There are signs that the social and intellectual world created by the Renaissance and extended by the Enlightenment – right wing and left wing – is nearing its own final days. This is marked by the crisis of the democratic nation-state. It faces these crises:
1. The bankruptcy of its welfare programs for the aged
2. Rising rates of violent crime
3. The failure in the United States of tax-funded education, K-12
4. The bankruptcy of the American empire
5. The loss of legitimacy of the democratic nation-state
6. The break-up of the European federation and euro
7. The failure of the United Nations Organization
8. The rapid extension of Islam in Western Europe
9. Falling white birthrates in the West: below replacement rate
10. The decline of historical knowledge among the West's elite
11. Loss of faith in the idea of progress
12. No replacements for the church and the nation-state
13. Boredom
Gary continues:
Chapter 9 of [Robert Nisbet's] book, Progress at Bay, discusses the evidence for the loss of faith in the West regarding the future. He writes:
Behind this spreading atmosphere of guilt and loss of meaning or purpose in the West and its heritage lies a constant erosion of faith in Western institutions; not just political but social, cultural, and religious institutions. Hardly a week passes without some fresh poll or survey indicating still greater loss of respect by Americans and Europeans for government, church, school, profession, industry, the media, and other once respected institutions – and, naturally, those who in one or other degree preside over or represent that these institutions (p. 332).
If there was a single source of this loss of faith it was Charles Darwin. His concept of unplanned biological change rested on his denial of any purpose in the universe prior to man.
The issue of progress is intimately tied to the idea of morality.
We cannot separate the doctrine of the idea of progress from morality, which in turn is established through faith in God, who provides both purpose and meaning for the universe.
The heart of Darwin's theory is that nature has no autonomous purpose... not structured to benefit man, and man must struggle against the forces of nature in order to retain his dominance in nature. There is nothing outside of man that gives support to man... that guarantees man's success in extending his rule over nature in history.
There is also no sovereign God who oversees the affairs of men, which has been the belief of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from the beginning. Man is cut off from any source of positive or negative sanctions in response to a transcendent system of morals.
If God is not dead, he is ebbing away, and has been since the early part of the century. We have, in Jonathan Swift's coruscating words, "just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love one another" – or, enough to make us see the flaws and cankers of the society around us but not enough to generate hope for the future.