Ok, so the metaphor is badly mixed ... but there are two phrases that keep occurring to me these days with regard to the Western socio-political economy:
- "The jig is up", and
- "The King is dead, long live the King"
So, I've mixed them together as an expression of where we are:
- The jig is indeed up. Over a hundred years of Secular Progressivism, built on a foundation of Marx, Freud, and Darwin, has established Government as God. After fits and starts in the early 1900's that were interrupted by the Great Depression and a couple of World Wars, the 60's marked a dramatic and radical shift. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" is the first commandment of such a Government, which under the current U.S. administration has merely acted on what had become a settled understanding in the 1960's ... namely that Government has a monopoly on being the Protector, Provider, and Controller of every public and private organization, and of every individual.
- This Progressive triumph, however, has generated severe social and economic cracks across the West. The riots in the UK are the most recent indicator. A UK rabbi named Jonathon Sacks wrote a Wall Street Journal opinion piece ("Reversing the Decay of London Undone") last week that sums up the situation well. Here's one excerpt; entire article highly recommended:
"He quotes a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, tasked with finding out what gave the West its dominance. He said: At first we thought it was your guns. Then we thought it was your political system, democracy. Then we said it was your economic system, capitalism. But for the last 20 years, we have known that it was your religion."
- The economic cracks, which are largely the result of the social cracks, are just as ugly. One of the better reports in this area is by the well-known venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and is entitled "USA Inc. - Where We Are, How We Got Here, What May Be Next". These folks are looking strictly at the numbers, and are probably inclined toward the secular progressive end of the political spectrum. But, the facts speak for themselves. The jig is up.
- Although Government as God may be in its death throes, there is no clear god to replace it. So, we may just muddle along with a diminished god, an increasing gap between those with social and economic capital (the two cannot be separated in the long run) and those without it, and increasing chaos among those without it. My suspicion is that we'll eventually choose one of two paths:
- A government that abandons all pretense of being God, and settles for pragmatic oppression of everyone it sees as threatening public order. This is what government looks like in most times and places, but it would be a new experience for the United States, and would require abandoning any pretense of a rule of law under the Constitution.
- A critical mass of Americans return to a pervasive and bold assertion of the truth claims of the Bible, grounded first and foremost in the good news of the cross of Jesus Christ. As a result, the third Great Revival breaks out in the U.S., and the political, cultural, and social regime of Progressive Secularism comes to an end after 100+ years.
I guess you can tell that I'm a bit on the pessimistic end of the spectrum ... even though the jig is up, it seems likely to carry on in a muddled and muted form.
