But what isn't quite right about the world? Is it the one world government? The New World Order? Religion? Poverty? Aliens? The Illuminati? Trudeau? Conservativism? Liberalism? Progressivism? What is causing all the instability, the increasing chaos, the divisions within society, and the overall decline of western civilization? The rabbit hole is deep, and there are too many passages to explore in a single blog post, including many that are full of absurd claims. Yet, with so much going on around the world that is a rightful cause of consternation, I would argue that what is wrong with the world is actually quite simple and everyone can get involved in fixing it each in their own way - WITHOUT the use of revolution.
To understand what I mean we have to look at what a healthy society looks like compared to an unhealthy one. First of all, it all comes down to two things: the place of God and the role of the family. If the family is a traditional one supported by law, society, cultural norms, religion, and by virtuous people, all of which is directed towards God, the society will be a healthy one. If, however, it is the state that is supported by the family, society, cultural norms, religion, and by vicious people, all of which ignore God, the society will be unhealthy.
Why do I say this? (And I apologize, but I must take a bit of a circuitous route to explain what I mean.)
Religion. Religion comes from a Latin word religare which means "to bind." Religion is the glue that binds a society together. It binds a society with three things: an origin story, a way of living, and a final goal.
If people share a common origin, they will identify with one another. They will interpret the current problems of their life through the origin story by seeing how the state of affairs were before things went wrong, and what caused them to go awry. The origin story is the lens through which individuals are able to empathize with one another and view their own lives in common with one another.
The way of living includes morality, customs, roles, traditions, and philosophy that has arisen due to a shared history informed by a common origin story. Whether as revealed by God or informed by the origin story, or both, our current way of life is given a direction towards the final purpose of life.
What is the purpose of life? This is a very religious question and it is very often a return to paradise, a return to a state before it went wrong. It can even be an improvement to the way things were, but it always involves an undoing of what went wrong.
Don't believe me? Let's look at several religions to see if this is an accurate description of religion.
A second appropriate analogy is that the skeleton and tendons of the society are the religion and the people, to continue the analogy, are the cells of the muscles on the skeleton that move the societal organism, and the culture, art, architecture, etc. are the skin of the societal creature.
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re·li·gion
rəˈlijən/
noun
- the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.
"ideas about the relationship between science and religion"- a particular system of faith and worship.plural noun: religions
"the world's great religions" - a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.
"consumerism is the new religion"