ANYTHING GOES?
There is a new film being shown which apparently is very graphic in its depiction of violence and sex, which is a trend in many modern movies. The film is called “The Antichrist” (but there is nothing vaguely biblical about it) and the writer-producer is a man called Lars Van Trier. The producer was interviewed on the radio and asked why the film needed to be so graphic and gory. His reply was illuminating, shocking and sad all at the same time. He said, “Anything that can be thought can be shown”. By that he meant whatever anyone can think ought to be portrayed in a film. Realism now goes beyond actions to what is in the mind and heart of men.
This is not an isolated view of one rogue film producer; it is an expression of a pervading view of life that there really are no moral restraints or conventions, and that personal values are the ruling issue. Of course, there are still some legal restraints on so called artistic expression, and there are some subjects that are approached with a slight eye to public opinion. But in general the ascendancy of personal values and choices knows no challenge or questioning.
Lars Van Trier is making a totally non-moral assertion and in so doing is showing the absence of any substantive moral perspective within our society. The idea of right and wrong is simply seen as a social construct put there either to limit personal freedom or to try to establish some irrational sense of public consensus. So such a limiting concept must not only be defied but defied in as outrageous and forceful way as possible.
It is quite ironic that at the very time that personal freedoms are being limited either for the sake of public safety (i.e. to limit the terrorist threat) or to safeguard supposed vulnerable communities in society (i.e. in terms of race, religion or sexual orientation), there is an increasing tolerance of non-moral artistic expression. There are, of course, arguments for and against the limits on personal freedoms which I am not addressing here. It is surely a display of the very confused and disconnected thinking of our day. It is clear there is no one overarching principle, or what some would call narrative, that joins up the thinking of our present culture. And these inconsistencies show that. But that is no surprise to anyone who observes what is being said and done in our society. The tragedy is that this disconnected thinking has awesome impact upon our society. The problems of binge drinking and violence within our society cannot be divorced from the libertarian approach to the arts and entertainment. If what you think can be shown then it cannot be long before what you think is what you actually do. Why should it be considered wrong to get rolling drunk? It’s what people want to do and there is a right to do what you want. So at a totally different level there is a growing debate about the legitimacy of some forms of paedophilia in some intellectual quarters and apparently a new film will come out soon which features a so called daring expression of that debate. And other even more distressing things are being toyed with and introduced by the subtle misuse of artistic freedom. Of course, it is usually the young who suffer when restraints are removed and that is what we are seeing.
But if we look even deeper, the absence of a unifying concept, or narrative, leads to emotional and spiritual confusion. And again the evidence for this is all around us. A recent report commented on the loss of social cohesion and the increasing fragmentation of society at a time when more unity and working together is most needed. Even our politicians go in opposite directions. Labour and the Conservatives are desperately anxious to be seen as the parties of the family, and at the same time they work as hard as they can to be the most ‘gay friendly’ party and promote relational values which are destructive to the family. Intellectual, moral, spiritual and emotional confusion abound. There is just not enough space to spell it all out.
But is there an alternative? Of course there is! There is a single uniting and overarching narrative that brings cohesion to thinking and speaks to every single issue of life that can be faced. It is the narrative of God and His love as shown in the Bible. It is the narrative about Jesus Christ and His great actions on behalf of poor benighted humanity. It is the narrative of creation, fall, redemption and restoration as told in the Bible and experienced joyously by true Christians. In a world where some would say ‘anything goes’, there is the far more satisfying narrative of perfect freedom in union with Jesus Christ. That is the need of our society and nothing less than that!