Shortly after taking office, British foreign secretary David Lammy described the “nature crisis” as a greater threat than terrorism because the nature crisis is “more fundamental,” “systemic,” “pervasive,” and “accelerating toward us at pace.” The Rt. Hon. Member for Tottenham was right. He just had the wrong “nature” in mind.
For the fundamental, systemic, pervasive, and accelerating crisis of the West is a crisis of human nature: a crisis in our understanding of the human person, not an environmental crisis. The human nature crisis is at the root of virtually every deep division in Western societies. Unresolved, it could lead to the dissolution of the free societies of the twenty-first century.
Thus Vice President Kamala Harris is also wrong when she says repeatedly that “there’s more that unites us than divides us.”
At one level, of course, that’s true, thankfully. The enduring decency of the American character has rarely been displayed so powerfully as it was (and is) in the massive, full-spectrum response of their neighbors to those whose lives, homes, and businesses were destroyed when Hurricane Helene ripped through western North Carolina last month. Those responding neighbors were Asheville-area wokesters, Appalachian MAGA-types, and just about everything in between. Suddenly and instinctively, none of that difference made any difference: there were people, fellow Americans, in serious distress, and it was morally incumbent upon everyone to pitch in and help. I don’t recall so moving a display of solidarity-the-virtue since 9/11.
Yet that inspiring interlude cannot and should not mask the fact that we are a deeply divided country and that the divisions are expressions of the human nature crisis.
There are some among us–and they often occupy the cultural high ground–who insist that there is no such thing as a “human nature,” no givens in the human condition; that freedom is a matter of doing whatever I like, so long as “no one else gets hurt;” that the satisfaction of desires is the full meaning of “human rights,” meaning that virtually all human relationships are transactional. And because of all that, a six-month-old unborn child can be “terminated” at will, just as someone facing a terminal disease can terminate themselves with a physician’s assistance.
There are others among us who believe that, as human beings, we bear a unique dignity and worth; that there certain deep truths inscribed in the world and in us; that living those truths facilitates personal happiness and social solidarity; that a mature and ennobling freedom, as lived by adults rather than by willful toddlers (and their chronologically mature counterparts), is not a matter of “I did it my way,” but rather a matter of knowing the right thing, doing the right thing for the right reason, and doing the right thing with regularity. And because of all that, innocent human beings, from conception until natural death, deserve to be cherished in life and protected in law.
The great human nature divide thus expresses itself in diametrically opposed concepts of what it means to be a free person and a free people. Moreover, the human nature divide in our national politics has metastasized, such that both major parties are committed–in varying degrees–to the debased notion of freedom as personal autonomy in service to immediate gratification. This false idea of human nature has impacts far beyond life issues.
It turns our public life into an auction in which candidates vie to see who can bribe more special interests, using the public purse as a political piggy bank. It distracts attention from the fiscal obscenity of an Everest of mounting debt, which could bankrupt the country, place terrible burdens on future generations, and jeopardize our national security (as when China calls in all those IOUs). It contributes to the vulgarization of our culture, which in turn contributes to the further degradation of our politics–compare the funny but entirely civil exchange between candidates Kennedy and Nixon at the 1960 Al Smith Memorial Dinner in New York with the tawdry show put on by candidates Harris and Trump at that event this past October 17.
So yes, we have a “nature crisis,” but it’s far more about us than it is about trees and oceans. It’s about who we are and how our idea of who we are ennobles or debases our common life. Given an ever-darkening international landscape and the pandering of both parties to our baser instincts, the realistic conclusion is that whoever wins the White House, hard times are coming.
The response to that must be a deep renewal of our political culture, rooted in the truth about the human person.
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The #1 question facing the citizens of these United States is this: Can this Constitutionally-organized democratic Republic continue to exist under the current cultural climate? Are we a so morally-weakened people that, foreign powers who have a vested interest in hegemony, could perceive us as easy prey?
Let’s remember one notion that I believe has been attributed to Pope St. John Paul II: Any nation that destroys its own children is a nation without hope.
Let anyone who can hear, consider this: We in the USA are a culture in a state of disintegration. If you don’t perceive that, you have your head in the sand.
Yes, George, but also no…
Yes, as especially in EX CORDE ECCLESIA (1990) where St. John Paul II urged Catholic academia to recover so many Catholic scholars from the Land O’ Lakes mentality of ivory tower “autonomy,” which centered on this: “Catholic Universities are called to a continuous renewal, both as ‘Universities’ and as ‘Catholic’. For, ‘What is at stake is the very meaning of scientific and technological research, of social life and of culture, but, on an even more profound level, [and your point] what is at stake is the very meaning of the human person’” (n.7).
But “no” on highlighting the long-term day of reckoning with our irresponsible national debt, while not quite understanding the interrelated ecological debt (the “trees and oceans” thing) which also comes back to victimize some of us but not others…
What if there are equally threatening limits in both domains, as St. John Paul II identified in his CENTESIMUS ANNUS (1991)? Even the possible triaging of vulnerable populations (Bangladesh, south Sudan, regions of desertification, disrupted food chains, etc.). About the more immediate abortion expedient, this cross-boundary turn of phrase: “These policies are extending their field of actions by the use of new techniques, to the point of poisoning the lives [!] of millions of defenseless human beings, as if in a form of ‘chemical warfare’ [today, Mifepristone]” (n. 39).
So, about paper-money AND ecological exploitation, both, JPII wrote:
“Equally worrying [!] is the ecological question which accompanies the problem of consumerism and which is closely connected […]” (n. 37). He then goes on to maintain a crucial distinction between the closely entangled “moral conditions for an authentic ‘human ecology’” and the scientific prerequisites for a sustainable “natural ecology” (nn. 38-40).
Not yet the possibly globalist neologism of a merged “integral ecology” (Laudato Si, 2015), ghost-written by Cardinal Fernandez who later would POISON the human ecology with a nuanced equivalence in practice between families and “irregular” and even anti-binary “couples” (Fiducia Supplicans, 2023).
Who needs Veritatis Splendor when we can harmonize polarities!
SUMMARY: Building on your point that, yes, politics is downstream of culture, might it also be that the fatally anti-human ingredients of post-Enlightenment and boundary-free technocracy are ecologically self-limiting on spaceship earth?
The “the nature crisis” ignores the root cause of the contentiousness in society…From whom are our human rights derived? One side contends that our rights are derived from the prevailing government that is rejected by the other side. This side contends that our inalienable rights are derived from Our Creator. The direction of the two sides are increasingly mutually exclusive. One side prays “In the name of the Father, come Lord Jesus” while the other side is dismissive to the rejection of God exemplified by the recent command to go elsewhere responding to the call that “ Jesus is Lord”.
“Hard times a’ comin’, whoever wins.”
True, for the affirmation of the Sanctity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death, and the Sanctity of Marriage and the family, is no longer secured and protected in Church or State.
“Penance, Penance, Penance.”
“When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of his being. The defence of the family is about man himself. And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears. Whoever defends God is defending man.” – Pope Benedict’s Christmas Address 2012
“But yet the Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on earth?”
It is up to The Faithful to hold, keep and teach The Catholic Faith, and the Faithful members of the hierarchy, to use the Charitable anathema for the sake of Christ, His One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, all who will come to believe, and all those prodigal sons and daughters, who, hopefully, will soon return to The One Bosy Of Christ, outside of which, there is no Salvation, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost( Filioque).
God Save The Papacy!
May Our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart Triumph soon and restore Peace in Christ’s Church.
Mr. Weigel is right to point out the profoundly disturbing and very deep divide that we face as a society.
Considering that we have promoted the destruction of innocent babies throughout the world for a half century — along with the legalization of drugs, the mutilation and sterilization of our own children, the murders of our elderly, and more — it’s difficult to dispute the ayatollahs’ claim that…
America is the great satan.
Very interesting observation Brineyman.
These “nature” crises are actually the same. The real question to be answered is, “Was there a Creator/Designer of both, and does He care?” That is the truth that matters because all other truth is downstream of that one.
I found it refreshing to watch and listen to J.D. Vance during his sterling performance at the debate with the fraudulent Mr. Walz.
I find it refreshing to listen to and watch RFK jr persevere in talking and working and reasoning with people about getting at the truth of our political situation in our Republic.
I find it refreshing to listen to and watch Tulsi Gabbard give testimony about what is beautiful in our country and its Republic, and what is arch-ugly and sinister about the political establishment that hates our Constitution and Bill of Rights, and detests its own citizens.
And I am grateful that President Trump, who despite his own bravado, has shown himself to be a truly brave man who cares for and is willing to fight and even risk death for the ordinary everyday citizens who are suffering and struggling against the tide of sewage delivered by the establishment elites, in their trans-national political, corporate, “religious,” governmental, university, and legacy-media-propaganda-centers.
Let the political wind blow the establishment house down on Tuesday, and usher in a new day for all of the “deplorable- garbage-citizens” long-hoping for the sun rise.
And we obey the voice of Christ our King: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are God’s.”
May God grant us all his mercy, and his blessings of life and liberty.
Well said, Chris.
Indeed. We live in an imperfect world. But we have to fight on. America is not the Great Satan. Some people, especially those in the Washington political machine, in Hollywood, and other places we could name, may be close to Satan in various ways. But there are millions here who still believe in the principles of the Christian Faith, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. So fellow Christians, make a rational choice and go vote for the best chance we have politically right now. Vote for the man who chose Supreme Court judges who overturned R v W; who as president gave us a strong economy, secure borders, peace abroad, self-sufficiency in energy, low inflation, and many other achievements in the face of increasing opposition from the Establishment. He now has allies that know how the Washington establishment works, an RFK, an Elon Musk, a T Gabbard, a T. Carlson. They can help him clean the Swamp. Therefore the Swamp is more terrified of him than ever before. That is why they are throwing everything at him, from impeachments to multiple judicial attacks, to multiple financial attacks through the court system, to two assassination attempts. So, no, the future is not bleak whoever wins. The future is assuredly very bleak if the present regime now in power wins. The future will have to be fought for and in that future we need to continue fighting; but having to continue fighting is not bleak; it is honorable and indeed manly in the best sense of that word. Fellow Christians, go out and vote for the right cause. BTW watch this short but though hilarious profound speech by Tucker Carlson at the recent rally in Arizona. It explains his decision to back DT and what kind of a man DT is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvwXGnE5e_w
Although the thesis is correct, it’s also true that a political platform may significantly exceed what’s consistent with human nature than its political adversary.
Yes George, sadly so. But where to go? Perhaps “all things work together……” perhaps.
Stop the pearl clutching and equivocating. The choice is clear when you put personalities aside and just look at issues of policy. Which party supports grooming and mutilating children and which does not? Which party supports a secure border and the rule of law and which does not? Which party is actively and intentionally creating divisions along racial lines and which does not? There is no ambiguity there when the issue is policy and not personality.
’Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
’Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore;
’Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave,
Oh, hard times come again no more.
’Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh, hard times come again no more.
Stephen Foster
Articulate as always in the abstract. And equally weak on personal blind spots. Whoever wins? Seriously George? Descending into liberal moral equivalency again when not to do so would require acknowledgment of your own failures.
In Machiavellian fashion, Trump has downplayed abortion this time, but only a dishonestly deluded pro-lifer would believe the issue is anything but a political loser for electability in this cultural climate. Nonetheless, Trump has still promised to appoint Judges who abide by “the real Constitution,” not one made up in academia.
But of course, as a prominent Catholic writer, who told Catholic America not to vote for Trump in 2016, then made dishonest denials of having done so years later, you must know contributions to moral and cultural entropy come in all variations. Even a stubborn refusal to acknowledge that a pontificate performing insults to God and massive harm to humanity, coming from the periphery of this pontificate rather than the person of the Pope, becomes increasingly difficult especially when you told yourself and anyone you could bore with your flawless prognostications that he would be a return to another JPII.
And what Al Smith dinner on October 17th do you refer to in crediting the current Vice President for having attended?
I’m no Weigel fan as he has the moral rectitude of a weathervane and has yet to take an unpopular position even when the truth is clear, e.g., the Iraq War, Trump, JPII, Francis, Vatican II, etc. However, technically Harris sent a (very insulting) video to the Al Smith dinner. Forget better candidates. What the Catholic church needs is real laymen who can credibly articulate the Church’s position rather than hawking thier next book or currying favor with their overlords.
IMO this election – like the previous 2 – falls into the ‘hold your nose and cast your vote but VOTE’ category.
Then go home and pray.
We see then that the two cities were created by two kinds of love: the earthly city was created by the love of self, reaching the point of contempt of God; the heavenly city by the love of God carried so far as contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men, the latter finds is highest glory in God.
St. Augustine
Americans are faced with a choice between two flawed candidates for President of USA and a host of other flawed candidates for multiple political offices and decisions left to public choice. They are all flawed because they, as we, are all sinners. Catholic teaching tells us that we must choose the lesser of two evils. One candidate actively and unabashedly promotes abortion and defends any effort to prevent alternatives. The other candidate does not. One candidate has openly mocked religion. The other has not. I could write a much longer argument the length of a book but will not. Abortion is the ground of evil built by Satan to invite as many who are willing to tread. That is sufficient reason for Catholics to choose Donald J Trump for POTUS. Pray before, pray after, pray always to discern the Will of God and make it your own.
BTW, President DT saved the NYC Catholic schools. During the Wuhan virus crisis, the Catholic schools were dire need of funds. They needed billions to survive. The Cardinal called DT for help to save the Catholic schools: “We need billions or we will have to close.” President DT picked up the phone and in 15 minutes he raised billions. Thus he saved the Catholic schools. Amazing. See his speech at the annual Al Smith Catholic dinner for October 2024 in the presence of the Cardinal. His speech starts at min. 29:00; during the speech he looks at the Cardinal and recollects this episode at min 56ff.
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAwbHmrplak