It is a great irony that in an age where humanity has reached new heights of self-gratification and feelings of personal entitlement, we have also developed the nasty practice of emptying ourselves of all responsibility. We are quick to shout in protest but slow to think about what is being said. We are proud of what we have done regardless of how our actions affect other human beings. We celebrate reaching the 1000 friends mark on Facebook but don’t know our neighbour who has lived next door for 4 years. Technology has allowed us to put so much of ourselves “out there,” available for for all to see but anonymous enough to not get personal.
TV raising kids
Parents no longer feel the need to participate in the education of their children because that’s the teacher’s job although they are quick to throw a fit if their child fails. The convenience of the TV and computer are much easier than parent assistance.
Adolescents and young adults order their lives around material things: clothes, accessories, cars, drinks, food, condos, yards, homes. These are all things; impersonal objects that have no meaning in and of themselves unless we give it to them. Yet we have created an obsessive culture around pursuing things. They become the end goal, the prize that will make us happy. Rarely does the one pause for reflection, consider what is sacred, or determine what is necessary versus accessory.
Dostoyevsky says it well…
Yet these thoughts are nothing new at all! Fyodor Dostoevsky in the classic novel, The Brothers Karamazov, expresses the exact same ideas. It is a story of faith, doubt, and reason, in an antiquated Russian society that is quickly modernizing. It is a passionate philosophical novel that explores our understanding of God, free will, morality, and meaning in life.
A particularly interesting character is Elder Zossima, a wise monk and teacher respected by the town. In one of his homelies he presents a stirring comparison between what a monk is called to do and how society views the purpose of monks and monastic life. It is a beautiful contrast between the individual whose life is devoted to helping others through a relationship with God; and modern society that looks to “science, and in science only that which is subject to the senses”(p.313) as their source of hope.
The homely in its entirety is a piece of brilliant writing and can be read via the link at the bottom. Here is but a portion from Dostoyevsky who puts into eloquent words, what is being lamented above:
That is my view of the monk, and is it false? Is it too proud? Look at the worldly and all who set themselves up above the people of God; has not God’s image and His truth been distorted in them? They have science; but in science there is nothing but what is the object of sense. The spiritual world, the higher part of man’s being is rejected altogether, dismissed with a sort of triumph, even with hatred. The world has proclaimed the reign of freedom, especially of late, but what do we see in this freedom of theirs? Nothing but slavery and self-destruction! For the world says:
“You have desires and so satisfy them, for you have the same rights as the most rich and powerful. Don’t be afraid of satisfying them and even multiply your desires.” That is the modern doctrine of the world. In that they see freedom. And what follows from this right of multiplication of desires? In the rich, isolation and spiritual suicide; in the poor, envy and murder; for they have been given rights, but have not been shown the means of satisfying their wants. They maintain that the world is getting more and more united, more and more bound together in brotherly community, as it overcomes distance and sets thoughts flying through the air.
Alas, put no faith in such a bond of union. Interpreting freedom as the multiplication and rapid satisfaction of desires, men distort their own nature, for many senseless and foolish desires and habits and ridiculous fancies are fostered in them. They live only for mutual envy, for luxury and ostentation. To have dinners visits, carriages, rank, and slaves to wait on one is looked upon as a necessity, for which life, honour and human feeling are sacrificed, and men even commit suicide if they are unable to satisfy it. We see the same thing among those who are not rich, while the poor drown their unsatisfied need and their envy in drunkenness. But soon they will drink blood instead of wine, they are being led on to it. I ask you is such a man free? I knew one “champion of freedom” who told me himself that, when he was deprived of tobacco in prison, he was so wretched at the privation that he almost went and betrayed his cause for the sake of getting tobacco again! And such a man says, “I am fighting for the cause of humanity.”
Dostoevsky speaks of modern society, of his society in the early 1900’s! “…[Society] generate[s] many meaningless and foolish desires, habits, and the most absurd fancies in themselves. They live only for mutual envy, for pleasure-seeking and self display”. “They have succeeded in amassing more and more things, but have less and less joy” (p. 314). And although this may be from 100 years ago, the same can be said for our own society today.
So what do we do?
How do we change what appears to have changed very little in over a century? Perhaps, instead of emptying yourself of responsibility, of self-worth, accept the challenge of responsibility and build self-worth through meaningful relationships with others. Don’t externalize your self with the “stuff” that is so pervasive in our consumer society, as though those things are your identity. Teach your child something you value and significance rather than letting Dora the Explorer do it for you. Fill yourself with something virtuous; and if you are struggling to find out where to start, read this section, or all!, of The Brothers Karamozov. I guarantee it will stretch your Self and fill rather than empty.
read the full text of Father Zossima’s homily here
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