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August 21, 2004
An age of contradictions .....
Is it not strange that at one and the same time we have a rising demand for fertility treatment as more and more young women find themselves unable to conceive naturally for a variety of reasons - and at the same time the NHS can conduct nearly 200,000 abortions, annually? It would seem to me that there is a really twisted-up 'logic' at work here, especially in light of the debate as to when a "life" actually starts! Our "enlightened age" seems to have its priorities well and truly tangled on this one as the "age of free love" occasioned by the advent of the "Pill" has been replaced by the "Age of free sex" supported by the "Morning-After Pill" and abortions.
This change in behaviour has seen a huge rise in infertility and in sexually transmitted diseases. We are now almost back to the problem of the late 19th and early 20th Century when venereal disease was endemic, and it was almost a rite of passage to contract syphilis!
The problems do not end there, either, as many women who have had a pregnancy terminated will testify, for they suffer huge problems with feelings of guilt, feelings of remorse, and depression. There is also a rising tide of destructive behaviour in which we see young women behaving in a far worse manner than the young men that used to be the cause of problems with drunken and riotous behaviour. The fine line between "having fun" and "vandalism" has been crossed, seemingly permanently.
This week a senior Coroner, sitting at an Inquest into the death of a teenager who died after taking a mixture of Ecstacy, Cannabis, and Amphetamines, stopped the proceedings on two occasions to correct witnesses who made reference to "Recreational" drugs. The Judge has now put it on record in his judgment that there is no such thing as a "recreational" drug. I wonder if Mr Blair and his chums will take any notice as they continue to go ever softer on drug abuse and the rising criminal behaviour that accompanies this? It seems to many of us that this is a society hell bent on self destruction - a society that is committing suicide!
Birth rates across the industrialised nations are falling; those in the poorer nations continue to rise. bringing with them the twin traps of poverty and famine. The wealthy and "compassionate" developed nations have spawned any number of "charitable" "Aid" agencies who rush to the rescue with food, tents, water purifiers, and the medicines necessary to pull these communities back from the natural mechanisms which have limited populations for centuries (if not millennia!) and so compound the problem into the future. Already desertification is increasing far more rapidly than can be blamed simply on climate change. The sheer weight of populations trying to wrest a living from limited water supplies, limited arable land stocks, and limited game stocks is now driving this change at an ever increasing rate. It won't be long before this hits the developed nations as well - you need look no further than the profligate extraction of water from the Snowy River in Australia, reducing it to a dry creek in its lower reaches, and the water "features" at the San Reno in the Nevada desert around the gambling haven there. All that water is extracted from a river which is now struggling to supply the dams and lakes downstream which supplied Los Angeles and other coastal cities. It simply can't continue!
Returning to the abortion question, there is another worrying statistic which needs to be considered, and here I know I am on very delicate ground! Alongside the rising infertility rate and the abortion rate, we also have the survival rate of increasing numbers of severely malformed infants who would not survive childbirth or post-natal incubation if it were not for the intervention of modern medicine. The rising number of whole body organ transplants is testimony to the nature of the problem, as is the rising number of food allergies. These are undoubtedly genetic malfunctions, but we do not know what is causing them or how to address the problem. Many argue that these deformities should be "celebrated" and the children encouraged to "celebrate their differences". That piece of poppycock invariably comes from those who do not themselves suffer from these defects! I have worked with children born with some of these "congenital" defects and while I would state that they are usually wonderful children - many immensely gifted - they themselves would much prefer to have been "normal". And I have wished many times that I could work the miracles that Christ did in healing bodies as well as souls! I hope I have helped those that I have been able to work with; my poor faith obviously could do no more.
So we have a society which on the one hand proclaims that it values this life above all else; on the other it permits the termination of a healthy foetus because it is merely inconvenient. We proclaim our "compassion" by rushing to deliver "aid" to the latest human "disaster" site, yet we make no effort to address the real problem which underlies it in these places, knowing full well that it will happen again in another few years. (Anyone notice how the cycle seems to be happening much more rapidly now than before?) We have a society that "celebrates" disability and yet encourages it by encouraging the abuse of alcohol, drugs, and our bodies. We encourage women to be independent, to be "hard", and to be "one of the lads", then we offer abortion or a life of dependency on state handouts and state housing when she finds herself alone with a baby, her hopes for a family, a career, or something better in ruins. Then we wonder why we have lost the art of "nurturing" children.
At the other end of the scale we drive young able women to compete with men in the workplace and on the career ladders, postponing the process of raising children until almost the end of their fertility cycle - then offer them fertility treatment!
Somewhere along this road we have lost the "moral" pathway. Morality doesn't necessarily mean living like a hermit or practicing celibacy or trying to behave as if we are not sexual animals. It means observing a whole set of natural rules which govern the regulation of order in society, of not tolerating wildly aberrant behaviour, and bringing the miscreant back into line. Of ensuring that while everyone has enough on which to live and to enjoy the pleasures of life and that they also have the opportunity to make a worthwhile contribution to society. It means being able to interact in a way which does not injure anyone else, of being able to value everyone and not place the "rights" of one above those of another. Sometimes it also means making tough decisions and NOT tolerating certain behaviours, if necessary administering a suitable "punishment" rather than a "slap on the wrist", of being prepared to defend what we believe in, of being prepared to admit that we cannot be God.
The society in which we live seems to be in its death throes. Morality has been highjacked to mean whatever is the current flavour of the month with the "Left Intelligentsia". They promote the principle that there is no God, but show their "tolerance" of those who persist in believing in one by promoting their concepts of "multi-faith" and other stunts. All the while insidiously promoting the idea that the human philosophic development of "morality" is superior to any religious revelation in any religion. The result is plain to see - we proclaim the "right" to life, but allow abortion, we proclaim the "right" to freedom while restricting it to those we deem "under privileged" or "disadvantaged". We render aid in vast quantities to countries being destroyed by population pressures and ignore the corruption and the real causes of these human tragedies. We rant and rave about the morality of genetic studies, cloning, and genetic engineering which could provide prevention of many cancers, prevent birth defects and many disabilities - and then proclaim that we must celebrate someone's disability, playing God while proclaiming that we cannot!
It is an age of contradictions, an age in which it is difficult to see a way through the twisted 'logic' and equally twisted 'morality' being promoted by the political classes. Let us hope that the internet and the opportunities it offers for the transfer of ideas (good and bad) and the transfer of real information, will help to break this spiral and save us from the "dark" age that invariably follows the collapse of any civilisation. Let us hope that it at least gets people thinking again!
We stand at the threshold of an exciting future, but it could equally be a frightening one if we allow the continued dominance of that twisted logic and morality that seems evident today. It is our choice, and ours alone.
Posted by The Gray Monk at August 21, 2004 04:31 PM