There’s no doubt baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 are living in a very different world compared to what they experienced.
Australian society, as with others in the West, has undergone a radical change that makes the past look like a distant and foreign land.
Radical gender theory is now taught in schools where children are told to ignore their God-given biological sex and they can decide where they fit on the LGBTIQ+ fluidity spectrum.
A Christian school principal who argued otherwise was forced to resign while public figures defending the Bible cancelled.
Absolutist secularists argue Christian morals and beliefs must be banished from the public square and when deciding government policy and business organisations and government departments now enforce diversity guidelines calculated to deny the Bible’s teachings.
Materialism is all pervasive where what is right and proper is measured by its utilitarian value and science and technology are lauded for giving mankind the ability to create a utopia on this earth.
“Del Noce argues the old forms of totalitarianism and oppression represented by communism and fascism have been superseded by what he describes as ‘a new, more dangerous, and more radical form of totalitarianism’.”
Whereas pornography was once sold under the counter it is now awash on the internet, it’s common for primary school children to be involved in sexting and both The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald see nothing wrong in profiling a sex worker described as “one of Australia’s most successful porn stars”.
Whether neo-Marxist inspired gender theory, the ever increasing destructive nature of pornography and sexual exploitation, the widespread incidence of depression and self-harm or the denial of religious spirituality and transcendence there’s no doubt we are living in dark times.
The works of the Italian philosopher and cultural critic, Augusto De Noce, while not widely known in Australia, help to explain why we are living in what is described as a post-Christian age.
In his essay ‘The Shadow of Tomorrow’, published in The Crisis Of Modernity, Del Noce argues the old forms of totalitarianism and oppression represented by communism and fascism have been superseded by what he describes as “a new, more dangerous, and more radical form of totalitarianism”.
According to Del Noce, western societies like Australia are experiencing a form of totalitarianism made up of “scientism, eroticism, and secularisation” that “absolutely denies traditional morality and religion without sublimating any aspect”.
While not denying the beneficial nature of science, Del Noce criticises what he describes as “scientific dogmatism”, a form of science that sees itself as preeminent over all other forms of knowledge and that denies the existence of anything not able to be analysed, measured verified.
In addition to denying the significance of a spiritual view of life represented by Christianity Del Noce argues scientism promotes a technological view of society, one that imposes a pragmatic, utilitarian view of the world and that favours the centralisation of power instead of empowering family and local community.
How governments acted in response to the Covid-19 virus proves how politicians and health bureaucrats have succumbed to scientism and a technocratic view of the world devoid of compassion and sympathy.
Government panic and overreach leading to mandatory injections, lockdowns, curfews, border closures plus closing places of worship and denying inherent liberties and freedoms were all justified by referring to the ‘science’.
Illustrated by Wilhelm Reich’s book The Sexual Revolution and the sexual freedom epitomised by the late 1960s cultural revolution, including the birth control pill and the slogan “make love not war”, Del Noce argues Western societies have undergone a revolutionary change.
A situation where “the idea of indissoluble monogamous marriage and other ideas related to it (modesty, purity, continence)” have been negated and where “It does not make sense to speak of sexual perversions; on the contrary homosexual expressions, either masculine or feminine, should be regarded as the purest form of love”.
Pictures of the commonwealth members of parliament and visitors in the public gallery celebrating ecstatically after the same-sex marriage legislation was passed and the continued attacks on the nuclear family prove how prescient Del Noce was.
“The birth of Jesus, his teachings and his crucifixion and ascent to heaven tells us we are not forsaken and in God’s grace there is eternal peace and salvation.”
That absolutist secularism is rampant is illustrated by events in Victoria, where Andrew Thorburn was forced to resign as head of the Essendon football club, the anti-abortion MP Bernie Finn was expelled from the Liberal Party and a candidate for the recent election condemned for attending a Christian church.
With Christmas approaching many primary schools reject nativity scenes and Christmas carols celebrating the birth of baby Jesus.
Suburban streets and shop fronts are now emblazoned with decorations and images of Father Christmas and reindeer instead of the nativity scene.
There’s no doubt these are dark times, but not all is lost. The birth of Jesus, his teachings and his crucifixion and ascent to heaven tells us we are not forsaken and in God’s grace there is eternal peace and salvation.
A Christmas message that should never be ignored or forgotten.