Mad Rant: Respect for Authority

Well, it is 2013 and we’re all still here, I guess those Mayans didn’t have any inside information after all. I do have to marvel though at the number of people who make a fuss or at least seem interested in the end of the world when an ever growing number of these same people claim to be non-religious. Why is that? The “experts” say that it is because Christianity (the traditional faith of western civilization) needs to be more “relevant” and to stop being so harsh and rigid and dogmatic. Who exactly these harsh, rigid and dogmatic people are, I don’t know because if I did; I would be going to that church. Usually this seems to be aimed at the Catholic Church (and would the Orthodox as well if anyone ever bothered to pay them any attention) for refusing to have priestesses and sticking to total opposition to things like gay “marriage” and abortion. The problem with that, of course, is that plenty of Protestant churches have embraced these things and their numbers are just as bad and continue to go down rather than up. Even in many western countries today the fastest growing religion is Islam which (to their credit) is not exactly known for re-interpreting their rule book when fashionable and changing with the times. So, it seems pretty clear to me that while some people see no need for God in their lives, those who do want a Church that (gasp) really believes what it says and holds fast to what is right and condemns what is wrong because what is one can never be the other. Lay people and clerics alike, in my view, need to stop worrying about what others say about them and act like they mean it when it comes to faith.

One thing that is very popular to worry about is being called a hypocrite -no one likes that. Now, I don’t want anyone to think for an instant that I am advocating for everyone to become libertines, but everyone falls short, everyone makes mistakes and everyone will succumb to temptation some time or another -so stop worrying about it. That is no excuse to be timid. We are all sinners so just be sure to be a sinner who is bold in standing up for the cause of our salvation. Of course, I am probably not the right person to give advice on this subject, but this is just an opinion to take or leave as you choose, I cannot force my will on anyone (yet…) so do not be too alarmed. I tend to think that religion, and certainly Christianity in particular from where I’m sitting, has become way too ‘warm and fuzzy’ already. We just celebrated Christmas not long ago and who is the most visible symbol of Christmas? No, not the baby Jesus you silly, but Santa Claus, good old lovable St Nick who brings presents to all the good little girls and boys. Well, have you ever read anything about the actual, original St Nicholas? A kind and compassionate man to be sure, but also a guy who was definitely not always ‘warm and fuzzy’. The real St Nicholas was a zealous, fiery and sometimes short-tempered man who was not beyond putting a smack down on someone for the cause of God.

I see this sort of stuff all the time and maybe it only stands out to head cases like myself but it seems to have spread everywhere. Think about the angels. Everyone likes angels, right? We think of angels and we think of “Highway to Heaven” or “Touched by an Angel” or we picture chubby little naked babies with wings. Give me a break! Just take a look in your Bible and you will see that (some, not all) angels were pretty terrifying creatures. When we think of cherubs we think of, again, cute little naked babies with wings. That’s sweet and adorable and all that but the actual Biblical description of these angels is creatures with four heads, six wings, the body of a lion and hooves like an ox. That’s not “cute”, that’s good, old fashioned nightmare fodder right there! All of this stuff, in my view, makes a difference. It seems to me that “we” (as in Christendom -or what’s left of it) have tried so hard to make God and Jesus and the angels “nice guys” and sweet, lovable best friends that people think nothing of just letting religion slide. “I can do what I want,” they think, “because if God is such a nice guy, he wouldn’t hold anything against me, he’d understand”. Well, yeah, God understands everything but that doesn’t mean the Almighty won’t throw you into a lake of fire if you don’t take Him seriously.

And that’s about all you really have to do. I certainly don’t think God expects perfection, but He does want you on His team. Now, I try not to “preach” around here, and I realize I’m coming dangerously close to the line (if I haven’t crossed it already) but I am going somewhere with this that is relevant to the cause of kings and queens because we have seen the same sort of thing being done when it comes to secular authorities. Government itself does not seem to appear to most people as what it actually is or was originally intended to be. The power to rule has traditionally been something people regarded with respect and awe; sometimes even “fear and trembling”. Some rulers, from a pope to a czar, were even nicknamed “the Terrible” because they were such mighty and powerful figures (not because they terrified people as most assume). The point is that people used to have respect combined with a little bit of healthy fear for “the government”. Today, on the other hand, people look on the government all too often as simply a sugar-daddy. Believe it or not, for the vast majority of the thousands of years of human history no one ever expected the government to take care of them if they fell on hard times, lost their job or had an accident. That was your tough luck buddy. Today, however, the government is seen not so much as a source of authority as a source of social programs or, to put it another way, charity on threat of imprisonment.

This goes for many monarchies as well as republics. In the U.K. and Commonwealth realms, people think nothing of insulting, mocking or even seriously calling for the overthrow of the Queen. And saying that they do the same in the United States is no excuse because in the United States it is not the President who is supposed to be the source of all government authority and the foundation for the very existence of the state as in Great Britain. This is about a mentality, a mentality that (sadly in my view) many royals themselves go along with, just as many Christian leaders go along with portraying Jesus as some sort of hippie and Satan as a “social construct”. This mentality does not exist everywhere of course, but seems to be becoming more prevalent. Not only do these things not go on in the few remaining absolute monarchies of the world, but I could not imagine monarchs being mocked and ridiculed as they are in Europe pretty much anywhere in Asia. In Thailand, a very free and even libertine country in some ways, you can still get in pretty big trouble for speaking slightingly of the King. Whether such laws exist in Cambodia, Japan or Malaysia I do not know, but I could never imagine anyone ridiculing the reigning monarch no matter what the law says in the same way as is commonly done in other parts of the world.

The absurd part of this, as we have seen before, is that while our modern republican mentality has led to greater disrespect for authority and derision toward the government is has, likewise, led to less individual freedom, ever more powerful and prevalent governments and greater dependency on the state. A part of this is the fact that people have an unmatched ability for ignoring facts that are staring them right in the face and look upon the “gifts” they receive from the government as something they are taking from “the state” rather than from their fellow countrymen. And, in the case of most republics, most politicians in general, they are largely quite content to be mocked and ridiculed so long as they retain power and their life of luxury. They will even join in ridiculing their own profession if it will endear them to the public, keep them in office and thus living grandly on the backs of the taxpayers. “Politicians are liars and cheats,” says the politician, “but you can see by my saying that that I am different and not like the rest”. It seems laughably transparent but they say it because it works -they wouldn’t say it otherwise. People seem to enjoy being lied to. As long as I get what I want, I’ll keep reelecting the liars and cheats seems to be the mentality.

As anyone who knows me well can attest, there is very little, in my opinion, that anyone needs to know that cannot be learned by studying ancient Rome. Whether they know it or not, modern political leaders all over the world have learned and adopted the lesson about “bread and circuses” very well. Yet, despite their many problems, the ancient Romans, of both the republican and imperial eras, had a far greater respect for authority than we do today. Elections were sacred rituals, parliamentary rules were considered a religious matter and people, whether the tribune of the plebs or the Emperor of Rome were installed in office in sacred ceremonies. Today we cling ever more tightly to the forms of democracy while treating the whole process with contempt just as we condemn our politicians while continuing to reelect them to office time and time again. We despise them, but increasingly expect them to do everything for us just as we (or perhaps I should say “we”) mock religion, try to twist it, deny it and deny God but whenever disaster befalls us we expect God to help us or ask where He is or how He could have “allowed” this or that to happen. We want to have our cake and eat it too and, perhaps most importantly, we never want to admit that we just might have made a mistake. In fact, we seem to never even want to consider it. So, our societies become worse, our governments more corrupt and ineffective and our lives ever more empty while we still smile at the cameras and say we have “no regrets”.

It’s rather pitiful really. And it makes me a rather baffled, gloomy and … Mad Monarchist.