Unfortunately, deconstruction did not stay confined to the confines of literature where it was conceived. The driving force of the mindset has taken over all areas of Western culture. Philosopher Roger Scruton speaks of “the culture of repudiation becoming the official culture of the post-modern university” and I would say it is the official culture of Western youth, who will be Western adults in a few short years.
Repudiation is a good word to describe what is going on in our culture today. Repudiation means rejecting or disclaiming as invalid. It is the noun form of the verb to repudiate which means: to reject as having no authority or binding force; to cast off or disown; to reject with disapproval or condemnation. It is derived from the Latin repudiare meaning “to put away.” And that is what the culture we encounter today has done to traditional norms and values that have defined our culture for the whole history of the U.S.A. as a country and in Western Europe for many centuries before. The 21st Century culture is indeed a culture of repudiation. We will look at some areas in our culture where that has played out.
An attitude
I am going to use the term postmodern and postmodernism to refer to the culture of the early 21st Century. Postmodern culture is basically an attitude, not an attitude for anything, but primarily against ideas and institutions that oppress freedom. It is a celebration of liberation from traditional values and a celebration of youth. A popular shirt I see on males and females here in Spain where I am writing this has written on the front: Free, Young, Forever. This reflects an attitude of repudiation of any moral restraints, of growing old, and of dying. Of course, you cannot repudiate the last two, if you don’t grow old it is because you died. But you can still have that attitude, and it is an attitude fueled by rebellion.
This first came to my notice during my freshman year in college in 1966. The college had rules requiring male instructors to wear neckties to class and prohibiting smoking in all classrooms. I had a young history instructor who wore T-shirts to class and chain-smoked while he was lecturing. His lectures basically consisted of repudiating the version of history printed in the textbook. He was way ahead of the curve toward postmodernism and he only lasted one semester at the college. Except for the smoking in class, which is now against the law, he was your model college professor of the 21st Century.
The attitude of repudiation growing out of deconstruction is affecting all areas of society. Nothing is sacred. Tradition is trashed. Our father’s world has been deconstructed in the culture and in the church.
The Ramifications of Deconstruction and Repudiation
The ramifications of deconstruction and repudiation can be seen in many areas of culture. I will briefly deal with some of what I consider to be the most radical of the cultural shifts and reversals that we Christians are encountering in the 21st Century.
Deconstruction of meaning
Words don’t mean the same thing they used to mean. In some cases, they have been emptied of their content and don’t mean anything anymore (i.e. “truth”). In other cases, words have been given new meanings (i.e. “gay”). Here are a few words significant to Western culture that have either lost meaning or changed meaning:
TRUTH – Normally, truth is defined as “that which corresponds to or adequately expresses reality, or what is, in fact, real.” The assumption being there is a reality outside and apart from ourselves which we humans live in. For the Englishman, the city bus is real whether he sees it or not. To the Hindu the city bus is not real, it is an illusion, whether he sees it or not. But whether it is the Englishman or the Hindu that steps out in front of the bus, the bus will run over him because the bus is real. To say “Be careful, a bus is coming,” is to tell the truth because it corresponds with reality.
Not so to the postmodern mind. Truth is now subjective, subject to one’s interpretation. Truth is relative to one’s point of view. One’s own interpretation and one’s own point of view make truth personal rather than universal. There can be as many versions of the truth as there are people in the group. “That may be true for you, but it is not true for me” is the mantra of the postmodern attitude. Truth has lost its meaning.
BIBLE – The deconstruction of words and texts resulting in the inability to know an author’s intent or meaning has taken the meaning out of the Bible. The Bible can no longer be read as God speaking through the human authors to express His mind to human beings. The meaning of what is written can only be understood by the mind of the reader. The mind of the author is absent. Therefore, the Bible cannot be a source of truth nor can it reflect the mind of God, if He exists. The Bible has been redefined as a piece of literature subject to the reader’s interpretation. Thus says the postmodernist.
MORALS – Simply stated, morals are principles of behavior in accordance with a standard of right and wrong. Typically, the principles that govern morals come from one’s community or family. For the Christians, they come from the Bible. Today, the distinction between right and wrong has disappeared as linguistic deconstruction says one cannot exist without the other so, they are both equally necessary and of equal value. Morals have been redefined to mean it is right for me because I want it, and it is wrong for me not to have it.
FAMILY – The traditional family of husband (man), wife (woman), and children has been redefined to refer to the people staying in the same residence. Here in the third decade of the 21st Century laws are being passed almost daily as states and nations change their laws defining marriage to include homosexuals of all genders. My local paper reported that the local government has approved a family bill recognizing 16 family types, giving them all the sane family rights. Adoption laws are being changed to allow homosexuals (single or married) to adopt little children. Currently, 40.5% of the births in the U.S. are to unwed mothers. In the black community that figure soars to 69.4%. 25% of all children are being raised in a single-parent home (the world’s highest rate), and 40-50% of all first marriages, 60% of second, and 73% of third marriages end in divorce. The divorce rates are falling, not because more people are staying committed to their vows, but because more couples are living together without getting married. That helps the divorce rate but does not change the dynamic of what is going on in the family. In this 21st Century, for most people family is no longer a place to receive identity, nurture, and security. Family is a fluid series of relationships that are self-seeking and easily abandoned. I will continue this in the next post.