I think I’ve finally sorted out why I have such a bad taste in my mouth whenever I read any post the pertains to the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent revolt.
Every single post drips with certainty and moral superiority. As do all interactions with people living today. Especially as it seems with people who are closely related with my generation
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It’s a bitter tragedy that nearly everyone brought up in and around my generation grew up with an appalling weakness, our education. We were fed the postmodern ideas that have led us to abandon truth as a concept, discourse as a means to resolution, and morality as a standard outside ourselves.
In place of those divine ideals, we have supplanted our own vanity. Our existence is predicated on our ability to share our asinine ideas. We are not aware of our existence because we think, as Descartes once speculated. We now validate our existence by means of the social media post. The maximum is now, “I post, therefore I am.” All actions must be social actions or they are not deemed worthy.
Since we believe truth is dead none care for the validity of the post. As the post itself is an outworking of a vain compulsion to validate one’s existence and cultivate a preconceived, ideologically drafted, identity. An identity that an individual feels they should assume based on their muddled moral and intellectual arrogance.
So as a result, we find ourselves scrolling past endless pages of ideological drivel. One post after another of misguided moral reasoning a faulty logic.
Each post often worse than the last, and nearly all of them are demonizing one group or another, feigning outrage for some vague notion of social justice. Making statements of fact as if they were in possession of the unfettered truth. Claiming to be wise and moral, they proved themselves to be fools.
If you have found that you slammed one group or an individual in this time, I will urge you to reconsider. It is not the case as most think that there is one evil person or one group of people, and to make the world a better place, we just have to destroy those people.
Unfortunately, as we all know, it is not that simple. All people have the capacity for evil, great and heinous evil. Jung speculated that if anyone wanted to be good, they needed to recognize and integrate their shadow. The individual, if they wish to strive for good, must first understand that they, themselves, are no better than the evil they are confronting.
As Solzhenitsyn profoundly put in his Nobel prize acceptance speech, the line of good and evil runs through the heart and mind of each and every person. It is such an apparent truth that one can say without reservation that all have fallen short of the glory of God.
Even after expounding on the evil within humankind, I can say within the same breath, without contradiction, that the kingdom of heaven is within all people. There is no one select group or individual, not the elite, not the rich or poor, but within all people each and every one. The goodness of heaven can be brought about by the hands of any person willing.
I hope for my generation to be better. I desire real social reform. I want to produce a society of peace and love. That means recognizing our moral and intellectual shortcomings.
Nothing good will come of cruelty, arrogance, and ignorance.
While with great humility of character, focus of mind, and compassion of heart, the kingdom of God can be made manifest on earth through the hands of his people.
