The Demise of Logic

It is becoming increasingly obvious that as a society we have lost the ability to think. Read the newspapers (or rather, don’t) and you will see what it is that tickles the fancy of an unreasoning world. Scandal, murder, and abominations form the staple of daily reading for the mindless masses. What has happened to the common sense and lofty idealism that once characterized our beloved America?

Alas! The 1960’s happened…an era of rebellion against authority, morality, reason, and all that conduced toward making this country great and its people noble. Truth was cast aside for relativism and objectivity; authority was denied as being too restrictive; morality went the way of the flesh…in more ways than one; and reason gave place to mawkish sentiment and self-will.

One of the tragic victims of this disastrous revolution in society is Literature. Why do I mention it when speaking about logic and our ability to think? Because, as Dr. Carol Byrne pointed out in an article published in the Spring 2006 edition of Mater Dei Magazine:

"Literary works – in the sense of the imaginative and creative kind, such as drama, poetry and fiction – have for centuries been playing an important role in shaping human thought for good or ill. By appealing to our imagination and our sense of enjoyment in reading, they become part of our mind’s life. And we know from the Scriptures how thought determines action: as a man thinks in his mind, so he is in life." – “The Inside Story, Getting to Know Ourselves through Good Literature”, pg. 1. [My emphasis]

That is rather an alarming thought when you stop to consider what people are filling their minds with! Is it any wonder that western civilization is tumbling down around our heads?

Perhaps it is time that we as individuals take a small step toward shoring up the bastions of civilization by turning off the television, setting aside the newspapers and rag-mags, and taking up the reading of good Literature. Yes, that was Literature with a capital “L” as opposed to the genre of cheap, filthy, frothy, mindless novels that go by the misnomer of literature.

I can already hear the clamor of dismay: “But that is so hard! Those books are so boring…nothing ever happens in them!” To which I reply: Yes, it is hard at first to take up good Literature, and one must develop a taste for it. Why? Because good reading is filled with principles and ideas. Most of it concentrates on character development rather than on sexually lurid and yawningly boring plots that a six-year-old could see through. That good Literature is unappreciated is not the fault of the works themselves, but of our minds being so ignorant and lazy that we will not attempt to read and understand good books; and if we do make the attempt and encounter difficulties, we have become too lazy and sensual to persevere in our attempt. But how much we lose by not persevering! Good Literature ennobles the mind, instills lofty principles, and gives us courage to climb out of the cesspool of mediocrity toward the pinnacle of knowledge.

Today’s version of literature does just the opposite. As one astute author put it:

“Considered in relation to knowledge, popular literature is a powerful strengthener of self-ignorance; considered in relation to feeling, popular literature simply serves to make sure that we love and hate and feel virtuous according to conventional rules that ignore the complexity of life.” (R. Hellman, The Ghost on the Ramparts, Athens (Georgia), University of Georgia Press, 1973, p. 24. Quoted in abovementioned article by Dr. Carol Byrne. My emphasis.)

The choice is ours: Do we wish to develop our reason as God intended, so that we are able to think logically and embrace truth, or are we content to mill with the herd and stampede like lemmings over the abyss? Our decision will not affect ourselves alone. It may very well affect the destiny of western civilization.