In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard writes, “A leading social commentator now teaches that despair and rage are an essential element in the struggle for justice. He and others who teach this are sowing the wind, and will reap the whirlwind, the tornado. Indeed, we are reaping it now in a nation increasingly sick with rage and resentment of citizen toward citizen. And often the rage and resentment is upheld and justified in the name of God.
“But there is nothing that can be done with anger that cannot be done better without it.”
Willard goes on to point out that the evil twin to anger is contempt, for “it breaks the social bond more severely than anger... In the course of normal life one is rarely in a situation where contempt is not at least hovering in the wings.
“Recently cultural observers have noted the overwhelming rise in the use of filthy language, especially among young people. Curiously, few have been able to find any grounds for condemning it other than personal taste. How strange! Can it be that they actually find contempt acceptable, or are unable to recognize it? Filthy language and name calling are always an expression of contempt. The current swarm of filthy language floats upon the sea of contempt in which our society is now adrift.”*
Dallas Willard is a professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Philosophy.
*The Divine Conspiracy, pp.150-152
3 comments:
Angry people in this world can't be fixed by politicians or diplomacy, and The Answer to all of our problems is mocked and rejected - still.
Because they have no absolute standard of right and wrong there is no way to select one choice over another except as how it will benefit themselves.
Vee, so very true; and yet the Answer is so easily accessible.
Shark, exactly as they started saying in the sixties: If it feels good, do it.
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