Our culture. WBC 12/5/02 am Seeker Service Judges 2:8-16
I’ve wanted to say something to you on this subject for some time
- understanding who we are… and what made us like this… brought us here is
- so very important
- SO fascinating!
1 Are things worse?
Here’s the big question. Are things worse, today, than in the past
- than the Viking era
- middle ages… with feudalism
- WWI and II?
- Work pressure of today (compared to workhouses of 18C)
- Wars and rumours of wars
ARE children worse?
’Today’s children are tyrants. They disobey their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannise their teachers.’ Socrates circa 400 BC
Or do we just know more?
- is ‘awareness’ (and the guilt that comes from it!) the issue?
- The WORLD and it’s problems is now in my back yard
- Ignorance USED to be bliss
What do you think?
Interestingly enough I interviewed about 30 people on the street about this a few years ago
- tremendous diversity of opinion!
- Some, for example, who felt the fabric of family life was crumbling. Others:
- “no. Things are better” Rising divorce figures show people (women) no longer have to live in hellish marriages
- Similarly- there were sincerely held, divergent opinions over crime (we’re better at detecting it), single parent families, drugs… pornography
People held incredibly PERSONAL opinions on things. They were very diverse. Very subjective
- though, to many of us, the facts speak for themselves
- rising crime figures
- 98 % of children admitted that gory TV & video games had a harmful effect on their behaviour
- 87% said they copied what they saw (cf ‘child’s play’ -> Jamie Bolger murder)
So- why can’t people agree whether things are better or worse… about what’s right/wrong?
- maybe this is significant in itself? part of the issue? Maybe this is part of our culture… and we can’t see the problem because we see WITH the problem
- maybe the fact that we have so few goalposts, and what we do have is so individual and personal… and MOVING… is something we need to understand
- have you noticed the goalposts move… become blurred?
2 Shifting goalposts
Let me take you on a whistlestop tour of our culture and it’s developments (from an amateur’s stance)
100 years ago- world view/culture of GB was significantly different
- people believed in absolutes.
- ‘truth’ (and the opposite of it was ‘false’)
- There was right and wrong. They were worth fighting for/against
- = basically a ‘modern’, ‘enlightened’ view
- everyone operated on these presuppositions (Xian or not)
- and it worked!
The ‘enlightenment’ was really bearing fruit. Science, education and facts were all important and were yielding great progress. It was a time of great encouragement. The future looked bright- and it was modernism not orange
- Man was really ‘growing up’, coming of age.
- give us enough time and we could bring paradise on earth!
Then came World War I. Fighting for right. Ideals. Values
- philosophy and sociology came down to earth with a thump
- the true nature of humankind was seen
- reason hadn’t been able to stop the bloodshed
- the rightness of fighting for your perception of right/wrong seemed dwarfed by the wrongness of suffering
- NOBODY had won
Personal beliefs, rights & wrongs became something we would not fight for or against again.
- society started to ‘weigh anchor’ on its absolutes. Understandably
something else happened- more to the UK than USA.
- A combination of ‘growing up’ and despondency set in
- A despondency from which we have never really recovered
- Which, at the end of 2 world wars, leaves us quite different from the US (who didn’t so much have wars on doorstep)
- Who have kept a ‘teenage optimism’, unaffected by our middle-agedness
But another influence did come from the US to us.
- as a result of Freudian psychology
- through the most influential but unheard of man in history. Sigmund Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays, the inventor of ‘PR’
- who, in the 20s, used the insights gained by Freudian psychology to exploit people’s inner/base desires
- to make them buy things they didn’t need
- cf Suferagets and cigarettes
He started targeting INDIVIDUALS
The free thinking (and ‘drifting’) about morals and absolutes continued and was enhanced by WWII… Vietnam
- something might be right for YOU- even though I might know it to be wrong… illogical. That’s your right
The post WWII boom (“we’ve never had it so good”)
- and the discovery of a new target group who had spare money and were easily ‘manipulated’
- TEENAGERS!
- And even greater targeting of individuals, and their supposed ‘needs’
- To make money
- (but also to keep them as good, predictable, docile consumers and voters… so no Hitlers would ever be produced… or communism wouldn’t take over)
…. Enhanced people’s sense of self
In fact- the elevation and targeting of teenagers has had a profound effect on our culture
- has placed the ones with no experience and lots of spendable cash above the elders of society!
- Youngsters shouldn’t rule! They should be ‘encouraged’ and should be respectful of ‘the elders’ (60s ‘death of deference’)
Anyway. The whole thing gathered momentum, and the pendulum swung still further towards ‘individualism’, ‘relativism’, ‘situational ethics’, blurred goal posts, consumerism…
- … when something called the 60s hit!
- NOW it was ‘not just right if YOU THINK it’s okay”
- = “if it FEELS okay”. “If it feels good, do it”
- “love your neighbour- just don’t get caught”
It became ‘right’ if you personally enjoyed it, wanted it- irrespective of what the system, man , law (or God- if He exists!) says
- this ‘freedom’, rebellion… was also another chance to exploit consumers more, as well.
- Now they made stacks of different models to appeal to your individuality (Beach Buggy, all kind of Fords… where everyone had had one Model T!)
As for laws… and God’s laws
- things only became wrong if you got caught
- thinking developed almost to the point of imbalance where it was said ‘I wonder what happened to the poor individual to make them rape, murder)
- = good thinking! But IT’S STILL WRONG!
The process has accelerated at an alarming rate.
- it is unstoppable. We can only just be aware of it
- everything tells us that “I” am the most important thing
- “because I’m worth it” Even the kids!
- Thomson hols: “let #1 look after #1”
- “Cogito ergo sum” > “Tesco ergo sum”
- (I shop, therefore I am)
- churches: “‘I’ didn’t get anything out of that”
- maybe not. But did God… others?
- We mustn’t be like the world!
And you’re invited to make/mix your own morals, too- because the death of modernity:
- facts, science, rationalism… dogma… politics
… has meant that folks think there ARE no absolutes. Is no certainty… dogma
- make it up yourself! Mix and match. Create your own God! Morals
We’re at a phase where society is not sure what they believe. Culture without a cause. They know what they DON’T believe in: modernity. But not sure what they DO believe in
- hence = post- modernity
3. Hope
But inside folks are crying out for things!
a) for community! Relationships. Sincere ones (sine-sera, hypocrisy)
- isolation of individualism and ‘virtual relationships’… work!!
- Hence #1 progs like ‘friends’ and Budweiser adverts with buddies
- Because everyone may feel like “they’re an island”
- But it’s darn lonely! And everyone wants to be loved!
They’re crying out for what we’ve got, folks!! Inside.
- unconditional love, relationships
b) God
They are! You can talk about spiritual things, now- in schools etc
= okay to believe spiritual things
People are hungry for spiritual reality and relationship
- not dogma! (can’t blame them for being suspicious, there!)
Again: we’ve got it! Reality & relationship through Jesus
- God become MAN. Relational
- The one who spoke in parables… not dogma
- The one who walks with you on your journey… Emmaus road… as you discover more about God
c) Direction
The tough thing about being adrift on the moral sea, with no anchor and absolutes is that it is VERY unsettling. Disturbing
- people actually WANT certainty inside (Jonny’s always running around trying to find certainty)
- (let’s pray that someone doesn’t step into this moral maze… haze… uncertainty… vacuum.. and offer wrong dogma- Hitler style!)
I DO think we’ve learnt something… and in one sense we’ve grown up a bit. The prejudice, dogma, narrowness of the past has rightly gone
- let’s not return to that!
- Things have to be situationally applied, I think
But people want MORE certainty, security. Moral clarity
- (the only thing that’s wrong is child abuse! Our last bastion of morality that makes us feel we have some! Everything else is acceptable, though!)
Trouble is: you can’t have absolutes without THE absolute. God
- He’s the one who makes the rules. And how do we know His rules (or should I better say: boundaries)?
- THE Bible!
And so: I think we need to
- recognise how individualistic we’ve become
- ‘build a community’
- recognise there are signs of hope
- give a clarion call for our culture to return to
- God… the absolute
- The Bible. God’s handbook for the journey to us.
- His ideas of what’s best…… (for us)
And, actually: we not only need to do that as a culture. But as Christians, too….. eh?
*****
