There is a headline in the Guardian this morning that says:
And why not, you might reasonably ask?
Next to that headline at the time of writing is this one:
The old institutions of power are crumbling.
I have little doubt that both the monarchy and the Church of England have further to fall as yet.
So why note this? Three reasons.
First, as these institutions crumble, a power vacuum is created.
Second, we know vacuums are unstable.
Third, new power structures will arise in place of those that are failing as a consequence.
Are the obvious failings of royalty and bishops just a necessary part of the rise to power of the oligarchy, or kakistocracy as The Economist recently described those grabbing power right now?
Don't rule it out, I suggest. All of this is terribly convenient for those waiting in the wings.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Add to that the ‘turbulence’ that Trump is unpredictably likely to create directly or indirectly and the ratchet effect of climate change on infrastructure and daily life.
What is concerning me most at the moment is how many people will be harmed by the grinding of these wheels and the gaps opening up as institutions lose coherence and structural integrity.
It’s looking to me like bottom-up mutual aid mindsets are needed and we need to find ways to build people-supporting alternatives starting now.
Much to agree with. I comment on this blog regularly on community energy (and its “bottom-up” aspect). The intention is now to find ways of working with churches – which tend to be community based. Yes, there are (& have always been?) problems with those @ the top of these institutions – but those on the ground/at the religious coal-face – as it were – could make a significant difference in rolling out Community XXX (the XXX representing a range of community activities from energy through to transport and food). I take the point about a power vaccum – one way to make sure it is filled with something that helps communities is offering churches/mosques/religion a way of becoming more relevant. Yes I know, I’m an idealist.
I have recently become interested in theology again (not just because I am getting old !). It is similar in some ways to economics being built on assertions which are differently interpreted. Psychotherapy, to a degree, the same. In all one needs judgement to make good use of it.
The churches you describe are like the one where I hired a room as counsellor. It is a religion of practice rather than belief. When I look at some of the American churches and their political involvement, they seem to be more about ideology and adherence to that, rather than action in the community. There are many churches who do minister to need, of course, but it is not clear how far they advocate for social change. I feel the religion of creeds and beliefs is becoming secondary to a religion of compassion. The Salvation Army and Quakers, despite their very different theology. are both good examples of what I mean.
You may be an idealist but having aims and hope is essential to improving our lot. It has always been what has brought about change.
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/12/18/the-imminent-rise-of-the-kakistocracy/#comment-998749 Ian Stevenson is interested in theology. Mike Parr is interested in working with churches/religious communities that are community oriented and advocating for social change.
Agreed!
Social justice must be part of any theology worth studying/living out. A belief in a better reality “somewhere/somewhen” that doesn’t have serious implications for “here and now” is not worth having. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain” promises the Judaeo-Christian God I worship. So why hurt & destroy NOW?
Also, doing good MUST involve advocating, resisting, protesting, building, planning for social justice that prevents further harm. When I retired from managing a food bank I reminded them that feeding the hungry was not enough, we had to address and organise against the causes of hunger. Jacob Rees-Mogg finds food-banks uplifting. I don’t, I think they are a shameful disgrace, and I helped found one. & ran it for 5 years.
The government tries to persuade charities that they cannot campaign in this way. That is morally deplorable, and legally, it’s total rubbish. What is prohibited under charity law, is party politics, not politics. After all the neoliberal world of the rich, is stuffed full of charitable foundations, playing fast and loose with their charitable status for political ends.
Even in our minority state, churches have millions of sq metres of real estate and millions of volunteer hours available, and an increasing hunger for real, immersive, incarnational – “word-became-flesh-and-dwelt-among-us-full-of-grace-and-truth” community involvement, focussed on people, not institutions, on service, not power. And a warning, we’ve learned to spot opportunistic politicians looking for photo-opportunities, & bandwagons, before they get within 100 yds. There’s always a need for someone to scrub out the dustbin, unblock the U-bend or clean off the baby changing mat. Yes, I mean YOU Jacob R-M. (I find the sight of politicians changing nappies SO UPLIFTING!)
While I am an atheist, I agree with your sentiments and those who’ve replied.
to remind us about a report from a group of churches about10 years ago
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2013/03/03/the-lies-we-tell-ourselves-ending-comfortable-myths-about-poverty/
I had forgotten that report.
Oh dear.
I’ve reached a point of divergence here.
Why do we need ‘religion’ to get involved in delivering services and that sort of thing?
Who says that religion is somehow a receptacle for all that is ‘good’ in society or humanity?
Religion is doing well is it – notwithstanding child beating (the UK), infanticide (Ireland) and genocide (Gaza)?
I think Jesus said something along the lines of if you are tired or burnt out by religion then just pay attention to what He said and abide by it. He made it simple for us because it starts from oneself – not an institution. But a group of people putting the wisdom of Jesus or another prophet into action – well that is some force. But it is not even strictly Jesus’s wisdom is it? That wisdom pre-dated Jesus. And Jesus was right really – we are a totally inter-dependent species – and that is a social and historical fact, not really a religious one. Hence his comment to me seems to suggest that you do not need religion to achieve a better humanity. It is already in us. The Jews once believed that they belonged where they stood anywhere in the world – with others who were not Jews – not in some place called Israel as some of them now believe. What a wonderful thought that was – bringing people together.
Religion’s job I suppose was that it saw itself once to be an engineer and nurturer of good souls who would treat their fellow man/woman with humanity. But that was not how it was always practiced. Now it is marketing’s and the media’s job – egged on by politicians – to engineer our souls and buy into the life they portray. Religion now just goes around sweeping up after the market perversely bringing relief to that which cannot be relieved. But it makes us feel better. Especially if you are religious?
Religion has also been captured – like politics and many other institutions – by wealth. So often it validates wealth. Should it repudiate more? Or is it too doffing its cap? Power structures within religions seem to be routinely abused by human beings who forget that they are inter-dependent. If there is anything we really need to believe or find again, it is humanity. That belief, that courage to see ourselves in others has been turned off in too many of us. And especially those with power over us.
Sorry – I’m not convinced. As for being a kakistocracy, that all started in 1979 when a bunch of opinionated right wing wide boys and girls with the remedies of the quack doctor got into power. We’ve had multi-generational kakistocracy since then and this will continue into perpetuity until the link between the rich and party funding is ablated.
The challenge of course is what do we replace these institutions with and we could end up with something worse.
Failing that I think a friend of mine might fancy being Archbishop just for the outfits
I await the call from The Palace inviting me to lead the next Government and to abdicate once I am in office
It is ingenuous to believe that community-based activism could substitute for national institutional catastrophe. There were some excellent community networks in Gaza two years ago.
What we need is a decent government for the benefit of the population, not 5% of them.
I’m not sure anyone is advocating that community-based activism would be a substitute for more systemic approaches (if that was what was meant). But history seems to show that the two do well together: I recall in various places I’ve lived that working class mutual aid institutions helped people at a local level while unions, local democracy (such as it was) and parliamentary activity also played a part. However, I do think that the former was vital to the latter.
Fwiw, I do think that at their best, churches, masjids, gurdwaras etc can be points of confluence and support of wider community resiliance building. It is something I am advocating that my fellow church leaders take really seriously in their thinking about what churches etc are and do over the next decade and beyond. There are historical precedents.
It is arguable that before being pressed into state ideological service, churches and other religious /spiritual paths tended to make a much closer connection between ideas like ‘salvation’ and the improvement of human and non-human life.
PilgrimSlightReturn says, “we don’t need religion to…”
I agree with virtually everything PSR says! I’m certainly not saying “we NEED religion” to effect social or political change. But it’s here, and it is part of the picture, and many of its followers applaud you and want to be in solidarity with you.
What I am trying to say, is that many people of faith are “co-belligerents” with you on the issue of poverty, injustice and oppression, and perhaps because they have been focussing (at long last) on the words & praxis of that Jesus person you refer to, or those age-old moral truths you rightly mentioned, and are being less deferential nowadays to some of their religious institutions or traditions. This goes back a fair way, for example, the former Bishop of Liverpool David Shepherd (of cricketing fame) wrote books in 1974, “Built as a City” & “Bias to the Poor” in 1983 that infuriated the right, based on his experiences immersed in urban communities in London & Liverpool. The C/E published “Faith in the City” in 1985 under Robert Runcie which infuriated Thatcher even more. These
influenced me, as did Ron Sider’s writing. By 2011/12, the largest evangelical festival in UK, Spring Harvest, was issuing a call for action by churches to get involved practically and prophetically in challenging poverty AND the politics that perpetuated it. Long overdue? Yes! But better late than never. Then came that report Richard quotes, from the churches in 2013, and by then many foodbanks (including the one I helped open & managed) had been open for a year or more, and hard data was being collected. Soon, government and the Trussell Trust were at loggerheads, because the DWP were lying, and Trussel had the data to prove it.
“Religion” has a lot to answer for. The fallible often failing institutions that promote it, are like other institutions, corrupted and culpable. But many people of faith are, and can continue to be co-belligerents in the current struggle. I don’t know any perfect institutions, or any perfect people, and if I did (in memory of Groucho Marx), I’d keep away from them for fear of spoiling them. But this motley crew of economists, accountants, housing managers, bankers, civil servants, and even religious nutters like me, can pool our experience, our intellects, our resources and, if needed, our moral courage and convictions, to make this world, now, a better place. As for any other world, in or out of time and space, we don’t need to divide over that here, do we?
Thanks
That 2013 church report, here’s a current link to it.
https://www.jpit.uk/wp-content/uploads/Truth-And-Lies-Report-smaller.pdf
The link given above didn’t work for me.