As we go through a pandemic with enough food, electricity, running water, TV and the internet, we lack something we long for: socialization. Even those of us who are a bit awkward around people find it confining to be connected only by phone, news and computers. But while I grieve the loss of lives and fear for our heroes in the medical profession who have been spread thin though this calamity, I don't want to miss what I can learn. The limitations of freedoms has made me think, appreciate and revived my desire for mental, verbal, and physical change. And I am grateful for God's grace in transforming and starting change in me over forty years ago. And I realize that there are going to be times and situations that shake our comfort.
And while I've been learning much from the prophets in the last weeks that has strengthened my faith and trust in God, there are other things we can learn as well. Neil Postman is an author my husband has used many times in his teaching Biblical truth. In his book, Amusing Ourselves To Death, Mr. Postman writes the following foreword:
"We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held...we were not visited by Orwellian nightmares. But...alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another -- slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World."
Postman continues with the comparison of the two: "Orwell warns we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. Huxley's vision is that no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. Orwell feared the banning of books; Huxley feared no reason to ban a book because no one would want to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information; Huxley feared those who would give us so much, we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us; Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny 'failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions.' In Orwell's 1984, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us; Huxley feared what we love will ruin us."
That short foreword speaks volumes about where we are as a people today. And Postman's book is also insightful and nauseatingly true about us. It will make you think about your own course in life. It might make you despair where we are but with despair comes crying out. And when you cry out to God, He guides you what to do with the despair. "Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" Bow down at the foot of the cross. Jesus suffered the penalty for the cause of despair: sin. He will put us on a path of thinking that will change you and your world. And He gives you everything you need to execute the change successfully.
Huxley was spot on. He had great insight into the human condition. But insight is not enough. It's what you do with the insight that frees you from the bondage. The Bible states the dilemma, the cause, and the cure. While we wait on a cure for Covid-19, let us not waste the time to implement cure for the condition of our souls. It has eternal value.
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