The Culture of Deconstruction

¹⁵ The simple believes everything,

but the prudent gives thought to his steps.

Proverbs 14:15

“Into the Woods” reflects the heart of the culture of deconstruction we are now living.  The movie that features A list stars like Meryl Streep, Ana Kendrick, Emily Blunt, Johnny Depp, James Corden, and Chris Pine deconstructs several classic fairy tales.  It deconstructs our beloved Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel.  The spirit of postmodernism gives life to this movie.  It penetrates the simple mind of the people who watch it and who are mesmerized by its stunning graphics and deceptive beauty.  And the spirit of postmodernism is projected explicitly through the lyrics of the song “No One is Alone,” in which these lines capture the heart:

Cinderella and Baker:

People make mistakes,
Holding to their own,
Thinking they're alone.

Cinderella:

Honor their mistakes

Everybody makes

Baker:

Fight for their mistakes

Cinderella and Baker:

One another's terrible mistakes.
Witches can be right, Giants can be good.
You decide what's right you decide what's good

The glorification of human frailty, the mistakes they make, and the depravity of man, becomes the axis of the postmodern philosophy.  And the conclusion is for each individual to make up their own standard of right or wrong/good or evil.  This tendency is not new.  It has been going on since the Fall of Adam and Eve.  Ravi Zacharias pointed out a very crucial understanding of what is actually at stake when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil:

Eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil basically gave humanity the power to redefine everything.  God had given language, identification, and reality to humankind.  He imparted to humans the power to name the animals.  But essential to the created order was a moral framework that the creation was not to name or define.  This was the prerogative of the Creator, not of the creation.[1]

What is always known as a dishonor, postmodernism honors.  What is always known as humiliation, postmodernism glorifies.  Postmodernism throws in confusion down to the core.  Mistake is not something we can boast.  Mistake is not something that we boast of.  We repent from making mistakes.  Normally we vow to not make mistakes.  We strive not to repeat the same mistakes.  But the advice of this era is for young people to go out and make mistakes.  And when the pain resulting from making mistakes is unbearable, they bind it with deception, proclaiming that mistakes are necessary for growth, that mistakes are honorable to be made as humans, for it is the sign of humanity.  As man goes deeper into confusion, they no longer know what is right or wrong/good or evil.  For the evil can be good, the wrong can be right, and vice versa.  “Witches can be right, Giants can be good” so the song proclaims, and so the philosophy deceives.  Thus, instead of refraining from making mistakes, people then freely make mistakes.  The more mistakes they make, the more their soul is depressed.  The more mistakes they make, the more they are entangled in the web of guilt.  And they can’t get themselves out of it.  The more depressed they are, the more they deceive themselves in order to soothe their pain.  Come to the point where they no longer feel guilt.  Come to the point where they no longer see their mistakes as wrong at all.  They cease to become mistakes for them.  They begin to redefine it.  Mistake is then redefined as a stepping stone toward growth, strength, power, success!  Gone is morality.  Dead is ethics.

            The deconstruction has devastated the moral framework that God has defined since eternity.  But it actually is not destroyed.  Only the human mind that is deceived.  The illusion of freedom feeds hallucination to the human mind.  They think they are God.  They think they have the power and authority to define what is right or wrong/good or evil.  The basis for their judgment is their own broken self.  Anything is good if it makes them happy.  Anything is right if it doesn’t depress them.  Consequently, anything is evil that makes them sad.  And anything is wrong if it depresses them.  So their soul avoids anything that makes them sad or depressed.  Guilty feeling prompted by their conscience after making a mistake is considered bad.  So they work around it to shift the guilt to someone or something else.  Whatever it takes to alleviate the pain.  Whatever it takes to release them from guilt.  So following postmodernism, mistakes then is said to be good.  It is not bad.  If it is not bad, then there is no point of feeling guilty.  There is no guilt, there is no depression or sadness.  So the soul is blinded.  The conscience is sedated.  Gradually the dosage must be increased, until a certain point when the conscience Rests in Peace (read: died).

            Hollywood culture has infiltrated the whole world.  Its wings are spread so widely and penetrate into the life of the modern man.  It has become the greatest promoter of postmodernism.  It feeds on the demand of the confused human soul, and their soul cries out for ecstasy, for more lies, for more opium to sedate their conscience.  Slowly but sure, generation after generation, a culture is built, a culture of pain killer, a culture of sedation.  The conscience, even though in itself is corrupted due fall, that has been put there by God in order to guide man from further destruction, is finally to be silenced.  Human conscience has been under construction ever since the fall.  But this time its reconstruction requires a massive deconstruction.  And the deconstruction is to turn it upside down.  Kant’s theory of the Categorical Imperative is now rejected.  There is no categorical imperative for postmodernism.  It is every individual’s decision what to put in which category.  Good can be evil, right can be wrong, evil can be good, wrong can be right.  The world is in chaos.  The conscience is spinning out of control.  It convulses, has seizures, gasping for air, throwing itself back and forth, but it can never find equilibrium.  So it gradually withers.  And it dies shattered.  It is silenced through deconstruction.  The will then goes wild.  It wants what it wants.  There is no bridle.  There is no restrain.  It has gained its freedom, at last.  It has become “God.”  And the world burns!

            Before Monster’s Inc, all monsters were evil.  Humans battled monsters.  Humans were afraid of monsters.  For monsters destroyed.  Monsters brought terrors.  But Monster’s Inc introduced into the world widely that monsters are our friends.  Such thought had been introduced before, through Sesame Street.  But Monster’s Inc opened the floodgate.  It became the turning point for the turning upside down of the moral framework that has been established for ages.  Ever since Monster’s Inc, all kinds of monsters have been endowed with good qualities.  The best selling teenage drama, Twilight series, boldly redefines the view on the dreadful monster, vampire.  Vampire is no longer considered evil.  In Twilight, vampire is the hero.  So Belle, a human teenager, desires to be turned into vampire.  Monster’s Inc appeals to kids, and Twilight appeals to teenagers.  Then we got the underworld series, Selena is a beautiful vampire that becomes the heroine of the saga.  Underworld appeals to the mature audience.  Blur is the line between good and evil/right and wrong.  God made that line a long time ago.  Genesis 3:15 records it:

¹⁵ I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

God pulled man into the side of good.  Good is always in opposition to evil.  The line should not be crossed.  Good cannot marry evil.  Right cannot be engaged to wrong.  The two are in opposition for eternity.  But postmodernism puts them together.  Postmodernism acts as priest and officiates their wedding ceremony.  The liturgy is called “Ambiguity.”  And their wedding song is named “Relativism.”  The wedding sermon’s theme is “Both And” which replaces “Either Or.”  Their wedding vow is famously known as “Unity at All Cost” or similar to that “Peace at All Cost.”  The law of non-contradiction is considered obsolete.  Morality is defined by individual opinions.  Each individual may define their own moral law.  Morality has become a matter of personal preference.  Just like eating steak, one prefers well done, another prefers medium well, still another prefers rare.  So for postmodernism it doesn’t matter which “flavor” you choose, it’s just a matter of perspective.  “Witches can be right, Giants can be good” so the song proclaims, “You decide what’s right you decide what’s good” is the bottom line.

            The clear distinction between good and evil is no more.  The classic tales of good battling evil where good always wins at the end, has been replaced by the ambiguity of good and evil.  So even the super villain can be the superhero.  And this “drama,” this new philosophy sells.  Just watch “Megamind” or “Despicable Me” and you will know what I mean.  The culture of deconstruction craves for more.  This won’t stop here.  This will continue.  The wedding that postmodernism officiates will breed more offspring of immorality.  Children of the next generation will be confused.  Their moral compass will be shattered.  There will be no true north anymore in their moral compass.  Anything can be north.  Anything can be south.  Anything can be west.  Anything can be east.  There is no standard.  For everybody is free to set their own standard.  It’s all just about my story, and your story, and his story, and her story, and our story, and their story, and so on.  The postmodern generation learns to live with disharmonious harmony.  They learn to live with round-square.  They learn to cope with good-wickedness or wicked-goodness.  Language becomes a game.  It’s not a problem anymore to say that something is “pretty-ugly.”  It’s not a problem anymore to mean “totally awesome” when saying “totally wicked.”  The culture of deconstruction has deconstructed everything, except deconstructionism itself.  So everything that has been established for thousands of years is now uprooted.  And the result is barbarism – anything goes.  Children mock their parents.  People insult the Creator.  Shame is glorified.  Sin is worshiped.  Mistakes are honored.  Sinful man becomes God.  “Witches can be right, Giants can be good.  You decide what’s right you decide what’s good” so the song proclaims.

            Proverbs 14:15 says: “The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.”  The postmodern prophet targets the simple.  Because the simple believes everything.  In the spirit of “The Medium is the Message” as coined by Marshall McLuhan, a Media Guru, Hollywood movies have become the medium for influencing the simple.  Kid’s movies have become the vehicle to “educate” and thus “indoctrinate” the young minds.  They are impressionable and they easily believe everything that appears to be believable.  Bombard them enough and all they can remember is the message through the medium of the Hollywood movies.  The classic “Clash of the Titans” is deconstructed by “Wrath of the Titans.”  In “Wrath of the Titans” the era of the gods is past.  The death of Zeus marks the death of the gods.  The era of man is ushered in.  “God is dead” shouted Zarathustra in Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.”  The simple believes everything put in front of their eyes.  They do not bother to carefully search for the truth.  But the prudent seeks the truth.  The prudent carefully considers his steps.  And his reference is the word of God, in which resides the wisdom of God.  Proverbs 8:12-21 speaks:

¹² “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,

and I find knowledge and discretion.

¹³ The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.

Pride and arrogance and the way of evil

and perverted speech I hate.

¹⁴ I have counsel and sound wisdom;

I have insight; I have strength.

¹⁵ By me kings reign,

and rulers decree what is just;

¹⁶ by me princes rule,

and nobles, all who govern justly.

¹⁷ I love those who love me,

and those who seek me diligently find me.

¹⁸ Riches and honor are with me,

enduring wealth and righteousness.

¹⁹ My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,

and my yield than choice silver.

²⁰ I walk in the way of righteousness,

in the paths of justice,

²¹ granting an inheritance to those who love me,

and filling their treasuries.

By rooting his life on the word of God, the prudent fears the Lord.  Therefore the prudent hates evil.  He can’t compromise evil.  The prudent walks in the way of righteousness.  He is no postmodern.  The postmodern prophet is persuading the simple to embrace ambiguity.  Postmodernism indoctrinates the simple to love both good and evil at the same time.  But God’s faithful cannot and must not love evil.

            This is a warning for the simple.  Heed the word of God.  Wisdom calls out and he desires to shelter you from the deceitful propaganda of postmodernism.  Do not believe everything.  But listen to the word of God.  Listen and be wise.  Hear the words of Wisdom:

¹Does not wisdom call?

Does not understanding raise her voice?

² On the heights beside the way,

at the crossroads she takes her stand;

³ beside the gates in front of the town,

at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:

⁴ “To you, O men, I call,

and my cry is to the children of man.

⁵ O simple ones, learn prudence;

O fools, learn sense.

⁶ Hear, for I will speak noble things,

and from my lips will come what is right,

⁷ for my mouth will utter truth;

wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

⁸ All the words of my mouth are righteous;

there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.

⁹ They are all straight to him who understands,

and right to those who find knowledge.

¹⁰ Take my instruction instead of silver,

and knowledge rather than choice gold,

¹¹ for wisdom is better than jewels,

and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.

(Proverbs 8:1-11)

Beware of the invasion of the culture of deconstruction.  Avoid the path of postmodernism.  Do not walk in the way of ambiguity.  Right and wrong do not wed.  Good and evil do not get married.  They contradict each other.  Walk the path of righteousness.  Walk the way of wisdom.  Fear the Lord and hate evil, then you will understand the truth.  Amen.

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[1] Zacharias, Ravi.  2007.  The Grand Weaver, p. 79.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan.