The Covid scare has taken even further the tendency for politicians, ideologues and interest groups of all stripes to politicise death. Already seen during tragedies and natural disasters, political actors rush to embrace crises, and they now even sometimes make them up. Death counts are now a part of daily political life, and the new currency of political debate. This is an unseemly development.
Yes Virginia, There is Still a Ruling Class - Or How the New Elites and the Modern Masses Deserve One Another in COVID World
Written by Paul Collits
The ruling class is real, and it dominates our culture. It is also embedded in the modern, intrusive, all-powerful state. The current COVID scare provides a perfect case study of the sources and consequences of our democratic dilemma. The people have seemingly handed over their sovereignty to the State, without noticing what this surrender means.
The current time is a crazy time of postmodern politics, where previous certainties and categories are no longer relevant. Trying to make sense of it all is an extreme challenge. But there are ways of understanding the new politics, and of explaining how it all came about. What hope there might be for a better future is less certain.
Many of us in lockdown, have been denied the comforts of the Sacraments for around two months. This shameful abuse of power by the State has been at great cost to souls. In both Australia and New Zealand, though, some true shepherds have emerged.
The recent public and legal focus on the George Pell case obscures many other, less publicly known cases of innocent Catholic priests being falsely accused of sex crimes. One relates to Fr John Fleming. His awful story needs to be told and the lessons from it learned.
We are asked to forgive our enemies, as core business of Christian life. How do we best forgive, in a culture of non forgiveness? Who and what should we forgive?
The COVID scare has hit us like a meteor, without warning and with great consequences for our freedoms and our rights. Is what the State says right? Is our way of life under threat? And does the State even know what it is doing?
