From where we are now, in The West, there is no point in hoping (or voting) for any significant change emanating from sensible people being sensible, or decent people behaving decently (even when, as is rare, such people exist in public life).
Sensible and decent people are of no use for this purpose - and neither are crazy, nasty people.
If, by chance, a sensible and decent person ended-up in a significant leadership position, they would not get us off the track to disaster - indeed they may well hasten it by disguising the metaphysical rottenness at the heart of things. Unless they both want to change and actually do change the fundamental, underlying metaphysical assumptions of the public world, then they will do no significant good towards saving The West from itself - because it is these assumptions which doom us.
There is no possibility of improvement by hints and nudges, by quips and satire, by rhetoric and spin; there is no possibility of imperceptible improvements creeping up unknown on the powers that be; the pendulum will neither stop nor will it swing in the other direction without everyone immediately being aware of a primal and cataclysmic metaphysical earthquake...
Everything will then change: what we focus upon, how it affects us, our interpretation, the implications we draw for action -- all we be overturned and remade.
This is a measure of what is necessary, and what indeed will happen, sooner or later - although not necessarily nor even probably in a Christian direction (unless we, en masse, choose that course).
I have found that actually a bit of metaphysical honesty seems to be refreshing to people and garners some respect. I have had a few religious or spiritual discussions with work colleagues recently that were interesting,seemed to be responding to an unmet social need amongst us as denizens of a normally PC and spiritually lifeless workplace. During these conversations I declared that I am a Christian and explained some of my basic beliefs about this: like that I believe we have souls, that God created the divine order of reality as a kind of spirit school for our growth and development and that love is the central unifying aspect of reality and that science cannot adequately explain many things including consciousness. It felt like I was really taking a risk to share something like this and I was half expecting to be shunned as a religious odd ball of some sort. But, and very pleasantly to my Surprise, many in the group responded with genuine interest and identification with the importance of such things. It turned out many already privately believed in no longer fashionable notions such as personal souls and life after death. One colleague even approached me again later and we had a refreshingly genuine 'heart to heart' conversation about spiritual things. I was left with a sense of hope and the feeling that a bit of courage to be more open about metaphysical assumptions and to challenge the current paradigm more boldly with other people in everyday life is in some way a step in the right direction. Perhaps this is partly an answer to my own questions of yesterday. A good night's sleep does wonders.
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