Royal on Culture | National Catholic Reporter

Royal on Culture | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: Culture is more than tradition and the trappings of ceremony - it is the environment in which individuals and groups live.  Mary Douglass laid out a four culture matrix: Fatalism (some call it Despotism now), Individualism (aka Libertarianism), Hierarchy and Egalitarianism (aka Sectarianism).  Hierarchy often attracts members in extreme times, such as during wars.  I don't see that happening absent a campaign of Hell-fire and brimstone that threatens everyone who does not comply with Damnation.  If that is the New Evangelization, it won't work.  Indeed, it will do the opposite and push people into Individualism (even if they do it quietly in the pews) or into a new Egalitarian model of brotherhood in Christ.  I am not sure the modern hierarchy is up to that last one, unless younger bishops become ascendant.