I'll go ahead and make this political, b/c I think it's the perspective that Democrats and Green party folks often cite and manipulate to garner attention. I believe they overlook the amazing abundance, and target problems, some of which don't even exist. I think that educators (who not coincidentally tend to lean left in their politics) do this far beyond the norm, as a method of influencing their students.

Not every Democrat does this.

Not every republican is great. Some overlook real problems, ignoring their neighbors reveling in their abundance.

But, I think my generalization has merit.

BreakPoint with Charles Colson
Commentary #040826 - 08/26/2004
An Inert Gray Blur: Depressed in the Midst of Plenty

The years following World War II saw unprecedented progress in Western standards
of living. The average American and Western European was wealthier and healthier
than all but a handful of the people who had ever lived.

That same period saw even greater growth in another area: the incidence of
clinical depression among the same population. As Gregg Easterbrook tells us in
THE PROGRESS PARADOX: HOW LIFE GETS BETTER WHILE PEOPLE FEEL WORSE, there has
been as much as a "ten-fold increase in unipolar depression in industrial
nations [in] the postwar era."

Some of this is the result of better diagnosis. Still, it's a shocking increase
and, on the surface, seems contradictory -- that is, until you understand the
role that beliefs and worldviews play in shaping how we feel about our lives.

According to Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania, much of the
increase in depression can be attributed to the effects of ideas and beliefs
that have taken hold in our culture. One of these is individualism, seeing all
of life through the self. Previous emphasis on family, faith, and community
"allowed individuals to view their private setbacks within a larger
context."
But now, in the age of the self, our setbacks take on "enormous importance."

Another mistaken idea contributing to depression is the "postwar teaching of
victimology and helplessness." "Intellectuals, politicians, tort lawyers,
and
the media" have worked to identify and designate new classes of victims. As
Seligman notes, more and more Americans identify themselves as victims of one
sort or another. The result is a sense of helplessness. Americans, especially
the young, claim to have less and less control over their lives at the same time
that they enjoy unprecedented personal freedom.

And our mistaken beliefs aren't limited to our ideas about ourselves. For many
years, astrophysicists have theorized that one day the universe will cease
expanding, decay into an "inert gray blur," and all existence will cease.
This
theory was cited by writer Thomas Pynchon and others as proof that life is
meaningless.

As it turns out, those astrophysicists were probably wrong, but that hasn't
stopped writers and philosophers from continuing to proclaim the meaninglessness
of life. Easterbrook notes that the period of increased depression was one in
which most Western Europeans and many Americans "lost their belief in higher
powers or a higher purpose."

They took their cues from the likes of Nobel Prize-winning biologist Jacques
Monod. Monod wrote that "man knows at last that he is alone in the universe's
unfeeling immensity, out of which he emerged only by chance." Philosophical
materialism, you see, disguised as scientific fact, has contributed to the
depression that has gripped the West.

The irony is that the damage described by Easterbrook is largely self-inflicted.
The West embraced these destructive ideas as it looked for alternatives to the
Western Christian tradition. It believed that rejecting this tradition led to
freedom. Instead, of course, it led to despair.

As it turns out, prosperity is no substitute for what Christianity gave the
West: a sense of purpose that begins with understanding who, not just "I,"
but
we really are.

This commentary first aired on March 4, 2004.

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Copyright &copy; 2004 Prison Fellowship THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.
THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. "BreakPoint with
Chuck Colson" is a daily commentary on news and trends from a Christian
perspective. Heard on more than 1000 radio outlets nationwide, BreakPoint
transcripts are also available on the Internet. BreakPoint is a production
of The Wilberforce Forum, a division of Prison Fellowship: 1856 Old Reston
Avenue, Reston, VA 20190.

FOR FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION
Gregg Easterbrook, The PROGRESS PARADOX: HOW LIFE GETS BETTER WHILE PEOPLE FEEL
WORSE (Random House, 2003).
<a href='http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u=4129&et=T&s=100708' target='_blank'>http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u...9&et=T&s=100708</a>


Steven Martinovich, "A problem with prosperity?" ENTER STAGE RIGHT, 12
January
2004.
<a href='http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u=4149&et=T&s=100708' target='_blank'>http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u...9&et=T&s=100708</a>


BreakPoint Commentary No. 040302, "Miserable in the Midst of Plenty: THE
PROGRESS PARADOX."
<a href='http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u=4150&et=T&s=100708' target='_blank'>http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u...0&et=T&s=100708</a>


BreakPoint Commentary No. 040303, "Scaring Witless: How the Media Distorts
Reality."
<a href='http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u=4151&et=T&s=100708' target='_blank'>http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u...1&et=T&s=100708</a>


J. A. Hanson, "The Cult that Unites Us," BREAKPOINT ONLINE, 2001.
<a href='http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u=4152&et=T&s=100708' target='_blank'>http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u...2&et=T&s=100708</a>


BreakPoint Commentary No. 020821, "Secular Shortfalls: Faith and Suffering."
(Archived commentary; free registration required.)
<a href='http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u=4153&et=T&s=100708' target='_blank'>http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u...3&et=T&s=100708</a>


Ken Myers, "Worshipping Ourselves: Self-Obsession and the Denial of God,"
BREAKPOINT WORLDVIEW, December 2002.
<a href='http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u=4154&et=T&s=100708' target='_blank'>http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u...4&et=T&s=100708</a>


Paul C. Vitz, PSYCHOLOGY AS RELIGION (Eerdmans, 1994).
<a href='http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u=4155&et=T&s=100708' target='_blank'>http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u...5&et=T&s=100708</a>


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Forum, and BreakPoint is for informational purposes only and does not
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DrTorch Wrote:As it turns out, prosperity is no substitute for what Christianity gave the
West: a sense of purpose that begins with understanding who, not just "I,"
but
we really are.

that's great but this guy doesn't really touch on what "we really are". These meaningless feelings are based on the fact that we don't know what we really are or the purpose, as he stated. Christianity and all other religions were very good in giving people sense of a purpose. Unfortunately these ideas are very antiquated in a very quickly changing and advancing society, lagging behind.

Fanatical Wrote:

DrTorch Wrote:As it turns out, prosperity is no substitute for what Christianity gave the
West: a sense of purpose that begins with understanding who, not just "I,"
but
we really are.

that's great but this guy doesn't really touch on what "we really are".

That's b/c it's supposed to be a short commentary. He does provide direction, and plenty of links, so the reader can pursue a deeper analysis on his own.

Quote:This meaningless feelings are based on the fact that we don't know what we really are or the purpose, as he stated. Christianity and all other religions were very good in giving people sense of a purpose.Unfortunately these ideas are very antiquated in a very quickly changing and advancing society, lagging behind.

Obviously I'd disagree, as would the author. In fact the essence of the ariticle is that if our society were truly "advancing" then these feeling shouldn't persist.

To say that Christian tenets are "antiquated" has absolutely zero evidence behind it. Zero.

DrTorch Wrote:To say that Christian tenets are "antiquated" has absolutely zero evidence behind it. Zero.

I guess your right. Antiquity is usually around 4000-3500 years in the past. Christianity is only ~2000 years old. I don't really want to get into a thelogical discussion about this (I don't really think this may be the correct board) but I do believe modern religions are perhaps too reliant on older interpretations of ideas.

Fanatical Wrote:I guess your right. Antiquity is usually around 4000-3500 years in the past. Christianity is only ~2000 years old.

The idea of a system of laws is well over thousads of years old, is that antiquated?

I don't think age necessarily can be used to define an idea as antiquated. The idea needs to be disproven and replaced with a better one. No such thing has occured in Christianity.

If you will re-read my second post i wrote interpretations of ideas. I am sorry that i didn't do it on my first post. I am not an atheist; however, i believe 5th century AD interpretations of the Lord are a little old.

Fanatical Wrote:If you will re-read my second post i wrote interpretations of ideas. I am sorry that i didn't do it on my first post. I am not an atheist; however, i believe 5th century AD interpretations of the Lord are a little old.

What's the shelf life of truth?

Fanatical Wrote:If you will re-read my second post i wrote interpretations of ideas. I am sorry that i didn't do it on my first post. I am not an atheist; however, i believe 5th century AD interpretations of the Lord are a little old.

Fan I'm not attacking you, just posting my thought on what you said.

The problem with adapting interpretations to the times in which we live opens a rather large pandora's box as to if there really is such a thing as Truth (capital T).

If the Lord is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow then it's reasonable to assume His views on what is right and wrong are not going to adapt and change with the times.

I guess it goes to if you believe there are absolutes or not.

Fanatical Wrote:If you will re-read my second post i wrote interpretations of ideas. I am sorry that i didn't do it on my first post. I am not an atheist; however, i believe 5th century AD interpretations of the Lord are a little old.

Since there are hosts of interpretations, I can't argue with you on this. I'm sure it wouldn't take long at all to discover what I thought was canonical, was ignored by someone else, each claiming the mantle of Christianity.

However, I'd be surprised if you found serious discussion or interpretation on any issue of importance (alas, again a subjective term) that has been antiquated, whether it be from the 1st century AD, 5th century or 16th century.

RebelKev Wrote:What's the shelf life of truth?