No need to invoke veganism or even Marxism. There is nothing necessarily Marxist about being an ecofascist.
Christianity gives people a single central principle around which to organize their lives. Actually, if we were truly becoming more Marxist then we would probably see fewer suicides as Marxism is a single central principle around which people can organize their lives. It will ultimately lead to failure, but people will be fully engaged until they go over the cliff.
The only hope that atheists have is if they are smart enough they can fill their lives with scientific discovery, or if not they can become existentialists. They can decide to choose their own set of values and centralizing principle around which to organize their lives.
However, science is dissolving into mysticism with the weirdness of quantum mechanics and relativity. And existentialists will always have that nagging suspicion that the centralizing principle they happened to choose might not be a very good one.
What I believe we are seeing is the final phase of a failing American empire. People are retreating into hedonism, epicureanism, and stoicism. The good news is that most people are OK with just getting by without any overall meaning or purpose to their lives. They are OK with life being a set of sometimes converging, sometimes conflicting duties and entertainments.
We will see many more suicides, but most people will soldier on regardless.
“The good news is that most people are OK with just getting by without any overall meaning or purpose to their lives. They are OK with life being a set of sometimes converging, sometimes conflicting duties and entertainments.
We will see many more suicides, but most people will soldier on regardless.”
Good summary! I think deep down most people are agnostics. They’re not sure about God or an afterlife, but subconsciously hope there’s something there, and they tend to behave as though there is. Most people try to act according to the Golden rule as best as they can because at the end of the day, it’s in their self interest.
I think true stoicism and Christianity are compatible.