Maintaining a Contemplative Disposition in the context of a Rising Global Politics of Hate, Authoritarianism and Social Disintegration.
A personal reflection based on the words of Clive Lewis UK Member of Parliament
I have been very moved by this is insight and writing of Clive Lewis in the context of discontent in the UK currently where he said this thinking about what is going on in market societies around the world right now:
Karl Polanyi, writing in The Great Transformation, argued that when markets are “disembodied” from society, when land, labour, and life itself are treated as commodities - society pushes back. He called this the “double movement”: people seeking to protect themselves, to reclaim dignity and meaning when everything solid seems to melt into air.
We’ve replaced collective experience with atomisation. Without getting too nostalgic, programmes like the BBC’s Generation Game once pulled in millions every Saturday night, giving us something we could all talk about on Monday morning. Now we watch Netflix, Disney+, Prime, or Paramount, alone, in algorithmic silos.
Polanyi warned that when democracies fail to provide a humane alternative, the backlash can turn authoritarian. This is how fascism grew in the 1930s, not because everyone became a true believer, but because millions felt abandoned and looked for strength, identity, and meaning wherever they could find it.
If progressives don’t offer the story of renewal, if they don’t rebuild national institutions, restore collective pride, and re-embed markets within society, the far right will do it for us, in their own image.
Clive Lewis MP UK Parliament.
So what is a contemplative posture to this essential insight regarding politics and political engagement at the moment?
A contemplative approach to societal disintegration begins by refusing the temptation of panic, blame, or nostalgia. Instead, it seeks to sit in silence before God and notice - without rushing to fix - what is really happening to our culture and communities. Polanyi’s “double movement” names a deep spiritual truth: when life is stripped of dignity and belonging, human beings instinctively reach out for grounding, meaning, and connection. The tragedy is that this reaching can so easily be hijacked by authoritarian voices that promise false unity and quick strength.
From a contemplative perspective, the root wound here is not merely economic but spiritual. Atomisation - the collapse of shared life into lonely silos - undermines our sense that we are held together in God, created for communion. The contemplative way insists that our worth is not transactional, not reducible to productivity, consumption, or the market. In silence and prayer we recover the truth that we are loved, that our lives participate in God’s life, and that the world is not simply raw material to be bought and sold - it is sacred and is sacramentally sustained by this relational love of God.
But contemplation is not retreat. It sends us back into the world with a different heart. A contemplative response to societal disintegration is to live as witnesses of communion - to create small but real communities of hospitality, prayer, and justice where people can taste a different story. These communities resist the logic of atomisation, not by nostalgic entertainment or false strength, but by embodying the kingdom of God as a network of shared life rooted in love.
Practically, this means slowing down to notice and resist the ways in which algorithms, consumer culture, and political fear divide us. It means practices of listening - listening to God, to one another, and to the cries of those abandoned by the market. It means offering spaces of renewal where dignity is restored not through nationalism or authoritarianism but through the deeper story of Christ who makes all things new.
Ultimately, a contemplative approach to societal disintegration trusts that renewal does not come by force but by faithful presence. It is the work of patiently “re-embedding” ourselves in God, in community, and in creation, so that the destructive currents of disembodied markets and authoritarian backlash do not dictate the horizon of our hope.
As Jesus said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives” (John 14:27). Contemplation anchors us in that peace so that we can resist the world’s false offers of identity and strength, and instead nurture the slow, steady work of God’s renewal in society.