I found this over at Mark’s blog the other day:
p. 118: “Americans will go to almost any lengths to avoid sounding negative, pessimistic, or defeatist, even if it means being somewhat less than honest or candid. They try to stay away from topics they refer to as ‘downers’ and to stay out of conversations that ‘bring you down,’ as in down from the giddy heights of optimism and happiness. These topics include anything to do with evil or the dark side of human nature, which Americans either ignore or try to explain away, anything that suggests failure, defeat, or any kind of setback – especially with death, the ultimate setback – or anything to do with limits or limitations, such as reasons why something cannot be done, should not be tried, or is impossible.”
What does it say about American culture when a statement of this kind needs to be included in a travel guide for those coming to our country? Apparently, America really is the feel-good nation of the world, where everything we do is aimed toward making ourselves feel better about our position in life and about our place in the world.
But then again, we already knew that. We’re the nation that preaches a brand of tolerance that forbids anyone else from introducing viewpoints that might conflict with these little universes we have constructed around ourselves. We’re the nation with the highest quality forms of entertainment so that we can escape the trials and hardships of life and feel better for a little while. We are a people of non-truth because relative truth makes it easier for us to create the kind of world we really want to live in.
People are not evil – they are inherently good, and those who stray to acts of evil are nothing more than products of their abusive environments. We do not fail at anything – it is always someone else’s fault when things go wrong because we absolutely know beyond doubt that we are both deserving of success in everything we do and also skilled enough to achieve success. There are no limits in life because truly if we set our minds to something, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.
All myths. All lies we Americans tell ourselves because the act of facing the truth – that people really are evil at the core, requiring grace to overcome that inherent dark nature; that failure is a fact of life and that we ourselves are very often the cause of our own failures; that life is fraught with limitations and that, in many cases, just because we set our minds to accomplish something, we will never ever accomplish because we simply haven’t the ability; that, yes, we will all one day die and pass from this mortal coil – is too horrifying for us to contemplate. Somehow, the American culture has come to the conclusion that it is our right to be happy all the time and that real life has no right to infringe upon that happiness. Well, the truth is that life is hard, and it is often very painful. No amount of denial or redefinition of truth will ever change that fact, no matter how hard we try to do so.
Time to face up to the facts, folks. It’s apparent that the rest of world realizes our culture lives in a cloud of delusion. Time we did so, as well. And once you’ve done this, go seek out some Christians. I can guarantee you they can tell you about a hope that makes it possible to face the world’s evil and darkness with strength and courage.
Tags: american-culture, culture, fadingdust, tolerance, truth
Scanning through the news this morning, one cannot help but notice the flurry of debate over the use of ‘Christmas’ versus the use of ‘Holiday’ this season. Everyone is trying so hard to be politically correct and all-inclusive that we find ourselves avoiding anything that might smack of intolerance (whatever that really means). The trouble that I have with this is that in doing so, the emphasis is taken away from the meaning of the holiday. Christmas was originally established as, yes, a Christian holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Over the years it has, of course, become greatly secularized and commercialized and some of the religious and spiritual emphasis of the day has been replaced by a more mythical, magical focus.
But if we are going to rename Christmas in the interests of not offending anyone, then let’s just take this to its logical conclusion. We should rename (or disband) MLK Day, because much as we might wish otherwise, there are still racists who are offended by black people. Valentine’s Day should become Romance Day or Heart Day or something else in order to escape the eroticism that it symbolizes. Presidents’ Day—let’s face it, they were all crooks and dishonest politicians, something that offends the sensibilities of anyone with a brain. Maybe we should just forget about this one. I’m surprised that we there hasn’t already been a suggestion to rename Good Friday and Easter because of their Christian symbolism. I mean, we can’t have holidays that are specific for just one group now, can we? Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, July 4th, any holiday relating to the military and war should be renamed to something less confrontational. No one likes war, and there are many who are outraged by the existence of such outdated institutions like armies, so obviously something needs to be done.
The point of all this is simply that people are offended by Christ and by Christianity. The only holiday, the only terms that have become ‘required’ changes are the ones that have ‘Christ’ in them. Even though these have been the established terms for hundreds of years, they have now become offensive and preachy and in-your-face pushes for religiosity (they’re not). What’s ironic about this is that if this sort of thing had been suggested for another religion, it would have been put down as intolerant and discriminatory. There is a definite double-standard in our culture, one that specifically targets Christianity (though not always exclusively, to be fair). The mentality seems to be that whatever is in the majority needs to be brought down in the name of fairness. Or it could be that Christians just aren’t well-liked (sometimes with a degree of justification). Or it could be that people feel convicted and threatened by Christianity (or more specifically, by Christ and the idea of God and His existence) and so retaliate in this way. Or it could be a combination all these factors and more. Whatever the case, because Christianity is the predominant religion (or predominantly claimed religion) in America, it is viewed as being unfair. I am always amazed at how few voices it takes to get action, especially in cases of religious ‘discrimination’.
Personally, I don’t care what you call Christmas—it will be, for me, always the time to celebrate the birth of my Savior. I think that all the hubbub is ridiculous in the extreme, both by the people trying to replace it and by those trying to defend it. America is a country of religious freedom, where people are welcome to practice their beliefs as they see fit. It is also a country of democracy, representation of all, majority vote rules, etc. and so forth. If you really want to settle the debate, put it to a vote. Of course, then you would have people calling for a recount. You just can’t please everyone all the time.
Tags: christianity, culture, political-correctness, tolerance
Truth. Well, sort of. Honestly, I think that all truth is actually very much black and white, and if it seems to be more of a gray issue, it is simply a demonstration of the limitations of human
knowledge and understanding. Some truths are really very basic, very cut-and-dried, things like, “Gravity is what holds me down,” and “If I touch this hot stove, I’ll get burned.” Others often seem to be purely black and white and end up looking more gray the closer the individual looks. The trouble is that so many things in life involve levels of complexity that quickly overwhelm the capacity of the human mind to process. Human behaviors may seem relatively
straightforward, and we may think we understand the motivation for why one does something, only to find out upon breaking the issue down that we really don’t understand it at all (or, at least, as much as we thought we did). Even the person involved in the behavior itself may not fully understand everything that goes into their own motivation, which is often, I believe, why there is so much confusion in so many people’s lives.
It is so very easy to fall into the trap of using stereotypes and generalizations as definitive answers for any topic or issue. The trouble is that they are only ever just guidelines, general statements of human behavior. People do A because of B. This group will react in such-and-such a way because of such-and-such motivations. There’s your black and white. The gray is examining individual motivations in said groups. Ultimately you will (typcially) find that every individual acted in a similar way for similar, yet different, reasons. And that is where you find that the strength of stereotypes and generalizations to describe behavior breaks down. The irony is that the generalization doesn’t actually generalize all that well. Every individual within the group proves to be the exception to the rule. People will judge an entire group based solely on a stereotype (e.g. “Christians are horrible people because they are so judgmental.”) without ever taking the time to learn and understand that so often the stereotype doesn’t
apply to nearly as many individuals as one might think. Stereotypes and generalizations do an adequate, though ultimately very limited, job of describing group behavior (though perhaps not the motivations behind said behavior) but do a less than adequate job of describing individual
behavior within said group (duh, right?). Clearly, the complexities of the human psyche make it seem as though the truth of the issue is an issue of grayness.
Limitations of knowledge and understanding can gray-out truth. Deliberate action to gray-out truth is an additional factor. There are some who feel threatened by truth. These are individuals who wish to live their lives in their own way and are only free to do so because the ‘truth’ of their lives is appropriately gray enough to let them interpret it however they see fit. These are
the sort who, as soon as an individual begins to try to make sense out of the grayness and move it more toward black-and-whiteness, are quick to try to discredit the individual or to introduce a new level of complexity to the issue in an effort to keep the issue within a
comfortable level of gray. In other words, they deliberately sabotage the effort to achieve understanding. In doing so, they are able to remain within their own comfort zone and continue living life as they see fit because, for them, truth is whatever you make of it.
Is it any wonder that our society is in the place in which we find it? Religion and politics are topics in which it seems nearly impossible to know what is true because such things as debates about semantics, character defamations, complex contributors to situations and behaviors get in the way of making sense out of the gray. Science, as well, often ends up in the realm of the gray, with one study proving a finding where another study disproves the same finding. And in all places, personal and political motivations muddy the waters appropriately so that it seems that the truth can never be truly known, only guessed at, only interpreted, only approximated. Postmodernism, political correctness, and ‘tolerance’ are the results, a dwelling in the land of the gray with black-and-white, clear-cut truth little more than a pipe dream to those who wish to know it.
Tags: absolute-truth, culture, generalizations, human-behavior, knowledge, political-correctness, politics, postmodernism, relative-truth, religion, Science, society, stereotypes, tolerance, truth, understanding
