WELCOME TO THE AGE OF CHAOS
It took a long time to die, but Authority has bit the dust. It's gone, buried, dead dead dead. The time has passed when anyone could command behavior or change attitudes merely because they said so. Now such efforts have to be backed by force and force is a poor substitute. It is all too easily defeated.
Oh, it took so long to die. It got sick in the 1500s when the Reformation triumphed with the guns of the English navy and the hopes of the Pope and the King of Spain died in the North Sea along with the crews of the Armada. Learned Doctors were called in but no amount of Scholastic logical bombast nor stamping of inquisitorial feetsies could heal it. As Jacob Bronowski put it so eloquently, "In the year that Galileo died, Sir Isaac Newton was born. And by the time he was through, it no longer mattered what the Pope thought about anything."
But it was only sick. But it got sicker and sicker and finally, those of us now in middle age remember the triumphant cry, "God is dead!" as it emerged from the lips of theologians in the mid 1960s. But even then no one cared any more what theologians thought. Academics tried to replace them, but they lacked the will to pursue the matter and were quickly reduced to court jesters, serving whatever funding mill they could latch onto.
The State tried to take over the role, but the State proved to be even more impotent than the Church had been, its laws broken, its rules ignored its vulnerabilities laid bare. And even now, in mysterious laboratories around the world, devices are being built to strip it of its last vestiges of power.
Authority is dead, buried in the ground, and those who try to lay claim to it can only hope to hold onto a rotting, useless corpse. Oh, there is still the Pope, a pitiful, creature speaking words that no one who matters listens to, denominational conventions issuing proclamations and statements that are fodder for ridicule, politicians making speeches that no one believes and so-called experts making pronouncements on just about everything, all of which are ignored.
But it does not matter. No one cares.
Welcome to the world where the only rule is there are no rules.
Welcome to a world where there is no truth, no right and no wrong.
Welcome to the world where the only desire that is wrong is the desire that is not fulfilled.
Welcome to the New Millennium.
Welcome to the Age of Chaos
It took a long time to die, but Authority has bit the dust. It's gone, buried, dead dead dead. The time has passed when anyone could command behavior or change attitudes merely because they said so. Now such efforts have to be backed by force and force is a poor substitute. It is all too easily defeated.
Oh, it took so long to die. It got sick in the 1500s when the Reformation triumphed with the guns of the English navy and the hopes of the Pope and the King of Spain died in the North Sea along with the crews of the Armada. Learned Doctors were called in but no amount of Scholastic logical bombast nor stamping of inquisitorial feetsies could heal it. As Jacob Bronowski put it so eloquently, "In the year that Galileo died, Sir Isaac Newton was born. And by the time he was through, it no longer mattered what the Pope thought about anything."
But it was only sick. But it got sicker and sicker and finally, those of us now in middle age remember the triumphant cry, "God is dead!" as it emerged from the lips of theologians in the mid 1960s. But even then no one cared any more what theologians thought. Academics tried to replace them, but they lacked the will to pursue the matter and were quickly reduced to court jesters, serving whatever funding mill they could latch onto.
The State tried to take over the role, but the State proved to be even more impotent than the Church had been, its laws broken, its rules ignored its vulnerabilities laid bare. And even now, in mysterious laboratories around the world, devices are being built to strip it of its last vestiges of power.
Authority is dead, buried in the ground, and those who try to lay claim to it can only hope to hold onto a rotting, useless corpse. Oh, there is still the Pope, a pitiful, creature speaking words that no one who matters listens to, denominational conventions issuing proclamations and statements that are fodder for ridicule, politicians making speeches that no one believes and so-called experts making pronouncements on just about everything, all of which are ignored.
But it does not matter. No one cares.
Welcome to the world where the only rule is there are no rules.
Welcome to a world where there is no truth, no right and no wrong.
Welcome to the world where the only desire that is wrong is the desire that is not fulfilled.
Welcome to the New Millennium.
Welcome to the Age of Chaos