Originally published by The Cass City Chronicle--October 7, 2020
If 2020 has a theme song, it surely must be Waylon Jennings’ “Stop the World (And Let Me Off).” No matter who you talk to, no matter where on the political and worldview spectrums a person may fall, everyone, it seems, is saying the same thing — this is crazy. I agree. But what’s the solution? There are a plethora of antidotes to our current cultural malaise being proffered by all segments of society. Tolerance. We need more civility. Vote Trump. Biden or bust. End the patriarchy! Can’t we all just get along? Give peace a chance. The problem with all of these solutions is that, despite their seeming incongruity, they all share one assumption: man can solve man’s problems. You would think that after witnessing the 20th century, we would have rid ourselves of such a ridiculous notion. After all, during the same 100- year period in which humanity took flight, marched against racism and landed on the moon, it also gassed itself on the fields of Europe, exterminated six million Jews and concocted nuclear weapons. The only conclusion I can come to, then, is that the problem with man is not the system; it’s man. And (much to the chagrin of my secular humanist friends), even our most earnest attempts to remedy our condition are about as futile as a cardiac arrest victim trying to give themself CPR. We must admit that the “crazy” that is taking place in our nation— from racial discrimination to mob violence, misogyny to infanticide— is not happening to us, it’s happening because of us. English writer Steve Turner put it this way: “If chance be the Father of all flesh, Disaster is his rainbow in the sky, And when you hear State of Emergency! Sniper Kills Ten! Troops on Rampage! Whites go Looting! Bomb Blasts School! It is but the sound of man worshiping his maker.” If mankind is the unfortunate byproduct of chance primordial processes, as I was taught in school, then how hypocritical is it for us to speak of human dignity? Of what consequence is it if children are kept in cages, murdered in their mothers’ wombs, or sold to pimps? In truth, we all innately know that there is an objective standard to which we must measure our own actions and those of others. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.” It seems to me our attempts to erase that straight line and to draw our own have resulted in the muddled scribble we find ourselves in today. What is the answer to man’s problems? I suggest we look back to the straight line, and ultimately to its Drawer.
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AuthorTy Perry is a writer based in metro-Detroit. Archives
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