Mad Rant: We’ve Lost Our Papas

The whole world today, it started in the west, but it has reached over the whole world now, is suffering from a lack of fatherhood, in both the physical and the spiritual sense. We see the crime and debasement that is caused by the lack of fathers, by fatherless children, by struggling single mothers, which causes moral problems, economic problems, social problems and we also have a lack of father figures in national life and even in spiritual life. This is something fundamental to every people of every culture in the world and everywhere you look in the world you see the same problem. In our immediate surroundings we know who our fathers are (not everyone really does anymore but, you know what I mean); they are the ones who gave us life through our mothers who brought us into the world. On the national level our fathers are the monarchs, the hereditary rulers of their peoples who are bound to them by blood, belief, history and tradition. They can only occupy such a position by recognizing their position in relation to God or some greater supernatural moral authority (depending on particular religious beliefs). This is the biggest reason why a politician has never been and can never be a father to his people. His people are not really his people, they are means to his own end and nothing more.

We no longer recognize this though and where fathers do exist they are ignored or undermined or shackled so as to prevent them from fulfilling their spiritual duty. In the homes, where fathers are around, they are not respected, they are patronized, they are portrayed as brutes and fools, not to be obeyed or honored but to be tolerated and humored. In countries, the kings have been overthrown or bound and gagged. Even where monarchies have survived, most have become dominated by republican thinking. They ridicule their sovereigns and expect them to constantly do this or do that to justify their own existence, again, they are tolerated and made to know that if they are not perfectly docile everything they have will be taken from them and they will be cast out. Like a divorced father denied the right to see his children. We also see, where fatherhood remains, father figures being shackled by the burdensome restrictions and regulations of society. Government regulations, taxes, paperwork and a materialist outlook on life have all helped ensure that where well-meaning fathers exist they are swamped with demands on their time that prevents them from fulfilling their first and highest calling. On the national level too we see monarchs hemmed in by bureaucracy, polling numbers and invented precedents that keep them from doing as they think best.

The problem is just acute on the spiritual level. Every major religion has seen their primary father figures come under attack. In Islam the Caliph was brought down by World War I and the revolution in Turkey. Nothing has been the same since and, it must be said, many of the Muslim people acting out today in anger at the state of the world and their religion are the same people who helped bring down that last caliphate of the Ottoman Empire in the first place, though they may not want to admit it. In East Asia there is the example of the Dalai Lama, chased from his kingdom and forced into a life of exile. I know people have objected to some of what he has said and done during his decades of exile, even Tibetan Buddhists saying that what he teaches on this or that subject is incorrect. But what do you expect? The man has been cut off from his people, from his home and forced into artificial surroundings, to live and function in what is practically another world from the one he is intended to live and function in. Other peoples, mostly foreigners and mostly non-Buddhists, have been working for years to force him into the role they desire for him rather than the one he is supposed to have. In the west, the two most prominent father figures of Christianity have not gone untouched either.

In the east, the Ecumenical Patriarch has little more freedom than a prisoner. He is at the mercy of the Turkish state, officially a secular state, and has far less rights than his predecessors did under the Ottoman Sultan. The government recognizes him as nothing more than the spiritual leader of the Greek minority, which is tiny and shrinking, they have placed every restriction on him they can possibly get away with and he has been subject to every manner of harassment and even personal attacks. In the west, the Bishop of Rome is not subject to any secular power but he has been blocked and hindered by a bureaucratic complex of committees and commissions where there is a great deal of accumulated corruption, accumulated over such a long period of time and so entrenched that even for a man who is officially an absolute monarch it is extremely difficult to impossible to cut through and eradicate. It grew up so insidiously, for a long time most people there didn’t even realize it. Pope Paul began to realize it and John Paul II tried to ignore it and just speak to the people directly. He did that very well and the people loved him and responded to him but the effectiveness of this was blocked by the bureaucratic wall that not only prevented a lot of good but blocked cleaning up what was bad.

Even in the Church we see the republican mentality (as I call it) taking hold so that the wishes of the Pope are not carried out. This means the clergy, not just the laity, which is seen when bishops flagrantly disregard papal wishes and written directives. All of this is a result of the overall republican atmosphere most of the world exists in. No one can remain totally unaffected by the environment they were born into, grew up in and live their daily lives in and this republican atmosphere everyone is breathing has an affect on us. Everyone, certainly in America, has heard the phrase “deadbeat dads” tossed around by the media. There are plenty of them to be sure (though, do not be misled, there are deadbeat moms and deadbeat teenagers too) and we have to ask why this is. The ultimate responsibility, of course, belongs to the dad in question to do what the laws of God and man require of him. It is also true that, in this day and age, in this atmosphere, he is laboring with very little support and is it any wonder that so many decide to simply give up? They are all too often not appreciated, not respected, treated like a beast of burden with a bank account and then you have a great many people saying they are totally unnecessary anyway. If a single mom can raise children or two lesbians can raise children (with government assistance of course); is this not society saying that dad is not needed?

Similarly, those called to be ‘fathers of the fatherland’ are treated atrociously. I know, people see monarchs in their palaces and think they could not be treated better. But, in the same way they are ridiculed, mocked, seldom appreciated and discouraged from doing their duty. They too are often dismissed as being unnecessary, nothing more than a ceremonial figurehead to smile, wave and hand out medals. They are constantly forced to justify their own existence through charity (though charity in itself is a good thing) and by championing popular, though often pointless, causes. The problem is not that they do good, the problem is how people would react if they did not do these things. Would there not be immediate calls for their removal? As if the position of the monarch was in the gift of the people to give and take at their whim! This is not how a monarchy is supposed to work but royals, just like fathers of families and just like clerics, cannot be entirely unaffected by the environment they live their lives in. The result is that even when it comes to bills or treaties that threaten the lives of their people or their own sovereignty, they cannot help but think that their duty is to sign it because their function is to agree to anything that is set before them because leadership that is elected is always superior to leadership that is hereditary.

It is all a result of the revolutionary, republican mentality that has crept into every segment of society. It is this mentality that has made monarchs prisoners in their own homes, that has made “Christians” reject both the Bible and sacred tradition in favor of a new ‘modern morality’ and it has filtered down to make fatherhood itself a ridiculed, unappreciated and even “unnecessary” vocation in life. And it is this mentality which makes me … The Mad Monarchist.