Paul Kelly and the decay of public trust

It is true that we often do not recognise our own thinking as ideological. Ideology, as the name suggests is the pursuit of an ideal and has strong associations with Platonism. For the left it may be the classless society and a high level of distributionism, for the right, the independence and freedom of individuals and small government. Both are utopian in their own ways. Both come under the theological critique of idolatry.

Christian faith is radically iconoclastic and as such is the enemy of idolatry including the ideologies that inhabit our souls under all kinds of disguises, mostly in the name of doing the good. If we are serious about how the decline in Christian faith affects our communities we need to understand how faith works. It does not only condemn leftish ideologies but ideologies of all breeds since ideology stands in the way of our relationship with God. Ideology is religion in the bad sense; an attempt to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We, like the first couple, are expelled into a world that we find is against us.

It is not that progressive ideology is immoral it is that it is too moral. This explains the high moral tone of its expression; the self-righteousness, the demonising of anyone who begs to differ. In progressive ideology, we encounter hyper-moralising. This explains its Puritan character and lack of sense of humour and self-critique.

Conservative ideology is likewise highly moral. Indeed, it sees itself as standing for God given morality, rather than ideologically driven morality. In this it is mistaken because it misses the essence of Christianity and imposes its own ideology that can hardly be called Christian. These movements are opposite sides of the same coin and there is no likelihood that any progress will be made between them since they each hold the other to ransom. So we are dealing not only with the loss of the idea of authority and community but with two competing ideologies that hold government in gridlock. Neither understand what the Church is about.

The ideology of the right is more invested in individual freedom of the empty kind and is a poor bedfellow with the Christian understanding of community. The ideology of the left understands community, would lessen individual freedom for it but has largely rejected its Christian roots. It is no wonder that politics has become incomprehensible.