Contemporary Wisdom

I was having dinner with a veteran friend of mine and he eventually got started on war stories. He had spent some time on the North/South Korean border, and he told me how the people there really respected their elders. It wasn't even a "we should be nice to old people" kind of respect either. It was out of recognition that their elders had real life experience, real wisdom they could share with those just starting out with life.

Then my friend pointed out that we just don't have the same respect for our elders here in America. We put them in homes so we don't have to deal with them, or consider euthanizing them since they no longer "contribute to society." What does that leave us with? A bunch of young people barely out on their own trying to come up with their own brand of wisdom.

Where has this brought us?

YOLO. That is where this has brought us.

For those who don't know, YOLO means "You Only Live Once." While technically this generation's "Carpe Diem," it's usually an excuse to do stupid things. This can range from running a red light to parachuting without the proper training or equipment.

This makes me think of a certain Proverb:
Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
    in the markets she raises her voice;
at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
    at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
    and fools hate knowledge?
If you turn at my reproof,
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
    I will make my words known to you.
Because I have called and you refused to listen,
    have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
because you have ignored all my counsel
    and would have none of my reproof,
I also will laugh at your calamity;
    I will mock when terror strikes you,
when terror strikes you like a storm
    and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
    when distress and anguish come upon you.
-Proverbs 1:20-27

"Simpletons love not committing themselves to wisdom but remaining in an open state of seduction. Their moral posture becomes ever more in tension and conflict with the inevitable disaster approaching them. The inexorable plight is urgent and acute. Death is at hand. The rhetorical question implicitly contains an admonition: respond quickly, or you will soon perish in the way" (Waltke qtd in Zuck, 197).

Waltke was right on in saying, "Simpletons love not committing themselves to wisdom." Therein lies the problem, both today and when Proverbs was originally written. Most people would just rather live in their folly than turn to wisdom and live with discipline.

While I don't see YOLO-induced deaths cropping up everywhere, we are losing our moral and wise foundation that is taking our nation down the path of folly. Hopefully, we can listen to Wisdom before it is too late.



Bibliography
Zuck, Roy B. Learning from the Sages: Selected Studies on the Book of Proverbs. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1995.