Ignorance, Arrogance and Insolence II

Faith in God and a large dollop of humility will combat these characteristics of our culture.

For my subscribers: I first published this essay in November 2021. Now seems to be an appropriate time to repeat.

Human nature never changes. This is demonstrated in both Biblical and secular history as well as being obvious to any observer of today’s culture.

Throughout history, we see that selfish natures – if unchecked – destroy men, women, kings, emperors, empires and cultures.

Human nature is inherently selfish, with the first goal of any human being to satisfy personal needs and desires. The newborn seeks its mother’s milk and the comforting warmth of her body and the stability of her caresses and her voice.

As the person matures, that satisfaction of personal needs and desires becomes tempered by the environment as those needs and desires must be delayed to accommodate circumstances and the needs and desires of others.

However, with the cultural changes over the last 100+ years, the parents – especially the mothers – spend less time with children (using somewhat impersonal child-care facilities) and spend more time working than with the children.

The children miss the personal relationships; the parents often feel guilty and attempt to assuage that guilt by providing what ever entertainment the children desire while overlooking the development of undesirable behavior; parents fail to provide personal and spiritual training; the natural selfishness of the children is not curbed by training.

After a few generations, that selfishness and anti-social behavior becomes imbedded in the culture.

The selfish child becomes a selfish parent and then a selfish grandparent – the new generations no longer see the efficacy of the home being the place where children learn God’s laws, where they learn to respect others and the institutions of civilized society and the dangers of unchecked selfishness.

Such attitudes lead to extreme bad behavior, crime, drug abuse and eventually to a dreadful malaise throughout the entire culture.

There are only a few who have fought the degeneration, those who have strived to train their children in God’s ways and to respect others and the necessary institutions of society, those who set their children on the path to a good, successful life as the Proverbs teach:

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. 9 They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. [Proverbs 1:7–9 (NIV84)]

6 Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. [Proverbs 22:6 (NIV84)}

This minority is the weakened glue that is the only thing preventing our culture from being one of total chaos.

Such is today’s American culture.

Many of our religious leaders, most of our political leaders, many of our professional educators, many of our judges, leaders of corporations, most of those in the government bureaucracy and our local leaders are the product of those generations that fostered and rewarded the degeneration we see today.

Many of them exhibit this toxic degeneration in their behavior and they way they lead.

Their selfish, toxic minds exhibit ignorance, arrogance and insolence in equal proportion.

Ignorance: The deterioration of higher education has led to college graduates at all levels (BS, BA, MS MBA, PhD, MD) displaying a shocking ignorance of history, successful cultures, failed cultures and the reasons for each; likewise most have no real understanding of true human nature. Their “knowledge” often extends only to contemporary sources.

BREAK

I wrote this book at least partially to combat the ubiquitous ignorance of the whole story of the Bible, the origin of the Christian church and the origin of the culture of Western Civilization. Combined with follow-up studies of the Bible and a thorough, personal evaluation, it might even help some with that arrogance and insolence.

Get it direct from Amazon here

The hardback is $29.95; the paperback is $19.95 and the e-book is $9.95 (or free if you have joined Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited system).

Back to essay:

Arrogance: Based on 10 or 15 years exposure to our failed education system, their arrogance tells them whatever they think is TRUTH. This denies their exposure to learning they are often wrong and why they are wrong by true research and self-examination. They place no value on approaching education with humility – realizing and admitting their ignorance. Of course their teachers exhibit the same flaws.

Insolence: Assuming that whatever they believe at this moment is TRUTH, their ears and their minds are closed to anyone who has the temerity to point out their ignorance and arrogance. They insult and ignore anyone who disagrees. They do not learn but seek out and only read or hear those who will agree with their “TRUTH”.

The combination of ignorance, arrogance and insolence can be summarized in the concept of “hubris” as defined by Wikipedia:

Hubris describes a personality quality of extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence, often in combination with (or synonymous with) arrogance. The term “arrogance” comes from the Latin adrogare, meaning to feel that one has a right to demand certain attitudes and behaviors from other people. To “arrogate” means “to claim or seize without justification… To make undue claims to having”, or “to claim or seize without right… to ascribe or attribute without reason”

Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one’s own competence, accomplishments or capabilities.

Over the past several years, if you have observed the actions of our government, health officials, the legacy media and those who control social media platforms, you will recognize in them the characteristics of hubris.

This hubris is exhibited throughout our governments and the national bureaucracies.

Such mindsets only get changed and start to recognize their flaws when some catastrophe occurs in their personal realm.

Reference the several journalists who were formerly hard-core leftists who see the excesses of socialism/communism demonstrated in their own, personal lives (cancel culture) and begin to exhibit the essence of true journalism: the search for real truth regardless of the political/philosophical/social spectrum in which it is found.

Reference some left-leaning politicians who are breaking with the national government and saying the Covid-19 issue is “over”. Some are saying “no more lockdowns”; some saying “no more masking”, some saying “stop the vaccine mandates”.

Reference a significant number of American citizens/voters for whom the current political and cultural climate has been a “wakeup call” who perhaps will appear in significant numbers in November to insure changes in our government to reverse our potential slide into oblivion.

Anyone taking this direction who is willing to push back on the charlatans and despots trying to control our lives is exhibiting true courage.

Let’s hope they will become a majority lest it be necessary for us to experience a national catastrophe to speed the process.