -- Jesus of Nazareth. To Him they should thank for having helped them psychologically by absorbing innocently their rage that should have been directed at those who caused it, the Muslim fanatics.
Why is it that the nihilists, the atheists, the agnostics and those who live without God in pure worldliness, unlike the Christians, are not willing to give their lives for their ideologies and ethical values? The answer is simple. No one gives their life in exchange for nothing; Christians give their transient life for eternal life, while the nihilists as they have nothing with which to exchange it for cling selfishly and desperately to the only thing they have, a temporal life.
If these same groups were threatened with death to convert to Islam, as it was and is still happening to many Christians right now especially in the Middle East, it is likely they would convert in order to save their skins because it would be most unusual and almost ridiculous that they would exchange their life for the “nothing” in which they believe. In fact, to this day I have not heard of any martyr of atheism, agnosticism or nihilism.
This is precisely because no one is ready to give up their life for secular or nihilistic values, as it was proven by the cover of Charlie Hebdo magazine on January 6, 2016. Unlike when we stopped the invaders at Poitiers in the 8th century, this time we are hopelessly defenseless. Just like the Roman Empire was at the mercy of the barbarians in the 5th century… so are we now at the mercy of the new Huns, Vandals, Vikings and Visigoths, that is, the Muslim Fundamentalists.
Who will stop them this time at Poitiers if they are already within us like a Trojan horse and keep on advancing? Can we expect another landing in Normandy if America at that given time still remains Christian?
Reveling in false security, the West is so proud of its military might. For as long as the guns do not shoot on their own, the army continues to be primarily made up of young people who are becoming fewer and fewer in number in a West that is getting dangerously and progressively older.
The better solution to this problem was presented by the one who is presently perhaps the most influential politician in the world after the president of the United States, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the daughter of a pastor who said in response to the people regarding the potential Islamisation of Europe that instead of giving credit to conspiracy theories they should return to the Church and read the Bible like they used to.
The West should pay attention
All we wanted to say is that there are certain factors within the Western world that may cause its own collapse:
- Moral degradation, lack of moral values and ideals to inspire and engage the young people
- Lack of interest in politics as shown by electoral abstention
- Low birth rates
- Fragmentation of family
- Extreme individualism, lack of sense of community and the common good
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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