Nietzsche is Here; Napoleon is in the Wings

The Devolution of Democracies

“Yes, we can!” The Obama election campaign mantra proves to be an apt slogan for Autonomous Man as he embarks on the twenty-first century. Underscoring that slogan is a belief in the omni-competence of Man to do or achieve anything. Nietzsche's Superman has come of age. He has arrived, fit, well, and chanting.

This is what democratic political systems inevitably devolve into once they are separated from the Christian faith. Democracies flourish within a Christian consensus because they accept a higher law which sets boundaries and limits upon government, the state, and upon society in general. The choices made by electorates in Christian societies tend to be relatively narrow and proscribed because the role and responsibility of the state is extremely limited in those societies.

When a democratic society turns away from our Lord, however, democracies begin to disintegrate. They degenerate over two or three hundred years into something quite destructive. When the Living God is “banished” from the City, the only god left is Man. Democratic societies, stripped of their Christian roots, inexorably start to deify Man. The most powerful, central and unchallenged representation of Man is the State. Non-Christian democratic societies, therefore, ineluctably devolve into a centralist, authoritarian polity, where the government is increasingly believed to be all powerful and omni-competent. After all we both expect and demand that our gods will be both powerful and competent.

The Roman Republic had a strong democratic constitution. However, the transformation of the Republic into an Empire, with the emperor being august, or the incarnation of deity, was inevitable. Modern western democracies, stripped of their Christian roots, trumpeting a glorious post-Christian world, are moving inevitably in the same direction.

The deification of the people and the incarnation of that deity into their governments is evident on every hand. Every modern political party, regardless of where they are in the left-right spectrum, campaigns and seeks electoral favour on a platform of “problem solving.” Every political party promises to make things right. No electoral traction could be achieved otherwise. Now this, of itself, in abstraction, is not a bad thing. While we may debate what the rights and wrongs are, we expect government to defend the right and oppose the wrong. But, increasingly, our devolving democracies demand that government solves the “big issues.”

It is only if a government tackles the “big issues” that it truly reflects the grandeur and glory of the incarnate god it represents. Electorates are left very dissatisfied unless their governments are promising to get the “big things” done. Governments must deliver prosperity for all. They must “close the gaps.” They must eradicate poverty. They must make the world safe for democracy. They must achieve peace in our time. They must save the whales. They must lower sea levels. They must cool the planet and control the weather. They must generate energy self-sufficiency--and on, and on.

In our day, any government not promising such things is regarded as beneath contempt. Of course the striving to achieve the “big jobs” requires a relentless arrogation of power to governments; an arrogation which electorates willingly concede—since it is only right that governments, which are gods made in the image of Man, wield extensive and extending power.

Of course such things are doomed to abject failure. The “divine” government is only made of clay after all. The weight of deity is too much to bear. The gods inevitably fail to deliver, to live up to the required expectations. The triumphant cry, “Yes, we can!” is exchanged for “No, you didn't!” which in turn generates an abiding malaise of widespread disaffection, bitterness, anger, frustration, and contempt. Those once acclaimed as gods then, are condemned now as the lowest of the low. Hell hath no fury like an electorate scorned by its failed messiahs.

The patterns of history repeat—not because history is cyclical or circular, but because God rules over all human history. He does not change and He will not be mocked. When a people turn away from Him and sow to the wind, He condemns them with the whirlwind.

So, as western democracies find the reality is “No, they can't”, disaffection with democratic government and its failures and weaknesses grows. Demand for a strong man who really will put things to right increases apace. Caesar is in the wings. Ambitious Napoleon broods and waits his chance. In time the people will insist that they come forth, since all other gods have failed. “Yes, we can!” will reach a crescendo and the One will emerge.

It is the inevitable devolution of all post-Christian democracies. The republic becomes the empire. And the empire kills.