Thought of the Day 01.21.09

50 years ago, when Americans prized decency and duty, the greatest sin was doing anything wrong, especially in public. Now, having been so long bent on violating norms that the violating of norms has itself become the ideal, indecency is the only evidence you can show to authenticate your nonconformity.

The irony is that the modern person scoffs at conventionalism as a strategy for the needy even as he painstakingly lays out for your approval all the ways in which he has liberated himself from such neediness. Of course, the truth is that we all crave approval, and we seek it in fame, wealth, family, achievement, and even moral purity.

In the end, however, there is only one proper object and satisfier of our neediness. Our souls really crave the approval of our Maker, which once had (in Christ) immediately puts to shame every misguided impostor the modern culture can offer.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a good piece of commentary on the innate desire each of us has for significance.

We might look for it in the fulfillment of cultural and societal expectations (or) try to achieve it by flaunting those very same conventions. Either way it all moves toward feeding the same end desire: "Look at me I'm a winner!" (or) "Look at me I'm a rebel!" all calls attention to one thing: me.

January 21, 2009 at 2:51 PM
Andrew Tallman said...

Yes. And the piece we overlook is just how parallel the actions of both the rebel and the traditionalist are. The rebel says, "Look at me. See how good I am at being different?" The traditionalist says, "Look at me. See how good I am at being the same, or being good?" Neither one is giving more than a passing thought to the idea that we should be saying, "Look at God. See how magnificent He is?" At least the rebel knows this. The traditionalist has to be dragged kicking and screaming, clawing with his fingernails to resist, into the idea that he is every bit as self-oriented as the immoral man. It is this man of whom Jesus speaks in the Sermon on the Mount, depart from Me, you who do wickedness, I never knew you.

January 22, 2009 at 12:55 PM

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