Slouching Towards Something

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

-- William Butler Yeats

"When Yeats wrote that in 1919, he may have foreseen that the 20th century would experience the "blood-dimmed tide," as indeed it has. But he can hardly have had any conception of just how thoroughly things would fall apart as the center failed to hold in the last third of this century. He can hardly have foreseen that passionate intensity, uncoupled from morality, would shred the fabric of Western culture. The rough beast of decadence, a long time in gestation, having reached its maturity in the last three decades, now sends us slouching towards our new home, not Bethlehem but Gomorrah." -- From the book, Slouching Towards Gomorrah By Robert H. Bork

Over the past fifty-plus years, radical liberalism has changed the landscape of our nation. Some scholars place the birth of radical liberalism in Port Huron, Michigan, where in 1962 student activists led by Tom Hayden met and wrote the Port Huron Statement and formed the Students for a Democratic Society. It is interesting to note that in that same year the Supreme Court ruled against prayer in public schools. Since that time, this nation has witnessed a continual erosion of traditional American values.

According to William L. O'Neill in his book, "Coming Apart: An Informal History of America in the 1960s," SDS grew from 600 members in 1963 to more than 100,000 in 1968. For those who either don't remember or weren't born yet, Tom Hayden was married to Jane Fonda of anti-Vietnam War fame who flew to Hanoi, North Vietnam, during the war to show her support for the communists fighting against American troops in South Vietnam. By 1969, SDS had splintered in a hundred directions, but the radical influence did not disappear. What happened was that the cultural revolution of the '60s which eschewed material wealth led many of these now former students to pursue academic careers where they could influence future generations of American children entering college and living away from home for the first time. So, in other words, fuzzy thinking has become ingrained in American culture so that many of us can no longer think straight.

While traditional liberalism started out as a mostly good idea that encouraged the concepts of liberty and equality, the radical liberal mind has, over the past 50 years or so, morphed into something that old school liberals would never recognize, and most certainly never condone or agree with. Now we have, on the one hand, a severe egalitarianism where the promise of equal opportunity has been replaced by a guarantee of equal outcome; while on the other hand, a radical individualism is encouraged in areas such as sexuality, drugs, abortion and assisted suicide.

This creates a feeling of freedom, but really only allows for a strict conformity to proscribed radical liberal dogma. Hence, politically-correct speech is codified while free speech is severely restricted on some college campuses. Students are given safe rooms to flee to if they encounter something in the curricula or hear something from a speaker that makes them uncomfortable. At the same time, these same students speak forth the most intense hatred for anyone who disagrees with them or who would challenge their views. In some polls, students even favor restricting the first Amendment in favor of political correctness. The irony of free students arguing for restrictions on the right to free speech is lost on these doctrinaire folks. Those principles our forefathers fought and died for mean nothing to many who have been radicalized by the New Left.

In fact, the term, "forefathers" is now anathema on some campuses. So are the words, "Mom," "Dad," "Parent," "He," "She" and so forth. I have heard of sows eating their own pigs, but here we have the pigs eating their own mothers. Political correctness is an attack on society; it is an attack on the family; it is an attack on religion; and it is an attack on all that Americans have historically held dear.

Taking political correctness to absurd levels is one of the reasons Donald Trump has struck a chord with so many voters. People are tired of being beat down for expressing opinions that are contrary to the prevailing norm. Unfortunately, Mr. Trump has also introduced a level of vulgarity to the debate that more or less negates his efforts to curb political correctness. With him the nation is not headed in a better direction, only a different one. What we need is probably not to be found in politics, but in spiritual renewal and revival. But then that's just one person's opinion.

Sam Byrnes is a Gentry-area resident and weekly contributor to the Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Editorial on 03/09/2016