For Kierkegaard, faith is not dogma, it is not a creed to be impressed in memory and recalled mechanically, or observed but once a Sunday; for him, faith must be lived and repeatedly renewed through a passionate and subjective relationship that neither seeks nor requires the approval of reason. In a word, faith is action. Consequently, whatever stifles this passionate commitment must be an enemy, and there are few greater enemies to such commitments, he surmised, than modern media. In his own day, it was the prevalence of newspapers that turned his stomach; could he have but glimpsed the present moment he might well have despaired, for we are gorged on a feast that never ends and pervades every corner of our lives, and with this omnipresence it weighs upon our minds and catches up our days in endless fascination and distraction.

The media, at first appearing like a servant informing us about the world, we, at last, become its slave. Instead of broadening the world and our experience of it, they transform the world into a distant object fit only for empty opinions and idle speculation. And the Internet’s propagation of cowardly anonymity has only added to this lack of risk, of responsibility and commitment that allows community to thrive, for, in a world where all claims are equally valid and hallowed, opinion is of great a weight as the considered reflections of the seasoned expert, all action must be nullified beneath an apathy of uncertain outcomes. For indeed very little in life is certain, and this pervasive uncertainty is incubated within a media mulching machine that in chewing up every side puts all sides into question. A constant rumination that would put even the eternally ruminating cow to shame. When all probable solutions have been put to the torch of an endless critical commentary, we must, like Hamlet, lament that action will lose its very name.

The volume of information to which we have access is enough to involve ten generations of scholarly exegesis. The individual, looking upon this mountain in despair of ever reaching its summit, is often only too quickly pardoned for foregoing the climb. But, for the individual to be an individual they still must make a choice, and their decision of what is worth their efforts is what will define them. Only an unconditional commitment will do, and it is a commitment that sets this most important issue, that issue the individual has committed themselves to, in stone for that individual for life.

In making such a commitment, the individual is granted something eternal by the act, for we have embraced the paradox of faith and made the leap towards the Absolute. And if you think this too abstract let me ask you a question: Would you risk a certain now for a future maybe? This is the thinking behind every cynic of political and social change. To walk an untried and uncertain path is a leap too far, the possibility of failure outweighs the hoped-for gains. And yet, we are proud to accept the greatest risks with every new election. Democracy is built upon change, so clearly we are not completely averse to it, for if it were truly so fearful a long-lived monarch with a palace full of healthy, legitimate, and competent heirs would be a more comforting preference than the endless uncertainties of the electoral lottery.

Such a faith has always been the ruling principle of our government, for, although it looks like political discourse has moved from a world of objective fact to one of subjective belief, the political world we knew before only ever accepted a fact tacitly; it was belief that always truly held chief importance. Whether from a Bush administration, whose disregard for the “Reality Based Community” brought the nation to war, or the skilled advertising of an Obama campaign, which promised “Hope and Change” and affected none. Only now due to the speed and aggressive assertiveness with which this trend has developed does it cause serious alarm. We can no longer assume that facts can save us, reason cannot convince the unreasonable.