immoral, and viciously self-serving characterrnof much of American foreign policyrntoday. This attitude gives the policies ofrnthis great, but disfigured, nation their anti-rnChristian character.rnAn important difference between today’srnWestern atrocities and those of therncommunists and the Nazis is to be foundrnin the hypocrisy in which Allied brutalityrnclothes itself Arnaud-Aaron Upinsky, inrnhis masterly study of the nature of modernrnpolitics. La Tete coupee, points outrnthat the model for the modern politicianrnis not Machiavelli or Robespierre, norrneven Lenin, but Tartufe. For, likernMoliere’s professional hypocrite, thernmodern politician conceals his brutal,rnamoral, and totally self-serving conductrnof public affairs under a mask: notrnTartufe’s mask of Christian purity andrnpiety, but the mask of humanitarian concern.rnThe politics of Uncle Tom’s Cabinrnhave become universal.rnThese considerations lead us to reexaminernthe phenomenon of modern totalitarianism,rnwhich belongs to the veryrnwarp and woof of modern civilization, atrnleast since the Enlightenment. For thernrefusal of divine transcendence, centralrnto the Enlightenment, leads either to therndomination of the One, unity and totalityrnbeing concentrated in the state; or to thernabsolutization of the Many, which is thernpluralism of social anarchy. The FrenchrnRevolution, communism, and Nazismrnwere in fact but the tip of the iceberg, itsrnmass being constituted by the inexorablernmovement of a godless civilization towardrna monolithic social order. Such arnperspective leads us to revise our understandingrnof the Weimar Republic and ofrnNazi Germany itself. Far from beingrnaberrant exceptions, these cancerousrngrowths represented the norm. Theyrnwere only ahead of their time, too modernrnat that time to be easily assimilated byrnthe rest of the West, which was still too attachedrnto the transcendent norms ofrnChristian civilization to be seduced.rnIn fact, the totalitarian modernity ofrnNazi Germany foretold what AlexanderrnZinoviev calls the “totalitarian West.” Inrnboth, we find the cult of science andrntechnology; an obsession with biologicalrnand social evolution; an obsession withrnthe occult and with death (e.g., abortionrnand euthanasia); pantheistic ecologicalrnnaturalism; the extraordinary developmentrnof propaganda, disinformation, andrnthe total infatuation of the public withrnlies; the almost total secularization (i.e.,rnatheization) of the Christian faith; thernfascination with power and violence; therncult of youth; and the cult of homosexuality.rnMost of these elements are found withinrnWestern civilization today. Not onlyrndo we see throughout the West a cult ofrn”life,” that self-justifying vitalism whichrnwas so precious to the Nazis, with its exaltationrnof nature at the expense of man,rnbut also a generalized immanence excludingrndivine transcendence from allrnpolitical, social, and cultural realities.rnThis rejection of God, this universal,rnpractical, and democratic atheism, leadsrnto the loss of intellectual clarify, with dramaticrnconsequences: the incapacity torndistinguish between femininify and feminism,rnbetween human sexualify and bestialrnand homosexual behavior, betweenrnanimals and men, between God andrnmankind. The atheization of culturernleads to chaos and death.rnItalian philosopher Augusto Del Nocerndrew our attention to this progressivernatheization of Western civilization, notingrnthat the West has, in the past century,rnovercome its two totalitarian rivals,rnNazism and communism, as “religiousrnsystems,” but not as systems of organizedrnatheism. In fact, for Del Noce, the victoryrnof the West over its totalitarian rivalsrnhas led to a radical reinforcement of itsrninherently atheistic orientation. This isrnseen in the adoption of rampant materialismrn(what Del Noce called “Westernrnopulence”) as a universal way of life.rnEven the churches—by their rejectionrnof the divine inspirahon of the Word ofrnGod; by their exclusion of the generalrnrevelation of God through every aspect ofrncreation; by their adoption, in a variefy ofrnways, of the evolutionary dialectics ofrnprocess theology; by their putting subjectivernhuman experience above God andrnHis Creation —have reinforced the fundamentallyrnatheistic tendencies of modernrncivilization. This rejection of all transcendence,rnof all ontological rooting ofrnthe affairs of men in the true God, Father,rnSon, and Holy Spirit, Author andrnMaintainer of creation, is at the root ofrnour modern totalitarianism.rnBasic to all totalitarianism is the loss ofrnperception of any kind of difference betweenrnthe temporal and the spiritual.rnThis distinction is marked in the Westernrnpolitical tradition by the distinction betweenrnthe material sword (our penal law)rnapplied by the state when it accomplishesrnits divinely ordained mandate, and thernspiritual sword, the definition of justicernand truth, contained in the Law of Godrntaught by the Church. In the past, thisrnconfusion had come either from therndomination of the temporal by the spiritualrn(caesaropapism), or the dominationrnof the spiritual by the temporal (Erastianism,rnin all its forms). But our time hasrndiscovered an even more radical form ofrnthe abolition of that spiritual element inrnsociefy: the seduction and penetration ofrnthe Church of God by that very spirit ofrnerror and injustice which it was institutedrnto dispel. To the extent that the Churchrnhas disappeared as a significant force forrntruth, charify, and justice by its betrayal ofrnits Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, it hasrnceased to be a light to a world engulfed inrndarkness and salt to a rotting earth. Itrnthen disappears into insignificance: “It isrngood for nothing but to be cast out and tornbe trodden under foot of men” (Matthewrn5:13).rnSt. Paul, in 2 Thessalonians, addressesrnthe question of the totalitarian West inrnhis account of the Antichrist. He sees twornelements heralding the apparition of thernAntichrist. The first is drawn from thernvery name of the final enemy of God: Hernis anomos, the lawless one. He is the representativernof a fundamental antinomianism,rna rejection of God’s Law. No doubtrnhis antinomian system will include a certainrnrule of law —no society can existrnwithout law—but this “law” will be inrnconstant contradiction to the specificrnmoral demands of the commandmentsrnof God. Such laws would include the legalizationrnof abortion and euthanasia; thernlegitimization of so-called homosexualrn”marriages”; the contempt for any kind ofrnbinding legal obligation; the dissolutionrnof marriage and the establishment ofrn”sexual satisfaction” as the social norm;rnthe encouragement of debt at the expensernof savings . . . Such antinomianism,rnalready rampant in Western society,rnis encouraged and recommended by ourrnantinomian governments.rnThe other element which must precedernthe advent of the Antichrist is whatrnSt. Paul calls “apostasy,” which literallyrnmeans the changing of one’s position.rnHere, it is the abandonment of thernCatholic, Apostolic, Orthodox biblicalrnfaith. A general apostasy is an observablernphenomenon throughout the formerlyrnChristian West. In Europe, it takes thernshape of the empfying of churches. Elsewhere,rnthe churches remain full, but thernvoid, the spiritual emptiness, has all toornoften taken up its lodging in the mindsrnand lives of those who attend such religiousrnceremonies. Everywhere, we seern44/CHRONICLESrnrnrn