Troubled Times and What To Do About Them

It's an amusing irony that many people on the left currently think we live in terrible times because of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, quite failing to see that it is their excesses and zeal for destruction that have caused these things. On the other hand, people who might be interested in the themes of this blog also think we live in terrible times but for completely different reasons. They see that humanity has turned its back on spiritual truth and substituted for that a secular version. 

But this secular version, liberalism by another name, totally ignores the greater part of what a human being is and thereby distorts reality to fit in with its impoverished idea of it. The modern left conceives of life as existing on the horizontal plane only, the material level, and dismisses not only the primacy but the actual reality of the vertical or spiritual level. Even those amongst them who do admit a spiritual dimension to life subordinate that to the ideologies of liberalism, apparently not appreciating that these ideologies are derived from a materialistic conception of the human being, one in which what it appears to be outwardly in this physical world is what it really is. Instead of subjecting their naturalistic views to the overlordship of spirit, they do the very opposite.

This is the basic difference between the secular left and religious right and it is why there can be no rapprochement between the two. Their metaphysical assumptions are too wide apart. Indeed, they are contradictory. When two things are contradictory, one of them must be wrong and in this case, it is the one that bases itself on a false and limited view of life. That is the left. 

The left is constantly expanding the domain in which it claims rights, economic, social, cultural and now even human and what passes in their eyes for spiritual. But actually this is just the inevitable development and working out of the ground principles on which their ideology is based, that being secular humanism with its foundation in liberty and equality. That would be fine if secular humanism were something that fully reflected reality but it isn't. It denies the greater part of reality, reducing it to its outermost expression. The left is also blinded by the fact that it has done some good on a material level to the deeper truth that it is fundamentally harmful to the proper growth of the human being. We are here to develop spiritually. Whatever aids in that process is good. Whatever hinders it is evil. In most respects, the modern left hinders it because its priorities are wrong. For instance, the liberty it pursues ends up being liberty for the lower, fallen self while its enforcement of equality merely brings a suppression of quality and lowering of standards. 

Jesus told us to love our enemies but I don't believe he told us to treat them as friends. We must be careful not to take words of his spoken in a particular context and misapply them. He told us to love our enemies but he was also scathing about those who did the devil's business and he exposed them as such. Did he love the Pharisees? Probably he did, but he knew them for what they were too. His love for them as children of God did not mean that he held back from condemning them, and revealing their falseness as those who had perverted the light that was within them. If good tries to be accepting of evil through some misplaced sense of fairness and desire to be 'loving', it will be crushed and evil will triumph. That is why we must point out the evils of our day though do so without hatred of those we see as defiling human nature. The ideal of hate the sin, love the sinner is a hard one to live up to but if we keep our hearts open to the truth of God and know that, however it may seem at the moment, truth cannot ultimately be denied, then we are safeguarded from falling into the sins of pride and hatred ourselves. Perhaps if we understood that the liberal ideology that puts the desires of fallen human beings at the forefront of their programme cannot possibly win in the long run, we would be more able to confront their excesses and deviations without undue antagonism in our hearts. 

Everywhere in the world there appears to be increasing polarisation. At the moment, this is mostly on the political level but there are strong cultural elements too. History teaches us that this cannot end well. Most people who read this blog will presumably lean more towards the right but I would strongly suggest that you do not allow yourself to get too involved in the current ideological battles. Instead, try to focus on the spiritual. I realise that the spiritual must and should spill over into the worldly, but when it does always remember that the spiritual is primary and that the worldly, while important, will pass. Don't let your attention be brought down to the world of change and decay any more than is necessary for if you do you risk losing touch with higher truths and getting ensnared in earthly battles. Keep your heart and mind on eternity. Know that these times were anticipated and that the apparent triumph of anti-spiritual forces was predicted. But that triumph will not last. God has promised that those who hold fast to the true vision of reality will be rewarded. Given that promise, is it really worthwhile feeling antagonism to those who are eventually going to lose the game and maybe much more? They are erring souls. Don't let their errors lead you astray and cause you to lose focus on what really matters which is your own soul.