The recent riots in London, coupled with a rising tide of discontent and malaise among the younger generation, reinforced a notion that has been coalescing in my mind of late. One of the commentators who reacted to the London riots noted that the utter disrespect for other peoples’ rights, property and dignity shown by the teenagers and young adults mostly responsible for the carnage has been imbued by the lack of discipline and authority, of strict rules and punishments, in the realms of the home, school, the courts, and government at large. This writer’s contention was that the welfare mentality allows people to dwell in perpetual adolescence, never being forced to take responsibility for providing for a family or even themselves. Their only motivation is sating their appetites, be it for entertainment, sex, or food and drink. Their gods are their stomachs, and therefore themselves.
Whether it is the responsibility of the familial unit, the educational system, the judicial system, or governmental policies, the fact remains that in order for children to grow up into responsible, productive, decent members of society, they must have a definite and clear sense of boundaries. Do this, and you shall be punished. And of course, the punishment must occur once the transgression transpires, or else the lesson is meaningless.
I have heard the analogy to guardrails along mountain roads in conjunction with the principle of moral guidelines and prohibitions. Guardrails restrict your freedom, but the only thing you could do by exceeding the place where guardrails prohibit is to invite disaster and destruction; drive past the guardrail and you’ll hit a car or go over a cliff.
We all know this, at some level. Or at least, we used to. In olden times, most guardrails were implicit in moral codes; in Western civilization, this usually meant Christian ethics. One did not practice promiscuity because the Bible forbade it, and consequently society condemned it. Similarly, homosexuality, adultery, greed, envy, lust, and even gossip or discourtesy were policed by everyone. No one needed to be told to view prostitutes with disgust or dismay; it was a natural reaction to their clear violation of the codes of conduct society as a whole agreed upon. And a young person destroying another’s property was unthinkable except by the most wicked blackguard. Who would be universally recognized and condemned as a blackguard.
How did this change so dramatically? How is it that drunkenness and promiscuity are acceptable, nay, encouraged (if popular culture in the form of movies, TV shows, and commercials are to be believed) barely a century after it was scandalous to become slightly tipsy unless on very special occasions, and a reputation for being promiscuous was to become a social pariah? Well, I believe that the steady assault on Christianity in popular society as a code of conduct and behavioral regulation has led to the sad state of affairs we are witnessing with each school shooting or flash mob.
“God is dead!” cried Nietzsche’s Madman. “We have killed Him!” And with God perished any semblance of absolute truth, of a strict standard of moral behavior (even though such a code is but the binding on the great Novel of Christianity) from society. Herein lies the great irony that is my true subject. For the freedom that comes from Christian rules is freer than the chaotic anarchy from the society that rejects God in search of vague concepts like ‘self-actualization’ and freedom of expression.
Within the guardrails, there is safety and freedom. Children can be free to frolic and romp in safety and joy as long as they respect the fence along the edge of the cliff. Parents need not pay close attention nor worry for their children’s safety if they have done their parenting well, for the children will obey orders to avoid the fence, or the dangerous river, or any other peril that may present itself. However, remove the railing from the cliffside, allow the children freedom to disobey their parents’ orders, and what is the result? Tragedy or tyranny. Let me explain.
The world needs rules. It’s really that simple. The pursuit of one’s own happiness, given preeminent status since the Sexual Revolution, cannot be the absolute standard for human behavior. “It’s okay as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone” is a pernicious and erroneous creed, unsustainable in the harsh light of reality. For in reality, who can say what consequences an action might entail?
Two lusty teenagers have sex. Disregard the obvious consequences that might proceed, like pregnancy or disease, and ponder the impact it may have on their lives henceforth. Perhaps the sexual temptation is harder to resist the next time; perhaps the marriage bed will prove insufficient to slake the thirst for titillation. Perhaps the two become cynical about relationships, seeing everyone through that prism of animal appetite that marred their first relationship. Not physical consequences, no (though it certainly could lead to them, could it not?) but are emotional and spiritual consequences any less real? Do they cause any less pain? Indeed, even more pain, longer-lasting and more debilitation to the whole person. Why are psychologists and psychiatrists so prevalent and busy listening to people talk about their uphappiness? Like children playing on the edge of a cliff, disaster is all too possible.
Tyranny is the second possible outcome of a society that permits everything. This may seem at first blush to be contradictory; after all, wasn’t the point of discarding the moral imperatives of systems like Christianity to liberate humans from rules? Surely we are freer now, are we not? As we have seen, however, nature abhors a vacuum.
One of the more interesting results of the recent outbreaks of civil unrest is the call for curfews. In England, heavy fines will be levied against the parents of minors out past 9pm. Metal detectors adorn the hallways of high schools, and middle schoolers are suspended for bringing a pocket knife to class. There are ratings systems on video games, and the gun control lobby continues to push for firearms to be removed from the hands of law-abiding citizens.
In other areas, strictures and mandates are getting harsher. Some public universities (who reject any semblance of Christian values) come down hard on students having sex in dormitories. Grade school children are being taught to practice safe sex, which serves to make them aware of sex at earlier and earlier ages, which naturally leads to them having sex.
Cigarette smokers are viewed with the same disgust once reserved for coke fiends and meth heads; in New York City, one cannot smoke outside except in certain designated areas. As for smoking indoors, forget it! Not even in the privacy of your own house are you allowed to light up.
I am not here going to debate the merits of gun control or anti-smoking laws. That is not my point. My point is that with the gradual diminution of internal moral guardrails such as are found in the Bible and religious precepts, external controls are becoming more necessary as a reaction to the logical outworking of the principles espoused by the Enlightenment and its spawn the Sexual Revolution. To keep the children from falling over the cliff, the parents must restrict their actions severely. The commentator called the rioters beasts, animals; what better illustration to demonstrate this opinion than the child leashes now used to rein in small children? Is this really where society has fallen to? We must harness our children as if they were mindless beasts, dogs straining to their leads?
So much for a greater, freer, nobler society resulting from the abandonment of archaic traditions and concepts like morality, chastity, truth, and God. Perhaps the saddest thought that emerges from all this is the notion that it is extremely unlikely that the world would ever recant their declaration of independence from Christian values to combat the ever-worsening state of behavior. “This is my ship,” is their refrain. “I will go down with it!” I wonder: will this change once the icy waters rise to their neck? Or will their stubborn pride and defiance endure even to the doorstep of their own annihilation?
No comments:
Post a Comment