Originally published at The Catholic Thing
“Out of the One, Many,” is my motto for today. Note that it is the opposite of “E Pluribus Unum,” which, I trust, some Americans may still recognize.
From my hero Nirad Chaudhuri (1897-1999) I learned that the former is the Hindu view: “Eko ham vahu syam” (plus accents). I approve of both mottoes, even though I am not a multiculturalist, or in any way sympathetic to identity politics.
Of the two, perhaps I prefer the Indian aphorism, because what came from the mouth of the Creator to the Orient, differs from what we find on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States – which declares, Novus ordo seclorum, the Latin for a “New order of the ages.” (Some Frenchman suggested it.)
In my reactionary view, we do not want a “new order” in politics or religion, but to persist. Anything that leads us off the ancient path is misfortunate; our ambition should be to get back on the road to Heaven.
But there is no prospect of this in the time we see ahead.
After the coming federal election, civilization may be over for the foreseeable future, yet only the losers of the contest will know it.
