This is part 5 of a 6 part series from an essay which I entered into an essay contest. Over the next several days we are going to be looking at the cult of selfism and postmodernism from a historical, philosophical, sociological, and theological angle. I promise not to get to deep into the subject but get ready to start looking at our culture from a totally different viewpoint. Today I wish to look at the psychological effect of postmoderism and the cult of selfism took on our culture.
(Psychology)
All of this leads to this point, the loss of concern. Since postmodernism is the strongest spawning grounds for the cult of Selfism, then the concerns for any and all community and people are lost. There are three basic areas which I have seen that are lost when the cult of Self is involved: The loss of value, the loss of sense and the loss of morals.
The loss of values is the first place to begin. When people are no longer valued as anything other than machines, tools, or instruments of self pleasure in order to get what I want, for money, sexual satisfaction, fame, or power, then we come to a place of inevitable destruction. Not only does a person’s life fall apart, but their family begins to come unglued. The resulting factor is that eventually the community begins to rupture. As the community ruptures the society begins to redefine itself in order to survive leading to laws that are statutory, telling people exactly what to do then leading to a form for Totalitarianism which dictates how people should live. I see this all of the time in church work as person after person comes through the church doors looking for only what they want and not really what they need. They have abandoned the value of people for the value of self.
The second loss is the loss of sense, or consequences. Again there is no real desire to think about the impact which will follow if a certain action is taken. Several years ago my wife knew a man who was down on his luck employment wise so he went to rob a bank. He robbed the bank, drove off in his car and went straight to his house. Within minutes he was caught. His statement was that he didn’t think they would be able to find him because he wore a mask. No thought of the impact it would bring to his family, the people he robbed, the neighbors he lived around, or to himself was ever taken into account. He simply cared about what he wanted at the time. There was a loss of sense.
Last there is the loss of morals. As a result of people showing no proper value in humanity and losing all sense of consequences there is a loss of morals. What was wrong socially is no longer viewed as wrong anymore. Even if there is a historical reason for it, it doesn’t matter because history was written based on that person’s interpretation of the moment, so if a man wants to live with his girlfriend he can. Never mind that they may not stay together and that she may get pregnant. It doesn’t matter because it’s what he wants. Or maybe the man who has a girlfriend and his wife knows about it and doesn’t care. No longer is that viewed as abnormal and adultery. In this range of thinking if she has a problem with it she can just go find a boyfriend. Before anyone thinks this is out of the norm allow me to say that I have dealt with cases like this. When values are lost and a sense of right and wrong are left behind morals go out the door because the religion of Selfism is being practiced.
Next time we will look at the final aspect of the post-modern/cult of selfism and its impact on Theology.
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