I'd like to return ...

... my trial subscription of 'Interesting Times'.

Image by me

I am watching the goings-on of the Catholic Church in general, and the recent antics of the German branch over the last several years, with some concern.

While I am neither Catholic, nor even Christian, geo-politically speaking religion is one of the main social stabilizers.

Religion is, for better or worse, what a society will turn to when things are in upheaval — when the citizens cannot trust their leaders, cannot trust their information, and have lost faith in The System as a whole — religion is what keeps people civilized. It provides a map for pulling Order from Chaos.

For various definitions of civilized; and certain values of order, of course.

Like it or not the Catholic Church is the face of Christianity in much of the world. When people start listing the major religions, the Church of Peter is one of the 800-pound gorillas.

Currently the world is in an upheaval. People no longer trust their governments or politicians. People no longer trust the media. And while I realize that the world being in upheaval is — statistically speaking — the norm, this feels more intense.

The overreaction of the world's governments to the pandemic has set in motion a state of flux which will be studied for centuries.

Demagogues eager to drive social change — and recklessly seizing upon the media-driven panic to do so — are setting in motion chaos the likes of which bookend major empires in history.

Government eager to seize and hold power unprecedented in the human timeline are fueling distrust in their populations; and every effort of those same governments to consolidate and maintain their grip causes mistrust to build in speed and depth.

Politicians who can see the crash coming are busily pretending everything is ok, while they grab as much money from the taxpayers as they can stuff into their nest-eggs — and driving those same taxpayers to a level of cynicism and antipathy towards government not seen since before a couple of world wars.

In the midst of all this, that which should be a rock to people; that which should provide one example of trust and faith; that which should provide guidance to the confused, temperance to the hotheaded, and respite to the frightened ...

... is busily driving schisms amongst its own children, changing its mind every four hours, creating angst amongst the majority of its followers at the behest of the minority; and generally throwing a spanner into its own workings.

The Catholic Church could have picked a better time, a more stable period, to go schizophrenic.

Sigh.

Time to lay in more ammunition. Really hoped I had left this monkey-dance behind.

Ian