Christian theological liberalism has typically discarded orthodox eschatology in favor of a mild and essentially secular meliorism. But when people are faced with the apparent extinction of the human species, the belief in moral and material progress that undergirds such meliorism becomes, to say the least, untenable. In James' imagined future, the truly hopeless turn to the government for the provision of those pleasures. The people of England, it seems, are ready to give the Warden absolute power in return for such benefits. Though the machinery of democracy remains more or less in place, virtually no one cares to exercise his or her voting rights.
Democracy too dies in the absence of hope for the future.
But Faron is more honest and self-reflective than the majority, who prefer not to think hard thoughts or confront troubling facts. James' portrayal of the many degrees of hope and hopelessness is fascinating, if insufficiently developed, and essential to the book's success. Above all else, however, The Children of Men is a powerful and passionate reminder of the incalculable value of human life. When new life becomes impossible, the world comes fully to realize its value. Yet not quite the whole world.