American Pessimism

Peggy Noonan is one of my favorite pundits. A former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, she generally personifies American optimism. But not now, and that has me worried. In a recent column, Noonan wrote that a lot of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction, that, to use her words: “the wheels are coming off the trolley and the trolley [is] off the tracks. That in some deep and fundamental way things have broken down and can't be fixed, or won't be fixed any time soon.”

Further, Noonan says that the trouble encompasses, as she calls it, “the whole ball of wax. Everything. Cloning, nuts with nukes, epidemics; the growing knowledge that there's no such thing as homeland security; the fact that we're leaving our kids with a bill no one can pay. . . . our media institutions imploding. . . . The fear of parents that their children will wind up disturbed, and their souls actually imperiled, by the popular culture in which we are raising them. . . . Great churches that have lost all sense of mission, and all authority.”

Making matters worse, there are many reasons to doubt the ability of our elected leaders to protect us from disaster. And now government officials charged with keeping the nation safe are predicting that 200,000 Americans would die in an outbreak of avian flu. That’s more than those who were incinerated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In a new book called Worst Cases, disasterologist Lee Clarke says we need to start thinking about the unthinkable. Clarke quotes political scientist Scott Sagan, who has said, “. . . things that have never happened before happen all the time.”

Our country has periodically faced big challenges, but today the dangers, like weapons of mass destruction, seem to be multiplying. As Noonan says, “Tough history is coming.”

Ancient Israel regularly faced “tough history,” and yet the Psalmist was able to say:

“God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”

Our society has expended much energy in the last four decades seeking to officially distance itself from God, such as by removing prayer from the schools and banning public displays of the Ten Commandments. If “tough history” does indeed await us, I wonder if America will still look to God as our refuge and strength.

We may not have to wait long to find out.