Today is the memoria of St Pius X the great warrior against Modernism.
An interesting poll on Cramer's blog shows only 6% of people believe David Cameron is "in touch with the concerns of ordinary people". There are lies, damned lies and statistics, and polls are obviously rather imprecise gauges of public opinion.
Modern man is sceptical, he has been taught not to believe, he has been educated to discount other people's "orthodoxies", he is essentially a "relativist" it applies to religion, which for the non-religious is fine but actually this relativism applies across the board. One of the meanings of the word "religion" re-ligere is "to bind together", our scepticism breaks down the bonds that should bind us and our society together. One of the great problems with politicians today is that no one is really interested in what they have to say, apart from "equalities legislation" there is no big political idea today, governments today are voted "out" but never voted "in". Politicians are amongst the least trusted members of our society and the world of politics seems to have degenerated into a world of its own, apart from supplying us with soapbox scandals, it as unrelated to everyday life as the most obscure parts of obscure theology.
This Relativism is as really about a breakdown of trust, it is the social dimension of Modernism, it is part of a world view that says it is impossible to "believe in" or to trust any belief system, religious or political. It attacks every part of society that depends on trust from the family and friendship to banking. Pius X's attempts to curb those who denied that God could be trusted, that there is in objective Truth was the first prophetic attempt to defend us from a cancer which has taken hold of modern culture. We have moved from a world in which City bankers would rejoice in "My word is my bond" and where honour and integrity were expected to a world were lies and double dealing are expected.
The loss of trust within our society, since the time of Pius X has affected how we relate not to just to institutions but to one another.
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