THE COLLAPSE OF OUR MODERN TIMES

AND THE BIRTH OF THE INTUITIVE GENERATION

 

Do you remember this Bob Dylan song:

                                                                Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

This song, “. . . is one of Dylan's most famous; many felt that it captured the spirit of social and political upheaval that characterized the 1960s.”^[1]

 

The Birth of the Intuitive Generation

 

            The changed times--

            I can guarantee you that those born after 1985 will not remember it. Of course, they can’t remember much of what those of us born before 1985 can remember. Every day, our students stand to say, “We Pledge Allegiance. . . .one nation under God. . . ” It is not likely our youth remember that this religious phrase was added in 1953 under the presidential request of Dwight D. Eisenhower. In fact, it is doubtful that our student bodies understand the term “God.” The majority of our students do not attend church nor do their parents of whom most are born around the year 1985.^[2]

 

            It now can be affirmed that these changing times are no longer changing, they have changed! So, what happened? In looking back over filed materials that I have written, it was around 1985 that I began to note the changing times. Interestingly, the formula I worked at the beginning of my studies is the same that I use today:

• The Modern Era Worldview was born during the 15^th to the 17^th Centuries;
• The Postmodern Era Worldview was born in 1917 when Einstein wrote down the Theory of Relativity—E=MC².

 

            Some sociology scholars affirm that about every 500 years a societal death and rebirth takes place. The Middle Ages, (a.k.a: the Dark Ages—5^th to the 15^th Centuries) were fully established by the year 1,000 C.E., and were finished by the start of the Modern Era during the 15^th to the 17^th centuries. Look at the tremendous energy that came into being at this time: Galileo, Copernicus and solidified by the Scientific Method of Newtonian physics. From this base we experience the Reformation, the Gutenberg printing press, the Renaissance, Industrialization and Urbanization. These were exceptionally fruitful years and lasted a little more than 500 years.

 

            Re-wiring the Intuitive Generation--

            This new generation I characterize as The Intuitive Generation. The Theory of Relativity is the metaphor of this newness; among many other things, today’s physics intuits the Big Bang, an ever-expanding universe, and a cosmos that exists outside of our own galaxy. The new physics helps to explain a mega-and a micro-universe; one without and one within. This is a paradigm shift of cosmic proportions; the universe itself now is explained by Quantum Mechanics that posits an ever-expanding universe in which Earth is but an insignificant dot in one of the mega-billions of other universes.

 

The Death Spiral of these modern times began with the globality of World War I, to be followed by The Great Depression, a second World War that ended with the birth of the Nuclear Age conceived by Einstein’s formula. Einstein wrote this formula in 1909, but it was not published until after the Great War in 1917. The death of the Modern Era was orchestrated through the formula E=MC². The Atomic Era was an earth-shattering event and gave birth to the Postmodern Age now 100 years old.

 

The Journey to the shift--

            Observe what transpired prior to 1985. The War Babies of 1943 came to their majority around 1960 and gave birth to the Baby Boomers who reached young adulthood in 1985. In their turn, they gave birth to Gen X, Y, and Z who now fill our public school desks. Those born since 1985 are fully wired differently than those of us born before this year of significance.

 

            Take a brief historical review of the move from locality to globality. For most of human history it is the local context that informed community life. >From the earliest days communications could have been with smoke signals such as is romanticized among our native aboriginal people or it could have been drumming. We know that there are lost communities that use such primitive means of inter-local means of communication. Perhaps, it was the Roman era when an extensive road system began to make travel more national. Certainly, the development of our Inter-State system did much to collapse the East Coast to the West Coast.

 

In our own time we have seen the creation of the telephone and rural electrification that became the process of breaking down the uniqueness of our national heterogeneity. I can remember during the early years of our participation in World War II that USO “canteen” hostesses could tell, almost to the city, where soldiers were raised by the uniqueness of their vocal accents.

           

            Electrification made possible radio communication that began the process of homogenizing our world. On the American (USA) continent the first radio “networks” were ABC, CBS, and NBC. Local affiliates supported the Big Three. Then, during WWII, the invention of the oscilloscope developed into the initial rudimentary television.

 

            The creation of this potential was like a pebble dropped into a pond. The ripples of the future were picked up by the winds of change to blow it into a tsunami that soon overwhelmed the local with the creation of the national. With this development our homogenizing took a massive leap. Wikipedia reports that,

Since the mid-1990s, web development has become one of the fastest-growing industries in the world.^{[citation needed]} In 1995 the United

States had fewer than 1,000 web-development companies, but by 2005 there were over 30,000 such companies.^{[citation needed]} The growth of this industry is being pushed by large businesses wishing to sell products and services to their customers and to automate business workflow.^[3]

 

            Suddenly, national networking was supplanted by the Global Web. The invention of the micro-chip made the use of hand-held devices ubiquitious. The use of the web, particularly through the social systems of email and texting, is addictive. The use of the web now supports a healthy global exchange along with the means to support national and international political and social rebellion. We now live in a global culture that surpasses nationalization. In part, this adds to our global angst. No longer can we describe our socialization as national. We live in a global society intimitely tied together electronically and socially. This earth is now our home!

 

The collapse of the social process

 

The collapse of global economics, the family, education, and national symbols--

            As our global society begins to define itself, we have experienced a total societal upheaval. Global evidence of this situation is the collapse of the American rust-belt economics and manufacturing, or what’s a NAFTA for? Look at global economics in which the United States loses its prime international credit rating, or examine the economic issues of Ireland, Greece, Italy, France, Germany and the EURO. The rise of China as a new economic force and a military presence has great potental and far-reaching influence for good or ill. Add to this mix the economic influence of India and Sub-Saharn Africa and it is possible to get a sense of the potential shift in global influence. Does this mean that North America (Canada and the USA) may experience the fate of Holland, Portugal, France and Great Britian as colonial empires?

           

Next, consider the global collapse of the family, the inadequacy of our educational systems and the disrespect for our national symbols. The evidence can be as local as that of the Hutchinson Daily News article, “Vandals damage 67 grave markers in Hutchinson.” Unfortunately, it can be added that many of our Salina Central High School youth do not find meaningful the morning ritual of the Pledge of Allegiance.

           

            The collapse of religion—

What about the collapse of religion? The Postmodern worldview is the denial of supernaturalism that is the bedrock of traditional religious views as broad as the Judeo/Christian and Muslim religions. What this indicates is the collapse of our traditional Christian Churches and its pastoral leadership. One reviewer observed:

Instead of proclaiming a God who calls believers to lives of love, service and sacrifice, churches offer instead a bargain religion, easy to use, easy to forget, offering little and demanding less.

           

            The National Study of Religion and Youth^[4]

Between 2002 and 2005 a national survey of Religion and Youth (3,300 youth,13 to 17) was conducted by the Social Science Departments at Notre Dame and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.^[5] The Lily Foundation funded the survey. This is a serious study, the result of which have been published in several documents. Kendra Creasy Dean, a professor of religion at Princeton Theological Seminary, is charged with sharing the finding of this report with the nation’s churches.

 

What this study reveals is that our youth and their parents practice a religion of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism:

Moralistic—“I’ll be a nice person.”

Therapeutic—“Because I want people to like me.”

Deism—“This makes my god happy.”

At whose feet are they forming such errant beliefs but from their parents! The fault is the inadequacy of our Christian pastors and their theological education. Dr. Dean observes,

But what is to be done? In order to produce ardent young

Christians, Dean argues, churches must rediscover their sense of mission and model an understanding of being Christian.

 

            In support of this conclusion, this study reports that the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon), with its emphasis upon family life, the stringent requirement that every young adult be involved in a one or two year mission assignments, and its daily training of their youth in their own homes as well as in the sanctuary (church) under the tutelage of trained lay people. The LDS parents and youth are the ones who best articulate the elements of their belief system more than any other major Christian church or denomination.

 

            Even this success does not convince me that Mormonism is an appropriate response to the postmodern future. As an outsider making judgments, it is apparent that their worldly structure is strong, but their cosmology is metaphysical and thereby irrelevant as a postmodern response. Anything illusionary can not pass the test of human experience because it is based on a lie.

 

            The collapse of politics—

            Preachers are not the only ones at fault. They are as blind as our politicians. Both political parties are blinded by this new Postmodern Worldview. Global politics illuminate a general sickness that we experience in the State of Kansas and a national legislative grid-lock.The difference is the Republicans firmly believe that when the wealthy are kept wealthy they will be generous. The Democrats firmly believe that a global safety net is the answer. Unfortunately, both answers are weak sisters. No one has the answer because the future is in the hands of our youth where it belongs.

 

The Reaction of the Older Generation

 

A response to angst--

            How long will it be until the Postmodern Worldview is the accepted one? It will be over the dead bodies of those born before1985. In truth, our elders are hurrying to that end as fast as it is humanly possible. The best response is to love and care for our older populations because they are living in Hospice Times. They are scared to death as they experience the collapse of everything they held important and sacred.

            The adult population is privileged to be chosen to live in these societal end times. Please note that this is a sociological rather than a theological argument. These end times do not predict the end of the world, but forth-tell the shape of the near and on-going future.

 

It is unfortunate that our older global populations are experiencing the roughest transition ever in history because it is taking place over such a short time. This transition is just 100 years old, a very short period measured in historical time. Note that Hebraic history is measured in 2,000 years, and Christian history marks changes over a period of 1,500 years. The Modern Era lasted only 500 years, and the Einsteinian revolution took place just 100 years ago.

 

            The response of the older adult part of our global society is to hide behind conservative politics and religion. Both of these things are illusions of reality because our current politics and religion are as dead as the Modern Worldview that sustained us for the last 600 years.

 

            One reaction is that many adult populations ran to find security in conservative religions. It matters not if they are Christian or otherwise. Frightened people drifted off to those who promise their members a rose garden that is an illusion of hope. This religiosity is an illusion because the theory is not grounded in human experience; it is a wish dream unconnected to human experience. People are fearful because they are practicing a religion that is unconnected to the new worldview. The result is that today’s older populations are like reeds in the wind; they have no roots deep-set in reality. They live on shaky ground.

 

            Seeking to return to the past is not the answer. Returning to the meta-physical principles developed by Greek philosophy leads to supernaturalism. This spiritual response is disconnected from living the humane and gracious life while working for justice and mercy. Please note that such phrases as this are neither conservative nor progressive language. Until we practice what we preach by living the humane life, it matters little to what church, synagogue, mosque, temple or wicken people go.

 

The future for our adult population is bleak as long as people are hiding from reality. It is when we are at the throats of each other that we experience angst. It is when we all get along so that we live together in forgiving love that we will earn a deep inner peace.

 

What’s next?

 

            Future directions--

The truth is the end is done. It is those born before 1985 who wonder, “What is going on?” It is any wonder that 90% of our Salina youth and their parents are unchurched? As I’ve already declared, this global concern is solved over the dead bodies of those who are parents and grandparents. The last 600 years die hard, and we older adults are the products of the Modern Worldview.

 

What of our youth?

They are blown away from traditional values and religious beliefs so as to be set free to design their own new tools on the forge of historical change. They are the vanguard of a new global society.

 

            What is the message for the future?^[6]

If there is to be a future—and most certainly there is one born after 1985; our youth are in the process of sharpening their tools on the anvil of the new paradigm. If the Intuitive Generation is to be successful, they can define themselves by living the humane and gracious life while working for justice and mercy that peace is the product of their actions.         

Yes, this is a good place to start.

wes

 

 

 

 

 

RESOURCES DEVELOPED ON THE TOPIC BY DR. SALMON

 

 

Books appropriate to the topic of this paper

 

Borg, Marcus J., Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power, NY:Harper One. $25.99.

 

Dean, Kenda Creasy,  Almost Christian: what the faith of our teenagers is telling the American Church, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2010. I have a 20-page report on this material, plus an 8.5 X 14 Summary Chart.

 

Sweet, Leonard , Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic.  I have a 20-page analysis and personal reflections on it. In the late 1970’s, Dr. Sweet rang one of the first bells announcing the paradigm shift to postmodernism and its affect on society.

 

 

Books written by Dr. Salmon^[7]

 

Our Old Christian Code Words: Head Trip Analysis to Gut Trip Analysis.

This is a workbook that enables the reader to utilize this new post-modern approach and thinking. $15.00 from Dr. Salmon.

 

The Making of a Teacher: Bible Studies in the Gospel of Matthew.

This is 29 lessons based on a study of the Gospel of Matthew. It includes postmodern insights from a local IHOP Bible Study, plus the insights from seven years of sermons based on the appropriate lectionary material in Matthew. $17.50 from Dr. Salmon.

 

One Mission, Two Objectives: Bible Studies in the Gospel of Mark.

This is the recent publication of Dr. Salmon. It will be delivered sometime before Christmas 2012. It uses the same format as the Matthew material. $17.50 from Dr. Salmon.

 

 

A new book under construction

 

Conversations in Jail: for the Prisoner in all of us.

From many interviews with prisoners in the Saline County Jail and the Ellsworth Correctional Facility, Dr. Salmon identified seven key themes and seven appropriate responses. This information is conveyed through stories of his encounters. The audience for the book is jail chaplains, for the general population, and anyone working as first-responders in counseling sessions; i.e., pastors and guidance counselors.