I'm back! It's been a whirlwind to be sure, as the previous posts demonstrate. Thanks for all the well wishes and comments and emails everyone! We certainly are blessed.
As I've said before, I don't intend to keep up with the old pace of blogging, times being what they are, and obligations and family dynamics shifting and all. Nonetheless, I'll still comment a time or two each week, though I hope to spend more of my blogging time on the finer things of life.
You know, family fun and games, the latest book or movie, or just being glad about our new bishop who actually makes us think we are important to him. The previous bishop - Bishop Brennan - also gave us that feeling, but he was sent back to his stomping grounds in Brooklyn before we had a chance to get to know him. Nonetheless, our latest bishop more than rises to the occasion, and I can't say how nice it is to have a bishop who seems genuinely glad about not just his Catholic Faith, but its traditional roots as well (bonus point: he's also an official exorcist for the Church).
Nonetheless, I thought I would throw out this little observation that caught my eye and has made me think. It was something that really made sense, is obvious, and yet something I hadn't put together. It was pointed out that up until WWII, most of humanity believed two crucial things. One, that there is something very important beyond this physical world. And two, that there are things in this world that are more important than me.
After WWII, those assumptions began to collapse quickly. Soon individualism became 'me, myself and I, as opposed to the rest of the world that is dead last in importance'. You can see this in those media psychiatrists who insist we owe it to our kids to put ourselves first ahead of them, or anyone else for that matter. Heck, you can see it everywhere.
And the importance beyond this world, which likely was already collapsing in the West among the upper classes before the World Wars, began to unravel fast across the board. Really. I wonder how many Christians today believe that one's religious confessions have anything to do with the afterlife. For that matter, I wonder how many think anything has to do with the afterlife, other than the assumption it happens and we get to see our loved ones and cuddly puppies after we die, because of course we do.
But those two beliefs, bigger than this world and a world bigger than me, were far from exceptional, even if humans had millions of different ways to unpack those beliefs. But in the modern age, it's largely me as the center of my world, and nothing beyond this world of terrible importance, if there is anything at all. The results of these perspectives speak for themselves.
File this observation under 'solutions to the problem that the media will never cover.'
I agree. I think the atom bomb did something to peoples’ psyches, in addition to the experience of the devastation of two world wars. A lot of underlying ideologies... including a breakdown of Christian belief going back centuries culminating in strains of atheism, and the glorification of man in the meantime... why wouldn’t you just “carpe diem” and live for yourself?
ReplyDeleteOops! That was me (Bernadette)
DeleteTrue. The secularism was already there and taking hold, though a little slower in the States. Nonetheless, once we came out of the rubble of WWII, it seemed as though those who fought it were prepared to learn all the wrong lessons.
Delete(Tom New Poster)
ReplyDeleteI also think 1945 released a great tension that stretched back to the beginnings of the Depression. Many young people had no memory of "good times". On my Dad's block in San Francisco there were cars of the '20 still running. Grandma had an old-style stove with a trash burner. Dad couldn't have two pair of shoes at the same time, had not his older relatives shared their ration coupons. Guys left the service with no clothes except their uniforms. Somebody else and their needs (family and country) had been the focus for 15 tough years. People went a little crazy with buying, initially because they needed new stuff, but it got out of hand as the economy kept expanding (really: returning to the normal of the 1920s).
(Tom continuing)
ReplyDeleteI think you have to look back the early century to see the beginnings of the decay. I just read Harrenden's "Ships that Pass in the Night" (1894). The secularist poison was spreading but had not reached the working classes. WWI and the Jazz Age would do that, but slowly.
Yes, contrary to popular belief, the counterculture revolution didn't just start when the Beatles arrived in New York. The 1920s saw the beginning of the unraveling. I think in America it wasn't quite so advanced in Europe, and I've seen some call the 1930s America's last Great Awakening, when Americans went back to church in light of the economic hardships. But that lasted only briefly, and by the 1950s we were on the fast lane toward joining Europe in tossing anything and everything that came before out the window.
Delete(Tom New Poster)
DeleteDave: it progressed more slowly because
1. We were a more religious nation (an effect still seen, to a diminishing degree), with many institutions (including hospitals and schools) run privately, not publicly.
2. We were a more rural nation, which tends to make people more stubborn, practical and locally focussed and cooperative with neighbors, not becoming majority urban until 1930 (and for some states as late as 1970).
3. Our governing structures were far more decentralized. A progressive could not just take the presidency or some important ministry and change the culture. There was a traditional suspicion of "guvmint" that the Europeans still find curious.
4. We had paths to success and entry into the middle class that did not pass through universities run by agnostic progressives. Those other paths dried up in the 1970s, but seem to be opening again.
5. Our territory was not ripped apart by bombings, foreign invaders or genocidal tyrants. I talked to a lady who went through the Blitz in Exeter, England. Imagine PTSD spread throughout entire civilian populations, not just the military.
Those are all excellent points. One thing I often think on is that homicide rates in America through the 1950s were the lowest since we've been keeping track. The rates dropped in the 30s, and stayed relatively low (for such a large, diverse society), dropping to their lowest in the 50s. Why? I sometimes think part of it was just contentment and thankfulness. We didn't go through what the world did, and we saw things like the USSR, Germany and Japan as something that could happen here but didn't, and we were glad. But the other points you make are spot on.
Delete(Tom New Poster)
DeleteAnd that all those horrors happened in Europe makes me laugh at Europeans who scold us for our violence. Apparently all those Europeans who killed one another in two world wars don't count.
You're not entirely wrong.
ReplyDeleteBut if there's one thing James Lindsay has helped me appreciate in his recent talks on gnosticism... it's that this is not new, it's old. Very old. In fact one might say it goes all the way back to the words, "you shall be as gods."
Ever since then has been the struggle between looking beyond ourselves, to looking within ourselves. That there was ever a culture that predominantly looked beyond - we must admit is unfortunately a rarity. With God's grace, it might arise again.
Yes, I see it today as a sort of quasi-gnostic, secular paganism. But it's secular, in that it mostly accepts that all religions are just fan fiction of the ancients, therefore I can invent my own version of the hereafter since it's pretty much irrelevant anyway. It doesn't help that many churches today seem ill prepared to do anything other than concede that one's belief likely has no real impact on one's eternal destiny anyway. And once the hereafter becomes irrelevant, the here and now is all there is. It stands to reason, therefore, that not only is this world all that matters, but the most important thing in this world is me.
Delete"It doesn't help that many churches today seem ill prepared to do anything other than concede that one's belief likely has no real impact on one's eternal destiny anyway."
DeleteIs this referring to the "once saved, always saved", and/or the Calvinistic pre-destination ideas?
No. It's referring to the idea that our Christian Faith and faith in Christ has some bearing on our eternal destinies. More and more I'm of the impression that not a few Christians - and leaders - believe what one's religious confession is has little to no impact on our eternal destinies. One can be anything - even an atheist - and skip straight through the pearly gates. For those who even believe there is an alternative to eternal paradise, it seems getting to heaven the old fashioned way, by earning it, is increasingly the path of choice.
Delete