Catholic Culture Resources
Catholic Culture Resources

My Six-Step Formula for Destroying Everything

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Dec 13, 2013

Let us suppose a counter-factual for a moment. Let us suppose that I want nothing more than to ruin a healthy culture and destroy the social order which depends on that culture. Here, then, are my top six tactics to bring this about:

1. Eliminate Meaning: The first goal is to make people believe there is no meaning to life, no proper ends and purposes for human beings, because human beings are essentially accidental conglomerations of material elements which just happen to have the curse of consciousness. We must make sure all educational institutions echo this interpretation of humankind. Value: This will create a vacuum of moral purpose, breeding chaos in human relations, leaving nothing but the Hobbesian State to control everything.

2. Banish Religion: As the single strongest force for giving the human person a sense of ultimate meaning and purpose, religion must be ruled out of order in public life and ultimately reduced in significance so much that it withers in private life. Value: A wholly secular society eliminates the most likely and most effective source for a positive vision which can give rise to an ordered culture.

3. Mock Sexual Responsibility: Sexual expression lies near the heart of who we are as male and female, and so responsible use of sexuality is the sine qua non of human integrity. To completely destroy the order that lies within the human person, our most intimate passions must be encouraged to vent themselves at full force, unbridled. Value: The destruction of a person’s integrity of spirit, mind and body renders him weak and despairing, utterly bewildered that the passions do not lead to happiness.

4. Destroy the Family: Because both psychological stability and consistent material stability throughout life depend more on strong natural family structures than any other single factor, destruction of culture requires not only the breakdown of family life through frequent divorce and the refusal to bear children, but the elevation of “alternative” life-styles and fake families to an equal or superior status. Value: Without the family, people have no port in the storm unleashed by the forces of cultural dissolution and economic hardship.

5. Increase Dependency on Government: At every term, we must intrude government into personal life, both through regulation and benefits, so that people can be deceived into thinking they no longer need families, churches, community organizations, or habits of virtue and responsibility. It is essential to foster a politics of dependency. Value: This will condition people to elect whoever promises the greatest social benefits, ultimately destroying politics as a tool for solving human problems.

6. Pile Up Debt: Finally, it is essential to encourage both individuals and government to pile up enormous debts in order to seek material happiness, on the one hand, and to ensure that government remains in control, on the other. Since this approach to both personal life and government is inherently unsustainable, the last vestiges of order in society must inevitably collapse. Value: The job is done. After the collapse caused by universal debt, the fraudulent last hope of the populace is destroyed.

If this sounds chillingly familiar, then we have to scratch our heads and wonder what people are really trying to accomplish when they employ these same tactics. At what cost are they willing to pursue their own disordered personal goals? It would seem that many of the strongest themes in the life of what is left of the West are not only selfish but self-defeating, for all six of these steps are progressing around us on a grand scale.

Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.

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  • Posted by: MikeWetzel - Jul. 01, 2020 9:57 PM ET USA

    You can republish this post almost unedited today, July 1, 2020. In fact some of today's social justice warriors - whatever that term means - may have read this post and used it as a blueprint.

  • Posted by: koinonia - Dec. 16, 2013 2:44 PM ET USA

    But the first Church has answers and they revolve around charity, a charity that transcends the temporal order and encompasses all. Stay focussed and keep the faith.

  • Posted by: shrink - Dec. 16, 2013 2:37 PM ET USA

    Jeff, a left-winger might accuse you of plagiarizing from the the Democrat Party Platform.

  • Posted by: fenton1015153 - Dec. 13, 2013 5:50 PM ET USA

    Well thought out Dr. Mirus! I think all of your six points could be captured under one - Allow banks to use fractional lending. This would certainly drive your number six but I believe it would also destroy family, religion, meaning and would increase dependency on government to the hilt. As to mocking sexual responsibility a constant focus on materialism brought on by rampant financial schemes I could see people adopt an ideal of get what you can get when you want it. So fractional is evil.