Several months ago, I was speaking with
a highly intelligent cab driver in another state, who noted that
people were getting too touchy about everything. He is a Christian, a
convert from Islam, who told me that he could no longer talk about
any topics in the cab, as the vast majority of people he drove on
long trips which was my case, would take offense at any political,
religious, or moral topic.
His ability to reason was part of his
conversion.
We discussed this phenomenon and
decided that there exists a huge difference in generations regarding
the ability to discuss something or even, to be corrected.
This fine man of about forty-something
noted that few could stand being challenged in their ideas, and that
many people were full of demons, unexplained hang-ups on certain
topics, which ended conversations.
As a mature Christian, coming from a
background where nothing could be discussed in open conversations
concerning his former faith, he noted that opinions seemed more
important than truth to people, and agendas clouded people's minds
about wanting to find out the truth.
Yesterday, a friend of mine, Mr. B.,
told me the same thing, which reminded me of this former discussion.
He said that in some discussions, one touches demons in the souls of
others, who then cannot respond rationally.
Mr. B. said that when one brings up a
topic and someone is stuck in an agenda and refuses to listen to
rational discourse, that person falls back into opinion, rather than
reasonable openness. For example, if a person is a practicing
homosexual and one wants to discuss the possibility of this lifestyle
being unnatural or even against the natural law of God, there seems
to be a strong resistance to even be open to the truth. There can be
no discussion. Why?
All topics should be able to be
discussed, and logic should be the common ground for discussions.
But, here is the problem according to my two friends above-no one has
been taught in the past twenty or so years to really look at various
points of view about a subject and few people believe in absolute
truth.
In addition, most people do not want to
break out of their own fairy tale land of comfort in order to pursue
the truth. Sloth is the name of the game.
Another friend said exactly the same
thing as Mr. B. Ms. K reminded me that when we were in school, we
learned to do research by using the library card catalogs and
journals. We had to use research skills to find out sources for our
papers. We could not use merely our own unsubstantiated feelings or
opinions. The instructors in our various subjects, whether history,
English, or the sciences, even in high school, demanded that we get
experts and peer-reviewed articles to substantiate our viewpoints.
Now, everyone thinks they are entitled
to uneducated guesses, or just their own viewpoints without any
recourse to study or reading.
Too many young people refuse, for
example, to look up articles on line on the Catholic positions,
including the various sites which present the encyclicals, and the
Catechism of the Catholic Church.
There is no excuses for ignorance if
one is online, yet ignorance remains. Why?
It seems that we are witnessing a large
portion of society who just do not want to admit that their worlds of
completely made-up, false comfort may be coming to an end. Too many
people do not want to face the truth about moral or religious issues.
This type of chosen ignorance is not
the same as involuntary or invincible ignorance. When information is
available and people do not avail themselves of this information,
only two conclusions may be reached and these are that sloth makes
them lazy, or that lust makes them complacent.
Sloth is one of the greatest sins of
the new group of people who refuse to read or study unless they
absolutely are forced to do so. The idea of learning for the joy of
learning seems to be fading in our society. And, when asked to move
out of their comfort zones of prejudices and agendas, these people
refuse to admit that they will not read, study or discuss.
What is going on? When I was a student,
we sat around as kids for hours discussing life, the universe and
everything. We had discussions on math, science, history, literature,
movies, music, art and so on. Is this happening anywhere?
Religious discussions seemed very
popular when I was in high school, with Lutheran kids wanting to
share their ideas with the Methodists and the Catholics and so on.
No kids talked about money or shopping, as those topics were boring.
We were idea kids, and we wanted to learn about what made each other
religious or non-religious. We wanted to know.
Now, as my cab driver stated, one
cannot even bring up interesting topics without getting the lazy
answers from the “I don't know and I don't want to find out”
types, or from the “This is too hard, and I want to avoid
confrontation” types, or the “I take offense as to what you are
saying” types.
But, discussion is not always
confrontation. In fact, the give and take of discussion should be
exciting. It should be, primarily, the sharing and the mutual
discovery of Truth. Ah, but there is the rub.
Do people really want to find out the
truth about anything, themselves, others, the state of the world, the
state of wars, and so on?
Too many young people are chasing after
false dreams of various versions of the so-called American Dream,
which no longer exists in reality. Too many young people really want
only lives of things, including treating people as things. Too many
only want comforts and not challenges.
When a civilization loses the desire
for knowledge, it is dead, not decaying, but dead.
It is a fact that this younger
generation is not as intelligent as the previous ones. Father
Ripperger calls this devolution-that we are as humans getting more
and more stupid. Why?
Sin is the answer. Sin makes one
stupid. Sin makes one stop asking the basic questions of life, like
“Why am I here?” or “What if the goal of a human being's life?”
When a people stop asking or seeking after the meanings of things or
of systems, it means they have chosen lust, greed, vanity, pride,
avarice, hatred, sloth over Truth. Sin deadens the imagination and
fills the soul with trivia.
My cabby friend noted that people got
upset about everything, were hyper-touchy because they did not want
to be challenged about life.
Guess what? We are all about to be
challenged as never before...when the dollar explodes, when there is
war which entails a draft, when persecution of the Catholic Church
becomes enshrined in law, many people will be challenged to leave
their comfort zones of the denial of absolute truth.
Knowledge is there for the taking. We
live in an era where more knowledge has been available to the common
man and woman than ever before. What took years of hard research and
work to find can be found with one Google entry. Nothing is arcane,
or few things are.
There is no excuse for ignorance. For
those who want to remain ignorant of God's ways, His plan for
salvation, His hierarchy of morals and laws, the days are coming when
they will have to make a choice, with or without knowledge.
I refuse to spoon-feed. I never did as
a teacher. I taught my students how to do research, and most
importantly, how to think. I taught them how to discuss rationally
important questions. They left my classes changed because I
challenged them to leave the comfortable areas of opinion and
laziness. They grew up, as learning how to think marks the boy from
the man, the girl from the woman.
Teaching people who do not want to
learn how to think can be a real difficulty. But, God has a way of
doing that. It is called tribulation. The trials of the Hebrew People
in the Old Testament were punishment for sin, but also wake-up calls
to think through the messages of repentance proclaimed over and over
by the prophets, most of whom were murdered by their own people.
The prophets were killed because people
did not want to listen and think about their sins.
To repent, one must stop and think,
reflect, learn, be willing to learn more about one's self and God.
Without self-knowledge and knowledge of
God, one is doomed to stupidity cocooned in pride.
I pity the young ones who have never
learned how to think. I suggest a long retreat with the guidance of
St. Ignatius and the examination of Scripture and one's own life.
But, those who are content with trivia
and content with agendas will not step out into unknown territory,
which is what the spiritual world is.
Those who are willing to step out of
their fanciful lives of comfort will find God, as He is Truth and He
wants to be found. Those who do not, sadly, will perish and never
live in the glory to which God has called each one of us, the glory
of knowing God, Who is Love.
There are many reasons why people do
not want to learn-pride being the first reason. Sloth, as I noted
above, another. Today, I was watching a manager in a shop get upset
because she had trained a person to do something, a simple task, and
that person just did not do what she was told. Did she not listen?
Was she not capable of understanding? This manager has gone through
many, many employees in her shop and she cannot find “suitable
people”. Why?
I thought about this and realized that
all the young people she had hired and fired over the past two
months, all about the ages between 18-28, had never learned three
basic things-the first being obedience. They just did not know how to
follow orders and obey, because no one had ever demanded that they
obey anyone from little on.
The second reason is that these young
people never had to take responsibility for any job at home. They
never had to “do” anything, had no standards to meet in school,
had no real challenges of meeting someone's expectations. The third
reason is that they had never learned to think through a problem from
the beginning to the end, even a simple one. They simply had to be
told over and over what to do, as in spoon-feeding, not having to
figure something out on their own.
I pity this manager, but she and others
in charge of personnel, who have told me that they cannot find
“suitable help”, have a problem on their hands which is huge-the
devolution of the human being to the point where these young people
simply cannot think. I saw one young man leave work yesterday and he
yelled at a driver in front of his car, who was going slowly in order
to find a street behind the shop. This young man was completely out
of control of his emotions. The other driver was being careful and
this young man was so impatient to leave, he could not control his
outburst, which was totally unjustified. I witnessed all this from
the sidewalk.
Living in the emotions rather than
reason spells decay for a culture. This young man will not make it in
the world, as he cannot keep his negative emotions to himself. He
cannot reason his feelings into order. He will be the next one fired
from the shop, as he irritates customers.
So, what we have is a young man who
cannot control himself, who does not care about those around him, who
cannot live in a society where manners and decorum when waiting on
customers is necessary for the smooth running of a shop.
I have seen the coming and going of at
least twelve employees in two months. Are there so many young people
who cannot learn, cannot control themselves, and who take offense
easily? My cabby friend would just shake his head and say, “Told
you so.”