Tag: cultural musings

Are We Losing Our Patience? REPRINT

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From  September 3, 2019

In a survey of 2,000 adults in Britain, the Bic company found that most people nowadays quickly run out of patience if forced to wait for something (https://www.studyfinds.org/hurry-up-modern-patience-thresholds-lower-than-ever-before-survey-finds/).

People reported themselves “frustrated” if a webpage takes 16 second to load, or a traffic signal takes 25 seconds to change–and only 22 seconds to start cursing their computer or TV “if a show or movie doesn’t immediately start streaming correctly.” Seventy-five percent of those surveyed blamed “digital technology” for their loss of patience.

I don’t have a lot of digital doodads, but I can certainly admit that my computer often drives me crazy. If computers were human employees, they’d be fired. If a computer can’t drive you up the wall, what can?

The survey didn’t get into this, but I think that chronic impatience, if it’s truly on the rise, has a lot to do with children being praised and rewarded for even the most minuscule achievements, given trophies just for showing up, given high school and college diplomas without having learned anything, and generally being hailed and lauded just for existing–and all the while being made to wait and wait and wait some more, being ignored, being treated as irritating nobodies instead of valued customers, etc. Workmen who show up late or not at all, inferior slop served up by our “entertainment” media as if we deserved nothing better, politicians calling us racists, self-proclaimed intellectuals calling us dopes–there’s a lot of insult out there, more than enough to go around. Selfishness seems to be winning out over good manners.

It’s what we get for permitting the coarsening of our culture.

On Trusting God REPRINT

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From January 1, 2016

2016 looks like it could be a pretty hard year. The wicked tower over us, and they think their time has come: they will separate God’s people from Him, once and for all, and engineer the demise of Christianity. They will hold on to all the power they’ve accumulated for themselves, and do everything they can to get more.

Looking at the state of this fallen world today, the thought comes creeping in, “Are we crazy? Don’t we see what’s being done? How are we to trust in God?”

Because, if we trust in God, and we’re wrong, then we lose everything. Absolutely everything.

But there’s a catch. By not trusting in God, we can’t hold on to anything. Not even our souls.

But if we’re right to trust in God, if we’re right–

Well, then we gain everything. Everything. Eternal life. A place in Christ’s kingdom, and a share in His glory. A mansion in His Father’s house. Blessings without number. No matter what we’ve suffered, no matter what has been taken away from us, we gain. And what we gain will be infinitely greater than our loss.

Faith is very much an all-or-nothing proposition. There is no safe middle ground, no way to put just some trust in God and reserve the rest. Playing it safe will get us nothing.

They tower over us, and we are like grasshoppers in their sight.

But as Caleb said, when the other spies reported on the unconquerable might of pagan Canaan, inhabited by giants, “Let us go up at once, and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it” (Numbers 13:30)

Trust in the Lord. Pray harder. Sing louder.

And remember what happened to Goliath.

 

Keep Your Loved Ones Sort of Alive Forever REPRINT

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From  October 27, 2015

It looks like computer technology is finally catching up to the old-fashioned seance. Which is the bigger crock?

This just in–

Some academic computer guy in England says that, in 50 years or so, no one will ever again have to mourn the death of a loved one–because red-hot technology will create “synthetic digital life” which will have the effect of keeping your family members alive (sort of) forever ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11955835/Family-members-could-be-kept-alive-forever-using-social-media-history.html ).

Not really alive. But as good as! You’ll be able to talk and interact with them just as if they were really still here.

This miracle will be achieved by mining the dear departed’s collected words and works as recorded over many years in the social media! Wowee. Would that also include a lifetime’s worth of text messages? As an added bonus, they’ll make your loved one’s avatar so it’ll be able to talk with you, with whatever regional accents and turns of phrase are appropriate.

Could anything be more superficial? “I am the sum total of all my Tweets?” Ugh.

So once again we have Science stepping into God’s shoes. God offers us eternal life, by Jesus Christ? Well, so what–we can do that, too! And our version of eternal life will be better than that stale old Bible stuff, because you won’t need to have any faith. Like, this will be even better than having a robot because you won’t need any storage space.

God save us from the banality of humanism.

Self-Education… Through Entertainment REPRINT

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 From August 22, 2015

I have been dipping into R.J. Rushdoony’s The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum (Ross House Books, Vallecito, CA: 1981, 2001 reprint–available from http://www.chalcedon.edu ), and it has set my mind on fire.

Culture, said Henry Van Til, “is religion externalized.” In light of that statement, one good, hard look at our culture of today should send us running madly for the exits. And one of the chief determining factors of a culture is, of course, the education provided to its members.

And here’s the thought that blows my mind:

Our consumption of “entertainment”–novels, movies, stories, television programs, etc.–is a form of self-education.

This entertainment is what we pour into our heads when we are not in a formal “educational” setting. As a society, we have more leisure time than we used to have; and much of that time is spent consuming entertainment.

The horror! The horror!

Take a good look, kimosabe, at what we’re stuffing into our minds. Is it any wonder we’re in such a mess? Given what we educate ourselves into, of course we’re going to redefine marriage, excuse all forms of lawlessness, lie and cheat six ways from Sunday, and in general behave as if there is no God.

Because so much of our entertainment, our self-education, is absolutely, positively Godless.

Think it over–long and hard and carefully. What are we learning from our entertainment?

Our elite “educators” have labored mightily to wean our nation away from Christianity. But their efforts are a drop in the bucket, compared to the weaning-away accomplished by our entertainment.

The point is so subtle as to be well-nigh invisible. We thus defend ourselves: “It’s only a movie, it’s only a novel, it’s only a TV show”–as if our steady diet of it had no effect at all.

I thank Rushdoony for this insight.

The Wacky World of Hate Speech Rules REPRINT

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From December 22, 2016

A German newspaper, “Suddeutsche Zeitung,” has been examining the labyrinthine rules and formulas by which Facebook decides what to delete as “hate speech” and what to let stand ( http://international.sueddeutsche.de/post/154543271930/facebooks-secret-rules-of-deletion ).

Please don’t expect a detailed explanation from me! It has to do with hate speech creating “an environment of intimidation and exclusion in which people don’t want to share.” There are, as usual, “protected categories” of people, about whom it is not permitted to say anything not nice–unless it’s combined with an “unprotected category.” Or something like that. The example used in the article is… Forbidden: “Irish women are dumb.” Allowed: “Irish teenagers are dumb.” Because women are a protected category but teens are not. I think. It gets kind of complicated, and more so because of certain “bizarre mathematical formulas” employed.

The problem here is that, in our age of political correctness, nobody’s allowed to say anything that might offend somebody else–which rules out almost anything you might ever say. But at the same time, Facebook needs to make money, which it can’t do if its customers aren’t allowed to express an opinion.

The bigger problem is that in the absence of any immutable standard (a Biblical standard, for instance) of morality, no one can ever be quite sure of what is right and what is wrong. And we cannot look for immutable standards of morality from wordly-wise numbskulls who go around prattling about “your truth” and “my truth.”

Again we see a simple truth: there is no Heaven without God at the center of it.

When TV Personalities Spout Gibberish REPRINT

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From January 21, 2015

Remember, back in 2011, there was a spate of TV reporters, live and on the air, uncontrollably spouting gibberish? ( http://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/judge-judy-the-4th-to-talk-gibberish-on-air/ ) The most famous victim of this mysterious affliction, was Judge Judy, who aborted a taping session because all that would come out of her mouth was nonsense. Judge Judy was immediately taken to a hospital and thoroughly examined. Doctors were unable to find any cause for what had happened to her.

There’s video, all over the internet, of this happening to reporters in and out of the studio–all of it at roughly the same time. Various explanations came and went. Reporter was having a mini-stroke; about to have a stroke; a mild epileptic seizure; some rare kind of migraine. None of these stuck. A few commenters suggested that someone was doing this on purpose, using experimental technology to interfere with the victim’s ability to function mentally. That didn’t stick, either.

So yesterday I found myself reading a novel in which the members of a scientific team working on a top-secret missile project, one by one become unable to talk anything but gibberish. Naturally I thought of that spate of on-air gibbering in 2011.

The book was written in 1957: The Electronic Mind Reader, a Rick Brant Science Adventure by John G. Blaine, the pen name for Hal Goodwin.

Goodwin, who during his career worked for just about every government agency you can think of, was on the cutting edge of his era’s technology. His Rick Brant books are full of insights into the electronics wizardry of the time–which was a lot more sophisticated than you might think.

The point is, Hal Goodwin was very well-informed and knew what he was talking about. In 1957 he described something that we didn’t see until 2011. I haven’t finished the book yet, so I don’t know how the bad guys made this happen–but what was Goodwin on to? I’m sure he wouldn’t have used his books to leak official secrets. But was there someone in 1957 who had found a way to foul up your brain by remote control? Imagine a hand-held device–something that maybe looks like a video camera–that gets pointed at you and suddenly you can’t express a coherent thought anymore. Would that be scary, or what?

Check out the link above, and watch the videos. Watch what happens to those poor reporters as they try to speak.

Hmmm….

Be sure to read the comments–there is a clip of Al Roker freezing for a number of seconds  almost as if he heard a trigger word…

‘Humanizing Christianity’ REPRINT

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From November 17, 2018

Secularists love to pat themselves on the back for “humanizing Christianity.” Excuse me for a moment: this deserves an appropriate response.

What do they mean, they “humanize Christianity”? I think it means they invent a new-improved model–with Christ taken out of it and replaced by man-made idols, the State and Science, and humanist pseudo-sacraments: abortion, combating “Man-Made Climate Change,” same-sex “marriage,” sex change operations, hate speech trials, and every conceivable variety of fornication. They take away the judgment, take away accountability to God, and set up their political masters and scientific oracles as gods.

How does a secularist even know what’s right or wrong? Mostly they’re content to keep some of the moral law handed down to the human race by God, to the Jews first, and then the Gentiles. But no secularist can actually explain why it’s wrong to commit a murder. We can, but they can’t. For convenience’s sake they retain much of the law and tradition amassed over the centuries by Jews and Christians, who received it from a righteous and infallible God who is a person, who made them in His image, and who loves them.

Yeah, they made Christianity nicer. That’s why more people were murdered by their own governments in the 20th century alone–Red China, the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and a host of others–secularist governments all–than were killed off by all the religions of the world put together in all the other centuries put together. This century is only 18 years old: give it time to come up with new and exciting deviltries all its own.

It is true that God endows all people, even atheists, with common grace, which is an inborn attraction to what is right and good. And so it was always possible for people who had never heard of God’s laws to keep those laws regardless. Common grace is the law written on our hearts. Humanity wouldn’t have survived for two hours without it.

The words of Jesus Christ and His apostles don’t need “humanizing,” and never did.

God defend us from being conformed to this fallen world.

The Saddest Word in the Bible REPRINT

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From February 19, 2016

Who spoke the saddest word in all the Bible?

In Acts 26, Paul defends the Christian faith before the Roman governor, Festus, and King Agrippa, son of that Herod who murdered the Apostle James, but a man with a decent reputation in history. Paul has high hopes that Agrippa will listen to him, because he knows the king has been an earnest student of the scriptures.

Paul concludes, “For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely; for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest.”

And Agrippa’s answer (verse 28): “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”

Almost!

Almost got eternal life. Almost got forgiveness of my sins. Almost reconciled to God. Almost entered into God’s Kingdom, and into the joy of Our Lord.

Missed it by that much!

At the risk of sounding like a 1950s TV commercial, don’t let this happen to you.

All right, yeah, faith can be difficult. It wouldn’t be faith, if it weren’t. The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1)–and King Agrippa didn’t have it.

He almost believed.

That’s sad.

The Biggest Ninny in the Bible REPRINT

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From December 5, 2015

Who was the biggest ninny in the Bible?

Was it the Pharaoh who wouldn’t let the people go? Surely Adam and Eve are in the running. But those were major, world-shaping sins whose effects are still being felt today.

No–I’d say, hands down, the biggest chowderhead in the Bible is Amaziah, king of Judah, son of J0ash. He becomes king in Chapter 24 of 2 Chronicles, and in Chapter 25, Verse 14, he invades Edom and conquers it.

And what does he do next? He “brought the gods of the children of Seir [Edom], and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them.”

God sent a prophet the ask Amaziah the entirely reasonable question, “Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?” (v. 15) Amaziah refused to listen, and threatened the prophet into silence.

The rest of his career is briefly told. He picked a fight with Israel and lost, to the great cost of the people of Judah, and fifteen years later was assassinated by his own subjects.

It took the world some 2,500 years to generate leaders who could match Amaziah for perverse stupidity. By now we have a bumper crop of them. “Hmmm… I think I’ll drop the real God, who gave me everything I have, and worship the idols of these pagans whom I’ve just defeated in a war… Yeah, that ought to work!”

Yes, truly worthy of Angela Merkel. Maybe even worthy of Obama. Definitely Bidenesque in its depth of foolishness.

If Amaziah were alive today, he’d surely be a big wheel in the E.U.

 

‘Excuses are the Patches…’ REPRINT

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From October 6, 2012

Wednesday’s presidential debate has launched us into a national orgy of excuse-making. On Thursday the media were all making excuses for their president’s abject and humiliating failure. On Friday various persons were making excuses for having voted for the guy. (“Oh, I knew he was totally unqualified to be president! But I was so afraid of Sarah Palin…” That’s what happens when Democrats try to think.)

Here now are some of the excuses people have volunteered to me for not voting for Romney… which I think is the same thing as voting for the communist community organizer who hates America and is trying to wreck it.

1. “I’m not going to vote at all because there is no righteous candidate that I can vote for.” Hey, Ace, do you realize what you’ve done? You have decided to let the unrighteous decide who rules over the righteous. Think that’ll turn out good?

2. “I’m not voting because Republicans and Democrats are exactly the same.”
When he wrote his famous Dictionary, Samuel Johnson defined “pastern” as “the knee of a horse.” (It’s the ankle, BTW). When a woman asked him why he wrote that definition, he replied, “Ignorance, madame–pure ignorance.”

Admittedly something happens to Republicans when they go to Washington, particularly if they have been elected to the Senate. But when it comes to the differences between millions of Republicans and millions of Democrats, only pure ignorance can back the assertion that they’re all the same.

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