Post-modern
With the advent of the postmodernist worldview, we have gained understanding but lost authority.
For the uninitiated, the postmodernist position espouses the worldview that there is no absolute truth, that everything is a social construction and exists in people's minds, and that each creates his own meaning.
Perhaps it is then, no surprise that faiths like Buddhism which pushed for such a position about 2500 years ago is experiencing a global resurgence. The West, with its centuries of rationality and reason and science, and with that abandoning religion, is slowly realising that perhaps science cannot explain everything. Certainly not the world of emotions and spirituality. Is it that shocking that millions of Westerners flock to the East such as China and India to seek spiritual wisdom each year?
And so, when there is no absolute truth and that each one creates his own meaning, truth and authority is sacrificed on the altar of Relevance. We are told to understand each story 'with all its meaning', with a presupposition that we do NOT understand the meaning. As some say: 'What is truth? I'll tell you what is truth. The truth is what each person perceives to be the truth.'
So, with that, we can no longer say no to infidelity because we must understand the loneliness behind it. We can no longer discipline our child because that would damage his self-esteem. We can no longer tell someone to change because we don't fully understand her circumstance, because only he himself can construct that reality. We can't tell gamblers that gambling their lives and property and families away is wrong. Thieves are excused by kleptomania.
We've lost authority. We can't say what is right or wrong anymore, because that in itself is a social construction. Yet perhaps, in the depths of our soul, we know that there IS right and wrong, black and white. Just that we choose to suppress it, for what reason I do not know. Perhaps so as to excuse ourselves?
For the uninitiated, the postmodernist position espouses the worldview that there is no absolute truth, that everything is a social construction and exists in people's minds, and that each creates his own meaning.
Perhaps it is then, no surprise that faiths like Buddhism which pushed for such a position about 2500 years ago is experiencing a global resurgence. The West, with its centuries of rationality and reason and science, and with that abandoning religion, is slowly realising that perhaps science cannot explain everything. Certainly not the world of emotions and spirituality. Is it that shocking that millions of Westerners flock to the East such as China and India to seek spiritual wisdom each year?
And so, when there is no absolute truth and that each one creates his own meaning, truth and authority is sacrificed on the altar of Relevance. We are told to understand each story 'with all its meaning', with a presupposition that we do NOT understand the meaning. As some say: 'What is truth? I'll tell you what is truth. The truth is what each person perceives to be the truth.'
So, with that, we can no longer say no to infidelity because we must understand the loneliness behind it. We can no longer discipline our child because that would damage his self-esteem. We can no longer tell someone to change because we don't fully understand her circumstance, because only he himself can construct that reality. We can't tell gamblers that gambling their lives and property and families away is wrong. Thieves are excused by kleptomania.
We've lost authority. We can't say what is right or wrong anymore, because that in itself is a social construction. Yet perhaps, in the depths of our soul, we know that there IS right and wrong, black and white. Just that we choose to suppress it, for what reason I do not know. Perhaps so as to excuse ourselves?
perhaps it's an easier way out. perhaps like what you say, it's an excuse. standing up for the truth against this depraved generation seems too heavy a burden to bear.
i fear for our children's generation.
for what we see in our times, it's 10 times worse in theirs. or maybe even more.
cy