Our culture is attempting suicide

[Michie]

When I read the news headline it suddenly all seemed clear. The story reported that new positive Covid tests were attributed to “community spread.” Well of course! That’s how contagious diseases are contracted, right? They spread through the community.

But this is the first time, in our long history of fighting diseases, that we have sought to stop the spread of a contagious disease by abolishing the community.

The phenomena of social distancing, of wearing masks, of viewing every passing neighbor as a threat, of closing down shops and schools and churches—all these steps have been destructive to our communal life. But most Americans have been willing to accept the draconian terms of the lockdown, with our opinion-makers exhorting us to accommodate ourselves to a “new normal.” Why is that? I suggest that in the Western world today many people, especially among the elites, are quite willing to forfeit community life, while others are actively working to destroy it. We are witnessing—perhaps even unthinkingly participating in—the suicide of our culture.

Very early on in the course of this pandemic, Michael Pakaluk made the acute observation that the people most enthusiastic about the shutdown were, disproportionately, the same people who believe that mankind is ruining the ecosystem, that population control is an imperative, that our economic system is driven by greed, that the government is more reliable than the individual, and—above all—that staying alive and healthy is the greatest possible good. With those core beliefs already locked into their thought processes, they were quick to embrace the plan to shut down our economy, our schools and churches, our social lives. They were slow to notice the enormous social and economic costs of the shutdown, because to their way of thinking those costs could actually be benefits.

Continued below.
Our culture is attempting suicide

 

[Halbhh]

The virus has only killed about 1 out of 2,000 Americans so far.

And most Americans do not know 2,000 people personally (even those of us moderate social might know only 500 or 800).

So, most people don't personally know well anyone that has died.

And it's been months.

So....

It's not hard to imagine what people might start to think then -- they'll think: 'ah, it's not really that dangerous; it's not the Spanish flu, etc'.

Clearly we don't have millions dead like in the 'Spanish' flu.

Ironically, part of that is because we've done so much to slow the spread.

Personally though I am not avoiding people, and if I like to see their face, I step back to a distance, and then take off my mask if outside, and we can talk seeing faces, if we want to, such as from 6 to 8 feet or so away.

I wonder if many people think that they can't do that.

 

[Matt5]

"The question that remains is whether the Church, the People of God, will recognize the danger and mobilize before the active persecution begins and our culture is “cancelled.”"

The path is set. There is no going back. We're headed for that cliff over there.

The crisis we are in was predicted in the mid 90s by a book called The Fourth Turning. Basically, it says about the time the people from the last big crisis have mostly died out then the US becomes susceptible all over again. The options include revolution, civil war, depression and/or big war. When the dust settles a new country will emerge.

The crash cycle occurs about 60 to 80 years after the last one ended. That puts the next crisis period from around 2005 to 2025.