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I am tired of new ideas. I don’t mean to say that I’m tired of learning. Nor do I mean that I don’t appreciate fresh takes on old subjects. But the constant reinvention of the wheel has worn me out. There is no need to reconfigure my mental space for the sake of being “up to date” or “informed.” If something has proved its worth, then it ought to be held dear and passed on. Anything else gets exhausting after a short while. I am tired of new ideas.
I think that societies also begin to grow weary of new things. If every generation has to reevaluate its core beliefs, eventually this work is going to become tedious. If every person has to subjectively determine their own identity, ultimately self-identification will become exhausting. I’m afraid that this might be the case with our society.
We’ve inherited a culture based on constant change: change your style, change your phone, change your home, change your spouse, change your gender, change your politics, change your diet, change your everything and anything. But if nothing is stable and everything is in flux, where do you start? And where do you stop? The image that I have is that of a sailor bailing water from a ship that will sink if he stops bailing. He’s fine as long as he doesn’t stop. But eventually he’s going to get tired, and eventually he’s going to sink. Societies, like people, can change; but if that change occurs too often, then the society will grow tired. And if the society grows tired, then it will begin to fail.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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Ultimately, this is the problem with Expressive Individualism; it establishes constant flux as the norm. Common sense responds, “If everyone is special, then no one is,” to borrow from The Incredibles. Not everything can be the exception; there needs to be a norm. There needs to be some sort of ordinary bedrock upon which everything else can rest. That norm can’t be flashy or special; it must be basic and normal. That norm can’t be an exception because exceptions are never continued; it has to be ordinary so that it can be adhered to. Furthermore, it must be passed on in a basic and normal way.
Children understand this. Yes, children like flashy things, but more fundamentally they like routine. “This is what we do at bedtime. Why? Because we do it at bedtime.” There is a basic human need for stability and normalcy that puts the extraordinary in its place. The extraordinary is exhausting without the ordinary.
Given all of this, I’m not sure why it surprises me when the Gospel is explained in a matter-of-fact way. “It is this way because it is this way.” Marriage is between a man and woman. Why? Because marriage is between a man and a woman. Christ came to save us from our sins. Why? Because we are sinful and need saving. It is somehow more shocking that these things are and always have been true than saying that the Gospel is new and revolutionary.
Hence my shock that Anthony Schratz’ work Paradise Cancelled: Unveiling the False Promises of a Secularist Utopia was so simple. He summarized the Gospel, and he summarized Expressive Individualism (his name for modern values). That was the book. There was no catch. There was no revelation. There was no shock and awe. There was a simple summary of dogma and history. The most outlandish part of the whole work was the title; everything else was basic and common sense. He laid out the Christian message, he laid out the modern message, and it was clear which one was reliable.
I wish that we had a thousand books like his. He didn’t try to make the Gospel sexy. He simply stated it as true. And if it is true, then other things follow. We call those other things Western Civilization. If we want Western Civilization, then we need the Gospel. If we want what the Gospel promises, then our lives need to be a certain way. We don’t have to rationalistically deduce everything into oblivion. We don’t have to reinvent the Christian life. If I want Heaven, then I need to live the Christian life. I need to be a saint. I don’t need to be special. I need to be good.
My fear, and I think that Mr. Schratz would agree with me, is that we have become addicted to our freedom. Not freedom in the JPII “freedom to do the good” sense but freedom in the “unbound by limitation” sense. We want to pretend that we can do whatever we want and still have the normalcy of a Christian world. But that doesn’t follow. If I want the symphony of Heaven, then I must submit my freedom to the Great Conductor. All else is a false promise, the false promise of a secularist utopia.
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