It won't work, you know. It's not going to happen. Certainly not in these ways. Because the problem isn't where the loudest voices think it is. And the fact that the loudest voices are able to convince so many others who are listening says that so many don't know what the problem is either.
"Humanistic Psychology" is actually a fairly new concept on the market in historical terms. It is the psychological term that is premised on the idea that people are basically good. The thinking goes that humans are good at their core, so if something goes bad, it is caused by external forces. Poverty gets the blame a lot of the time. Or bad parenting. (Well, at least, that used to be considered a factor.) And, of course, there are many more factors to blame, including today's police forces, white racism, male sexism, corporate greed, and so on. So the approach is that we simply have to fix these problems and people will be free to be themselves -- basically good. Character development is not important; just remove the obstacles to good behavior and people will be good. One fundamental problem with that approach is that someone will have to explain why all those evils that are causing evils are occurring, too. That is, without a source of evil, you have a hard time explaining the source of evil and, thus, no means of finding a remedy.
The prevalent concept of the basic goodness of humans is why we cannot even begin to approach a solution. If you believe that people are basically good, then you believe that you are basically good and if you are basically good, then those that disagree with you are bad, and the more power you and those who think like you have, the better off the world will be. On the other hand, the Bible says we are conceived in iniquity (Psa 51:5), "estranged from the womb" (Psa 58:3), with blinded minds (2 Cor 4:4) and deceitful hearts (Jer 17:9) and hearts intent on evil from our youth (Gen 8:21). (And more.) Only one human being in history ever dodged that bullet -- Jesus of Nazareth. The rest of us are born sinners. In biblical terms, "There is no one who does good, not even one." (Psa 14:3)
In this way, then, racism is systemic. That is, racism is sourced in the sin nature of every human being on the planet. So is sexism, hate, and every sort of evil you want to name. (Yeah, yeah, we may disagree on just what things are evil, but my point is that every genuine evil is sourced in our own sin nature.) So racism is "in the system," so to speak, produced by human sin nature. But since humans have sin at their core, it touches everything they do. That would include evils they do as well as the laws they make to fight evil, the policies and methods they use to change people, all of it.
Having sin at the core, we have a real problem, then. Having blinded minds and deceitful hearts, we have difficulty even recognizing evil, especially in ourselves. This is so clearly demonstrated in the "people are basically good" principle which is so patently wrong yet drives all our efforts to solve these problems. That's why removing law enforcement or creating better policies or changing government or eliminating white people won't touch racism. It doesn't touch the root cause.
We humans can take steps to mitigate the evils we perpetrate. We can pass laws and make policies and produce traditions and customs for good. But we can't do that without having an objective good as a standard. And we, as a society, have tossed that out. America (and the world) needs healing, solutions, help. We won't find it in the current approach of "better plans" or laws or policies or, of course, vitriolic hate. Since the problem is our individual sin nature that is common to all, the solution needs to address that sin nature in individuals. If we fail to do that, expect to see more and more failed solutions. Like Prohibition in the early 20th century in America which failed to solve a real problem because it failed to address the real problem, our current "solutions" won't be solutions at all. And since we as a nation have largely rejected the real solution to our sin nature, I expect we'll see more and more failed solutions in our future.
Where am I going with this? Really not to a defeatist conclusion. I'm aiming to check myself for my sinful actions and attitudes (Psa 51:10-12). I fool myself if I think I'm free of them. And I'm going to encourage fellow believers to do the same for themselves. And I'm going to point all Christians (including myself) to Jesus's command to "Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matt 28:19-20) -- to share the solution with others. Because my God is not a failed solution. Christ is, in fact, the only solution to the depths of human depravity.
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1 You will think I'm being alarmist or, at best, using hyperbole with the suggestion that there are those who would wish to eliminate white people. I am neither. From Harvard Magazine in an article about a journal titled Race Traitor, "Make no mistake about it: we intend to keep bashing the dead white males, and the live ones, and the females too, until the social construct known as 'the white race' is destroyed — not 'deconstructed' but destroyed." They may not be a majority, but they are not imaginary, either.
5 comments:
I'm confused as to how being white is a social construct. But then I'm also confused as how gender is as well.
I've often wondered why, if all people are basically good, why do we need to teach our children to be good? Before social and economical factors come into play, children are inherently selfish without regard for anyone else. In what way is that "basically good"? If we were basically good, we'd need to teach them what are the bad things to do, not the good. My two nephews (3yo and 1yo) are perfect examples. From the beginning, the older had to be told repeatedly to be gentle and kind to their dog. Their DOG! How much more they needed to teach him to be gentle and kind to his brother. And he still pushes that boundary and tries to be rough with him. Basically good? Hah! Sinful from the womb. I'm glad it does, but I certainly don't need Scripture to tell me that humans are bad from birth. The evidence is as plain as the nose in my face.
Jonathan Edwards writing on Depravity made the same observation. If the Scriptures were completely silent on the subject simple observation of humans from birth to death would prove the point. The only way to conclude humans are basically good is to ignore the evidence.
Way too much here to get into specifics, but I'll say that I'm amazed that anyone can make the argument that all people are basically good with a straight face.
As we usually see, the "all people are good" folks don't actually live their lives as if their premise were true.
I would say that at best, people are immediate-consequence-averse. If we feel like we can get away with something, we'll try it. It also is indicated from the common motto "its better to ask forgiveness than permission". If that isn't proof that humans aren't basically good, you might want to go look for your brain.
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