Delorean Philosophy

In 1964, Sam Cooke famously sang this about the direction of the world;It's been a longA long time coming, but I knowA change gonna comeOh yes, it willWell, that change is heard. The way we now communicate has changed forever with the advent of social media.With this change has come new challenges; we are more polarised than ever before, and the psychological health of the population is stretched - especially among younger people.As we strap in for the rollercoaster of 2024, what can we expect in an ever-changing, ever-polarised society?Change is gonna come - but will it be for the better or worse?

What if the purpose of marriage is to make us better? What if personal relational choice is a bit of a lie?For many, a committed marriage may seem “old school”. What many people expect from relationships is satisfaction and freedom.So it's paradoxical then, that once again young people seem to be partnering younger and getting married younger.Commitment, and casual interest: both are alive and well today.There's something about long-term love stories that capture our imaginations - regardless of what culture (and apps) lead us to believe.Now there are two tribes: one who wants a life companion, the other stoically going forward alone. Sadly, the truth is, that rates of marriage are now dropping … sharply.Traditional communities still exist though - they marry younger, in greater numbers, and have more children.A minority are holding to older ways.Will everyone return to this? Will everyone turn to marriage again? Of course not!But it might mean that a correction - however small - might not be far ahead.

In a special Christmas episode, Steve takes some time to reflect on how Christmas - an ancient celebration -  is changing as fast as the culture itself.The commercialism and pageantry of Christmas has sucked meaning from this important celebration.The earliest Christmas memories of ordinary people can be lost in this meaningless procession.But are we at risk of losing something even more significant? Are we in short supply of joy at Christmas?It certainly seems to be in short supply at the moment - so what does that mean for Christmas in the years to come?

In the run up to Christmas, Steve McAlpine looks dubiously at the West's repeated calls for 'peace on earth'. Could peace - at least as far as the West is concerned - remain beyond reach because of the direction our culture wars have taken?If calls for tolerance are now viewed suspiciously as a fig leaves for oppressive powers, so much so that we must behave in a violently intolerant way, then what room is there for peace?Instead, we may find ourselves in a society that is perpetually at war with itself because we haven't learnt the ability to forgive our enemies without requiring their total subjugation.

What word do you associate with "masculinity"?Guesses are, 'toxic' is high on the list.With so many "damaged men" portrayed in our literature - especially in schools - what hope can young boys in the global west have of finding a good role model?Perhaps it's time we broadened what the typical "man" looked like.Only when we do that will sayings like "boys will be boys" be a thing of the past.

However bad you think it is, it seems the younger generation thinks it's even worse.How about these figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as reported in The Australian newspaper:"Just under 40 per cent of 16-24 year-old Australians, 1.1 million people, reported having a mental disorder in 2020-21, That's far higher than the overall proportions of 21.4 per cent for all Australian adults."And the figures climb for young females to over 40 per cent. The Australian reports:"More than four in ten 16-24 year-old females in Australia reported an anxiety condition such as social phobia or panic disorder in that period, around twice the rate as males of the same age."Australia's deputy chief medical officer for mental health Ruth Vine says, "There has been increasing levels of distress and anxiety in this cohort that predated Covid, but it has likely been exacerbated by Covid, with issues such as disrupted schooling. Social media is another consideration. It can be good in terms of connection but can also be a harm if it‘s leading to harassing behaviours. And young people are worried about global concerns as well.”With the world seemingly out to get them, it's time to consider what the youth of this world might actually benefit from experiencing.  

Never mind gender identity. The new trend is 'reversion' - a 'return' to the Islamic faith.A growing movement of young women are espousing the Quran, wearing the hijab, and calling on other young women across the West to do the same.Is it a social media storm in a teacup? Statistics suggest it's definitely something to consider. The simple hashtag #revert has had 2.9 billion views, followed by #RevertMuslim (1.4 billion), and #MuslimRevert (525 million).Such movements have happened before, particularly after 9-11. However, scratch the surface of this trending topic and Steve McAlpine shows you'll discover not a surge in religious affiliation but a growing desire for order in a completely disordered world.

Is choosing to be alone the "safe" option? The show "Apartment Therapy" explores.But there's a strange quirk - almost all people live alone: and they see this as the "self-crafted" pinnacle of their lives.More people are alone now than ever before. One-seventh of all Americans live by themselves. The UK has similar numbers.This is a global Western phenomenon though - a more accurate read is Westerners prefer to live alone more.This runs parallel with an increasingly fractured society in the global West: many have traded their real communities for their online ones.Society has to be built on a network - including ones that we disagree with. Even Christians are now struggling to sit in fellowship with one another, with social circles built upon sectarian lines.The late great pastor and author Tim Keller was aware of this: his final words in writing were in a book called Forgive: Why Should I, and How Can I? He saw the urgent need for our culture to embrace forgiveness, community, and a sense of being together.Christians have the tools to demonstrate true community to our world: true trust, and true relationship.It's these qualities that the world needs now, more than ever. 

The Beatles have delivered a new single some 62 years after their first one - and some 22 and 43 years respectively since the deaths of two of their members, George Harrison and John Lennon.The song, Now and Then, was written by John Lennon and was on tape with him singing over piano. But as a pre-release mini-documentary explained, until recently the technology wasn't available to split the track up into its component parts.Whatever you think of this curio from the past, it's release raises an interesting question: how hooked are we on nostalgia? In fact, are we finding nostalgia an essential component of our lives in order to cope with an anxiety-ridden present?Or, to put it another way, is 'then' our refuge from 'now'? And will future generations increasingly yearn for how things were as they seek for a sense of stability in a fast-moving world?

There's been a lot of death in the news recently - but one made the front pages around the world, and generated hundreds of column inches in newspapers around the world.It was the death of a friend - Matthew PerryThe Star of the smash-hit sitcom Friends passed away at just 54 years old, found drowned in his hot tub following a suspected heart attack.The death of this "friend" caused a moment of sober realisation for many bystanders - especially millennials and Gen-Xers.We're all on the slow, steady walk towards "the block" - death.This idea of the fleetingness of life - that this is all there is - can lead to disastrous decisions. So much of our anxiety comes from the question "Have we lived the right life? Is there time to live another one?"Ironically, the global West has a denial of death, yet also struggles to make sense of life."This is all there is" is leading us to nihilism.However, it hasn't always been this way.Christians have helped change the conversation around death - and life - for two millennia.After all, "the block" is far from the end of the story - and that's good news for us and our friends.

In the wake of the horrors of the recent Israel-Hamas conflict, Steve ponders the deep divisions such wars reveal in our own society.The West, he observes, has a fascination with conflict.After all, it took the recent conflict in the Middle East to wipe battlefield reports of Eastern Europe off the front pages of newspapers around the world.The response to the recent conflict in Israel is emblematic of a constantly shifting culture, albeit one that remains deeply divided.But as Steve notes, perhaps the call of Jesus to "love your enemies" is the only real solution in a world unable to rid itself of physical and cultural conflict.  In our post-Christian West, we've looked everywhere else for a solution. Perhaps it's worth checking the story of Jesus again.

Welcome to season 2 of Delorean Philosophy.On Saturday, 14 October 2023, Australians voted in a referendum about changing the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. The referendum did not pass.In this episode, Steve McAlpine takes stock of this outcome, and how the vote cast a light on a deeper problem in society.Steve asks why complex societal issues are often reduced to binary facets: YES or NO? Why does there seem to be no room in the middle?In the wake of the referendum failure, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called on Australians to show more kindness to one another.Steve points out that it is indeed kindness - but not the type many would expect - that may save our increasingly polarised culture. 

Steve McAlpine takes a look at our trend towards conspiracy theories and wonders where it will take us in the coming year. 2022's word of the year was 'gaslighting' and it seems we are set up for a darker shade of deceit in 2023 now that everyone is increasingly committed to only searching for the news they want to hear.The death of six people in Queensland as the year comes to a close demonstrates how dangerous conspiracy theories can be. But such disturbing events are a result of our increasing tendency to seek information online that conforms to what we already believe and confirms the directions in which we want to go.Yet Steve says truth can still exist in our public forums, but it relies not on the mass revelation of some dark secret, but the communication of a single man.

Steve McAlpine pulls up a chair to Christmas and asks if the increasingly secular scene we're looking at is one we'll be happy with in years to come.Steve believes Christmas is becoming like so much of the other stuff that Christianity gave to the world - advances that many in the West think sprang up from nowhere. The idea seems to be that if we can have the fruit of the gospel without the root of the gospel, we'll be just fine. And now pretty much the same for Christmas. If we can have the effect without the cause, the trimmings without the turkey, the packaging without the present, that will be fine as well.But Steve says the Christian response should be so much more than just mourning the loss of a nativity scene at the local carols.  Something critical is lost when we give up the idea of a free gift at Christmas time - a biblical idea rooted in covenant and the promise-keeping God.LINKSSteve recommends you check out the work of uber-historian Tom Holland, The Myth of 'pagan' Christmas. And if you're interested in having the link between Christmas and pagan celebrations further debunked, check out Pagan Christmas on History For Atheists.

Steve McAlpine addresses the Western trend away from the Christian faith, evidenced by disturbing statistics from leading countries, and asks, "What will faith look like for future monarchs?"Much ink was spilled a couple of decades ago when King Charles III (then the Prince of Wales) stated that he would prefer his title to be 'defender of faiths' rather than 'defender of the faith'. Charles - in his multicultural, multi-faith zeal - was keen to embrace the growing religious pluralism of Britain. But now the statistics are pointing in a different direction.The king finds himself the titular head of the Church of England at a time when fewer and fewer Britons identify with his kingdom's once-national religion. But does the West losing its Christianity equate to losing its faith? And are the rising number of 'nones' (those recording no religion) really a generation that has turned its back on the transcendental?Join Steve as he considers what the trends really mean and the sort of world the Christian faith is likely to find itself in when Charles hands over his crown.

Steve McAlpine considers the near-universal agreement that Andrew Tate is not a suitable role model for young men, but poses the question, 'Where to from here?'Who are the role models who show what healthy masculinity is supposed to be like? And if we're not sure, then there's little chance the next generation of men is going to be either.Many of the alternate voices that attempt to define masculinity have zero connection with most young men. They suggest a path that has more to do with the absence of anything particularly masculine. Some even suggest that the opposite is true: the more feminine a man is, the safer he will be.However, Steve says, the opposite is true.The more men who will sacrificially love and care for those around them, the safer our society will be, especially for the vulnerable. The man who has a healthy masculinity is concerned to care for others… the truly masculine man makes the people around him feel safe.

Steve McAlpine says the media-fuelled controversy surrounding Qatar, the host-nation of the World Cup reveals a hint of neo-colonialism in the way the West treats nations that don't agree with it.There are more than two football sides on the pitch these days. There are also opposing sides in another way. Two ways – at least two ways – of looking at the world.This World Cup is being held in a Muslim-majority country in West Asia and it's being held at the very time sport in the West has taken on a teaching role - an almost religious instruction role - in promoting what it considers human flourishing to be all about.Steve says the problem is much of the rest of the world - the majority of the world which includes Qatar - values different values and often views those Western viewpoints unfavourably. And that's something our modern taste for tolerance just can't tolerate.

Steve McAlpine looks at the apocalyptic angst that is engulfing younger generations and asks if there is no off-tap to their earth-shaking fears.Those whose early memories are of the twin towers falling are experiencing not simply a climate crisis but a crisis climate.Crisis abounds. The end has seemed nigh for some time - for all of their lives at least - and they're just waiting for the axe to fall. Or the fire to fall. Whatever it may be.Steve finds it's a climate of crisis in seemingly every direction. 

Steve McAlpine looks into a brewing crisis at the juncture of health care and euthanasia legislation.Stories emerging from Canada demonstrate that people with chronic illness or pain are choosing to end their lives not because they want to die but because it is too expensive to live.With countries like the Netherlands ever widening the door to assisted death, Steve asks what incentive exists for Western governments to repair struggling healthcare systems when clearing the path out of this world is so much more cost-effective.What hope is there for improving the lot of the chronically ill when the overwhelming need is to make things CHEAPER?

Steve McAlpine asks where our increasing preference for two-person families is taking us?Not only are one in four Australian households child-free in 2022, but it's predicted that between 2023 and 2029 the number of couples living without children will overtake the number living with kids.This is NOT a podcast about couples who are unable to have CHILDREN. Nor is it a promotion for having ten and living in isolated communities behind barbed-wire fences.However, for whatever reason, many younger secular couples in the West have decided not to have CHILDREN. And if that trend continues, then more religion not less is our future.LINKS‘People seemed threatened by it': Three couples on their decision not to have children, Dilvin Yasa, The Sydney Morning Herald.Click here to learn more about the Love Mercy Foundation.And Steve recommends you check out Mary Eberstadt and her books.

Steve McAlpine takes a look beneath the surface of the heavy seas that are swamping Western governments and asks whether or not we have bigger things to fear than political instability.Our political turmoils are the tip of deeper cultural churning. The West is balkanising. We are fracturing, not along ethnic lines but along cultural ones. No one is willing to cede their authority, and that only leaves one way for us to get other people to do what we want them to: power.Political instability might be an inconvenience, but cultural in-fighting leads to society-wide power struggles. And that, says Steve, is where we are headed.(And if you're looking for a secret word this week, we would encourage you to watch out for the ICEBERG)LINKSTo celebrate the launch of the newest podcast in the Undeceptions Network, ‘Delorean Philosophy with Stephen McAlpine', we are giving away a LEGO Back to the Future Time Machine! There are also 5 copies of Steve's book Being the Bad Guys to be won. Click here to enter!You can also find much more from Steve over at his blog site, Stevemcalpine.com.

'You do you' is the mantra of western society. The technical term is expressive individualism – the almost sacred right of every person to find out what aids their flourishing and to do that, even if it comes at the expense of other people.It's a project seemingly full of promise. Full of personal growth. And it's built on the philosophical assumptions of the past couple of hundred years, in which communities – particularly family and faith communities – are viewed as restrictive and damaging to your flourishing as an individual. But Steve McAlpine asks, what if the ideas or values we feed ourselves with, all designed to help us flourish and grow, are actually making us fade and wither? What if, in our search to figure out how best to move ourselves forward, we're taking a huge step backwards? What if what we hoped would help us is actually as toxic to society as WEED-killer?(And if you're looking for a secret word this week, WEED would be a good place to start ;) )LINKSTo celebrate the launch of the newest podcast in the Undeceptions Network, ‘Delorean Philosophy with Stephen McAlpine', we are giving away a LEGO Back to the Future Time Machine! There are also 5 copies of Steve's book Being the Bad Guys to be won. Click here to enter!You can also find much more from Steve over at his blog site, Stevemcalpine.com.

Steve McAlpine introduces us to ‘The Sexular Age' - one in which sexual rights trump religious rights because they're seen to be more core to what it is to be human.Spring-boarding off a controversial football sacking in Australia, Steve shows how restrictive sexual rights have become.Individual expressions of belief that don't celebrate someone's sexual self-expression are now considered a violent act worthy of the utmost condemnation.LINKSTo celebrate the launch of the newest podcast in the Undeceptions Network, ‘Delorean Philosophy with Stephen McAlpine', we are giving away a LEGO Back to the Future Time Machine! There are also 5 copies of Steve's book Being the Bad Guys to be won. Click here to enter!

Steve McAlpine draws our attention to the wider implications of a data hack that's exposed the personal information of 40% of Australia's citizens. The attack on the data vaults of Australian telco Optus seems alarming, but a far greater amount of data is being released daily - willingly - by the digital citizens of the West.It's already being 'hacked' by political parties and corporate giants, and is likely to be sifted to a greater extent in the not-too-distant future.So what should we be doing if we don't want to end up living in a state where our information is used to shape and shift our beliefs?LINKSTo celebrate the launch of the newest podcast in the Undeceptions Network, ‘Delorean Philosophy with Stephen McAlpine', we are giving away a LEGO Back to the Future Time Machine! There are also 5 copies of Steve's book Being the Bad Guys to be won. Click here to enter!

Steve McAlpine looks at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II as a metaphor for a much bigger change in society.The death of the Queen was supposed to be the final nail in the coffin of a public acknowledgement of something transcendent, a God who orders the world. But instead what we're finding is a longing for something more - something more than a materialist view of the world, or, as one writer put it, “something magical” to fill the void.If we're going to have a future without a personal monarch, Steve suggests, we're going to have to find something worthy to put on the throne.LINKSTo celebrate the launch of the newest podcast in the Undeceptions Network, ‘Delorean Philosophy with Stephen McAlpine', we are giving away a LEGO Back to the Future Time Machine! There are also 5 copies of Steve's book Being the Bad Guys to be won. Click here to enter!

Steve McAlpine suggests that your future perspective on sex will have a lot to do with who you think won the sexual revolution.Is masculinity - and femininity - to be defined by the Andrew Tates of this world? Or will the reactionary blowback against such cancelled individuals have the greater say?Steve says that both sides have lost in the war to define what is sexually acceptable and the only way to a safer future is to find ourselves a better standard.LINKSTo celebrate the launch of the newest podcast in the Undeceptions Network, ‘Delorean Philosophy with Stephen McAlpine', we are giving away a LEGO Back to the Future Time Machine! There are also 5 copies of Steve's book Being the Bad Guys to be won. Click here to enter!

Steve postulates that there are two models of work being offered for your consideration - the drudgery of Fred Flintstone and the relaxed atmosphere of George Jetson.But neither offers a place to rest your soul. And in a world where corporations are seeking to own as much of you as possible, all the time, we would do well to consider where meaningful work can be found.Steve asks, do we simply drop tools at the end of each day, or double down in our search for work-as-paradise? The future of our employment depends on finding a way to hold the pressures of work in balance before we are torn apart by these competing ideologies.LINKSTo celebrate the launch of the newest podcast in the Undeceptions Network, ‘Delorean Philosophy with Stephen McAlpine', we are giving away a LEGO Back to the Future Time Machine! There are also 5 copies of Steve's book Being the Bad Guys to be won. Click here to enter!

John Dickson, the sovereign of the Undeceptions Network, introduces listeners to the latest addition to this growing territory.Meet Steve McAlpine - social commentator, theologian, author and futurist. With the help of a bit of mental time travel, Steve's weekly show will look at where our world is headed, ask if we like what we see, and suggest what we can do about it.That's Delorean Philosophy.