How The Modern American Turns In On Himself: A Brief Overview
Were Augustine to walk through malls of America he would come face to face with concupiscentia gone amok. Such is our disordered desire for “lower things.” Shoes and purses and berry-scented balms; entertainment systems that overshadow our ordinary lives with escapist fantasies; toys purchased in such abundance that larger homes are needed with playrooms just to store them; the blessings of a day of gratitude scrapped for the frenzy of consumerism known, ironically, as Black Friday. Making good on Tocqueville’s vision of souls glutting on “petty and banal pleasures,” Americans were predicted to spend over $370 million on 2012’s Halloween costumes— for their pets!
Move along to the mall’s Food Court, and one is faced with three separate manifestations of homo incurvatus in se in relationship to the basic human need to eat. 1) Obesity. America is by far the most obese nation in the world. In 2012, 35.7% of adults and 16.5% of children were considered obese. Defenses about genetics, medical conditions, and poor neighborhood options will only go so far until one is left with the simple truth: many in the United States have a disordered desire for food. 2) Eating Disorders. While some can’t seem to eat enough, 10 million plus American women—mainly teenagers— are starving themselves in the hopes of creating a body more like the media ideal, a body that will look better in the tight jeans they see at the mall. This disordered desire for an idealized physical perfection perpetually turns people in on their own obsession and away from the simple pleasures of enjoying food with family and friends. 3) Hunger. While many have the option of eating too much or too little, nearly 15% of U.S. households were food insecure at least some time during the year. This may or may not reflect any sort of incurvature of their own, but it clearly reflects a society that has curved away from its weaker members. “If liberals underestimate the motivating power of self-interest, conservatives underestimate sin—the selfishness that curbs the altruism needed to care for the poor.” This selfishness is an offshoot of the disordered desire for wealth and creature comforts—better known as greed—which fuels and is then refueled by greedy social structures e.g. “tax laws that favor large corporations” and “the breathtaking salaries of CEOs.” As disordered desire knows no limits—and if society refuses to set them—“unseemly” displays become the new standard:
“Unseemliness is television producer Aaron Spelling building a house of 56,500 square feet and 123 rooms. Unseemliness is Henry McKinnell, the CEO of Pfizer, getting a $99 million golden parachute and an $82 million pension after a tenure that saw Pfizer’s share price plunge. They did nothing illegal. . . . But the outcomes were inappropriate for time or place, not suited to the circumstances.”
“The heart wants what the heart wants,” Americans shrug, as if desire is its own entitlement. And how could they not? In the 1990s, there was little talk of the common good or being “thy brother’s keeper” in the public space. Rather, individualistic psychologists had begun classifying people who nurtured troubled friends or family members as having the psychological disorder of being co-dependent and encouraged Americans to value their own needs, desires, and personal interests over all else —these were the keys to high self-esteem and a happy, successful life.
For many, it seems, their greatest desire was for sex—unrestricted and consequence-free. Where our earliest forefathers would have started the day with The Lord’s Prayer, by 1969—the end of the decade that launched The Pill —the “cult prayer” of America was this
I do my thing, and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you and I am I,
And if by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful.
If not, it can’t be helped.
“Claiming to be wise, they became fools”(Romans 1:22 NRSV). “For this reason, God gave them up to degrading passions” (Romans 1:26 NRSV). And so the era of “if it feels good, do it” gave birth to a new generation. Unprepared to pass on any abiding wisdom about love, sex, or commitment, these “free love” adults went on to raise children without the cultural norms of “waiting for marriage” or what “good girls don’t” do. Their children then grew and had kids of their own, the lessons of accepted and enforced Judeo-Christian morality now two generations removed from the common culture. The country founded on religious freedom was now a place where people had no choice but to live in a world of their own curved-in creation—a world where people did what they pleased and lived in “terrifying isolation.” If some remnant of an individual’s God-given nature began to tug at him with pangs of shame or whispers of Original truth—one that included responsibility, morality, and the greater good—pop psychology quickly assuaged him: Don’t worry, be happy!*
*Not surprisingly, we even took this pop phrase out of its original spiritual context. The quote is taken from the Indian mystic, Meher Baba, whose full expression included both personal responsibility and a divine master—“Do your best. Then, don’t worry; be happy in My love. I will help you.”
From RECLAIMING THE WISDOM OF HOMO INCURVATUS IN SE:“MAN TURNED IN ON HIMSELF” AS AN ENTRY POINT FOR THE DISCUSSION OF SIN IN 21ST-CENTURY AMERICA by Heather Choate Davis
Heather Choate Davis 