The Three False Idols of Modernity
THE THREE FALSE IDOLS OF MODERNITY
“Then he goes and brings with him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. So shall it be also with this evil generation.” (Matthew 12: 45)
The three false idols of modernity are the scientific method, democracy, and technology. Each of them offered a false hope for the salvation of mankind that many people bought into in their respective times. There have been many other false idols that have emerged and continue to emerge, but the three most significant are the aforementioned. They represent false salvation through empirical truth, false salvation through government by consensus, and false salvation through access to others. Truth; society; interpersonal relations. On three different planes modernity tried to secure the salvation of humanity and the world. They have all miserably failed, but that has not stopped power hungry narcissists the-world-over from trying to create and establish the next false idol as their opportunity arises.
Let’s take a few moments and provide some background on each of these three false idols.
The Scientific Method
First came the scientific method, through which people thought that all further disputes over truth would be resolved and settled, and that discord would no longer emerge around truth. Furthermore, truth was purely empirical and materialistic, and everything else was mere fancy or opinion. There was a constriction of truth at the same time there was a supposed universalization of truth. The worst part of this all was that this truth was not some set of objective propositions, but a method that people could follow to uncover truth in any situation, in perpetuity. It was perfectly adaptable to any scenario and would never lose its salvific power. The whole salvation for mankind lied in the method of discovering the (empirical, materialistic) truth through hypothesis, testing, and verifying.
However, after universal peace did not incontestably descend upon the European nations utilizing the scientific method, man, in their ever persistent pursuit to make themselves as God and secure their own salvation by will power and innovation, shifted their focus to the next false idol: democracy.
Democracy
After the collapse of the false idol of the scientific method to save mankind and usher in an era of utopian bliss, fallen man was looking for the next thing to cling their corrupted hopes to. Enter “democracy.” While democracy was not a new invention, in reaction to the monarchic kingdoms of the Middle Ages—which became the scapegoat for their failed salvific efforts via the scientific method—, it become the newest object of fascination for those vain enough to want to save the world. Enter modern democracy as we now know it, typified by the American and French revolutions of the 18th century.
No, the answer wasn’t the scientific method, or anything revolving around truth, the answer was consensus. And in consensus, the people would find genuine peace amongst themselves, and from there peace with others.
The last 250 years have been a repeated refutation of this false idol of democracy, but somehow there are still some people that cling to it as the unquestionable hope of human society. “We have to fight for democracy!” “We have to protect democracy!” “This is an assault on democracy!” All the while the notion of “democracy” is corrupted to such a place that neo-oligarchism rules the day. It was never going to be the means to mankind’s salvation, and it will never be in the future, either.
Before long, however, there emerged new hopes, one after another really, from advances in industrialization, to military “mutually assured destruction”, to globalization. And in each instance, the final state was worse than the first, so that as they drove out one demon, seven more, more evil than the first, came and took its place.
Technology
The most recent false idol has been technology, and in particular: the creation of the internet. There’s been a whole chorus of “visionaries” and “futurists” claiming that the internet, in forging the connections of all humanity, will usher in an era of global human peace through understanding like never before. In their worldview, the only impediment to harmony is a lack of understanding—not self-interest, pride, defiance, sin, and vice; just misunderstanding. It’s infantile to a comical extent, but it’s what a naïve and tragically under-formed human community, led by even more overeducated and under-formed elites, has come up with.
Their idea is that by connecting people, you familiarize one person to another, and before you know it, all conflict will evaporate and everyone will be voluntarily singing kumbaya without having to undergo any conversion or transformation of the heart.
The Next Era
The internet, just like democracy before it, just like the scientific method before that, is not going to save humanity. We may now transition into A.I.—a means of eliminating economic scarcity, or so they think—as the newest false idol; or diversity/pluralism; or psychotropic drugs, but the result will be the same as every other false idol going all the way back to the proto-false idol, the Tower of Babel, where man tried to build their way to God, literally. They will all fail precisely because they do not attack the greatest problem standing in the way of humanity’s flourishing and happiness: Sin.
It is divine charity, and divine charity alone—a charity that bears all things, endures all things, hopes all things, believes all things, and that sees the transformation of the heart, the salvation of the soul, as the point of all life, and the one goal worth unreservedly fighting for, no matter what a person has inflicted upon you against all of that—that can save humanity. It is peace and order, as Aquinas points out is integral to the virtue of justice (the virtue that disposes one toward respect of persons)—a peace that starts in- and with- divine charity through love of Christ—, that transforms society; and nothing short of that will do.+