Things Fall Down

They lived and they died,

They prayed to their gods,

But their stone gods did not make a sound,

And the Empire crumbled, til all the was left

Were some stones the workmen found.

-Sting, All This Time

I don't know if we are living through the end of an Empire.  I read the papers more now than I ever have, which is not always a soothing exercise. Whether it is Fareed Zakarias analyzing the protests in Iran with Alex de Tocqueville's commentary on the French Revolution or Jonathan Capehart summoning H.L. Mencken and Edward Gibbon to make the case that our nation may be the Empire that is imploding, breathless anticipation of old orders passing away seems to be in the air.  For many this creates anxiety, and leads quite often to reactionary sorts of thoughts.  I am fairly certain that our current administration is a symptom, rather than a cause, of such anxiety and the reactionary brand of conservatism it has brought on us all.  Perhaps the Iran situation is easier to see clearly thanks to distance. I think Fareed points out fairly clearly that the Iranian theocracy has been standing athwart the progress of their nation for some time. While it is naive to think that a truly democratic Iran would emerge to champion western ideals, a more secular Iran would be much less likely to be a destabilizing influence in the region, and frankly would be much less frightening to all involved.

While I wonder whether the Iranian protests give a half a fig about what Donald Trump thinks of their struggle, I think, for once, his tweet on the subject may be on target. We should cheer change in Iran, and do what we can in diplomatic fashion to support it, however, what I fear is that we as a nation tend to see moments like this as opportunities for our worst imperialist tendencies to come out and dance.  We start to meddle, demand and otherwise play the big kid on the block.  As it turns out, we may have liked being a "super-power" a little too much and our tendency to try and make the world in our image is sometimes more than we can restrain.

Just as Iran's theocracy deserves to die and be relegated to the dust bin of history, I'm not entirely sure our own regime isn't due for a sturdy rebuke from history.  Perhaps the spirit of self-interest and consumerism is too much for a real democracy.  As I read the excerpts from Wolff's Fire and Fury, I am tempted to believe it, even though I know he is a hack and a purveyor of half truths.  I guess I agree with one of my more conservative sources: 

Let's stipulate that Michael Wolff is not a 100 percent reliable reporter.  The problem (for Trump and his supporters) is that most of what he says is plausible.

The thought that keeps coming back to me is that, in our system we really do get the government we deserve, which in Mencken's decidedly jaundiced view was that: "one day the the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."  The other day, a commentator referred to Trump as "obnoxiously ignorant," which I think gets at the core of what we mean by moron.  Trump is obviously not a moron in the same sense as Spongebob Squarepants (a children's cartoon character who lives most gleefully doing mindless things), he is rather the sort of character who simply refuses to do anything as odious as self-reflection or deep consideration of facts.  Trump is famous for "going with his gut," and "telling it like it is," however, what we see day after day is that he can't or won't really do anything beyond that, which is the most fertile soil for a reactionary, incompetent leader I have ever heard.
Rome survived several mad emperors and the good news is that our version of "bread and circuses," is rolling right along (a strong stock market and lots of Netflix). I am not sanguine that our current direction is rising towards greatness though.  It may be that humanity is advancing to a place of global culture where empires are no longer viable.  That will be cool, but the transition may be painful, particularly for those who are used to power.  Maybe we have invested too much of our faith in the false god of great men.  Maybe it is good and right for the empires and oligarchies to fall, but I am all too aware that what came after the Roman Empire fell is what we call the Dark Ages.
It's an interesting idea that Rod Dreher, whom I quoted above, has seized upon in his rather interesting treatise The Benedict Option.  The general premise of which is that, in his view, the postmodern version of the Dark Ages is, in fact, upon us, and the Church needs to recognize this and close ranks like Benedictines did during the last Dark Ages and keep the light of civilization and Christianity (one and the same to his mind) alive in the safety of our communities while the barbarian hordes and plagues rage through the secular world. While I may take a less dire view of the secular world than Dreher, I do think that relevancy for the Church does at least have something to do with the fact that we can endure the rise and fall of Empires, we've done it several times.  Beyond that, being resurrection people, we can actually endure our very own death.  As G.K. Chesterton sharply observed: "We follow a God who has managed to find his way out of the grave."
So I guess, in the end, even if this is the end, that is where I will put my hope. The community that matters to me more than any other is one that is not built by human hands, that has no frail and broken emperor, president or king to lead it off of the cliffs of history.  I do not know how any of this will go, but unlike certain others I believe we who are part of the Body of Christ are supposed to be right in the middle of it. We do not pray to stone gods, we pray to the Living God, who is love and love casts out all fear, even when things fall down.