After Postmodernism....Will an Angry and Disillusioned America Awaken or Implode?

“What comes after postmodernism?” a student asked today. 

Some have suggested “pseudo-modernism” which is all about experiencing pseudo-realities through virtual reality technology, reality TV, and rapidly expanding communication technologies.  Others have called the current pervasive philosophy “digi-modernism” which also points to the rapid advancements in technology and how it affects the way we live and think. Some would like to see a revived Renaissance period or "retro-ism".  Then there is the theory that since postmodernism is so self-referential it will continue to propel itself.  I don’t know what to call the current philosophy, but I can make plenty of observations.  Over the past 40 years, I have seen the REMOVAL of hope, dignity, basic morality, truth, critical thinking, tolerance for Christianity, kindness, love for others, and respect law and liberty.  Today, those admirable qualities which once defined America, are being REPLACED with mounting anger, hatred, division, tension, death, sexual perversion, cynicism, and disillusionment.  Instead of hoping for the best and looking for role models to emulate, American society seems to be lifting up the corrupt and wishing that the righteous would fall.

When Bill Clinton was convicted of lying under oath after committing adultery with his intern, he was not impeached.  As the nation's top leader who happened to be over twice her age, he should have been like a father figure to her instead of using her for his own selfish lusts, but the culture did not condemn his actions.  Instead, people felt better about their own shortcomings, dismissing his perjury and adultery because “he’s human like the rest of us” without expecting him to be a moral example for others.  Like it or not, young people did look to him as role model, and since his misconduct was not punished, they considered his behavior to be socially acceptable.  Many young people assumed oral sex did not count, when the truth is that fornication of any kind still does major long term emotional, physical, and relational damage - especially regarding future marriage relationships.  So, oral sexual activity among young people increased dramatically after his trial.

 

The UNC Chapel Hill athletic program is one among many elite athletic programs that has been charged with all sorts of cheating and lying through the offering of fake classes for top athletes who have no interest in studying. Yet, despite the clear violation of code, many Americans are apathetic over any violation of principle as long as they get to see their favorite athletes perform.  The legal process is only barely plodding along…possibly never coming to a conclusion with appropriate disciplinary action because a corrupt culture values collegiate sports more than ethics or justice.

Donald Trump, who made his millions through corrupt business deals, pornography, casinos, and media manipulation, is being lifted up as the top Republican presidential nominee (even though he never intended to actually become president; he has said that he only wanted to be a voice of protest and to curry more media attention....until prideful ambition took over) BECAUSE he is disrespectful, angry, violent, and crude, while Ted Cruz is scorned or mostly ignored because he has stood for Constitutional interpretation of the law and traditional family values.  Trump brags about his multiple acts of adultery and fornication, but no one condemns his behavior for the mental anguish, heartache, and untold trauma his selfish acts caused for all women and children involved.  It’s okay for him to cheat and to condemn others through his own words or by planting a fake story in a trashy magazine because he openly glories in his own sin, but he doesn't call it sin, for he doesn't believe anything he has done is a sin, so he must not believe in sin at all.  Whatever the case, Trump's lifestyle makes the average American seem wholesome, so few if any could possibly feel so morally corrupt in comparison to him.  Since he expresses the anger and frustration so many feel but are ashamed to admit, he is being fueled to the top by the fire of Americans' hatred.

Now both liberals and libertarians have expressed eager hope that the National Inquirer and Trump are right their accusations of Cruz committing adultery (which, given that large terrorist attacks are occurring every day around the world, while our POTUS attends baseball games with evil dictators and offers toasts to communism, is the last thing the media or any presidential hopeful should be discussing).  Instead of encouraging and believing in a national leader, they want to see him destroyed no matter how much pain it causes his loved ones.

Perhaps this culture doesn't want leaders or heroes because they don't want to believe heroes are possible.  "Surely they must all be hypocrites" is the assumption.  Certainly enough people have let us down to make us afraid to hope, but what is life without hope?  How can anyone aspire to moral betterment if the culture convinces them there is no hope, and that dreams are but fairy tales?  People rise to the expectations of others, so if the expectation is perversion and corruption, that is what we will produce in ourselves and in others. 

Maybe people just don't want to believe that they are accountable to a higher power who has established an unchanging universal moral code.  Those who stand for Constitutional law, truth, justice, and Judeo-Christian values seem most hated, not because they impose their beliefs on others because they technically can't and usually don't even try, but simply because of the fact that their lives are proof that is possible to live a joyful (not necessarily or ever easy, though), faith-filled, morally upright life.  No one is perfect, of course, but someone like Cruz who has entered the evil and highly corrupting Washington environment for a considerable period of time and actually did what he said he would do, without wavering in his convictions, is not allowed to make a single mistake without being completely ruined by the media and the culture, whereas the blatantly irreligious, like Hillary and Trump, are given all the free passes they will ever need because let's face it, almost everyone feels better about themselves when compared to either one of them.

Consider the change in how we treat community heroes. Police officers, fire fighters, military personnel, emergency response professionals, and others who put their lives at risk to protect civilians are heroes and should be respected as such.  Teachers sacrifice more of their heart, time, money, energy, and even family/friend relationships to serve others than most any other civil servant, yet instead of honoring them as heroes, our society places them under increasing demands and pressure for outcomes largely out of their control. Even make-believe superheroes are losing respect as evidenced by the most recent superhero movie in which the good guys, Batman and Superman, enter vicious battles against one other. At least that movie has a pseudo happy ending, whereas frustrated Americans continue to wage both passive and aggressive civil wars against each other and the nation's true heroes.  

I’d like to point out one fundamental problem shaping society’s deteriorating attitude toward disillusioned negativism.  Postmodernism taught that truth is relative, but what if there is absolute truth determining what is right or wrong?  Those who don't place themselves under the Lordship of Christ cannot be expected to behave like Christians, but if the universal moral law is set into every human heart, then basic principles of decency are expected, and as U.S. citizens, Americans are required to uphold the laws of the land, not redefine or reinterpret those with every whim or fad.   If a universal moral code is indeed etched into the heart and coded into the DNA of every human being as the Christian Bible suggests, then saying something isn’t wrong doesn’t make it right.  As an example, let's suppose a new movement spreads across America pushing for acceptance of pedophilia by using strategies similar to those that won the LGBT community favored status, special privileges, and the legalization of gay marriage.

No matter how much someone wants to believe that pedophilia is good and right or convince themselves that it is at least genetic and somehow acceptable....

No matter how many legal battles the ACLU wages to convince states to force every business to provide gender neutral restrooms (which would force people like me with tiny bladders to live as a hermit)...

No matter how many special privileges and tax credits pedophiles are provided through updated equal opportunity acts (if you consider how quickly special privileges were granted to LGBT groups and the suffering incurred by those like the florist and baker who exercised their Constitutional right not to serve same sex couple for the one occasion of their wedding when there were plenty of other equally acceptable service providers, you will not find such a claim far-fetched)...

And no matter how many laws are passed to protect that pedophile and producers of pedophilia media & materials, even to the point of making it illegal to speak out against pedophilia.....

PEDOPHILIA is still and will always be wrong.  No one can erase the damage such horrific acts do to the victims.  And no one but Jesus can remove the guilt stain that grips the perpetrator's heart deep down inside.

The culture seeks to silence those who warn of the dangers and destruction that inevitably result from various wrongful actions.  Even those who quietly live out their faith with integrity, serving the common good, become targets of attack if their lives of truth, justice, and kindness contradict what others want to believe is possible or acceptable.  Without making a single judgment on someone else, that person will be opposed by the wicked because even a hardened heart will recognize the dichotomy which then exposes their own depravity and need for God, for all have sinned and need God's redemption (Romans 3:23).  The real battle is inside each of us.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? ² You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ⁴ You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  (James 4: 1-4)

America is so disjointed right now, that it’s impossible to fully or accurately answer the student’s question regarding what follows postmodernism.  The only unifying theme right now seems to be disunity.  But the real war tearing our nation apart and leaving us so angry and disillusioned is ultimately spiritual in nature. Without faith or any spiritual foundation, hopelessness, discontent, bitterness, anger, and depressing disillusionment will grow instead.  Goodness, justice, or even pure gladness have no place in a society that throws her fist at God. When absolute truth is denied or abandoned, feelings displace both facts & reason.  Feeling fearful (or paranoid) that we may offend another leads a nation to exchange freedom of self-government for tyranny by a few unstable outliers, and then all the foundations upon which a nation once stood erode until the nation free falls into oblivion.

Let us pray that postmodernism will be replaced with revival.  May we renew our faith in God and our commitment to Him and His holy standard. May churches teach the whole truth without fear or compromise.  May our nation restore her love for God and for one another.

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"  (Micah 6:8)