I want to be wrong

I have a deep sense of foreboding for the coming few years.

Perhaps it is an indication of the turmoil we have seen in the financial world in the last year or so that someone can recently be arrested for an alleged fraud to the value of $50bn. $50bn ! $50bn!! Surely a few more chickens will come home to roost before this settles down. And when it does, for good or ill, the shape of the whole finance sector is going to be changed for years to come.

For that and other reasons, a big recession seems to be taking hold. That's bad enough for those at the margins of western society - how will it affect people in India and China, and other places which have come to rely on rapid economic growth. Then, there's the impact of measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions: if they are to be effective, they are going to begin to bite hard - affecting, again, most profoundly, those at the bottom of the heap, who have the least choices. And - whether due to anthropogenic climate change or not - there seem to be many places suffering from drought.

Meanwhile, there seem to be ever more signs of society disintegrating. Whether it's young people rioting in Greece, or the rise and rise of extremest political parties across Europe, or tensions and instabilities in the European Union, or news of immigrant communities in Britain feeling disaffected and isolated from the wider community, the impact seems to be tension, and a threat of strife. Add to that a veiled threat of many nascent terrorist plots, with many experts predicting nuclear terrorism as a strong likelihood within a few years.

Not only do I fear these outcomes, especially as they will affect the weakest in society. I fear, too, what the general population's response will be, and what the political class will do. This will not be a re-run of 1930s fascism - there are too many people watching out for that, to defeat it on principle. But that does not mean it will not be brutal, violent, and profoundly illiberal.

Frankly, I'm scared. I'd love to be completely wrong. But the signs really don't look good. Let's not get all apocalyptic about this: WWII wasn't the end of the world, but it was a very very bad thing.

God give us grace to learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

Lord, have mercy.