Australia in a conflict of ideals

The year is 2019 and I am 78 years old. Over my lifetime I have witnessed my country go through a period of tremendous change. It is not so much the change from steam trains to diesel, or the milkman and his horse and cart to the milk in the supermarket fridge, but the change in ideals. As a society, we have moved from the ideals of a Christian Western civilization, a compact that has existed for over a thousand years, and adopted the ideals of democratic socialism. In simple terms, we have moved from Jesus to Marx, we have moved from freedom, a freedom guided by the rule, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", to that of equality.

This revolution in ideals is driven primarily by the intelligentsia, the educated elite, but it has also been embraced by a wide cross-section of the community. Australians are by nature egalitarian, we like to sit in the front seat of the taxi rather than be chauffeured around as if we are Lord Muck, and so the idea of equality is easily accepted without considering the consequences. So here we are, two Australias, an old Australia and a new Australia, one primarily theistic, God believing, and one atheistic, God denying.

Now, of course, I have presented a caricature of a far more complex reality; the divide between conservatives and progressives cannot be so easily boxed up. Even so, the reality of the divide itself cannot be denied. My response to this reality is twofold:

First, I would ask the new Australia to consider the social good generated by the old Australia. Poverty still exists, but a good-life in the lucky country is the norm. Socialism has had over one hundred years to prove itself and all it has ever achieved is the degradation of humanity; it simply doesn't work. Every country experimenting with socialism has brought nothing but pain and death upon its citizens.

Second, I would ask the new Australia to respect the old Australia. A large section of the population still holds to the values and ideals of the old Australia and it can do our country no good if the new Australia seeks to isolate those who hold to "outmoded" religious ideas. We have started to witness people's right to employment infringed because they hold views that are not "politically correct." The making of lists is a fearful prospect, and who could have ever imagined that in this enlightened era we would resurrect such evil.

May we never forget that it is "for freedom Christ has set us free."

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