violence to come

While I have been arguing that Catholic societies tend to fall apart when freedom of expression is abused, the corresponding cancer for Protestant societies is the abuse of freedom of action.

The abuse of freedom of expression in Catholic societies leads to a general attack on authority which plunges the institutions of society in a state of chaos and anarchy. Catholic anarchy is not characterized by violence, though, as Catholics do not rely too much on action to solve their problems. They rely mostly on words. Thus Catholic anarchy could best be seen as a state of society where, as the Portuguese would say, "toda gente ralha e ninguém tem razão".

The abuse of freedom of action in Protestant societies leads to a general attack on morality (*)which plunges the institutions of society in a state of unlawfulness and, ultimately, criminality. Protestants actually move to action to solve their problems, not merely to words as Catholics do. Thus, I see the debacle of the Church of England as a very worrying sign of violence to come in British society.

(*) See the gay-marriage issue which is splitting the Anglican Church.