"A plausible diagnosis of what's happening to us as a freedom-loving nation"

Fr. Powell, dare I say, after re-reading William Barrett's Irrational Man, has nailed it:

Barrett traces the roots of the West's existential crisis and identifies nihilism* as the source of our deepest personal and cultural anxieties.  B.O.'s 2008 campaign directly addressed these anxieties with an appeal to superficial Hope & Change.  And we bought it.  Well, most of us did anyway.

 

I'm not suggesting that you read Barrett as a matter of political science but as a plausible diagnosis of what's happening to us as a freedom-loving nation and God-fearing culture.

 

Many of the political developments in the last half-century arose out of our collective fear of personal annihilation (physical and spiritual), a need for security now that we've sequestered God away from the public square.  The academy's assault on the intelligibility of truth and the rise of the National Security Nanny State push us further and further along the road to serfdom.

 

I'm not suggesting that philosophical existentialism gives us a solution to our cultural anxieties.  Far from it.  Historically, existentialism served as a diagnostic tool not a treatment regime.  

 

The only well-documented treatment for the crippling fear of nothingness is God.  While the Nanny State has always failed--will always fail--God does not and cannot fail. 

If you disagree, do so in the comments and expound.

Please.

If you don't, then perhaps like me, you're asking yourself, what am I doing to pursue God with more vigor?