What is the deal with our culture these days?
I have been watching closely these last few months, and I have noticed only what is blatantly obvious. We are apathetic to a fault.
It's not that we are lazy or stupid. We don't sit around and do nothing. But we're learning to specialize so completely that nothing is getting done about the general needs of our society.
And our ability to believe things strongly is dissolving slowly into a general happy mush. Which may not be bad. That's up to you. (Oh crap! Now I'm doing it, too.)
Last Thursday, I was sitting in the park near my office, with hundreds of students also sitting in the park. People were eating lunch, doing homework, reading, sunbathing, laughing, and generally enjoying the unusually rich sunshine.
The funny thing was, there were these three supra-evangelists yelling at the top of their lungs about salvation and sin and [fill in the normal crap here]. (No surprises, people. You should read my faith section before you decide what I actually believe, based on that last snippet.)
These guys were typical screamers, wearing the same old sandwich boards, yelling the same old slogans. And they were so loud! But no one paid them any attention.
In one sense, I was relieved. People like that give people like me a bad name. It's hard to stand up for what I believe when people who somehow fit into the same category as me are busy going as hard as possible against everything I know as truth. Who wants to hear a bunch of guys yelling the equivalent of "you suck, and we don't. Come join us" at the top of their lungs? I certainly don't.
In another sense, though, I was disappointed. Where did we lose the ability to stand up to people like that with sensible (or even not so sensible, but heartfelt) arguments against their foolishness? Why are we so damned apathetic?
I fit the bill, too, if you didn't notice. My response is not to stand up to them (though I may, the next time they are around). Instead, I whine about them and the rest of us in a cryptic journal entry on a young web page.
I'm beginning to wonder if we've lost the vitality that makes any culture or country great. Perhaps we are experiencing a metaphorical fattening and slowing. I hope not.
And I don't want to make the mistake of generalizing over an entire culture. Apathy is not the truth of our existence. It is merely a facet of it that has been shining a bit brighter at me these last few months.
So I'm going to give it a shot. The next time I see these guys, maybe I'll ask them to lunch, where there may be some meaningful dialog.
Anyway, that's what it's all about. I think a good portion of our apathy comes from the global understanding that people are difficult to change. When I think of these evangelists, I have serious doubts about whether I'll actually be able to have a decent conversation with them.
And I'm certain they won't stop being so stupid just because of a lunch date with me.
But maybe our cultural knee-jerk reaction is incorrect. Instead of turning away completely, perhaps we should make more time for people to share what they really believe.
A campfire circle of sorts, where people actually listen to each other. Maybe there, these guys wouldn't feel the need to scream, and maybe there, the rest of us would feel confident that our message would get heard.
Truth would begin to rear its head. I'm certain of that.
I know it happens. I just hope it can happen more.
