The Loss of Meaning and Values

“We see two effects of our loss of meaning and values. The first is degeneracy . . .”
“The marks of ancient Rome scar us: degeneracy, decadence, depravity, a love of violence for violence’s sake. The situation is plain. If we look, we see it. If we see it, we are concerned.”
“But we must notice that there is a second result of modern man’s loss of meaning and values which is more ominous, and which many people do not see. This second result is that the elite will exist. Society cannot stand chaos. Some group or some person will fill the vacuum. An elite will offer us arbitrary absolutes, and who will stand it its way?”
“Will the silent majority (which at one time we have heard so much about) help? The so-called silent majority was, and is, divided into a minority in a majority. The minority are either Christians who have a real basis for values or those who at least have a memory of the days when the values were real. The majority are left with only their two poor values of personal peace and affluence.”
“With such values, will men stand for their liberties? Will they not give up their liberties step by step, inch by inch, as long as their own personal peace and prosperity is sustained and not challenged, and as long as the goods are delivered? . . .”
“I believe the majority of the silent majority, young and old, will sustain the loss of liberties without raising their voices as long as their own lifestyles are not threatened. And since personal peace and affluence are so so often the only values that count with the majority, politicians know that to be elected they must promise these things . . .”
“As we consider the coming of an elite, in authoritarian state, to fill the vacuum left by the loss of Christian principles, we must not think naïvely of the models of Stalin and Hitler. We must think rather of a manipulative authoritarian government. Modern governments have forms of manipulation at their disposal which the world has never been known before.“

(Francis A. Schaeffer, HowShould We Then Live?: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture, Westchester, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1990, 226-228)