THE First and Second Commandments of the Old Testament, respectively, instruct the faithful – Jew and Christian alike – to have no other god above God and not to create false gods. But God Himself was long ago abandoned by western society.
The notion of religion itself is largely abandoned, and both the worship of God and the practice of religion is more evident in minority communities in the United Kingdom. Witness the number of mosques on our city skylines and juxtapose that with the number of abandoned and repurposed church buildings.
Into the vacuum have flooded false gods and a new religion with its own un-Holy Trinity of beliefs which have coalesced and now grip the minds of large swathes of our population. Who can blame them? In a world where life is becoming less meaningful in the existential sense of the why and the wherefore of our existence, more focused on consumerism and what we can get rather than what we can give, people have grasped hold of new notions of self-worth, self-esteem and value added to their life.
The wonderful thing about this new religion is that it requires little sacrifice, a minimum of effort and can be practised from the safety and comfort of your own conservatory. And it is largely practised by people who own a conservatory.
The un-Holy Trinity consists, of course, of climate change catastrophising, woke ideology and Covid-orthodoxy. The last is the ‘Johnny come lately’ to the Trinity. Nevertheless, it has been the ideal vector for the ideas and the expression of the new religion: the icing on the ideological cake.
As with any religion, people adhere more to some aspects of the Trinity than others. As with any religion, each aspect has its fanatics who exist pour encourager les autres. Climate change has Extinction Rebellion, the Jesuits of the movement, woke-ism has Black Lives Matter, the Caliphs of the movement, and Covid-orthodoxy has the mainstream media, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who decide what we should read and listen to for our own good.
Each has its key reference figures. Climate change has its living saint Greta Thunberg. Black Lives Matter has its martyr George Floyd and Covid-orthodoxy has Bill Gates. Conversely, there are the heretics, too many to name, but they all have one thing in common which is that they are demonised, ignored and drowned out by the mob.
The synergy between the three Persons of The Trinity is obvious. The Covid pandemic has been used to forward the cause of climate change catastrophism by imposing restrictions that would have been unimaginable in 2019. Travel has almost ceased in some parts of the world. For no good reason, restrictions remain with the ever-present threat of reimposition. The bête noire of the climate change movement, the airline industry, may never recover.
Moreover, the climate change catastrophists and the Covid-orthodox are both millennialist and millennarist movements. Both predict that the end is nigh unless we change our ways. Both point to a perfect future whereby a paradise will be created on earth, one that is infinitely sustainable and free of infection, prior to the final judgment or the sun fizzles out. Whichever comes first.
Black Lives Matter has the stated aim of undermining our society by attacking the fabric of our economy and our legal system. The unstated aim, far more corrosive and less easy to combat, is to undermine our collective self-confidence in our history, our iconic figures, our institutions and our society. What better way to throw a series of rabbit punches before the final blow of the pandemic arrived to turn our world upside down?
Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion have demonstrable longevity as extreme outposts of the race relations and global warming movements, respectively. The Covid-19 pandemic, while pandemics per se are nothing new, does not have a comparable history. But it is likely to have a considerable future. Witness, already, how some medical meddlers are advising that face masks may be here in perpetuity, an annual coronavirus booster vaccine may be necessary and many of our current restrictions will persist. Even worse, witness the willingness of the masses to acquiesce.
Masks are a terrible imposition but if others do not mind looking ridiculous then who would stop them? If people want vaccinations, then let them. But these remnants of the Covid-19 pandemic will persist to remind us of what the consequences will be if we dissent. Masks and vaccine passports will become like the blood on the doorposts in Exodus. They will be our protection from mobbing, ridicule and ostracism. If only we had another religion.
