Draft:Lord of the World

Lord of the World is a 1907 British dystopian novel written from a Catholic standpoint by Robert Hugh Benson. It describes the rise of the Antichrist, touching on issues relevant to an Edwardian era Englishman like the rise of socialism/humanism (often conflated), a perceived decline in western moral standards, and the rise of powers outside of Europe. A modern viewer might recognize it as "Left Behind but Catholic," though both authors might bristle at that comparison. Prominent modern Catholics have praised the book as “prophetic ” which is hilarious if you read it from a more neutral standpoint.

The setting
The Earth is divided between three religious groups; Catholicism, atheistic Humanism, and the "Eastern Religions," which are all blended together. The world is also divided into three power blocs so similar to 1984 that some see it as a direct inspiration. Other forms of Christianity technically still exist but are on the verge of extinction.

The European Confederation (which also dominates Africa) is a Marxist one-party state which uses Esperanto as a lingua franca. It prides itself on the persecution of nationalism and religion, and has substituted it with this bizarre Freemason-inspired Cult of the Supreme Being knock-off. Catholicism survives as a much-scorned subculture, centered around Rome which has been given as a city-sate to the pope. The confederation might remind a modern reader of the Soviet Union, Oceania from 1984, or perhaps a strawman of the EU, though none of these existed at the time Lord of the World was written. A more accurate real-world inspiration would be none other than the Labour Party-it had just been founded by the time this book came out, and was much more overtly socialist than it is today. Even then it is a strawman, so if you really want a modern analog think of right wing hate-fantasies about "The UK under the tyrannical rule of Jeremy Corbyn" or "the sad state of America under the Biden Junta."

Then we have...America. Yes, that one, though it has somehow occupied all the new world. Because Benson has that classically pre-war European disdain for anything outside of the old world as a whole and Europe in particular, the U.S. pretty much exists so it can swallow up the western hemisphere and spare him from writing about it. It has fallen under the same "evil humanism" seen in the Confederation. It turns out to be the homeland of the Antichrist, a charismatic socialist Senator from Vermont named Bernie Sanders Julian Felsenburgh.

Finally, we have Eastasia the "Eastern Empire," essentially a bloated Imperial Japan tailor-made to prey upon "Yellow Peril" sentiments common in Europe, then inflamed by the Russo-Japanese war showing an Asiatic power beating a European one. Before the start of the book they have conquered China, most of the Islamic world, Asiatic Russia, and the Antipodes. They have overseen a "soft merger" of all religions an early 20th century European might see as "Oriental," so Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, the whole assortment. All of them recognize the Emperor, called "the Son of Heaven" in Chinese fashion, as an aspect of their own God. They are also on the brink of war with the Confederation, which gives Felsenburgh a chance to rise to power.

Themes
Like most religious dystopian works, a central conceit of the novel is that normalizing secularism would ultimately lead to the direct harm of theists. The passage of the Test Act by Felsenburgh, forbidding religious belief on pain of death, is treated as the inevitable endgame of a humanist society. Other prominent strawmen include the old "all atheists are Marxists" chestnut, the idea that atheists cannot value life because they don't believe in the supernatural, and that secularism/materialism/atheism/humanism is essentially just another religion in the end.

In addition to that humans are stressed to be inherently religious creatures who must seek out the supernatural no matter how secular they claim to be. Humanism will be described by its own proponents as an anti-theistic movement and a religion worshiping man in the same breath. According to Benson humans are so inherently spiritual they will recreate the mechanisms of organized religion even as they run away from it.

On a less religious note, you can also see fear of non-European powers throughout the work. The Confederation lost a lot of territory to the Eastern Empire a few decades before the book begins, and an important plot point is the threat of a second war. This reflects the anxiety felt throughout the west after the Russo-Japanese war, fresh in memory when Benson was writing. And, of course, the Antichrist ultimately turns out to be an American.

Claims of modern relevance
Lord of the World is often said, usually by outspoken Catholics, to predict the state of modern society. Technologically, this refers to his use of passenger air travel (albeit through modified zeppelins rather than planes), and the proliferation of extremely powerful explosives which make conventional warfare between great powers almost obsolete. On a political note, the European Confederation is often compared to the Soviet Union, and the charismatic movement around Felsenburgh foreshadowed mass movement authoritarian politics of the Hitler/Lenin/Mao type. Of course, the people then go on to talk about how things like the Test Act represent the evils of godless modern society persecuting noble and honest Christians and corrupting everybody with Humanist/Marxist/Politically Correct/Fascist/whatever dogma even though no secular society has made adherence to religion punishable by death yet, so take these claims with a grain of salt.

On the other hand, a secular reader would find it in fact very dated. He was writing around 1907 and it shows-

-The Confederation still rules Africa as a successor state to the great colonial empires even though the book is implied to take place around 2007. The mere thought of decolonization did not occur to him, even if Europe was under a radical leftist regime.

-Speaking of the Confederation, he still associates Communism with, well, its birthplace in Western/Central Europe. Even Marx himself thought this would be the case, and the spread of Marxism in the less industrialized nations is not present.

-Since Benson is a catholic protestants are portrayed negatively. By undermining the divinely ordained hierarchy of the church they act as a trojan horse by which secular humanism may corrupt Christian communities. (Most protestant strongholds have embraced humanism by 2007.) The is hilariously ironic to a modern reader as fundamentalist Protestantism is basically the face of modern reactionary Christianity.

-And, of course, even though secularism has been normalized through most of the developed world we have not devolved into I-can't-believe-it's-not-theocracy hell holes. The spread of secularism, let alone the spread of outright atheism, has not resulted in a culture remotely similar to what Benson describes.