Time to Think,...

     This reflection was written a while back as an article for a newspaper,..please excuse the spelling and grammatical errors,..For those asking, I will be publishing several posts this week, one of them being a continuation of the SSPX issues,..I wish all of my readers a very happy, Holy and healthy 2013!  Please continue to sustain me in prayer,..

God bless!

-Marco/Optimusmastro

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     The context of social philosophy can provide an individual with a canvas whereby people can’t paint with different lenses.  These ‘lenses’ are the visuals with which to look out past the obvious, the sensual and the real and straight into the subjective.  Truth, the statement or idea that Pilate questioned Jesus upon relates in so far as much as to theology as it does to every other facet that life can give us.  To define it, in a very Aristotelico Thomist mindset would be ‘that which is in accord with the nature of the thing.  For this particular reflection, we will attempt a look at population control under the radar/microscope as well as post context of Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae, its reception after the Council and finally break down its rejection and thus its consequences from both a moral position as well as an economic one.  The essay will attempt to be as objective as possible while at the same time showing certain evidences and trends that are now marking the decline of western (Occidental) Civilization while awaiting two new potential ideologies looming and poised to replace the post Christian ‘West.’  One being of rampant secularism, while the other being Islam.  This essay will also attempt to connect the ‘dots’ and show a ‘cause and effect’ chain linking the sexual revolution, contraception, abortion and population demographics, a roadmap to show and articulate how western civilization got from ‘there’ to ‘here,’ being our current political mindset and so-called ‘common good’ approach.

1.1     End of the Era

    

     The Legalization of Christianity, (Edict of Milan), and fall of the Roman Empire paved the way for a new and bold way of life.  Christianity was trumpeted as a backdrop to institute political structures, education (confessional schools) and ethical norms, and through its canon law built up civilization for most of Europe and the Americas.  By the time Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the Cathedral door at Wittenberg Germany, a subsequent downward spiral was put in motion and is culminating with what we see today.  The subjectivist mindset replacing the objective, births a selfish culture, but one that is ultimately headed for self-destruction with regards to having no exterior concern or consequence.  From the Social Philosophy perspective, the common good gives way for the individual ‘good’ thus in this light, we can begin to see society go backwards.  Can it be safe to assume a connect the ‘dots’ approach and thus attempt to reason our way through the false selfish man centered ideology all the way through to where we now find ourselves?  Feminism, the sexual revolution and a post Vatican II euphoria (ironically having nothing to do with Vatican II itself) usurping man’s means to an end and making it the end itself.  In between Civilizations, a sociological no man’s land whereby the post Christian European identity, (Yes even in the Americas) has now positioned itself for a new civilization to take over and assert itself.  Gone is canon law, while our society cannot maintain a culture of secularism, all the while Islam is on the rise.  

2.  Humane Vitae;

     

     In the nineteen sixties, specifically July of 1968, in the wake of both the sexual revolution (secular) and the aftermath of the second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI issued an encyclical to clear up any misunderstanding or questions with regards to Catholic moral teaching as it pertains to artificial means of contraception.  Catholic moral teaching reserves the sexual act as an act between a man and a woman inside marriage for the propagation of children and of unity.  The Pope, despite internal pressure and amidst a growing secular whirlwind, stood up to re affirm the Church’s clear teaching and thus, Her adhesion to the Natural Law, not to mention conventional cultural growth and progress.  At the time, many Catholics saw this reaffirmation by  Paul VI as a sociological step backwards as theAnglican Communion had already decided that contraception was acceptable as a practice, not being able to distinguish the reality that a marriage breakdown was also at stake, and an acceptance of contraception would only exacerbate the issue at large.  While to be fair, the first real signs of dissent occurred way before Vatican II, the aftermath (aftershock) of post counciliar foolhardiness was used as the Launchpad, and sadly most Canadian Catholics, especially in following the Winnipeg Statement followed their ‘consciences’ to the current crisis that we now face.   The Winnepeg Statement being the all too familiar intervention by Canadian Bishops publically disobeying Rome.  A catastrophic earthquake in light of the sexual revolution was now inevitable yet no one foresaw it, because everyone was too caught up in the idea of ‘free’ love.  ‘Free?’  Nothing is free, and sex divorced from authentic love is but legalized lust. 

     

     Pope Paul VI, no doubt seeing that society was (and elements inside the Church) was akin to a wild horse sought to reign in the dissidents and heterodox thinkers advancing this modernist approach whereby ‘if it feels good and doesn’t harm anybody, then why not?’ 

2.1 Contraception.

    

     Properly speaking the act of contraception means to willfully interfere and disrupt through natural means, a normal course of action.  In this case it happens to be pregnancy.  The most common and popular form has been the ‘Pill’a medication brought forth in order to de stabilize a woman’s hormonal cycle thus not allowing her to conceive through normal means.  She would become master of her own particular nature and leave the natural law out of the question.  We were told that we were made in God’s image, yet with the inception of the pill, we now dictate the terms to God.  Along with the pill, the condom industry grew and gave birth to a generational gap of open sex whereby it was considered normal for anyone to fulfill their own instinct without regard for consequence.  Unfortunately for the contraception industry, it didn’t always work, and thus another ‘solution’ had to be found.

2.3 Abortion

    

     Following suit upon a breakdown of thought, and morals comes the ultimate act of selfishness rooted in senseless killing, all in the name of a ‘common’ good.  Planned Parenthood in the 1960s financed a marketing campaign designed at pushing the contraceptive agenda because it would lessen the number of abortions which in their mindset was killing.  Fast forward 35 years later, and the ‘baby’ name in their pamphlet has been changed to ‘fetus’ thereby attempting an abstract vision of something concretely alive, which can be demonstrated not only by Faith, but also within a common sense/ Natural Law framework.  Gone was the argument of whether or not a person is a person when they are in ‘being’ essentially in potential and subject to change.  The only thing which changed was our vocabulary which in following the Roe V Wade abortion ruling in the United States, the fetus became a clump of cells and property of the woman’s body, thus enshrining it as a jewel within feminist causes.  So the marketing strategy as a result, in order to keep the industry (contraception) rolling, because after all it is lucrative, will trumpet the women’s ‘rights’ card advancing a so-called ‘common good’ all the while masking an intrinsic moral evil.

3.  Economics

    

     According to the law of supply and demand, along with cultural statistics, it has been demonstratively shown that in order for a culture to prosper, or at the very least sustain itself, a birthrate of 2.1 per family is essential.  One child to replace the mother, the other child to replace the father, while the ‘.1’ falls within the statistical anomaly of the case of accidental deaths or handicaps with the children.  The western model has not been following this model and to use Germany as an example (figures stem from 2006) we can show that Germany’s birthrate is staggering, eye-opening 1.3!. The mathematics which follow are only a logical projection all the while showing the inter-relational dimension between the breakdown contraception, abortion and the breakdown of the family culminating with an economic disaster.  Essentially when the current generation wants to retire and benefit from pensions, they will not have enough money subsidized by the next generation of workers because essentially there are so few of them.  This then effects the supply and demand chain.  Essentially contraception is a deception, a perversion of an act attempting to capitalize on man’s carnal desires.  Sex is a natural impulse, however it is also a disordered natural impulse.  This is not a theological affirmation, but a realistic one, whereby our society needs to recognize.  The parameters of marriage provide the necessary natural society whereby a free total giving of oneself can take place between one man and one woman.  The result being the openness to new life, shows that the couple is not closed off while celebrating their complimentarity.  Should children, the natural fruit of this union come into being, they can be educated inside the marriage parameter which has by now transformed itself into a family.  Any deconstructionist vision of this ultimately leads to chaos.

It needs to be noted that along with contraception being the norm, an entirely familiar set of words have now been hijacked and are subject to reinterpretation along the lines of what the majority ‘feel’ is true, and not what necessarily is true.

4 Conclusion

     

     Within the Christian, specifically Catholic mindset, the sexual act represents man’s co-operation with the Divine in the very act of creation.  We, as human beings and out of love are invited to participate within this notion.   God, the personification of Love Himself, exists as an eternal exchange of relationships.  God who is at once the Lover, the Beloved and the act of Loving always is in a constant free giving of oneself.  The same is true for human beings.  The sexual act is one of constant giving.  When we separate ourselves from this mindset, we enter into a constant taking and thus turn the act inward on itself.  An addiction can thus be formed through chemical cocktails in the brain secreting epinephrine and dopamine secreting from our pituitary gland in the brain.  An example can be shown of an individual addicted to food, how they eat to stimulate the taste buds, instead of as a primary reason for sustaining oneself in ‘being.’  The result is heart disease, fat and high blood pressure/cholesterol.  Within the sexual context, the end result of the addiction is the population decrease, along with sexually transmitted diseases, however because of the chemicals in the brain, a link can also be shown to equate rape cases whereby people cannot control themselves and are past the ‘point’ of no return.  The passion thus rules the 'Will' thereby rendering it no longer free.

     

     This reflection at best tried to show a ‘connect the dots’ approach to an issue all too familiar to 21^st ears and sensibilities.  Every election especially in the United States sees a resurgence of people attempting a full out return to an authentic common good and the establishment of a potential authentic  global ethic.  As has been demonstrated, our contraceptive generation did not give way to ‘free’ sex as was its original intent.  Instead it birthed an entirely different mindset and has set into motion the impending collapse (irreversible) of western civilization.  The results have seen an increase in abortions, a complete breakdown of the family along with a redefinition of traditional marriage, an emasculated masculinity devoid of any semblance regarding traditional roles.  Finally an economic tsunami and market crash brought on by a lack of population ready and able to work so that older people can retire and sustain what our society has always sought to maintain, a culture of growth and prosperity, instead, we are saddled with trauma and potential extinction.   In order for a society to function, it needs people to work, this is what feeds the economy, the age old adage of supply and demand.  The contraception deception at its core is the cause of our current economic breakdown and as has been already stated will usher in a new reality of civilization, especially considering to keep our heads above water we need immigrants and only one religion is populating itself. 

Our Lady of Fatima,.....................................................................Ora pro nobis.