gives him the usual messianic thirst to feel good about himself by doing nice things...no matter how naive. This phenomena infects the entire western world and has created a pathological weakness unprecedented amongst powerful societies from an historical perspective. Your observation, not surprisingly, is very insightful, but I am not sure I agree with it entirely.
I do not think that there is much new in the messianic longing. Tikkun olam --- to repair the world --- has been for ages one of the main obligations of a Jew. A Christian, too, is not to wait for the Messiah idly.
What I consider to be new is the Marxist version of messianic thirst. Nowhere (to the best of my knowledge) does it say that repairing of the world is to be done in terms of groups of people. The Jew is supposed to "remember the widow and orphan in his midst because he himself was a slave in the land of Egypt"; it is to an individual widow and an individual orphan that the obligation lies. He is supposed also to undo an injustice occurring in the world, but that usually mean to stand up to the King if need be in behalf of the wronged man. It is in the late XX centuries, however, that in the temples of Reform Judaism Tikkun Olam acquired a Marxist twist of a sudden: one has to stand up on behalf of women, black, Hispanics, and now Palestinians --- all viewed in terms of groups, as Marx bequeathed. Just like many others, some Christians, too, have inadvertently "married" messianic tradition with Marxism, and they too view both history and future in terms of the social groups. It is them, I believe, Carter exemplifies. There is nothing wrong (or new) in being messianic, it is the false messiah being prayed to that is the problem.
False G-d. Is it not the truly paramount achievement of socialism --- to replace G-d in heaven with man-god? Now that I think of it in these terms, there is nothing new about the Carter phenomenon: there is something new about America, which elects people like that as presidents.
I'm a Goy (as you know) product of a degree in political theory. My mentor at Ole Miss was Dr. Erwin Neumaier...a conservative (or liberal in a classical sense). We were imprinted by his relentless but now appreciated view that western political philosophy can be categorized into theocentric, anthropocentric, and messianic. The view of messianic I was taught was centered around the creation of a "new man" devoid of the self centered trappings of the "old man" hence Marxism at it's core. You are correct that the "tikkun olam" of christianity is basically what we call the Golden Rule along with some of Christ's more altruistic lessons. The problem is that today, many Christians like Carter have neglected the harder less benign lessons of Judeo-Christianity in favor of the creed of doing good or being "nice" not in order to be G-dlike but to either feel good about oneself or to use this emotion as a political tool.
That's where my problem with do-goodery lies. If it usurps strength of faith and resolution and to a degree the protection of the religion then what good is it? It's cloaked altruism which is at it's core self satisfying. Much like you described...the false G-d: "man's need".
Needless to say, I'm theocentric. I assume you are as well.
Thanks for your thought provoking reply. I had to kick around some dormant grey matter on that one.
In conclusion, this "new man" is a golden calf. My belief is that we are best off to accept the nature of man and submit to G-d's will. Easier said than done...I might add.
Regards