If there is a single problem with our
lives today, it is the breathtaking shallowness of modern life. We
seem infatuated with grade-school gossip and a breathless yearning for
"stuff," as if the latest gadgetry or a fatter bank account could
make anything real in our lives better. We seem to believe in
nothing but this gossip and these gadgets. This infantile fixation
stretches across political party and ideology.
This is a reflection of godlessness, shattered families, and the
wicked drumbeat in education and media of indoctrination instead of learning or
amusement. It is astounding how little most people know of history
and religion. It is frightening how illogical and anti-historical
the vast majority of us have become.
As one example, one of the comments on my American Thinker
article, "The Pox of Materialism," expresses the absurd idea that the
Founding Fathers began the American Revolution to improve their economic
position. This "interpretation" of the Founding Fathers'
intention was maliciously and deliberately introduced into academia by Marxist
professors in the 1930s and was condemned by honest academicians at the
time. The Founding Fathers, of course, risked the loss of everything
they possessed, and a number of them suffered just that loss.
As another example, Christianity is routinely portrayed as the
mortal enemy of science when, in fact, virtually all the early scientists –
Bacon, Buridan, Kepler, Galileo, Pascal, Newton, Maxwell, Faraday, Kelvin and
others were devout Christians, more religiously serious than ordinary Europeans
of their times. The de-Christianization of America, which does not
mean unimportant things like saying "Merry Christmas" or professing a
notional belief in God, shows how far we have declined. America,
without Christianity, is just a few decades behind the de-Christianized and
impotent Europe.
The flurry of "news" these days is nothing more than
rhetorical spitballs and name-calling. Most news outlets anymore are
almost unwatchable, with hosts who luxuriate in banality. Most of
these nebbishes say the same things all the time and demonstrate little more
than nice legs, pretty faces, and ample breasts.
Our system of statist institutional education parrots what fits
into the cesspool of social conformity, producing graduates who know less than
before they entered college. Our public school students are
programmed to feed corrupt and stupid academia and to crank out like sausages
lobotomized and neutered creatures, as incapable of challenging the vast
network of illogic and lies that governs society as the tormented subjects of
Oceania in Orwell's 1984.
No one seems to care, or rather, no one seems to have the gumption
to directly confront the shadowy horror of modern life in
America. We kid ourselves that more "stuff" can replace
what we have lost. We trick ourselves into believing that a
political victory here or there will make things better. The
Democratic Party, of course, is the party of souls on their way to perdition,
but the Republican Party is scarcely better. Everyone in politics is
in politics for himself, not for higher values or noble aims.
Can anything be done? The decay of Europe and its
descent into moral chaos and cognitive duplicity suggest that our time is short
and our condition desperate. It will take intellectual courage,
which seems lacking everywhere. That means telling the truth instead
of saying what one is expected to say.
As one example, some brave heart needs to shout that women are not
oppressed in America and never have been and that feminism is simply Nazism
with a different form of Aryans and Jews. One might also note that
the problems of black America are not the consequence of prejudice or some
tired old "legacy of slavery," but are instead self-inflicted wounds
like unwed motherhood (the mother, not the unknown father, is the villain in
these cases) or endless whining that reduces even the most pliable white folks
to listening with quiet indifference.
Most vitally – in fact, indispensably – America must turn to God
and cling to faith in our Creator as the ultimate cure for all things in
life. This faith inspires men to do things that transcend their own
personal needs and wants. This faith brings a profound seriousness
to life coupled with the joy of real purpose and worth that towers above our
petty lives.
The time is short, and the need is great. The cause may
seem hopeless, but with God, nothing is hopeless. Without God, on
the other hand, everything is hopeless – hopeless, shallow, and empty.
