There is nothing new about the mantra that we can transcend politics. It is as old as conceit, and it reveals a deep and seemingly inescapable paradox at the heart of human life: the inverse relationship between humility and humanity. Without objective truth, the ability to recognize transcendence and acknowledge providence, human reason suffers from viral incoherence. Our attempt to evict God and enshrine reason led, ironically, to the repudiation of reason and to a full-fledged flight from truth. Our faith in the inevitability of human progress is a fatal miscalculation, and all the suffering wrought by famine, disease, war, and poverty will not equal the human misery inspired by that vision. -Heritage
Every generation the promise returns. We will finally overcome nature. What we mean to say, of course, is that we will learn to solve every disease, and every physical ailment. That we will learn to build civilizations out of thin air, using no energy, and with no “environmental impact.” That we will end hunger and “injustice” (most often by simply redefining the word “justice”), in all the corners of the world. That we will build a perfect haven on Earth. That we will, in effect, return to the Garden and evict the God who lives therein.
We will do all of this by coming to the end of politics. This is the promise of communism and socialism —there will be one great final revolution, a few years (or perhaps generations) of strict government rule while men are “reprogrammed” by the state, and then all politics will collapse. This is the promise of Islam —there will be one great revolution, followed by the rule of peace through Sharia forever. This is the promise of capitalism —the government will recede before the market, which will operate by balancing everyone’s interest perfectly. This is the promise of Buddhism —a great enlightenment will come as people turn to nothingness, and in nothingness the world will find peace. This is the promise of the New Age —the ascended masters will remove those who will not evolve by force, and then mankind will make the next “great leap” into a peaceful “new man.” Environmentalism says that man has already conquered the world, and must now “give it back.”
But if there is one thing of which I’m certain, it’s that man will never conquer the world.
Man will conquer man, of course. In communism, the enlightened leader must conquer man to reprogram all men to be like himself, thus overcoming man permanently. In Islam, the religious leader must conquer all men so as to force all of them to follow the outward dictates provided by the Imam. In capitalism, the rich must conquer the rest, so as to have a permanent “buying class” from which to draw wealth. In Buddhism, man must conquer himself and retreat to nothingness.
But man will never conquer “the world.” And we’re absolute fools for thinking we ever might. No, we are stuck with politics until Christ returns. We are stuck with injustice until Christ returns. We are stuck with man’s pride until Christ returns. We can try to make the ride a little less noisy, and a little more comfortable, through technology and a proper ordering of government, but once these two things step outside their bounds, they will inevitably do more harm than good.
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. -Proverbs 16:18
We cannot “transcend” politics. We cannot return to the Garden the way we came out, and we cannot evict the God who lives there. There is only one way back into the Garden, and pride prevents us from going down that path.
We need to have the humility to accept our humanity, although it wounds our pride, and stops us from dreaming of the truly grand things. We need to focus on winning the world, not conquering it, as hard as that might be. We need to stop fighting against our nature, and turn to the one who can change our nature. The only realistic goal is to set goals that can actually be obtained, and leave the rest to God.
