Superficial life in our new millenium
So, I’m thinking once again — some of you may want to stop reading now!!
Superficial approaches to life seem to be all the rage.
News reporting a few decades ago was “just the facts, ma’m”. These small bits of observation were sufficient information. Our worldviews were surrounded by a Judeo-Christian foundation. We knew right from wrong – inside the bedroom and outside. We could categorize the information we heard as good and bad. Truth could be measured by a universal standard — or this was the hope.
Then, our world moved to “postmodernism”. Truth as universal was dumped. Your truth was what you made up, or what was affirmed in a smaller grouping of people. Each person or group had their own truths, some complementary and some contradictory. Although we wanted to be tolerant, all truths must now compete with each other — unless you want to be a hermit (a near impossibility in our global world).
So newscasts were extended. Often this was done to explain the rationale for actions. Actions which in the past would have been quickly categorized as right or wrong — now were seeking to be recategorized. The most passionate actions tended to make the six o’clock news. With no universal standard, experiences of passion and fervor became the standard of right and wrong. Whatever your experience, as long as you entered fully into it, it was right for you.
LIfe took on the need to enjoy the experience, to be “fun.” If you were suffering or happiness was not yours, then you must remedy the situation. Sue for compensation so that you have enough money to be happy. Or perhaps change friends constantly if you do not have the gumption for conflict.
I suggest we are superficial. Once you scatch past the surface of “experience” (existentialism in philosophical terms) you must confront death — four funerals in a weeks’ time makes you wonder. You can remain consistent and say “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die” — or you can search out what has been labelled as religion — that part of life that sees an existence past our own person and time.
Just another thought here — some people have tried to turn religion into a death creating institution. Religion wrongly followed — religion that has returned to making ourselves God — is deadly. Religion that takes us outside ourselves steps in the right direction. The question is — which religion brings life?