Ep.12 How Neoliberalism Killed the Sacred

This episode of The Spirit of Revolution continues the argument that the crisis we face is not only political but spiritual — in the old sense of that word. It is about what a human being is, what we are for, and why most “resistance culture” currently fails to become fit for purpose. After the Second World War the Catholic project faced a decisive temptation: to capitulate to the secular world, either through Marxist alliances on the left or through liberal human rights frameworks on the centre. Both paths produced real gains. Both also carried a fatal weakness. Neither challenged the underlying logic of modernity: power, coercion, and the reduction of the person to a means. So the Church became, over time, a private realm of belief and Sunday ritual, with politics reduced to mild moral suggestions. The sacred was hollowed out. And when human rights get abandoned — as they always do under pressure — there is no rootedness left, no necessity, no red lines, only the familiar rituals of disapproval. Out of this failure emerged a renewed Catholic critique (often called neo-orthodoxy): a counter-politics rooted in the irreducible dignity of the person and the primacy of love over power. It rejects the idea that the Church should become “progressive” by adopting the state’s categories and playing by the rules of the game. That route produces a faithless faith — civic activism that cannot confront the system that manufactures the harm. I also return to the question of ritual, especially the Eucharist. If it is merely symbolic, it means nothing. But if it is real — an act of union that redraws the world — then it demands a way of life that leads to conflict with power. The episode ends with El Salvador in the 1970s: Rutilio Grande’s assassination, Oscar Romero’s response, and a Eucharist that became an act of revolutionary equality — not based on legal rights, but on the claim that we are one body, one humanity. Next week I turn to a tradition that looks very different on the surface: Zen Buddhism — and why it turns out to be dealing with the same problem. ---- For my latest updates and to support my work, sign up to my email list at https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup You'll get a free copy of my books, like Common Sense for the 21st Century, and my film, The Troublemaker. Thousands are entering civil resistance around the world. Want to get involved? Email me at roger@rev21.earth Follow My Work ✅ Email List: https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup 📱 Telegram Chanel: https://t.me/rogerhallam 𝕏: https://twitter.com/RogerHallamCS21 💬 https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEpZT560eBk4QO7dz2Y 🫂 https://www.facebook.com/rogerhallamcs21 📸 https://www.instagram.com/rogerhallamcs21/ 🧵 https://www.threads.net/@rogerhallamcs21 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/rogerhallam.bsky.social 👾 https://mastodon.social/@rogerhallamcs21@threads.net 👯‍♀️ https://www.tiktok.com/@roger.hallam 🤓 https://www.reddit.com/r/rogerhallam/ 🤚 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hallam_(activist) #rogerhallam #climatecrisis #revolution