A friend asked me the other day if I believed in the Devil and I replied that I did. "Good," they answered, "Then maybe I'm not crazy, because things sure look satanic."
Maybe you think that's an exaggeration and that there's nothing wrong with our new normal, a normal that says it's OK to sell baby parts and rewards the company that does it with your money.
A normal that parses freedom in terms of Crowley's "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law," and accuses you of hatred for daring to believe that marriage is something that takes place between a man and a woman, regardless of Bruce Jenner spending over $4 million to prove otherwise.
Or more seriously, a dominant worldview which says we come from nothing and return to it, so in the meanwhile live as though there were no tomorrow and place your bets on a financial system based on infinite debt and greed.
In short, a new normal based on the kind of radical nihilism described by Dostoevsky in The Devils. But go right ahead, look around you and congratulate our brave new world experiment in secularism, and wonder why people aren't getting any happier.
Then, as you ask that question, ask another. Has our culture stopped believing in God, or simply shifted its allegiance?
There's a boom in exorcism. Go figure. I'm off to clean a gun.
LSP
