Why there is so much Evil in the World
Why there is so much Evil in the World
The lack of Spiritual Leadership breeds Evil and Destruction
On the Third Terrace of Wrath in Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Pilgrim describes the state of Europe and Italy in his current times, around the year of 1300 AD:
the world, indeed, as you have just declared,
is destitute of every virtue known,
swarming with evils, ever breeding more.
He then asks the character and penitent soul of Marco Lombardo for why this is, and where to put the blame for it. Is it coming from the Heavens, or does is arise from people here on Earth?
The answer is an elaborate and theological one, but the main point is this; that Humans do have a Free Will, if not the consequences of Paradiso and Inferno would not make any sense nor be an expression of Justice in the world. But we also need the spiritual guidance to develop this Will and understand how to exercise it constructively. In his time, Dante argues that the Church had thoroughly failed this responsibility and that it had thus “caused the present state of evil in the world”
. He goes on further in suggesting that this failure was a direct result of fusing “the two suns” of the Church and Empire into one, as the city-state of Rome did quickly after the Great Schism in 1054 AD. Thus creating total power, which according to Dante “must bring about misrule”.How is this relevant for today? In a few important ways. First, the Church has in many ways largely failed in its mission to defend and explain the moral structures of Being and the Cosmos, and their timeless and essential guiding value for people today. Contemporary ideas like Relativism are fraudulent and usually a sign of lurking vices that want to pretend that there are no good vs. damaging values in the world. But there is. And this needs to be expressed and maintained in the majority of a population to have a healthy and functional society and culture, over time.
Secondly, one might say that the global and transnational money that are so heavily influencing the Governance of the Western World at the moment, even as they are failing dramatically, are the source of much of these swarming evils we see today. And some of these “Globalists” have to some extent also assumed the role of moral and spiritual authorities, through usually dismissing objective morality altogether. Or presenting an incoherent and self-contradictory package of distorted brainwash to confuse the masses and create chaos. This is perhaps the most barbaric and backward aspect of what seems to now be the failed era of the Western Globalists from 1989-2022.
Thirdly, it reminds us that we have a personal responsibility and freedom to exercise our own Free Will, and not allowing us to be led by the brainwash in the media, culture, education and the internet. We can seek out spiritual guidance today in ways that were not possible in the past, and we can nurture our own soul and build a moral foundation built on Truth, and on timeless Wisdom.
Much of the evil in the world today, and especially in America, seems to perhaps originate directly from the minds of these failed “Globalists”, in its deranged and destructive form. And as it now might be crumbling before our very eyes, we have the chance to contribute to a new rebuilding and Rebirth of the Western Civilization, and one that is partly founded on the spiritual wisdom of the vices and virtues, and on a certain openness to the Mysteries of the Heavens. In this way we might be able to create an enduring Civilization again, and one that is filled with joy, aspirations, humility, and a Good Life.
Purgatory Canto XVI, v. 103-105
Purgatory Canto XVI, v. 110-111