Drop, Ripple, Tsunami

The Greek financial problem is being blamed for the tsunami that washed over the Dow this week. But that strikes me as wrong. The real problem is the vote of no confidence that caused the panic. And this lack of trust and confidence goes far deeper than finance. The West has lost it's confidence in the Western Way of life.

For 2000 years the West embraced Christianity, which formed the cultural core that drove the individual, family, community and nations. All things radiated from the certainty that Christian belief was the only True Way. The West could disagree on details but the fundamental truth that God was sovereign was agreed upon. This shared belief allowed the West to maintain cohesion in family, nation and allied nations.

After WW2 belief in the Christian God began to crumble and with it Western unity faltered. The tendency has accelerated during the past generation until less than half of adults are Christian. Godless technocrats now run most corporations and states, only interested in wealth and power. There is no sense of either community or even family as much of Western humanity procreates like beasts of the field. The modern faith of Western civilization is mostly Consumerism. It is difficult to rally a people around the banner of conspicuous consumption, where losers far outnumber winners.

So we segregate as a people into narrow sub-groups of class, race, religion, sexual preference that cannot relate to one another except in the most expedient manner. As this civilizational fracturing proceeds we disengage to the lowest common denominator, which is self. At this point, we are no different than non-herding animals. Our only interest is self.

Once you reach this state,  you no longer care how your actions affect others. In fact, others become just props in your life. You would destroy the global economy and the lives of billions to make an extra dollar or demonstrate your power. The concepts of family, community and nations are meaningless constructs that can be abandoned in milliseconds for personal gain. There is no God to judge me so I can do whatever I can get away with.

This weekend US VP Joe Biden met with Spanish President Jose Zapatero. Joe said "We agreed on the importance of a resolute European action to strengthen the European economy and to build confidence in the markets." Yes we do need to build confidence in the markets. More importantly the West needs to build trust back into it's civilization because without trust there is nothing. 
Do I envision the West embracing Christianity again? Not really. I expect the nihilism to drive the West into oblivion, utterly overwhelmed by cultures and civilizations that believe in something. Something always trumps nothing.

We are all waiting for some small drop to fall into the basin, triggering a ripple that becomes The Tsunami that washes away the hollow shell that is the West.