It seems to me that many children of the baby boomers, like many boomers themselves, are determined to bend the culture toward their adolescent will. We have embraced a therapeutic deism as we recoil in horror at the idea of self-sacrifice. Self-expression, instead, is our salvation, even as the emptiness of being known for self is quietly understood in the back of our heads. We value self-governance, under the false assumption that a people self-governing cannot tyrannize itself. The breakdown of the social bond in family, neighborhood, parish, and locality contributes mightily to the void of boredom with the world and boredom with our empty selves, of which destructive self-expression in its temporarily good feeling finds an always unsatisfactory end in artificial deification. This makes humans susceptible to the callings of a community in which a general will, a collective consciousness, becomes a haven for those tormented by the misery of loneliness. What we need is the Triune God and its flesh and blood reflection: two parents together in a committed communion with children. The religion of self always leads to conflict, yet traditional morality and family structure, despite its massive anxiety and messiness, is a freedom of fulfilling and natural desire. The cultural sickness of these necessary structures is measured by the collapse of its intergenerational, communal, corporate character and its authority over succeeding generations. We must commit ourselves to our part in building this alliance, which is the very foundation of a good community.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In