I disagree with the assumption that law is what holds our society together. In his work on the decline and corruption of a culture, C.E.M. Joad correctly notes that decadence is the identification of means with ends. Or as Mr. Wilson puts it ‘When our masters have destroyed the schools.’ When wealth becomes the end, for instance, there exists economic decadence. Or as Mr Wilson would have it, when ‘Our masters have seen to it that middle and working class families need two incomes to survive…’ When power becomes the end, you have political decadence; When pleasure becomes the end, you have moral decadence; and when emotions become the end, you have psychological decadence.
We must always remember that politics is more important than economics, that culture is more important than politics, and theology is more important than culture. In this way we can see that divorce was initiated when we lost the theology of marriage, it accelerated when sexual pleasure became the end of marriage (instead of the procreation and education of children) This assertion that we are a nation of laws and not of men is misleading. We have become a nation of lawless men (culturally), who elect people to lead us (politically) who believe ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’
If we passed a law tomorrow in America that prevented divorce before the yougest child born of the marriage was 18 years of age, the pleasure seeking people we have become, would prefer to ressurect the old whore house rather than the old homestead. The collapse is upon us, Humpty Dumty has fallen. The question is where and who will carry the elderly and household Gods out of the burning city. My thinking is it will be folks like burdened Aneas or men like St. Benedict living in the woods, where some old crow will bring them bread from time to time.
Robert Reavis
