It's hard for me to see the bright side. Some grim, fatalistic framework inside my mind keeps me from getting too upset about this, but from time to time, it grows worrisome. The brooding pessimist is usually a self-fulfilling prophet. He also tends to quickly become old and irritating, and he definitely has a hard time at parties.
Problem is, I'm always seeing people go to parties, and sometimes I want to be a part of it, too.
Take this one party I keep hearing about. There, prophets and preachers talk about God pouring out His anointing, showering us with blessings, and sending His message with grandiose power to the ends of the Earth. They talk about how this generation from my country is going to rise up and bring millions to Christ. I hear people talking about them, saying all these great things, and think, "Wow. That's really cool. I'd really like to believe that. I think that's probably why they've gathered those crowds of thousands – people would very much like to believe what they're saying."
Then I take a look around; I see the obstinance of the church. I see the depravity of the world's culture. I see the vaunting of empiricism, the draw of universalism, and the continual and contradictory rise of tribalism that crosses all cultures and creeds. I see my generation falling into a pit from which it truly would take a miracle to escape. Then, I also note how so many of the miracles purportedly performed at this party are faked, and it gets a little worse.
I open my mouth, I say what I see, and my invitation suddenly vanishes.
There's this other party too. The one where all the cool kids are talking about the future, technology, and humanism. They say that globalisation will overcome all cultural boundaries the same way those other guys talk about the Gospel overcoming all cultural boundaries. They talk about technology making life better, about religion being the source of the world's ills, and that if we can rise above this, make it to other planets, and keep abortion legal, all problems on planet Earth will cease.
And I think "Hmm, maybe I can sell them some land in Florida, too."
Y'see, I've heard all this before, the whole "better living through chemistry" and "physics is the way of the future" sort of deal. I tell the friends inviting me to this party to forgive my skepticism*, but none of this really addresses the fundamental issues of the human condition, and furthermore, high-minded ideals like these leave themselves fairly open to corruption. I lost hope in the systems of human beings for bringing freedom and justice to people ages ago. Until you deal with the heart, I say, the society will never be well. And all your high-minded solutions and technological terrors do nothing to address that issue.
It seems no one particularly likes this sentiment. Politicised Christians openly resent it, and the Wired Magazine™ reading, porn addicted, hyper-rationalists who probably are our future policymakers resent it in a very closeted sense, but they still resent it all the same. When I mention things like eugenics, World War I, atomic weapons, and environmental disasters, progressives and futurists get nervous. When I tell them they'll get us no closer to Utopia than anyone else has, they suddenly have the same potential as anyone else to become downright spiteful.
I lose my invitation to that party pretty quickly, too, in the end. People want to think we're getting better. People want to think that the future is bright. People want to think a lot of things.
When my pessimistic arse tells them they're wrong, they don't like to think about that. Not one little bit.
* - Yes, that's supposed to be irony. Laugh.