Despite the popularity of many moral nihilists now and in the past, such as Nietzsche, the vast majority of people throughout history have believed in some form of morality. It is a deeply human trait to instinctively classify our experiences, whether our choices or anything else, as good, bad, evil, immoral, charitable, loving, positive, negative, just, unjust, etc. Even before the nihilist can stop himself, those moral sentiments have already appeared, and even the most immoral people usually believe their bad actions are justified, or they simply ignore their conscience until it builds to the point of personal ruination.
With this innate moral compass that all people share, everyone is also capable of having their own attitudes and intellectual beliefs about morality. These primarily derive from the way we understand and interpret the moral sentiments our conscience gives us, and the way we decide to act on them. Through reason, we can expand our morality by implications, religious belief and what we know about human behavior to include things such as culpability, imputability, concupiscence, law, and myriad other concepts. However, reason also gives us the ability to "rationalize" our choices - meaning, we can think up seemingly-reasonable reasons to excuse or justify our choices even though those excuses defy conscience and/or the rational moral framework we believe in. Often, this moral framework is influenced by the excuses we build up over time, a filter through which we experience the world and by which we make choices. This creates an attitude, a way of looking at the world and ourselves that usually determines (though not beyond free will) our moral compass.
One of the most common attitudes that every person is susceptible to is what I call "justification by utility", or to use the philosophical term, utilitarianism. A fundamental principle of objective morality, of a morality independent of the arbitrary preference of the individual person, a morality attested to by the essential logic of philosophy and lived (even if refuted intellectually) by almost every person, is that an action which is objectively moral or immoral is so regardless of the situation or condition of the person. Now, this only involves the moral quality of the action or thing itself, involving the inherent philosophical morality of them; the guilt of the individual is determined by their internal consent and knowledge. But regardless of the person's internal condition, an immoral act is immoral - regardless. Theft, the stealing of one person's private property by another person, is immoral, violating the fundamental human right to private property. But if a severely impoverished or ignorant person steals food, is it still immoral? Yes, the theft itself is still wrong - but the individual's guilt is lessened.
This is an essential principle of morality which utilitarianism rejects. Utilitarianism is the attitude that the morality of an action, separate from the culpability of the actor, is determined by its practical result. Now, the standard by which the practical result is judged to be good or bad is arbitrary, and depends on the placement of another moral belief system atop utilitarianism (such as the affixation of liberal consensus relativism to it featured in the philosophy of desire utilitarianism). But regardless, with this attitude, only the utility of an action determines its morality.
Usually, proponents of utilitarianism would say that actions such as lying, stealing or killing are wrong, since they most often lead to more negative results than positive. Lying creates an unsustainable fantasy, endangers one's reputation and is essentially uncreative, never leading to productive results for the common good. But, what if doing something wrong, such as lying, stealing or killing, does in fact lead to great positive result? This is the true loophole within the attitude (as it is not truly a rational philosophy due to its rejection of constant objective morality) of utilitarianism, and it was the excuse used to justify the Holocaust, the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, stem cell research, contraception - the list is almost infinite.
The opposite of the utilitarian attitude is an attitude of integrity. This, as a virtue, is naturally difficult, the main reason few people have it. Integrity is adhering to what is right and true regardless of one's situation, one's difficulty, or even the possibility of better results by using an immoral means. Justifying the ends by the means derives from a lack of integrity, a weakness of character where one chooses to succumb to the temptation to sin - the immoral means - and justifies it with the possibility of positive ends. It is a test of the heart: what do you love - ease, productivity and pleasure, or truth, goodness and hope? For without the light of hope, and the faithful life of the hopeful person, willing to undergo the trials of suffering - without the certainty that, in the end, no end is worth a wrong means, no result attained by immoral means will last, and salvation will come - there is only darkness.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
The Birth of Modernity Part 1
For nearly four centuries before the fall of the Roman Empire, Christianity had become a popular and, when it was made the official Roman religion by Emperor Constantine in c. 313, influential religious movement. The Roman pagan deities had been in decline for centuries, giving way first to worship of Caesar, then to a relativist hedonism very similar to the worldview currently popular in the West. Most Roman citizens spent their days concerned only with the things of the world, the daily trials, duties and pleasures. They abandoned virtue - even as Christianity flourished, the common Roman had already lost all integrity, patriotism, patience and compassion. In fact, Christianity was ridiculed as a "woman's religion" due to the influential roles and high regard women held in the Church, a concept completely foreign to Roman paganism, and the charity of Christians visiting battlefields, tending to victims of both sides, was given a confused response of disgust and appreciation by Roman observers. The legions had forgotten their long-held national pride, military vigor and dignity, giving way to laziness and continual complaining to higher officers and on up to the Caesars who for the most part, before Constantine, were the epitome of the Roman decline.
Because of the heavy, if sporadic, persecutions Christians faced in the Roman Empire, their ability to evangelize outside Rome was very limited. After the Empire was split into the Western Roman and Eastern Byzantine Empires, and particularly after the conquest of Rome by the Goths, Christianity was opened up to the world. Despite the majesty of Byzantium, it reserved much of its splendor and power to the east, leaving the Roman Catholic Church as the torch of civilization, morality and truth in the West. Without borders, Catholic missionaries spread as far and wide as they could, risking (and often suffering) death in the quest to convert the Germanic, Gothic, Celtic, Britannic, Slavic and many other ethnicities of pagan peoples in Europe. At the advent of monasticism in the 500s, developing from Eastern desert hermitage and heralded by the Rule of St. Benedict, communities developed purely to prayer, holiness, charity service and especially to study spread across Europe, carrying Roman culture and Catholic religion to every part of the continent.
As can be seen by the example of Rome, European cultures have a general tendency as regards religious conversion, peculiar to itself: regardless of the popularity of a religion with the people, the whole conversion of a society depended heavily on the conversion of its leader. Christianity had been popular for centuries before Constantine, but only when he converted and made it the official Roman religion did it truly flourish. This was even more so true for other peoples in Europe over the centuries. Almost without exception, the religious allegiance of a society depended inextricably on the religion of their chieftain, king, emperor, etc. Catholic missionaries used many different methods to convert Europe, especially "sanctifying" the native religions by showing their people its similarity to and fulfillment in Catholicism, exemplified by St. Patrick, but the crowning act of European Catholic Christendom was the conversion of Charlemagne and his coronation on Christmas 800 by Pope Leo III. As King of the Franks and the first Holy Roman Emperor, he heralded a massive spread of art, culture, religiosity, morality and the advent of feudalism during what scholars call the Carolingian Renaissance. Under his Catholic leadership, Europe quickly became Christendom, with citizens, who had been leaning towards Catholicism for some time or had been leaning between it and their native paganism, following their leaders who took Charlemagne's cue.
As the religion of the kings and nobility, the Church was voluntarily given important and powerful roles in national politics during the Middle Ages. Cardinals and bishops often acted as chancellors, royal advisors and many other positions, while monasteries were the center of medieval society, representing their hospitals, hostels, colleges, documenters, historians and preservers of language, literacy and academia, particularly the remnants of antiquity. Many popes began in monasteries, and anyone seriously interested in academic studies became a monk. Nuns were equally important, being the primary physicians and caretakers of society. Over time, Catholic clergy and monastic officials with important roles in government and society received heavy financial endorsement of many kinds, including both real coin and goods such as land, livestock or other products, in the form of regular religious tithes and extraneous tokens of appreciation. These gifts usually had one of two motivations: genuine religious obedience and gratitude, or for political position due to these officials' importance in society and government. Often, tithing a cardinal with close ties to the king meant receiving favor and benefits from the king in return. As always happens, as Church officials became wealthy and powerful, being treated as almost supernatural themselves by the people, abuses crept up and spread corruption. This corruption has been largely overestimated over time, largely due to the propaganda of Protestants and others which, as propaganda always does, exaggerated to persuade and emphasize. But it did exist.
One of the main events which carried the Middle Ages into the Renaissance was the Black Plague. Primarily occurring in the 1300s and cropping up sporadically afterwards, it wiped out between 30-60% of the European population, reducing entire regions to vacancy. In the Middle Ages, life was difficult, turbulent and volatile, particularly due to war or other social causes such as poverty or corruption, but the people put their hope and faith in the Catholic Church and in its theology of God, believing that whatever hardships they faced, even death, Heaven awaited the obedient faithful. This worldview created a continent-wide devotion and deep religiosity that formed the center of people's lives. As the Black Plague began, this hope was punctured. For centuries the Church and the national monarchs had delivered the people from invaders, social problems and sin; but now, life seemed doomed to destruction with no end in sight, no cure, no salvation. Desperate, many began using pagan practices such as witchcraft and other superstitions, or the little medicine they knew, trying anything in their power. Many Catholics died in charity to help those inflicted with the Plague, but this did little to relieve the doubt on people's minds.
In the Middle Ages, the minds of people were always turned towards Heaven, even as the sweat of daily toil and pain weighed them down continually. Weekly, or even daily, Mass was the chance to get a preview of Heaven, with the wonderful art, music, bells, smoke, Bible readings, inspiring homilies and, finally, the jewel of the Eucharist, the true Life of Christ before and subsequently within them. But the Plague tore away people's focus from the Heavenly to the earthly, from the spiritual things of God to the physical things of man and nature. The unrelenting environment of death and horrible pain made people doubt and largely reject the hope they had once placed in the Church and her God. In desperation, they began to believe that the only viable, practical and truly moral focus was man and his world, to use it for his benefit - that only we could save ourselves, through power over nature.
This new worldview led into the Renaissance, expressed in its religion, philosophy and culture. Replacing the medieval art which depicted saints, angels and Heavenly things with man and nature; replacing the salvation of Christ through His Church with the industrious power of science; stealing goodness and holiness from God and giving it to a vague concept of "humanity" bound within us by political and religious tyrannies; and replacing egalitarian feudal economy with the mercantile which would lead to capitalism, the Renaissance had begun, and so the modern world.
Because of the heavy, if sporadic, persecutions Christians faced in the Roman Empire, their ability to evangelize outside Rome was very limited. After the Empire was split into the Western Roman and Eastern Byzantine Empires, and particularly after the conquest of Rome by the Goths, Christianity was opened up to the world. Despite the majesty of Byzantium, it reserved much of its splendor and power to the east, leaving the Roman Catholic Church as the torch of civilization, morality and truth in the West. Without borders, Catholic missionaries spread as far and wide as they could, risking (and often suffering) death in the quest to convert the Germanic, Gothic, Celtic, Britannic, Slavic and many other ethnicities of pagan peoples in Europe. At the advent of monasticism in the 500s, developing from Eastern desert hermitage and heralded by the Rule of St. Benedict, communities developed purely to prayer, holiness, charity service and especially to study spread across Europe, carrying Roman culture and Catholic religion to every part of the continent.
As can be seen by the example of Rome, European cultures have a general tendency as regards religious conversion, peculiar to itself: regardless of the popularity of a religion with the people, the whole conversion of a society depended heavily on the conversion of its leader. Christianity had been popular for centuries before Constantine, but only when he converted and made it the official Roman religion did it truly flourish. This was even more so true for other peoples in Europe over the centuries. Almost without exception, the religious allegiance of a society depended inextricably on the religion of their chieftain, king, emperor, etc. Catholic missionaries used many different methods to convert Europe, especially "sanctifying" the native religions by showing their people its similarity to and fulfillment in Catholicism, exemplified by St. Patrick, but the crowning act of European Catholic Christendom was the conversion of Charlemagne and his coronation on Christmas 800 by Pope Leo III. As King of the Franks and the first Holy Roman Emperor, he heralded a massive spread of art, culture, religiosity, morality and the advent of feudalism during what scholars call the Carolingian Renaissance. Under his Catholic leadership, Europe quickly became Christendom, with citizens, who had been leaning towards Catholicism for some time or had been leaning between it and their native paganism, following their leaders who took Charlemagne's cue.
As the religion of the kings and nobility, the Church was voluntarily given important and powerful roles in national politics during the Middle Ages. Cardinals and bishops often acted as chancellors, royal advisors and many other positions, while monasteries were the center of medieval society, representing their hospitals, hostels, colleges, documenters, historians and preservers of language, literacy and academia, particularly the remnants of antiquity. Many popes began in monasteries, and anyone seriously interested in academic studies became a monk. Nuns were equally important, being the primary physicians and caretakers of society. Over time, Catholic clergy and monastic officials with important roles in government and society received heavy financial endorsement of many kinds, including both real coin and goods such as land, livestock or other products, in the form of regular religious tithes and extraneous tokens of appreciation. These gifts usually had one of two motivations: genuine religious obedience and gratitude, or for political position due to these officials' importance in society and government. Often, tithing a cardinal with close ties to the king meant receiving favor and benefits from the king in return. As always happens, as Church officials became wealthy and powerful, being treated as almost supernatural themselves by the people, abuses crept up and spread corruption. This corruption has been largely overestimated over time, largely due to the propaganda of Protestants and others which, as propaganda always does, exaggerated to persuade and emphasize. But it did exist.
One of the main events which carried the Middle Ages into the Renaissance was the Black Plague. Primarily occurring in the 1300s and cropping up sporadically afterwards, it wiped out between 30-60% of the European population, reducing entire regions to vacancy. In the Middle Ages, life was difficult, turbulent and volatile, particularly due to war or other social causes such as poverty or corruption, but the people put their hope and faith in the Catholic Church and in its theology of God, believing that whatever hardships they faced, even death, Heaven awaited the obedient faithful. This worldview created a continent-wide devotion and deep religiosity that formed the center of people's lives. As the Black Plague began, this hope was punctured. For centuries the Church and the national monarchs had delivered the people from invaders, social problems and sin; but now, life seemed doomed to destruction with no end in sight, no cure, no salvation. Desperate, many began using pagan practices such as witchcraft and other superstitions, or the little medicine they knew, trying anything in their power. Many Catholics died in charity to help those inflicted with the Plague, but this did little to relieve the doubt on people's minds.
In the Middle Ages, the minds of people were always turned towards Heaven, even as the sweat of daily toil and pain weighed them down continually. Weekly, or even daily, Mass was the chance to get a preview of Heaven, with the wonderful art, music, bells, smoke, Bible readings, inspiring homilies and, finally, the jewel of the Eucharist, the true Life of Christ before and subsequently within them. But the Plague tore away people's focus from the Heavenly to the earthly, from the spiritual things of God to the physical things of man and nature. The unrelenting environment of death and horrible pain made people doubt and largely reject the hope they had once placed in the Church and her God. In desperation, they began to believe that the only viable, practical and truly moral focus was man and his world, to use it for his benefit - that only we could save ourselves, through power over nature.
This new worldview led into the Renaissance, expressed in its religion, philosophy and culture. Replacing the medieval art which depicted saints, angels and Heavenly things with man and nature; replacing the salvation of Christ through His Church with the industrious power of science; stealing goodness and holiness from God and giving it to a vague concept of "humanity" bound within us by political and religious tyrannies; and replacing egalitarian feudal economy with the mercantile which would lead to capitalism, the Renaissance had begun, and so the modern world.
The Death of Hippocrates
Although it is not as much of a staple of the modern initiation of physicians as it was in the past, the Hippocratic Oath exemplifies the purpose of medicine. Central to this purpose is the upholding, preservation and health of life of all kinds. As Margaret Mead once said: "For the first time in our tradition there was a complete separation between killing and curing. Throughout the primitive world, the doctor and the sorcerer tended to be the same person. He with the power to kill had power to cure, including specially the undoing of his own killing activities. He who had the power to cure would necessarily also be able to kill... With the Greeks the distinction was made clear. One profession, the followers of Asclepius, were to be dedicated completely to life under all circumstances, regardless of rank, age or intellect – the life of a slave, the life of the Emperor, the life of a foreign man, the life of a defective child…" (quoted in a BBC online article about the Oath)
This is the most fundamental purpose of medicine. Yet, in modern times, it is used more as a tool for business, vanity and personal convenience, prioritized over life itself. Befitting the modern trend of individualism, the "iUniverse", where any means necessary are employed to customize life and bend it to one's personal pleasure and profit, the essential value of life is left behind, even from medicine. The taking of an unborn life by a medical physician is the deepest betrayal and taint upon medicine and care giving in general that a physician could perpetrate, aside the horror of a mother choosing to murder their own baby and go against the most fundamental instincts and responsibilities of motherhood. Abortion is done for only one reason; all the excuses pro-abortionists employ are simply thin veils to conceal this deepest attitude: for power. All other desires that go into abortion, such as convenience, emotional relief, avoiding social shame, financial concerns, etc., derive from this essential thirst for power, to rip the maturation of life from God's hands into their own, to triumph over the "chains" of nature which God "imposes" - to be gods themselves. Indeed, this is the mentality of abortion doctors and the mothers who use them, and it is the primary reason used by advocates of abortion such as Christopher Hitchens, Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood. "A woman's choice" is simply a gentler term for power, in the same way, as G.K. Chesterton said, "birth control" means less birth and no control.
Created in the image of God, the human person is the crown jewel of God's Creation. In order to fully adhere to the call to love and responsibility involved in this essential human dignity, and in reciprocation of God's love for us, human activities should always be oriented toward the betterment of mankind. Does this mean always giving people convenience, pleasure, power, ease and even always being nice? No. As any parent can attest, love is not always gentle or easy, but it is always the best thing for everyone - age does not revoke this fundamental truth of human life. Does this mean completely neglecting our pleasures, convenience, basic needs or the condition of the natural environment and its creatures? God forbid. They are all His creatures, stamped with His divine thumbprint, and this innate goodness can only be responded to with reverence, care and prudence in our use of it. But we should always prioritize in truth and love, with God as our highest concern, followed by humanity and afterwards all that which God Himself loves and cares for. By acting as stewards of Creation, we are tasked both with renewing nature to its just vision, without the stain of sin, and orienting it towards the simultaneous affirmation of God and the betterment of mankind. Abortion is the most horrid and tragic wound against this most essential Christian - and indeed human - concept, and the only true remedy is love.
"Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you." (Isaiah 49:14-15)
This is the most fundamental purpose of medicine. Yet, in modern times, it is used more as a tool for business, vanity and personal convenience, prioritized over life itself. Befitting the modern trend of individualism, the "iUniverse", where any means necessary are employed to customize life and bend it to one's personal pleasure and profit, the essential value of life is left behind, even from medicine. The taking of an unborn life by a medical physician is the deepest betrayal and taint upon medicine and care giving in general that a physician could perpetrate, aside the horror of a mother choosing to murder their own baby and go against the most fundamental instincts and responsibilities of motherhood. Abortion is done for only one reason; all the excuses pro-abortionists employ are simply thin veils to conceal this deepest attitude: for power. All other desires that go into abortion, such as convenience, emotional relief, avoiding social shame, financial concerns, etc., derive from this essential thirst for power, to rip the maturation of life from God's hands into their own, to triumph over the "chains" of nature which God "imposes" - to be gods themselves. Indeed, this is the mentality of abortion doctors and the mothers who use them, and it is the primary reason used by advocates of abortion such as Christopher Hitchens, Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood. "A woman's choice" is simply a gentler term for power, in the same way, as G.K. Chesterton said, "birth control" means less birth and no control.
Created in the image of God, the human person is the crown jewel of God's Creation. In order to fully adhere to the call to love and responsibility involved in this essential human dignity, and in reciprocation of God's love for us, human activities should always be oriented toward the betterment of mankind. Does this mean always giving people convenience, pleasure, power, ease and even always being nice? No. As any parent can attest, love is not always gentle or easy, but it is always the best thing for everyone - age does not revoke this fundamental truth of human life. Does this mean completely neglecting our pleasures, convenience, basic needs or the condition of the natural environment and its creatures? God forbid. They are all His creatures, stamped with His divine thumbprint, and this innate goodness can only be responded to with reverence, care and prudence in our use of it. But we should always prioritize in truth and love, with God as our highest concern, followed by humanity and afterwards all that which God Himself loves and cares for. By acting as stewards of Creation, we are tasked both with renewing nature to its just vision, without the stain of sin, and orienting it towards the simultaneous affirmation of God and the betterment of mankind. Abortion is the most horrid and tragic wound against this most essential Christian - and indeed human - concept, and the only true remedy is love.
"Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you." (Isaiah 49:14-15)
The Birth of Modernity 2
The advent of the Renaissance led to a steady rise in the relative safety of the general population throughout Europe. Mercantile brought exotic resources retrieved by explorers, such as silk, spices and tea, leading to an economic boon that essentially began the middle class, neither peasant nor nobility. This growing merchant economy and the rapid expansion of science and technology created more jobs, a wider variety of career paths, and an explosion of literacy across the continent after the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg around 1400. Customization was made available in the lives of the common people; rather than one outfit, the same material as all other peasants, one could have several, each based on one's personal preferences and style. The individual became the new center of society and life itself, fitting the world to himself.
Having already experienced the deep loss of faith and hope in feudal government and the Catholic Church, nobility was no longer enough in and of itself to possess leadership - politics became the new standard. Replacing the standard of hereditary birth with the combination of new wealth and political requirements, Renaissance leadership developed into a widespread European aristocracy. Castle-centered fiefdoms were slowly replaced with towns governed by politicians and businessmen. As firearm technology developed, expensive and well-trained knights were no longer needed, replaced by conscripted mass forces of commoners with little training or expense to the politicians. Although many remnants of the Middle Ages remained through the Renaissance, in the minds of the people, "medieval" died in the Plague.
With the decline of feudalism, countries once defined by their heritage and ruler became defined by the qualities valued by the common people - ethnicity, national identity, wealth, language, military power, etc. This was the beginning of the modern nation-state, the conception of countries as political entities, separated from other nations only by the general values of the people rather than objective and historical differentiation. Monarchs became merely symbols of the nation itself, not truly above or beyond it, and whenever a monarch attempted to possess ultimate power as they had often held in the Middle Ages, rebellion quickly followed. However, this did not stop them from attempting to gain as much power as possible, far surpassing the power of monarchs in the Middle Ages.
As described in Part One, the conversion of Europe to Catholicism was inextricably linked to its cultural reliance on the decision of its leaders. The philosophical advent of self-reliance, life customization and nationalism which developed in the Renaissance also influenced religion. While in the Middle Ages common people valued sacramental religion, heritage, and living the "heaven on earth" of Catholic Mass in every part of their lives with order and regularity, Renaissance commoners came to value physical health and security, mental pleasure and happiness, individual identity, power and expression, and a religious sentiment reminiscent of the ancient Jewish Sadducees popular in the time of Christ, viewing morality as a means of making this life easier and more pleasant. God and the afterlife became both more personal and distant in the minds of Renaissance people. Despite their emphasis on physical health, happiness and security, they believed God should be absolutely separate from the world, a Platonic spiritual divinity whose perfection lied precisely in His separation from this world and the activities of man which, people came to believe, were completely beneath God's concern. Our salvation, performed entirely by God, was simply done for His glory, and the pursuits of man ranged from meaningless to actual hindrances to the life of faith, only being relevant to our life here.
Equally, the general populace began associating the Catholic Church with the royalty they resented so much. With these changes in values, the wealth and power of the royalty was both despised and envied, being insurance of physical security and the power to attain happiness. As I have said, the Church was deeply involved with national government, especially to the royalty, and due to variously-motivated tithes over the centuries the Church had accumulated great wealth and political influence in Europe. Though the corruption this caused in the Church was greatly exaggerated, its existence was a popular focus of the general population, associated with their mutual distaste for royalty. The symbolic meaning of the Church's liturgical gold and the wealth freely given to it over time was transformed from a religious symbol to one of pomp and greed, with the corruption present in the Church's human members emphasized and highlighted over all else.
The Protestant Reformation was the culmination of these seeds of doubt that had existed since the Plague. Protestant theologians, though often different in their theology, uniformly professed a rejection of the Church, citing its wealth, splendor and holes of corruption as proof that it was not the same Church Christ founded. Already in the mind of the people, this movement became very popular, even in its different forms. Allowed to place nation over church, to localize parishes into distinct churches themselves, to customize one's beliefs and morality based on personal preference and opinion, and replacing the pope with kings, Protestantism was widely accepted. Catholicism came to represent an antiquated ornamentation, making it completely inaccessible and irrelevant to the common people and accordingly unfair, unjust and immoral. In popular middle class culture, going against the traditions and morals of the Church was a personal sign of maturity and independence, feeling that their actions were justified by the unfairness and corruption they perceived in the Church - thus were clerical celibacy, religious authority, iconography and many other Church teachings rejected increasingly over time.
The vast growth of wealth, political power and religious diversity in the Renaissance led to many subsequent historical developments. The revival of superstition and magic in the Black Plague period led to the witch-hunts of the 16th century, the popularity of alchemy which stunted the growth in academic chemistry pursued during the Middle Ages, and the eventual trend of favoring ancient paganism to Christianity exemplified by modern Wicca and neo-paganism. While opposing aristocratic wealth and Church authority was intended by the general populace to decrease their power and corruption, removing the authoritative conscience and charitable service the Church provided gave permission for national leaders to pursue power to the furthest extent they could. Unfortunately, even many in the Church, including popes and cardinals, gave in to this temptation, becoming corrupt and providing a negative example which partially inspired the Protestant movement.
While many negative developments occurred because of the Black Plague and Renaissance, many good things also came about, both in the Catholic Church and secular society. Opposing the Reformation gave unity of doctrine and purpose to the Church, purified its conscience, illuminated its theology, and encouraged acts of charity and self-sacrifice that has been a beacon of inspiration ever since, most exemplified by the English martyrs who were murdered by the English government after King Henry VIII's creation of Anglicanism. Although the Church had been studying, preserving and promulgating Greek and Roman knowledge for a millennium by the time of the Renaissance, focusing on it once again reminded Catholics of their Roman character, especially the Church Fathers and the ideal of civilization. Art, science and democracy flourished, largely from Catholic funding and the innovation of groups such as the Jesuits, and the general tyranny of feudalism was somewhat mitigated. However, it has had negative consequences which have led to terrors, genocides, mass irreligion and immorality ever since, and the ideas that inspired these events cannot be forgotten - even their subliminal traces in ourselves.
In truth, it was not primarily what the Renaissance added to European culture, but what had been left behind in the wake of the Plague, the abandoned legacy of the Middle Ages. This created a hole in the spirit of Europe that many have tried to fill with alternative religions, philosophies that proclaim science, politics or economics as the savior of mankind, and simply an indifferent agnosticism that prefers to let the world unfold around them with comfortable neutrality. None have succeeded, and as long as Europe and all its Western-influenced progeny across the globe continue in futility to replace the universal faith, hope and charity of the Catholic Church, the horrors of the 20th century - even that perpetrated in the privacy of a doctor's office - will continue.
Having already experienced the deep loss of faith and hope in feudal government and the Catholic Church, nobility was no longer enough in and of itself to possess leadership - politics became the new standard. Replacing the standard of hereditary birth with the combination of new wealth and political requirements, Renaissance leadership developed into a widespread European aristocracy. Castle-centered fiefdoms were slowly replaced with towns governed by politicians and businessmen. As firearm technology developed, expensive and well-trained knights were no longer needed, replaced by conscripted mass forces of commoners with little training or expense to the politicians. Although many remnants of the Middle Ages remained through the Renaissance, in the minds of the people, "medieval" died in the Plague.
With the decline of feudalism, countries once defined by their heritage and ruler became defined by the qualities valued by the common people - ethnicity, national identity, wealth, language, military power, etc. This was the beginning of the modern nation-state, the conception of countries as political entities, separated from other nations only by the general values of the people rather than objective and historical differentiation. Monarchs became merely symbols of the nation itself, not truly above or beyond it, and whenever a monarch attempted to possess ultimate power as they had often held in the Middle Ages, rebellion quickly followed. However, this did not stop them from attempting to gain as much power as possible, far surpassing the power of monarchs in the Middle Ages.
As described in Part One, the conversion of Europe to Catholicism was inextricably linked to its cultural reliance on the decision of its leaders. The philosophical advent of self-reliance, life customization and nationalism which developed in the Renaissance also influenced religion. While in the Middle Ages common people valued sacramental religion, heritage, and living the "heaven on earth" of Catholic Mass in every part of their lives with order and regularity, Renaissance commoners came to value physical health and security, mental pleasure and happiness, individual identity, power and expression, and a religious sentiment reminiscent of the ancient Jewish Sadducees popular in the time of Christ, viewing morality as a means of making this life easier and more pleasant. God and the afterlife became both more personal and distant in the minds of Renaissance people. Despite their emphasis on physical health, happiness and security, they believed God should be absolutely separate from the world, a Platonic spiritual divinity whose perfection lied precisely in His separation from this world and the activities of man which, people came to believe, were completely beneath God's concern. Our salvation, performed entirely by God, was simply done for His glory, and the pursuits of man ranged from meaningless to actual hindrances to the life of faith, only being relevant to our life here.
Equally, the general populace began associating the Catholic Church with the royalty they resented so much. With these changes in values, the wealth and power of the royalty was both despised and envied, being insurance of physical security and the power to attain happiness. As I have said, the Church was deeply involved with national government, especially to the royalty, and due to variously-motivated tithes over the centuries the Church had accumulated great wealth and political influence in Europe. Though the corruption this caused in the Church was greatly exaggerated, its existence was a popular focus of the general population, associated with their mutual distaste for royalty. The symbolic meaning of the Church's liturgical gold and the wealth freely given to it over time was transformed from a religious symbol to one of pomp and greed, with the corruption present in the Church's human members emphasized and highlighted over all else.
The Protestant Reformation was the culmination of these seeds of doubt that had existed since the Plague. Protestant theologians, though often different in their theology, uniformly professed a rejection of the Church, citing its wealth, splendor and holes of corruption as proof that it was not the same Church Christ founded. Already in the mind of the people, this movement became very popular, even in its different forms. Allowed to place nation over church, to localize parishes into distinct churches themselves, to customize one's beliefs and morality based on personal preference and opinion, and replacing the pope with kings, Protestantism was widely accepted. Catholicism came to represent an antiquated ornamentation, making it completely inaccessible and irrelevant to the common people and accordingly unfair, unjust and immoral. In popular middle class culture, going against the traditions and morals of the Church was a personal sign of maturity and independence, feeling that their actions were justified by the unfairness and corruption they perceived in the Church - thus were clerical celibacy, religious authority, iconography and many other Church teachings rejected increasingly over time.
The vast growth of wealth, political power and religious diversity in the Renaissance led to many subsequent historical developments. The revival of superstition and magic in the Black Plague period led to the witch-hunts of the 16th century, the popularity of alchemy which stunted the growth in academic chemistry pursued during the Middle Ages, and the eventual trend of favoring ancient paganism to Christianity exemplified by modern Wicca and neo-paganism. While opposing aristocratic wealth and Church authority was intended by the general populace to decrease their power and corruption, removing the authoritative conscience and charitable service the Church provided gave permission for national leaders to pursue power to the furthest extent they could. Unfortunately, even many in the Church, including popes and cardinals, gave in to this temptation, becoming corrupt and providing a negative example which partially inspired the Protestant movement.
While many negative developments occurred because of the Black Plague and Renaissance, many good things also came about, both in the Catholic Church and secular society. Opposing the Reformation gave unity of doctrine and purpose to the Church, purified its conscience, illuminated its theology, and encouraged acts of charity and self-sacrifice that has been a beacon of inspiration ever since, most exemplified by the English martyrs who were murdered by the English government after King Henry VIII's creation of Anglicanism. Although the Church had been studying, preserving and promulgating Greek and Roman knowledge for a millennium by the time of the Renaissance, focusing on it once again reminded Catholics of their Roman character, especially the Church Fathers and the ideal of civilization. Art, science and democracy flourished, largely from Catholic funding and the innovation of groups such as the Jesuits, and the general tyranny of feudalism was somewhat mitigated. However, it has had negative consequences which have led to terrors, genocides, mass irreligion and immorality ever since, and the ideas that inspired these events cannot be forgotten - even their subliminal traces in ourselves.
In truth, it was not primarily what the Renaissance added to European culture, but what had been left behind in the wake of the Plague, the abandoned legacy of the Middle Ages. This created a hole in the spirit of Europe that many have tried to fill with alternative religions, philosophies that proclaim science, politics or economics as the savior of mankind, and simply an indifferent agnosticism that prefers to let the world unfold around them with comfortable neutrality. None have succeeded, and as long as Europe and all its Western-influenced progeny across the globe continue in futility to replace the universal faith, hope and charity of the Catholic Church, the horrors of the 20th century - even that perpetrated in the privacy of a doctor's office - will continue.
True Pro-Choice
In the debates about the morality of abortion, there are usually two self-titled "sides": pro-choice and pro-life. I believe these are, for the most part, misnomers, but also signifying something deeper about each side of the argument and the constituent belief systems supporting them.
Christianity is the primary proponent of pro-life, particularly the Catholic Church, one of the few groups in the world that is opposed to abortion in absolutely all circumstances. The Church's stance on abortion is merely an extension of its fundamental affirmation of life itself, exemplified morally by its stance on birth control, homosexuality, premarital sex, murder, etc. Pro-life for Catholicism is not simply a political movement - it is the expression of a fundamental and necessary worldview within the Church and her Tradition, upholding the inherent value of Creation apart from suffering and sin, and upholding objective morality apart from justification by pain, convenience or perceived "fairness". No difficulty, "cause" or excuse can justify sin.
Most adherents of the pro-choice movement use that term to signify that espoused view that abortion is morally permissible (or at least justified) because the mother has the right to choose for herself with "her own body", as they often say. This is an extension and mirror of the Supreme Court's decision to legalize abortion, itself founded on the argument of the mother's privacy. But in truth, the term pro-choice evidences an attribute of abortion itself.
In reality, the relationship between a mother and her unborn baby is a "pro-choice" arrangement. As a bond between a guardian and a dependant, with the dependant entirely relying on the guardian for life, health and wellness, the mother has the option and power to sever that bond. This applies to all guardian-dependant relationships, exemplified by other actions such as adoption, where the parents completely break their role as provider of the helpless child. But abortion being a pro-choice situation does not give equal validity to both choices of whether to provide for and sustain the dependant unborn baby, or break that connection. Like all situations involving human free will, abortion is pro-choice - but as in all other situations, one choice is wrong, and the other is right.
Having an individual be fully dependant on another person calls that person to love, responsibility, suffering and self-sacrifice for their wellbeing. Even more than in any other kind of relationship, this dependant bond brings to the forefront the centrality of interpersonal, communal responsibility, being "my brother's keeper", even when it inconveniences and even hurts us. The bond of mother and child is the highest expression of this.
If a pregnancy results from a sinful act, such as rape or incest; if it endangers the health or life of mother or baby; if it could involve future suffering of the mother from emotional, financial or social problems, or suffering for a deformed, retarded or unplanned-for baby - nothing can remove the inherent dignity and inalienable value of human life. We can be confused - very easily, in fact. Our culpability can be lessened. But abortion is wrong, and as St. Paul said, we are "without excuse" (Romans 2:1). The law of God is written in our hearts - all have a conscience. How can we not know that murdering an unborn child is wrong?
Or, perhaps a better question would be: how can anything make that murder permissible? The cure for pain, sin and evil is love - we must fight evil with good, not evil. Murder will not remove the taint of rape or incest, poverty or deformity, and there will never be a time when a parent feels absolutely, certainly comfortable with their situation to have a baby. Different excuses have been employed throughout history by to either avoid having children or to terminate those children after conception. But they are just that - excuses. Making abortion illegal is important, yes. But legality does not force abortion - it is chosen from the heart. Only a changed heart can change the world.
Christianity is the primary proponent of pro-life, particularly the Catholic Church, one of the few groups in the world that is opposed to abortion in absolutely all circumstances. The Church's stance on abortion is merely an extension of its fundamental affirmation of life itself, exemplified morally by its stance on birth control, homosexuality, premarital sex, murder, etc. Pro-life for Catholicism is not simply a political movement - it is the expression of a fundamental and necessary worldview within the Church and her Tradition, upholding the inherent value of Creation apart from suffering and sin, and upholding objective morality apart from justification by pain, convenience or perceived "fairness". No difficulty, "cause" or excuse can justify sin.
Most adherents of the pro-choice movement use that term to signify that espoused view that abortion is morally permissible (or at least justified) because the mother has the right to choose for herself with "her own body", as they often say. This is an extension and mirror of the Supreme Court's decision to legalize abortion, itself founded on the argument of the mother's privacy. But in truth, the term pro-choice evidences an attribute of abortion itself.
In reality, the relationship between a mother and her unborn baby is a "pro-choice" arrangement. As a bond between a guardian and a dependant, with the dependant entirely relying on the guardian for life, health and wellness, the mother has the option and power to sever that bond. This applies to all guardian-dependant relationships, exemplified by other actions such as adoption, where the parents completely break their role as provider of the helpless child. But abortion being a pro-choice situation does not give equal validity to both choices of whether to provide for and sustain the dependant unborn baby, or break that connection. Like all situations involving human free will, abortion is pro-choice - but as in all other situations, one choice is wrong, and the other is right.
Having an individual be fully dependant on another person calls that person to love, responsibility, suffering and self-sacrifice for their wellbeing. Even more than in any other kind of relationship, this dependant bond brings to the forefront the centrality of interpersonal, communal responsibility, being "my brother's keeper", even when it inconveniences and even hurts us. The bond of mother and child is the highest expression of this.
If a pregnancy results from a sinful act, such as rape or incest; if it endangers the health or life of mother or baby; if it could involve future suffering of the mother from emotional, financial or social problems, or suffering for a deformed, retarded or unplanned-for baby - nothing can remove the inherent dignity and inalienable value of human life. We can be confused - very easily, in fact. Our culpability can be lessened. But abortion is wrong, and as St. Paul said, we are "without excuse" (Romans 2:1). The law of God is written in our hearts - all have a conscience. How can we not know that murdering an unborn child is wrong?
Or, perhaps a better question would be: how can anything make that murder permissible? The cure for pain, sin and evil is love - we must fight evil with good, not evil. Murder will not remove the taint of rape or incest, poverty or deformity, and there will never be a time when a parent feels absolutely, certainly comfortable with their situation to have a baby. Different excuses have been employed throughout history by to either avoid having children or to terminate those children after conception. But they are just that - excuses. Making abortion illegal is important, yes. But legality does not force abortion - it is chosen from the heart. Only a changed heart can change the world.
Is It Worth It?
There are many enjoyable things in this life, innumerable gifts of God's infinite Love for us, His beloved children. We have sports and games, romance and sex, artistic and creative pursuits, academia, friendship, beauty, and so many other wonderful things. And, above all, we are given the eternal joy of knowing and loving our Creator, to understand our purpose on this earth within the context of our mere existence. Only by God's creative and generous love do we have life, and have it to the fullest.
But happiness and joyful things are not the only aspects of life. There is also sin, within ourselves and the world. While there is much good, including the inherent goodness implicit in God's creative act, the world is not entirely as God desires it, "missing the mark" or sinning against God's Will. By this confusion of purpose and context, meaning in life is lost, and all is given up to chaos, power and debauchery.
When we deviate from the fundamental purpose and context of our existence as God's creations by sinning, betraying His love and trust, our souls become tainted. By abandoning God by sinning, we kill our souls, losing a little piece of the heavenly life that only God can give. In His mercy, God has given us many avenues to cleanse and heal these spiritual wounds and to regain the living waters of His grace. He has many covenants with us and each time has fulfilled His promises, culminating in the redemptive life of Christ and the foundation of the Church of His Body. Through the sacraments He instituted and the Traditions of the Church sealed by the Holy Spirit, we can partake of this grace and renew our covenant with God through Christ, the covenant we break each time we sin.
This Ash Wednesday began the Catholic season of Lent, the time of spiritual preparation for the renewal of Easter and commemorating the many trials of Christ's live, particularly that of His 40 days of testing in the desert and His Crucifixion. Lent is a time of fasting and abstinence, more frequent Church attendance and the obligation to penance, self-cleansing and reconciliation. While for many this is a curse rather than a gift from God, in truth it is the greatest opportunity of the liturgical year, the time when we have the chance to take part in the deepest mysteries of God, to truly live the life of Heaven, cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, clothed in white linen of the pure heart and satisfied by the rivers of Living Water which satiates all longing. This is the reality of Heaven portrayed in the Book of Revelation, in which we take part at every Mass, the highest vision of the mind of God. But at no time can we partake of this mystery more deeply than Lent.
For most, it seems, life is a series of gift and curse in this way, "bad luck" or "good luck", the roll of the cosmic dice as to which feeling we will feel next. We live for those moments of pleasure, and endure the difficulties only to get back around to the pleasure which we are confident will come again until that final day when all we see drains away into an infinity of accursed darkness. This is a life without faith, particularly Catholic faith. Christ did not simply die for our sins - He suffered horribly, in all ways, bearing the sin of all mankind in His body, mind and spirit. He felt all the pain, confusion, guilt and death all have felt throughout history, all on His shoulders in that one day. He did not simply die - He was murdered, by all of us.
Being a Christian means living this life of Christ, taking up our cross and embracing it as our salvation, thanking God for the fire of suffering that burns away our sins and like the phoenix lets us rise to new, eternal life in Him. Lent reminds us of this most central Christian concept, that of redemptive suffering and the heavenly mystery of salvation.
Indeed, Ash Wednesday is an even more specific reminder. Feeling as if we're being carried through life, bounced back and forth between various pleasures and pain, we strive only for the pleasures and tend to avoid all that might cause us pain, even if it is for the best. Even though we are supposed to unlearn this as children, most only learn how to endure pain - not suffer it. Without suffering, pain is allowed to twist the mind into a bitter, cynical husk waiting only for the next pleasurable distraction. In this cyclic confusion, this delusional fantasy of godless hedonism where even religion is often used as just another pleasure or painful duty to get over with, we often lose sight of God's Providence.
It is so easy to forget the fact that God is the source and cause of our very existence, all the gifts we have and the tests we must go through. He is our very purpose for existing, to know, love and serve Him with all we are. But we are not immortal. As Ash Wednesday reminds us, we are only "ashes", and will return to ashes - dust to dust. Our time in this world is a gift of God, but it is not eternal; living in the world of sin, we must die, and when we will die is known only to God. We constantly say, "oh, I'll pray tomorrow", or, "oh, I'll give up smoking tomorrow," or, "who needs obligatory Church to worship God?" Well, there just may be no tomorrow - or even a tonight. Or we may live a hundred years - only God can know. But a relationship with God is not therapy; it is not Him giving us pleasures and uplifting sermons and music to make us feel good for a bit, like going to a spa. No - a relationship with God is that of a child, a sibling, a royal servant, and a priest.
God's gifts are not bad - God forbid that they should be perverted into something negative. But by fasting, by offering up ourselves and our valued things to God, we affirm that He alone is Sovereign, the center of our lives and, as the ashes on our foreheads remind, He should be our highest priority. Sure, we can shun God and His Church, avoid self-sacrifice, obligations and difficulties for the sake of momentary pleasures. But is it worth it, "(f)or what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Matthew 16:26)
But happiness and joyful things are not the only aspects of life. There is also sin, within ourselves and the world. While there is much good, including the inherent goodness implicit in God's creative act, the world is not entirely as God desires it, "missing the mark" or sinning against God's Will. By this confusion of purpose and context, meaning in life is lost, and all is given up to chaos, power and debauchery.
When we deviate from the fundamental purpose and context of our existence as God's creations by sinning, betraying His love and trust, our souls become tainted. By abandoning God by sinning, we kill our souls, losing a little piece of the heavenly life that only God can give. In His mercy, God has given us many avenues to cleanse and heal these spiritual wounds and to regain the living waters of His grace. He has many covenants with us and each time has fulfilled His promises, culminating in the redemptive life of Christ and the foundation of the Church of His Body. Through the sacraments He instituted and the Traditions of the Church sealed by the Holy Spirit, we can partake of this grace and renew our covenant with God through Christ, the covenant we break each time we sin.
This Ash Wednesday began the Catholic season of Lent, the time of spiritual preparation for the renewal of Easter and commemorating the many trials of Christ's live, particularly that of His 40 days of testing in the desert and His Crucifixion. Lent is a time of fasting and abstinence, more frequent Church attendance and the obligation to penance, self-cleansing and reconciliation. While for many this is a curse rather than a gift from God, in truth it is the greatest opportunity of the liturgical year, the time when we have the chance to take part in the deepest mysteries of God, to truly live the life of Heaven, cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, clothed in white linen of the pure heart and satisfied by the rivers of Living Water which satiates all longing. This is the reality of Heaven portrayed in the Book of Revelation, in which we take part at every Mass, the highest vision of the mind of God. But at no time can we partake of this mystery more deeply than Lent.
For most, it seems, life is a series of gift and curse in this way, "bad luck" or "good luck", the roll of the cosmic dice as to which feeling we will feel next. We live for those moments of pleasure, and endure the difficulties only to get back around to the pleasure which we are confident will come again until that final day when all we see drains away into an infinity of accursed darkness. This is a life without faith, particularly Catholic faith. Christ did not simply die for our sins - He suffered horribly, in all ways, bearing the sin of all mankind in His body, mind and spirit. He felt all the pain, confusion, guilt and death all have felt throughout history, all on His shoulders in that one day. He did not simply die - He was murdered, by all of us.
Being a Christian means living this life of Christ, taking up our cross and embracing it as our salvation, thanking God for the fire of suffering that burns away our sins and like the phoenix lets us rise to new, eternal life in Him. Lent reminds us of this most central Christian concept, that of redemptive suffering and the heavenly mystery of salvation.
Indeed, Ash Wednesday is an even more specific reminder. Feeling as if we're being carried through life, bounced back and forth between various pleasures and pain, we strive only for the pleasures and tend to avoid all that might cause us pain, even if it is for the best. Even though we are supposed to unlearn this as children, most only learn how to endure pain - not suffer it. Without suffering, pain is allowed to twist the mind into a bitter, cynical husk waiting only for the next pleasurable distraction. In this cyclic confusion, this delusional fantasy of godless hedonism where even religion is often used as just another pleasure or painful duty to get over with, we often lose sight of God's Providence.
It is so easy to forget the fact that God is the source and cause of our very existence, all the gifts we have and the tests we must go through. He is our very purpose for existing, to know, love and serve Him with all we are. But we are not immortal. As Ash Wednesday reminds us, we are only "ashes", and will return to ashes - dust to dust. Our time in this world is a gift of God, but it is not eternal; living in the world of sin, we must die, and when we will die is known only to God. We constantly say, "oh, I'll pray tomorrow", or, "oh, I'll give up smoking tomorrow," or, "who needs obligatory Church to worship God?" Well, there just may be no tomorrow - or even a tonight. Or we may live a hundred years - only God can know. But a relationship with God is not therapy; it is not Him giving us pleasures and uplifting sermons and music to make us feel good for a bit, like going to a spa. No - a relationship with God is that of a child, a sibling, a royal servant, and a priest.
God's gifts are not bad - God forbid that they should be perverted into something negative. But by fasting, by offering up ourselves and our valued things to God, we affirm that He alone is Sovereign, the center of our lives and, as the ashes on our foreheads remind, He should be our highest priority. Sure, we can shun God and His Church, avoid self-sacrifice, obligations and difficulties for the sake of momentary pleasures. But is it worth it, "(f)or what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Matthew 16:26)
Bare Bones: A Parable
John, a mechanic, was refitting a custom car for one of his most high-paying customers. His friend and fellow employee, Tim, had already finished his work for the day and was watching him work. The customer wanted the most comfortable fittings available, but wanting to pay as little as possible. Retaining only the bare essentials of the original model - an old beat-up 70's sports car handed down by the customer's father - John planned to make it the best job he had ever done.
"So what're you going to do about these?" Tim asked, one hand grasping a soda bottle and the other pointing at the dirty, ripped seats inside the car.
John rubbed his chin thoughtfully, mulling over his available options. "Let's see..."
Awhile later, the old seats were replaced with comfortable black leather seating. "What do you think?" John asked.
"Hm..." Tim mused, taking a drink of his soda. "It looks nice, keep going."
Grinning at his friend, John moved on to the electronics. He put in the most cooling air conditioner, the warmest, gentlest heater, the most clear audio system, a CD player with wi-fi access, and GPS. Everything worked perfectly.
Next, he installed a powerful but efficient, quiet motor, clean hybrid fuel system and a refurbished version of the original sports car exterior, with new windows, windshield, head and rear lights, and a rear windshield wiper. Finally finished, John tried it out - everything ran perfectly, and he felt incredibly comfortable with all the car's ammenities.
"Wow man, this thing looks great," Tim said, inspecting John's work. "Very nice job."
John smiled proudly, standing back to survey his product. "Thanks. I really enjoyed doing it. You always feel satisfied when you give a customer what they want, y'know?"
Tim grinned. "Yep, I do." He paused a moment, furrowing his brow, then turned to his friend. "But, there is one problem."
John felt his heart sink and he frowned, turning to Tim. "Be gentle."
"How much does all this cost?"
John froze, then turned to gaze at the car. Closing his eyes, he ran a hand over his face and sighed heavily. "I didn't even think about the guy's budget. I just wasted a ton of resources and my entire day. I don't even know who'll be more angry, the boss or the customer."
Tim patted his friend on the back reassuringly. "Let me help you out alright? I can make this car just as comfortable, but well within the guy's budget before you even get off work."
"I couldn't ask you to do that man, you've already done a whole day's work."
Tim smiled. "Don't worry about it. Buy me dinner sometime," he said with a grin.
John returned his grin and laughed with obvious relief. "I will, don't worry. A steak as big as your head."
"Don't be insulting me now."
Sharing a laugh, John went back into the break room while Tim worked. He could hear all the myriad tools he had employed only moments before, and, if he heard correctly, a couple more. Drinking a soda, he tried to calm down from his moment of terror, hoping his friend could pull through.
About an hour later, Tim bent into the break room, grinning with satisfaction and John instantly shared it. "Come on out buddy, it's done."
John jumped out, sitting his drink down as he followed Tim back to the work area. There sat all of the fixtures he had added before, all the electronics, padded leather seating, high-quality engine - with no chassis, wheels, tires, and all other essentials completely missing.
He blinked. "Uh, what happened? Did you get robbed halfway through or something?"
Tim smirked. "Nope. These are all the comforts, for a fraction of the price. Just what the customer wanted, right?"
"I guess you're right."
"So what're you going to do about these?" Tim asked, one hand grasping a soda bottle and the other pointing at the dirty, ripped seats inside the car.
John rubbed his chin thoughtfully, mulling over his available options. "Let's see..."
Awhile later, the old seats were replaced with comfortable black leather seating. "What do you think?" John asked.
"Hm..." Tim mused, taking a drink of his soda. "It looks nice, keep going."
Grinning at his friend, John moved on to the electronics. He put in the most cooling air conditioner, the warmest, gentlest heater, the most clear audio system, a CD player with wi-fi access, and GPS. Everything worked perfectly.
Next, he installed a powerful but efficient, quiet motor, clean hybrid fuel system and a refurbished version of the original sports car exterior, with new windows, windshield, head and rear lights, and a rear windshield wiper. Finally finished, John tried it out - everything ran perfectly, and he felt incredibly comfortable with all the car's ammenities.
"Wow man, this thing looks great," Tim said, inspecting John's work. "Very nice job."
John smiled proudly, standing back to survey his product. "Thanks. I really enjoyed doing it. You always feel satisfied when you give a customer what they want, y'know?"
Tim grinned. "Yep, I do." He paused a moment, furrowing his brow, then turned to his friend. "But, there is one problem."
John felt his heart sink and he frowned, turning to Tim. "Be gentle."
"How much does all this cost?"
John froze, then turned to gaze at the car. Closing his eyes, he ran a hand over his face and sighed heavily. "I didn't even think about the guy's budget. I just wasted a ton of resources and my entire day. I don't even know who'll be more angry, the boss or the customer."
Tim patted his friend on the back reassuringly. "Let me help you out alright? I can make this car just as comfortable, but well within the guy's budget before you even get off work."
"I couldn't ask you to do that man, you've already done a whole day's work."
Tim smiled. "Don't worry about it. Buy me dinner sometime," he said with a grin.
John returned his grin and laughed with obvious relief. "I will, don't worry. A steak as big as your head."
"Don't be insulting me now."
Sharing a laugh, John went back into the break room while Tim worked. He could hear all the myriad tools he had employed only moments before, and, if he heard correctly, a couple more. Drinking a soda, he tried to calm down from his moment of terror, hoping his friend could pull through.
About an hour later, Tim bent into the break room, grinning with satisfaction and John instantly shared it. "Come on out buddy, it's done."
John jumped out, sitting his drink down as he followed Tim back to the work area. There sat all of the fixtures he had added before, all the electronics, padded leather seating, high-quality engine - with no chassis, wheels, tires, and all other essentials completely missing.
He blinked. "Uh, what happened? Did you get robbed halfway through or something?"
Tim smirked. "Nope. These are all the comforts, for a fraction of the price. Just what the customer wanted, right?"
"I guess you're right."
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