The second battlegrounds I wish to highlight, relates to the social disintegration (the loss of real community) within society and the decreasing influence of an authentic spiritual and moral compass to guide it. The consequence of such a loss at the heart of Western society has seen a steady growth in narcissistic trends developing across the generations. That insidious self-centred attitude that says, life is all about me, my ideas, wants and needs – my rights!

The McKay institute in 2008 conducted a survey across a range of group’s, ranging in age from 17year to 60+. Let me give you my snapshot of their findings…

• there is a growing sense of disintegration at the core of society …

• we are witnessing a moral collapse around age old beliefs and societal norms …

• there is a breakdown of genuine community …

• however there’s a growing desire among some sections of society to recapture real community …

• an increase in affluence has led to materialism and excessive waste …

• however this crisis is starting to cause some to stop and ask serious life and value style questions. Like what kind of society do people want to live in and inturn pass onto their children and grandchildren.

We are seeing what I am calling, ‘narcissistic individualism’ rising up amongst sections of our Western society. This has resulted in an escalation of new and socially aggressive behaviour such as … road rage, car jacking, glassing, neighbourhood property wars, increased corporate crime, exploiting the weak and betraying the elderly in our communities; sexually predatory behaviour towards minors, cyber bullying and schoolyard crime like knifing and shootings, to name just a few. Behaviour of this kind is undermining the very subsoil of our long-held community ideals and freedoms. These however are but symptoms of a deeper and more alarming issue at the heart of our modern society.

As a society, we are becoming victims to our own narcissistic tendencies. Where will it end? Societies past have slipped into oblivion under the weight of such decaying community standards as they jettisoned the ideals of corporate responsibility, age-old behavioural standards and genuine care to their fellow human companion. Thomas Jefferson once said that honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom, and that if we abused this virtue the very fabric of our society would begin to unravel and fall apart. It is true that virtue creates habits and it’s those habits that shape what we do…so honesty is powerful to the success of society. Narcissistic individualism negates this kind of virtue.

Into this swirling and uncharted water, there is rising a new and aggressive voice. A voice for change! Change that seeks to overthrow what it considers as old fashion and outdated standards and traditions, inconsistent with an ultra modern, highly educated and progressive society. However these changes are what threaten the very foundational mores that underpin Western society and made it the great society it has become. Liberal democratic values that are enshrined in our laws have been shaped by a Bible impregnated worldview that has given successive generations a template, a navigating plumbline to measure life and values against. These voices want to change all that.

These well funded, vocally strong, and aggressive secular humanists seek to reengineer Western society away from its Judeo-Christian roots, traditions and laws framed by its Biblical orthodoxy. Proponents of this ‘neo-secular humanism’ have a strategy to socially and politically change and restructure our laws and conventions that govern our way of life, to bring them into line with their personal belief systems and those of their particular subculture. The current marriage debate and issues surrounding same sex marriage, is just one more ‘social construct’ under threat of aggressive reconstruction from these social progressives. They are hell-bent on change in their push to modernise, reorder and update what they see as antiquated, archaic laws and social practice.

Let me quote a great general from another era. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was speaking at the opening of a memorial to commemorate those who had died during the Second World War across North Africa. His words are worthy of sharing with you as I conclude this blog. He said: “Let us remember when all these things are said and done, that one great fact, the greatest fact, remains supreme and unassailable.  It is this. There are in this world, things that are true and things that are false; there are ways that are right and ways that are wrong; there are men good and men bad.  And on one side or the other we must take our stand, one or the other we must serve.”

The pressures that individuals feel in our modern society demand that good men and women make a stand. In the face of aggressive secular humanism, selfish ideological and commercial agendas that are been dressed up to appear reasonable and reflective of a new ultra-modern style society, when any honest assessment would clearly reveal they are not. It will take genuine courage, integrity and a commitment to a greater good beyond oneself to announce that the emperor really has no clothes.