Barfield was a Christian; who understood the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ as an event of cosmic significance - the inflexion point of human (and divine) history.
He saw history as centred upon the divine destiny of enabling the increasingly divine nature of each person and of humankind in general - of both Men and Man.
And the centre of this divine destiny is the evolution of consciousness towards the god-like state of Final Participation - that is full consciousness of everything; which is a necessary prerequisite for becoming full Sons and Daughters of God.
Yet our divine destiny of Final Participation has been ignored, then rejected, by nearly all individuals and all the Western societies; and this is the cause of Barfield's prophecies negative coming true - indeed leading to a spiritual situation even worse than he articulated.
On the other hand; it is not too late. As individuals we may - by our irresistible free agency - choose to return to the path of destiny; and if enough individuals do this - then so will society at large.
More at the Owen Barfield Blog.
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I am considerably less pessimistic. I think while nearly all intellectuals and other aspirants to the more socially influential classes of society (globally, not just in the West) have now rejected their divine destiny, a good proportion of those who have contented themselves with a life of more humble and practical service do so with a conscious and justified hope of Eternity.
Human society requires leadership, not the most popular assertion with those who are coming to recognize how little faith we can or ought to have in the current leadership of our society. But it remains true, only about 1% of a functioning society should be engaged in the predominantly mental labor of planning and coordinating the labors of others, but that 1% is crucial to have a functioning society. We have chosen almost exactly the wrong 1% to follow, more precisely the masses have chosen not to accept the personal risk of following the right 1% rather than those which have usurped power.
But again, it is the calling of a minority of those who are not themselves leaders to choose leaders wisely and by that choice determine the balance of power in society. Not a small minority, in my view. But still a minority in any case. At the risk of being called a sexist, I assert that almost no women should be charged to enforce justice beyond self-defense. Nor should children, very young children should not even be encouraged to act in self-defense without adult guidance. Some non-trivial fraction of men also must be exempt due to mental or emotional incapacity. And I think there is merit to the suggestion that, in a functioning society, the intellectual class should recuse themselves from acting as judge, jury, and executioner as much as feasible.
A vast majority of those who currently claim leadership in our society are lost to Godly thoughts and works. A majority, but not in my view a vast one, of those naturally responsible to follow the just leadership in opposition to the usurpers fail to do so, mostly by failing to accept that they do have that special responsibility. Of the remainder I make no judgment. Not that I can somehow excuse them from the natural consequences of following bad leaders, but the responsibility does not rest entirely on them.
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