The Good Way

Even the casual observer can see that the world of late is not progressing in a manner that offers much hope. Some few, those who are diehard optimists, would disagree, I’m sure. Those who believe wholeheartedly in the goodness and limitless progress of humankind are among them. They would insist that, despite the dreary headlines, things have never been better. Such sentiments are nothing but wishful thinking, however, in my view.

Plenty of evidence points to the contrary fact that western civilization is in decline. In the not-too-distant future, whole societies that once held sway in the western world likely will cease to exist entirely, their borders compromised and their once common values overwhelmed and diluted to the point of irrelevancy. There are those who rejoice at such a prospect. I am not among them.

I do not embrace the New World Order, in which government is monolithic and centralized, borders become meaningless, whole populations are herded into 15-minute cities, private ownership is abolished and abhorred, artificial intelligence drives the economy and social structures, personal choice is limited, if not altogether eliminated, and human life and interaction is enhanced, endowed, and engineered by bio-mechanical techologies. Konvenience will end up killing us.

I do not welcome these things, despite the glowing promises of those who promote them. Such a future is grim, no matter where one might live. For those who dream of escaping it by traveling into space, life on Mars in a more hostile and dangerous environment most certainly will be no better than life on Earth. Wherever we go, there we are, as is often said. No doubt, the stakes will be much higher, though, in either place, when the consequences of dreams born of hubris become glaringly apparent, even to those who would not or could not see. It will be too late, however.

But it’s worse than all that, isn’t it? We now live in an age when good is called evil and evil is good. Our governments, once the supposed protector of the common good, now promote and even enforce the inversion. One might even call it perversion, were that term not so out of vogue these days. Millenia ago, though it might have been yesterday, Isaiah the prophet warned those who embrace such perversion. Woe to them. His warning stands.

If such is progress, then I do not want it. Call me backward. Though, if we are headed in the wrong direction, it can hardly be said that we are making progress. In fact, if we keep going along the same road, we’ll become lost, sooner or later. We all know it, deep down, in the sober places we dare not talk about at New Years’ Eve parties, don’t we? The only sane thing to do in such a situation is to turn around and regain our bearings, which happens to be the very definition of repentance, by the way. Go back to the crossroads and take the old road, the good way, whereon we might at last find rest for our weary souls.

The Good Way. These days, it is indeed the road less traveled. Will we take it?