(www.RemnantNewspaper.com) Those in the USA who worry that the world will come to an end in 2012 may have to begin the year worrying about it in the dark, thanks to yet another intrusive “green” law (passed in 2007) scheduled to go into effect: beginning in 2012, the conventional hundred-watt incandescent light bulb will no longer be sold. If the world doesn’t end, the worriers will begin having to worry that if they want their homes well-lit, they will have to go broke lighting them: the new LED (light emitting diode) hundred watt bulbs will cost about fifty dollars apiece, according to a 16 May 2011 Associated Press online article by Peter Svensson.

When 2014 rolls around, the incandescent bulb limit goes down to forty-watts. Given the price of the newer bulbs and the state of the economy, it might be a good idea to start stocking up on candles. The young might be well advised to skip college and take up one of the traditional nursery rhyme careers of “butcher, baker, candlestick-maker,” because otherwise their futures may be darker in more ways than one.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (the so-called “long life” bulbs) are less expensive and already in use, “but they have drawbacks. They contain a small amount of toxic mercury vapor, which is released if they break or are improperly thrown away. They last longer than traditional bulbs but not as long as LEDs. Brighter models are bulky and may not fit in existing fixtures,” according to the article.

One thinks of British statesman Sir Edward Grey’s remark on the eve of the First World War: “The lamps are going out all over Europe: we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” Grey was speaking figuratively, but a century after he made his doleful statement, it may literally start becoming true, at least in the USA; as for Europe and the rest of what once was Christendom, its figurative truth is already upon us in many respects.

Spiritual, moral and cultural darkness is spreading and deepening. The twilight of civilization is no longer merely that of the West—as proclaimed in 1918 by the somewhat peculiar amateur historian and philosopher Oswald Spengler—, but of the entire world. What can one make of a global “society” in which the degenerate and possibly satanic pop icon Lady Gaga has ten million “followers” on Twitter, while a Traditional Catholic organization such as the SSPX has only a bit more than five hundred priests and perhaps one million faithful? What do we make of the bankrupting of entire nations now being carried out by the collusion of corrupt politicians—“leaders”—with criminal banking syndicates? How can we possibly reconcile the now-no-longer-in-doubt perverse sex crimes committed by Catholic priests with the vows they swore? How can one not equate with darkness societies in which abortion is rampant, divorce and concubinage more common than marriage?

A new breed of light bulb may lower energy costs, but it will do nothing to dispel the darkness that is falling upon the world. We need to see the altar lamps re-lit worldwide for that darkness to be dispelled.