Is a new Dark Age descending?

Our institutions have all moved from their idealism, through pragmatism to dogmatism.

Referencing contemporary historian Thomas Cahill and Canadian economist Jane Jacobs, Lakeland Ledger guest columnist Dale Braiman contends that the dark age has already descended.

Look around you. Gated communities keep out the riffraff, just as they did in the Dark Ages. They did not have SUVs then, but these tanks are dark-age as well. The church not only plays an increasingly powerful role in politics and policy, but the Bush administration is silencing scientists who dare speak up. Church over science is dark-age. There is a snowballing of the separation between rich and poor exacerbated by Bush tax cuts. Dark age.

Heaven help us, but our government has not only begun to torture people but has recently advanced the argument that it is OK to do so for national security. Dark age. The relationship between Christians and Muslims is almost too obvious to mention. Dark age.

The most striking feature is the forgetting of culture. Wrapped in a religious zeal, the affinity for the free market has turned our universities into vocational schools for corporations. Even the best and brightest among us are now prepared to make the big bucks with only minimal preparation to be citizens of a democracy. When was the last time Americans took the same pride in voting as did the Iraqis? Dark age.

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