America, We Have To Go Back To Truth
Meaning and purpose are increasingly being replaced with what G.K. Chesterton calls “Good Taste, the last and vilest of human superstitions.” Our problem is not that people are uneducated and unable to think, but that they choose not to think about what really matters. Oftentimes, we’re not judged on whether our thoughts and actions are good or true, but rather how we deliver or appear. We’ve come to admire the process and form more than the merit of the ideas themselves.
Mind you, I cannot say “I love you” to my wife in an apathetic tone and expect her to believe it. Process and form have their place but they are not the primary concern. To continue the example: As a Christian, I love my wife because God first loved me, and I have vowed to love her no matter what (even when I do not feel the desire to love her). When you understand this about me then you come to realize what I really mean when I say “I love you” to my wife. It is not simply a flood of emotion, it is a promise to her committed before God and others to go on loving her no matter how I’m feeling. The promise of grace is what sustains my love for her.
Sadly, people find themselves on their death beds before contemplating this purpose and meaning, or worse still, never do. The situation is dire and yet it seems we avoid the necessary depth of understanding life requires.
Perhaps my favorite illustration of this cultural problem comes from G.K. Chesterton:
Suppose that a commotion arises in the street about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the Schoolmen, “Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good — “ At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they go about congratulating each other on their unmediaeval practicality. But as things go on they do not work out so easily. Some people have pulled the lamp-post down because they wanted the electric light; some because they wanted darkness, because their deeds were evil. Some thought it not enough of a lamp-post, some too much; some acted because they wanted to smash municipal machinery; some because they wanted to smash something. And there is war in the night, no man knowing whom he strikes. So gradually and inevitably, to-day, to-morrow, or the next day, there comes back the conviction that the monk was right after all, and that all depends on what is the philosophy of Light. Only what we might have discussed under the gas-lamp, we now must discuss in the dark. (Chapter 1)
Rushing forward for the sake of change or for the “benefits” of immediate gratification is bound to end in devastation. Still eventually, inevitably, we have to go back to truth. While not impossible to restore, correcting fundamental mistakes after stripping ourselves from the foundation that keep us together is exceedingly difficult and, oftentimes, very painful
In America, we’re facing this situation today. We’re cutting down truth in search for gratification. We’ve passed legislation and have created policy that’s both ill-conceived and rushed. At the ballot box we’ve rejected critical thinkers in exchange for people that entertain and gratify us, and we are paying dearly for it. The foundations necessary to prop up our society are starting to crumble through unjustifiable criticism and we are paying little mind. Eventually, what’s been built will collapse. Components necessary for our free society like order, morality, liberty, and charity will cease; being replaced with preference, lust, dependence, and entitlement.
When the pursuit of truth in love is restored as our goal again, we can have civil discourse. But, like the gas-lamp, this virtue may be torn down without a second care. Until then, it’s an uphill battle that requires men and women of sound character and judgment–with healthy conviction–to lead us through the inevitable slander and faux controversy of people who would deny us liberty to no longer be accountable to the truth that sustains us. People that think beyond the surface challenge us to look into what really matters. And maybe that is what we fear… challenge. Yet, if we never look beyond the problem—into the heart—then we will never grow and we might as well be living in the dark.
