Collapsitarians.
I bet you you’ve never heard that word before. I saw it for the first time on the Mother Jones web site. The word ‘collapsitarians’ speaks for itself: they are people who look forward to a total economic downfall and universal joblessness. They’d like to see the already fragile sectors of America’s recession plagued economy-finance, real estate, now the commercial segment as well – totally disintegrate so that something new, brighter, and more durable might appear. These old ways, they contend, will self-destruct because of fundamental flaws that will foster total failure in the near future. They fully realize that we humans are unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for our apparent disinclination to do so, and so they are convinced that we will self-destruct.
What these people hope – with utopian fervor, I may add – is that shoring up the ailing economies like Detroit’s and Wall Street with bailouts and stimulus plans will prove totally futile, and on the ashes of the 20th Century ruins, they expect to see arise a new economy more geared to renewable energy and a simpler life style with less pressure and more freedom. The’ they’ include Luddites- those who see technology as a curse -, Anarchists – those who see government as the problem -, Survivalists – those who have already reserved a place in the country, well stocked with food -, the Green types – those who see collapse as something that was bound to happen -, as well as those who do not agree with the widespread American tendency to regard their country as “a city on the hill, God’s chosen race.” Even financial-sector employees are among those who just want it all over with.
These people – not an inconsiderable number – want collapse to come, and even nudge it along. “If you see Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall, go ahead and give him a good shove,” one advocate said: “Once all the rotten and fragile stuff falls to pieces, hardier and healthier and more reasonable ways of organizing experience will emerge. Collapse may sound scary, but it a desirable stage en route to a “more delightful, more sustainable world.”
Of course it’s not quite that simple. The Collapsitarians are mostly well-to-do folk, often self-employed, and perhaps well situated to weather an economic eclipse. But how about the misery of mass unemployment, the disenfranchised majority, suddenly declared surplus, with no job, no food, no future? That is already a grave problem with official unemployment approaching 10 percent while, when counting part-time work and those who have stopped looking for work, the real figure is 16.4 percent according to John Miller at Wheaton College.
For centuries we have accepted as the gospel truth that Capitalism is the way to go and questioning it a heresy, greatly cheered on by church-going folk who see heaven as their destination rather than a renewed earth, and so couldn’t care less what happens here. It reminds me of a saying attributed to Dresden James, who wrote that “When a well-packaged pack of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.” I know I have been called that and, no doubt, others will too.
One of them is Dr Tony Campolo, a man often quoted in the Christian Courier. He is professor emeritus at Eastern University, founded the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, his most recent books are The God of Intimacy and Action and Red Letter Christians. Yes, he too is a collapsitarian.
In an article in Tikkun, a Jewish magazine, he writes that “Babylon” was the code word that St. John used for “The Roman Empire,” and relating that to our own time we should recognize that what the apostle said about the Roman Empire applies to every societal system. That means that our Babylon is the American political-economic social order, which, like all Babylons, is doomed to fall, because its consumerism makes it impossible to be sustained. He quotes Revelation 18:12-13 to back his argument.
Dr Campolo writes that “There is an obvious parallel in Revelation to the American Babylon. Ours is a consumeristic lifestyle that exhausts 42 percent of the world’s resources, even though Americans constitute just 6 percent of the world’s population. Our consumerism, like that of the Roman Empire, brings down our Babylon. Whether our political-economic system collapses in the immediate future as a result of our present crisis, or at some time in the future, is hard to predict. Frankly, it sure looks like now!
He writes that “When our Babylon falls, there will be two reactions. The first will be the reaction of those whom the Bible names as “the merchants.” We read that “They wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, the great city, where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in one hour she has been laid waste (Revelation 18:18-19).”
This is a true portrait of the millions now in deep financial distress, including those ‘merchants’ in shopping centers, unable to move the stocks of consumer goods.
Dr Campolo continues, “But there’s another reaction to the collapse of Babylon. It can be heard in the shouts of a great assembly. The shouts are coming from people who are committed to God and His Kingdom. With acclamations of praise they say, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power to our God, for his judgments are true and just; he has judged the great whore who corrupted the earth with her fornication” (Revelation 19:1b-2a).
Babylon is called a whore because, like a whore, it has seduced people. Those whose citizenship and commitments have been in Babylon have been seduced into a comfortable “dainty” lifestyle of consumerism and now are having to face the reality that this lifestyle has come to an end. They are being forced to realize:
“The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your dainties and your splendor are lost to you, never to be found again!” … and the sound of harpists and minstrels and of flutists and trumpeters will be heard in you no more; and an artisan of any trade will be found in you no more; and the sound of the millstone will be heard in you no more; and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more; and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more; for your merchants were the magnates of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery (Revelation 18:14, 22-23).”
The Good News is that as the facts of the collapse of Babylon spread, the people of God are not disheartened. This is because they were never allured by it in the first place. They were a people who had been “seeking, first and foremost, the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). These people of faith, following the instructions of their Lord, had not laid up for themselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, but had, instead, invested themselves in the Kingdom of God-a kingdom that will last forever (Matthew 6:19-20).
Campolo continues “In the face of the collapse of our American Babylon, we have to ask how much we have been a people whose lives and resources have been invested in God’s Kingdom, so that the collapse of our political-economic system does not threaten us. In the context of the collapse, with whom will we stand? Will we be with the merchants, and weep because our lives and resources have been invested in Babylon; or will we be able to join with those who shout “Hallelujah” because the seductive Babylon and all of the evils that go with her seduction are no more?”
Writes he “As our economic system collapses, I am coming to realize for the first time in my life that Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount are the most sensible words ever spoken. He said:
“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. “Matthew 6:24-33.
So far my quotes from Dr Campolo.
What does all this mean?
It means that we must get ready for the second coming of the Lord which will come like a thief, says 2 Peter 3:10. Peter the apostle also tells us to look forward to that day and speed its coming, which, in essence means that we also must become collapsitarians, awaiting not Utopia, but the reality of the Kingdom. Dr Campolo did that by pointing out the ultimate fragility of our economic system, whose collapse, together with the immense dangers we face in Climate Change and other perils, will endanger everything we now take for granted. We too can speed up the coming of the Kingdom by spreading the Good News of its imminent arrival.
Bert Hielema lives in Tweed, Ontario, where plenty of rain promises a bountiful harvest.