The Widening Spiral of Modern Society

Towards a Reasonable Middle: Part 1

Image Credit: iStock / Oriaz

A little over a century ago, Irish poet W. B. Yeats wrote what is probably his most famous poem: “The Second Coming.”

The cultural context for the poem was, in some ways, similar to ours today: the 1918–1919 flu pandemic was still active, the First World War had recently ended, the Easter Rebellion had recently occurred, which was an armed insurrection of Irish Republicans trying to overthrow British rule. And, of course, there was religious discord between Catholics and Protestants.

Perhaps I need not belabor the parallels, but just to make sure my point is clear:

• Our world order has been upset by a global pandemic in a way that has not happened in a century, since the misnamed “Spanish Flu” of 1918–1919, which was still very much active when Yeats wrote his work.
• Many of our cultural and political clashes today are centered around differences in religious beliefs, most notably between those who hold to some form of Christianity, vs. those who have adopted a more secular, or vaguely spiritual, worldview (paralleling the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Yeats’ time and place).
• Many of our US states are chafing against rule by a remote and distant government, located in Washington…