Success

Today, I am going to let Dietrich Bonhoeffer speak. (Bolding mine.)

“When a successful figure becomes especially prominent and conspicuous, the majority give way to the idolization of success. They become blind to right and wrong, truth and untruth, fair play and foul play. They have eyes only for the deed, for the successful result. The moral and intellectual critical faculty is blunted. It is dazzled by the successful [person] and by the longing to share in some way in [their] success. It is not even seen that success is healing the wounds of guilt, for the guilt itself is no longer recognized. Success is simply identified with good. This attitude is genuine and pardonable only in a state of inebriation. When sobriety returns, it can be achieved only at the price of a deep inner untruthfulness and conscious self-deception. This brings with it an inward rottenness from which there is scarcely any possibility of recovery.”

This paragraph is taken from Bonhoeffer's posthumously published work, Ethics, which he wrote during the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. He was describing what he saw. Sadly, it is a picture of the United States today. We see such people everywhere. Mass shootings are a symptom of this “deep inner untruthfulness and conscious self-deception” and worshiping success, no matter how it was achieved. Of course, there are other factors, but we see this lack of concern for morality, truth, or fair play with Donald and white supremacists being just fine with separating families and caging people in inhumane conditions. This is what the worship of success leads to.

The question is, how to turn it around? Short of fighting a war? Is avoiding war even possible? I’m not sure. However, there are things we can do. Call your representatives and senators and demand anti-automatic weapon legislation. Protest when you can. Pray. Lament. Educate yourself and others. It’s not going to end until we rise up and demand accountability and empathy from out elected officials.

B