[+Father Vincent and &Ben are talking with Nanook]

+”There is another factor in the new confusion. The U.S. finds itself facing a neo-conservative, fundamentalist revolt. Let me read from Ebenstein. Page 76.”

“The neoconservative critique of the trend of governmental policies during recent decades is that such policies have been in opposition to the cultural prerequisites that have made the form of government that enacted these policies possible. To take first the neoconservative views on sexual matters, the role of the family, and the place of women in society. The prevailing culturally conservative attitude is that the 1960s … were a time in which the condition of the family took a monumental step backwards. Out-of-wedlock births, divorce, and extramarital sex skyrocketed.

Furthermore, this decay of traditional family structure has had marked negative effects on the social order. Poverty in the United States is most prevalent among single-parent, female-headed households, and opportunities for children living in these circumstances are considerably less than they are for children living in traditional, two-parent families. Criminal behavior is much more likely to develop, as is drug use and a host of other social ills.

Neoconservatives blame a general attitude of permissiveness in society for the dissolution of the family. Too often, individuals value the present above the future and, in so doing, condemn their future. Individuals need to be gratification-delaying. As it is an apparently ineradicable tendency in human beings to “live for the moment,” it is essential that institutions exist in society that reinforce individuals’ capacities to defer present pleasures so that they might experience a more pleasant future.

Foremost of the historical entities that encouraged people to look toward the future was the church. The vision of heaven and the nightmare of hell acted as powerful inducements to individuals to behave morally. For this reason, neoconservatives decry the waning influence of religion in modem life, and also criticize governmental actions of whatever sort that act to weaken organized religion.

In the area of cultural permissiveness, neoconservatives have generally opposed the ‘anything goes’ attitude that currently characterizes accepted definitions of free speech and freedom of expression. Neoconservatives are more likely to favor restrictions on obscenity and pornography, for example, and to hold that burning an American flag is not an acceptable form of freedom of expression.

The conservative critique of modem society in the area of culture is more than just an unspecific wailing over the loss of the ‘good old days.’ Rather, it is that government policies themselves are in large part responsible for this loss. The secular emphasis of modem government policies has eroded religious faith; government welfare policies diminish the family; high taxation requires both parents in a family to work, thereby leaving children unattended; affirmative action and similar programs destroy individual initiative.”

+”So, what do we know about these claims?”

&”We know from numerous research studies that none of the claims made here match reality. So, what’s going on? I’ll tell you. This is a simple attempt by a small group of elite authoritarian power brokers to regain control of a society that is moving away from them. And what is creating the fertilizer for their effort? I’ll tell you. It’s just what Toffler said. Society has been thrown into confusion by the huge changes going on. There are no road maps being presented that they want to hear. The Club of Rome report is a prime example. So, they are turning to their shamans for guidance.”

“What I’m taking away from what you just said is that the Seven Deadly Sins are winning over logic.”

&”Bingo! When people don’t hear what they want to hear, they go into denial and turn to superstition.”