A New Golden Calf: Social Justice and the Future of Religiosity in America

One of the many philosophers that has shaped my worldview has been the early 20th century German historian Oswald Spengler. Spengler’s magnum opus, The Decline of the West, describes a cyclical view of history similar to Hesiod’s five ages of man. Spengler’s argument is that civilizations are a lot like living organisms; cultures are born, they grow up, they become old, and they die. Spengler proposes in his massive tome that as societies grow old they tend to reject the very values, particularly metaphysical, that shaped their development. They become cynical and secular. But in their death throes, civilizations experience what Spengler called “the second religiousness.” Although containing its own liturgical rites, hagiography, and mythos, this is a spirituality that is without rationality or codified theology, but one that is based on hysteria and pure emotion, propped up by pop culture, mass media, and the mob.

2020 has been the weirdest, perhaps most contradictory year of my life, like something out of ​Alice in Wonderland​. It has also been the year that I begin to see Spengler’s ideas crystalize into reality. I say this because the very pandemic that has brought the world economy to its knees, put many of us out of work, and forced us to endure a diet of beer and binge-watching Tiger King, doesn’t seem to be much of an issue when the liberal masses cry racism.

For months now, churches, synagogues, and other places of worship throughout this country are closed out of fear that congregants might spread COVID19 while singing hymns or coughing on each other in the communion line. Those places of worship that decided to defy their leaders’ draconian edicts and exercise their First Amendment rights to worship as they see fit were faced with fines and some were even forcibly shut down, most notably a large funeral for a Hasidic rabbi who died back in April.

But even now as civic, spiritual, and economic life has been halted to a standstill, American cities have seen only what can be described as a bacchanalia of rioting, looting, and general disruption of daily life over the death of George Floyd. On June 4th, memorial services honoring Floyd were held in many cities, most significantly in Minneapolis. People gathered to mourn the loss, embrace, and sing hymns beneath what appeared to be a painted religious icon of George Floyd, complete with a nimbus halo around his head containing the names of other victims of color. Whatever happened to social distancing? Why are so many of these “demonstrators” not wearing masks? And why aren’t our dear leaders correcting this in the middle of the “pandemic?”

In spite of an autopsy confirming that the man did not die of asphyxiation, but rather a drug-induced heart attack due to a cocktail of illicit substances in his system, liberals still wish to cry racial injustice and demand their pound of flesh from the officers involved in his arrest. Derek Chauvin, the arresting officer in this imbroglio, once faced the charge of third-degree murder and manslaughter. This charge has now been “upgraded” to second-degree murder, while the other three officers have been arrested on the charge of aiding and abetting that murder. And now, there have been outcries to charge Chauvin with first-degree murder. It is rather odd that as the masses bay for blood and Al Sharpton eulogizes at the funeral, nothing is mentioned of George Floyd’s rap sheet. According to the rather dull and pedestrian Houston Chronicle, Floyd had several encounters with the long arm of the law, starting with a drug charge in 1997 in Harris County, as well as an aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon in 2007, which landed him a conviction and a five-year prison sentence. 

Many neoreactionaries would claim that we are all “religious,” even those of no faith. It all depends on where we place our energies and emotions. And like all religions, the faith of social justice and the cult of George Floyd has a knack to suspend reality. It contains a hagiography. George Floyd’s sacred story, while containing some truths, is full of embellishment, exaggeration, and white-washing. And the media in this case acts as a kind of priesthood. Similar to what we saw in the Trayvon Martin case, the criminal aspects of George Floyd were ignored. Instead, he is portrayed as an innocent, honest, hard-working father, but even more than this: a sacrificial lamb killed by villainous and ungodly bigots. This is also a faith that has the power to draw out powerful displays of emotion and hysteria. And in that emotion there is a desire to receive absolution, a cleansing: to be fulfilled whether we wish to call it salvation, nirvana, or satori. In the past week we have seen scenes of white people kneeling before black protesters, asking their pardon for the sins of white privilege and their ancestors’ crimes of subjugation. On that same token the police and military, who have been sworn to protect lives and property, have bowed in supplication to riotous mobs rather than giving them a “whiff of grapeshot.” 

And like every fanatical religion, there must be an organization to maintain orthodoxy and uphold the narrative. Like the Spanish Inquisition and the Red Guards of the godless faith of Mao, there is no shortage of a cadre of volunteers willing to shed blood or endure martyrdom. And like any member of the established religion, they reap the benefits of orthodoxy, even if it is a five-finger discount from the Van Cleefs and Arpels store. 

We are witnessing the twilight of Western culture, and the dawn of an age of idols where, like the golden calf in Exodus, we’ve fashioned gods for ourselves. At least the Jews of yore could have traded their idol on a precious metals exchange. First century Christians were once forced on pain of death to render incense and offerings to Caesar, renouncing their faith. It is only a matter of time when we are all brought to the altar of social justice to offer our sacrifices or face the consequences of unbelief.

-By SoCo