Don't Do Opium!

Postmodernism is typically known best for its rejection of absolutes. This has been a major clashing point for Christianity. Modernism was seen as compatible because it, at least, agreed with the Christian stance that there was an Absolute reality. We may disagree on what that reality is, but at least then we can debate on that. We stand on the same platform. It just comes down to who is more persuasive concerning the nature of the platform. Postmodernism rejects the very platform we stand on. No wonder it's such a scary thing to many. Yet, the rejection of absolutes is not the starting point for postmodern thought, but rather the conclusion of it. There are many presuppositions that postmodernists rest on to arrive at the statement that there is no Absolute Reality.

The one I find to be very important is subjectivity of all knowledge. Basically the idea that even when objective facts exist, we as humans are thoroughly incapable of leaving them as such. To live is to interpret. All experience must be altered (however slightly) to be useful. We must fit it into the framework of our worldview and life experience. Contrary to what science has told us for hundreds of years, facts are enslaved to values. Not vice versa.

Yesterday I went and saw The Constant Gardener. It's a hard movie. It points out the system of injustice that I as a "First World Citizen" depend on. The gist of it is: A British diplomat of modest position marries a political activist. They make their home in Kenya. The husband keeps a garden and does what he is told to, while largely unknown to him, his wife uncovers a massive corporate drug scandal. In order to save millions of dollars on developement, drug companies buy their way into Kenya, where they conduct involuntary tests on thousands of poor Kenyans, resulting in the deaths of hundreds. Diplomatic officials stand to profit from the situation, so they hush it up, and hush up anyone who would reveal their dirty little secret. It's a fictional story very much based in the reality we live in. It brought to mind the truth that science, which we acclaim as neutral, objective practice, is actually a puppet to the values system which controls it. In this case Westerners who value the lives of people in their own society, and value the substantiality of their own bank accounts, tell science who to kill for their own good.

Karl Marx proclaimed religion to be the "opiate of the masses". It was something to sooth the pain of experience. In the end it was an addiction, needing cure. Religion would never solve one's problems, it would only numb ones attention to them. Marx being the child of the Enlightenment he was offered up his alternative: ideology. Ideology was the path to utopia. Utopia was a place where no opiates were needed. Life was swell there. Marxism was a twelve step program to a better humanity.

It took off like wildfire in the East: Russia, China, Vietnam. It hit some bumps in Cuba, and never quite got established in any of the other Latin American countries, though it sure tried. Partially it didn't succeed because the ideological market was controlled by a strong competitor: capitalism. Sure, we call it democracy, but we all know what really runs the West. Capitalism is the cancer of democracy. The list of ideologies is far more extensive than that. Chances are if it ends in -ism it is, or is strongly controlled by, some ideology. Marxism, capitalism, facism, socialism, communism, fundamentalism, on and on.

This leads me to my favorite quote of the day, "Ideology is the opiate of intellectuals." It provides not more, but less of an answer to the pain of experience. Utopia is only acheived when the few steal from the many to numb their own pain by gratifying every desire. The world goes to hell before dying, while the rich and privileged steal a slice of heaven before succumbing to the endless void that they have spent a lifetime distracting themselves from.

Basically, I agree with the postmodern position. In regard to humans, there is no such thing as neutral facts. Objectivity is the smokescreen for the values of modernism. As a system, I believe modernism is thinly veiled paganism. Ideologies are the gods who demand that we sacrifice human life and the blood of our children to avoid their wrath. We live in endless uncertainty trying to appease them. Still, I find postmodernism to be an escape. In the face of such insatiable gods, I struggle to believe the answer is to leave them unchallenged by declaring only the subjective to be absolute. I think this makes us feel better about ourselves, but the pseudo-gods of our time will continue unchecked.

The answer is YHWH. The ancient, present, future God. He claims himself Almighty. He claims to be right and true. He calls out all other gods as demons. Every -ism is controlled by evil. Let's not buy the modern lie that God sanctifies our systems. The OT claims him to be YHWH Mekadesh: he sanctifies us. Trickle down theory does not work with God. He will make us holy, but not capitalism. Capitalism is a false god. He calls us to rebuke it, not justify it. The same goes for any other ideology we want YHWH to give a stamp of approval. Religion is opium. Ideology is opium. God is Truth, Reality, and the Ultimacy of Experience.