Food for thought

Sort-of-literally. Heh.

McDonald's is dead and we have killed it at Christ and Pop Culture.

There are some very funny bits in the article (McDonald's responding to people's demands for contradictory things with “UGH, WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANTTTTTT”) and also a tiny bit of snark at Chipotle: "(who, by the way, is inexplicably still not using the motto “You can’t spell CHIPOTLE without ECOLI.")

However, there's also a deeper meaning (the site it comes from IS about interweaving one's faith into how one lives in the world) and there's a particularly valuable - or so I think - quotation near the end:

"I’m starting to think that ours is a culture drowning in morals but starved for virtues—we all think no one has the right to judge us, but we all reserve the right to judge everyone else. It’s easy to demand that others change their behavior. But learning how to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with your God?...."

And I think that's very true. And I think, in a way, related to my comment the other day about how there is pressure in our culture to be "admired" rather than to do the hard work that is needed. (And by extension, the whole Kirkegaard thing about how people would rather "admire" Jesus than try to follow Jesus, because admiring someone is easy)

Morals are easy. It's simple to look at the person in the checkout line ahead of you and go, "Ugh! Oreos! Do you KNOW what they PUT in those? They're, like, really really bad for you.*"

(*this actually happened to me when I was in college. I didn't say anything to the person, just pretended they weren't there, but I feel really icky and oogy and really didn't enjoy the Oreos. And I'm sure that was their intent - to build themselves up by making me feel small)

Virtue is harder: virtue, in a similar situation, might be the person buying a couple sandwiches (the store in question sold ready-made, wrapped-up sandwiches), not saying anything to anyone why, but when someone who lived on the streets happened to show up (we had a fair number of homeless people in Ann Arbor), just asking the person, "Would a sandwich help?" and if they say yes, giving them one. 

It is really, I think, perhaps frameable as a "law vs. love" issue - which is something I think many Christians are aware of, the idea that there was a rigid, inflexible Law you were supposed to follow, but sometimes, just sometimes, maybe the loving act broke that law. (Like, for example: healing someone on the Sabbath, when you were technically not supposed to do work). And that may be the morals vs. virtues distinction: it's easy to tell the pudgy 18 year old buying Oreos how bad they are for her. It's harder to look at her and find a little compassion for her, maybe wonder WHY she's buying Oreos - maybe it's her birthday and this is the closest thing she's going to get to a cake, hundreds of miles from home. Or maybe she's just getting over some awful stomach bug and it's the only food that appeals to her. 

(This also relates, I think, to the whole This Is Water thing (NB: a few harsh words in that). I like the whole idea of that - that if you work at it, if you try, you can see all the people around you as people like you: people with loves and fears and hopes and dreams, and they are not obstacles to your happiness. Oh, granted: there is evil in the world. Some people give in to bad impulses or selfishness. We see that all the time. But I also think it's each individual's duty to try not to add to the ugliness of the world.

Incidentally, that video has been on my mind - the local TV channels have been heavily showing Bernie Sanders' campaign ads, and one of them starts of with THE EXACT SAME MUSICAL RIFF that the This Is Water video uses, and more than once, I've looked up, thinking, "Oh, they're going to show us 'This is Water' and it turns out to be a campaign ad....one of the curses of having a good auditory memory, I guess)

But I do think "virtues" - which are often things that require effort on a person's part, and are often things that go unnoticed and unsung - are harder, and are not as visible in our culture right now - as "morals," or at least the sort of "public morals" that allows a person to snark at another, unknown person because that person is fat. Or because that person smokes. Or because that person dresses badly. Or whatever. It can even devolve into true stupidity - Lynn talked the other day about "how everything becomes a little war" and it is, exhaustingly so, like that. Even down to the "best" flavor or brand of ice cream. Or what television shows (if any - and that's a whole OTHER Western Front) are worth watching. And again: it's easy for a person to justify their choices in life by running down someone else's, or telling that person they are bad, stupid, or wrong for the choices they make. And I just want to wave my arms around like a demented Kermit the Frog and scream "STOP IT! STOP. IT." Because it just makes everyone feel worse, and doesn't actually solve any problems.