It may seem new that our political culture looks like part spoiled mob, and part spooky-conspiracy-theory, tin-foil-hat club, but it’s not.
The historical terms for these movements are modernity and post-modernity. They’re not new, and they’ve shaped our politics, morality, and spirituality.
The 18th-century Enlightenment marked a dramatic shift in worldview for those in Europe and America. It started with an admirable enough question: "What is truth?”
Previously, the broader culture believed people could know the things of life by traditional authoritative sources of knowledge, like the church, tradition, scripture, kings.
With the Enlightenment, science, logic, and one's own individual reasoning became the ultimate sources of authority and certainty. This shift in worldview helped give rise to neo-Gnosticism: the idea that real progress and meaning to life is found in the pursuit of secret knowledge.
The Enlightenment birthed what we now call modernism. Its mood was: “Having discovered who we are, we have emerged from the murky world of religious superstition. We have the true knowledge that has been hidden from mankind. Science, logic, and reason give us certainty. Knowledge is power, and we are living in humanity's golden age. We, the elite, are burdened with the duty to share our progress with the rest of the world still in darkness."
Modernism’s influence hit political systems early.
When the people rejected the divine right of kings, "Vox Populi, Vox Dei" (the voice of the people is the voice of God) became the slogan of the 18th-century democratic and populist movement.
This movement birthed revolutions and modern democratic governments, like France and the United States. The people took their own collective sentiment as divine approval.
In this new field, atheism and secular humanism gained prominence, fueled by neo-Gnosticism.
“Vox Dei” dwindled. “Vox Populi” ascended unchecked. It is commonly held today that if the voice of the people is not heard and heeded, then the people are being denied their long-awaited utopia.
But even in Wyoming, modern political unrest reveals the failure of “Vox Populi” to deliver on its promise. We cast our ballots year after year, yet the ideal society we envision remains stubbornly out of reach.
The hubris of modernism and the frustrated expectations of populist progress created the ideal conditions for the revolt called post-modernism.
Post-modernism oozes suspicion: believe nothing, question everything.
Nietzsche famously asserted that truth is merely a function of power.
Post-modernism sees the truth claims of modernity as nothing more than a self-serving power grab—obstructing the utopian ideal envisioned by the earlier cry of “Vox Populi.” The postmodern worldview tries to deconstruct whatever truth claims exist, often seeing conspiracies around every corner.
Post-modernism wants to legitimize its authority by advancing an alternative truth rooted in neo-Gnostic thought.
“We will discover the real truth,” says the view. “Wielding the power that comes from our truth, we will overthrow our oppressors and find true liberation and happiness.”
Post-modernism's big critiques of modernism merely reveal its true nature: an insular, elitist movement masquerading as countercultural.
It promises heaven, but it’s bound to bring hell.
In our post-modern, neo-Gnostic world, many indulge in conspiracy theories about what "they" are up to, and "they" can be politicians, the media, the church, the Russians, the Muslims, the Jews, the insiders, the leftists, the RINOs, or anybody we choose. The allure of hidden knowledge—of uncovering a vast conspiracy—retains immense cultural power, not least because history occasionally vindicates it, as seen in corporate malfeasance and political corruption.
Our problem is not that we don't have enough "Vox Populi." Our problem is we've rejected "Vox Dei."
Government is not God, nor are “the people” made divine through bureaucracy. Getting enough of the right people into positions of authority is not a messianic fix – and no election will save you.
Like the Roman governor Pontius Pilate before Jesus, neo-Gnostics of both modernism and post-modernism cynically ask, “What is truth,” thinking all the while that they have the knowledge everyone else is missing. “Vox Dei” is not found in the hubris mankind wrought with modernity, nor in the conspiracies and subversion that define post-modernity.
It is found in the person and work of King Jesus. He is Truth. What does this mean for the average person who is influenced by modernism or post modernism?
Progress and societal advancements cannot produce contentment or deal with the problem of evil. Modernity looks for answers in all the wrong places, disappointing our grasping souls.
As for post-modernism, the truth isn’t buried in some conspiracy. Treating everyone and every truth-claim with suspicion reduces truth itself to spin, smear, or supposition. It leads to fear of everyone and everything. Christians, however, have not been given “the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind,” according to 2nd Timothy, 1:7.
We can know truth as a solid, without being in an elitist club – but not without humility and love.
When we look at the political arena all around us, it’s not hard to see modernity and post-modernity, goring one another.
Modernity screams of its impossible utopias. Post-modernity thrashes at our institutions.
Will we, the gaping spectators, let these gladiators infect us with distrust for one another?
What kind of hell and chaos will that unleash?
Sure, maybe some hero could enter and restore true sense. But maybe it falls on you, and your family and friends, to challenge hubris and wild conspiracies in a loving way. To spot these phantoms, dressed up as truth.
