9-19-22<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A recent dust-up on the Internet \u2013 or in \u201creal\u201d life, about<\/em> the Internet \u2013 a pair of zillionaires addressed the evils that lurk in this new world of skewed values, formed and furthered by the Internet. They focused on the relatively sudden change in society\u2019s standards, and the various dangers represented by \u201cbots,\u201d attractive lies, and the web’s seductive appeals to youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charlie Munger, the Vice Chairman of Berskshire Hathaway, seemingly took a swipe at the world\u2019s richest man, Elon Musk, who agreed with Munger\u2019s premise but is fighting his own battles against bots and bias of sites like his targeted Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am grateful for the subjects to be raised; the men are close to the truth \u2013 a disturbing truth that has malignant implications for Western Civilization. Munger said at a conference: \u201cThe world is not driven by greed, it is driven by envy.\u201d Elon Musk, in a separate screen statement, responded about a specific site, \u201cInstagram is an envy amplifier,\u201d referring to its toxic temptations. He is getting warm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those temptations? They are common to movies, TV, Facebook, YouTube also \u2013 not only for people to feel pressure to look better, but if necessary to act differently. Changing one\u2019s (web) personality is a step away from changing one\u2019s real personality and standards, to some abstract web-defined perfection. Then, another baby-step to adopting alien values and standards to be acceptable to invisible judges on magazine covers, music videos, movies, and the web. Musk even admitted to being addicted to Selfies and the urge to Photoshop them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enough people are doing the same thing these days, so the willing victims feel safe and\u2026 welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I keep myself from calling these human chameleons \u201ckids,\u201d because adults are dancing to the same tunes. With \u201citching ears,\u201d as the Bible calls the willing dupes, they say to the culture, in effect, \u201clie to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, adults, too. I am astonished by how many teenage girls I see in malls trying to look like 40-year-old skanks; and how many mothers try to look like teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Munger and Musk are close to Biblical truth, whether they know it or not. Greed and envy are subsets of Pride. The Church has long warned against the Seven Deadly Sins. That list is not in Scripture itself, but is inherent in Commandments, proverbs, and church teachings. They are, generally:<\/p>\n\n\n\n G<\/em>luttony<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lust, Fornication<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Greed<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Despair<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Anger<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sloth, Laziness<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pride<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Few would argue that, deep down, prudent respect these anti-virtues for the poison they represent. Yet humanity continues on its way. For all of God\u2019s warnings and laws \u2013 going back to the Garden, really \u2013 in my mind the chief of all these Deadly Sins is Pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I see all sins, all offenses against God, as flowing from Pride. Adam and Eve thought that they could evade God. Satan thought he could outmaneuver God. Rebellious souls think they are cleverer than God. Individual sinners think that God will give them a pass. Gnostics think they know more than God. Legalists think that good deeds will impress God, despite what He said. Secularists, when they grant the possibility of a God, think they will get brownie-points for “caring” and being nice people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of them think they know more than God, or have an \u201cin\u201d with Him, or can explain away their sins, which are, after all, not worse than those of their faulty neighbors\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is all Pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n C S Lewis said that Pride \u201cleads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind\u2026. Pride is understood to sever the spirit from God, as well as His life-and-grace-giving Presence.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Benjamin Franklin said that none of our passions more than Pride, is “so hard to subdue\u2026. Disguise it, struggle with it, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive and will every now and then peep out and show itself.\u201d In his famous fashion, mixing humor and wisdom, he said, \u201cEven if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, famously, the Bible said that Pride goes before destruction (Proverbs 16:18). It sounds like a gentle warning, but it is a grim promise of what happens to people under God\u2019s eyes, and reject His grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLovers of selves,\u201d instead of God. Pride. Have you heard these words? Also not a warning, but a prophecy. You tell me: Are we in those End Times?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God \u2013 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.<\/em> \u2013 II Timothy 3:1-5<\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n