Pride

I am proud.  Made evident by the fact that I am unwilling to admit that I am a fan of Star Trek. (I would rather that people think me studious and erudite, eschewing the vulgarities of popular culture). But the bald facts are that I have seen every episode of all the series (except Deep Space 9, which tried even my fanatic devotion), and certainly all the movies at least once.

Science fiction is interesting because it is deeply philosophical.  Worldviews are very evident in this genre, more so than in, say historical fiction.  In all the series, but particularly in The Next Generation, there is an evident philosophical conviction that with time and progress we will build the perfect world - where there is no disease, or war or need for money.  This has, of course, been accomplished on earth by humans.  The conflict that make the show worth watching arises from encountering other-worldly species who have not yet reached this level of enlightenment.  Not to point out inconsistency, but for all his talk of peace and harmony, Jean-Luc Picard gives the command to arm the photon torpedoes fairly frequently.  But I digress.

This widely-held notion, in Star Trek and in us and our neighbors, is what the ancient Greeks would call hubris, a manifestation of pride.  It is the basic conviction that we can do it (whatever the it is) ourselves.  Man can build utopia.  Dorothy Sayers puts it this way:

"It [pride] is the sin of trying to be as God.  It is the sin which proclaims that Man can produce out of his own wits and his own impulses and his own imagination the standards by which he lives: that Man is fitted to be his own judge."*

Pride is the first sin and the very thing that the serpent tempted Eve with.

For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

That knowing of good and evil can and has been understood as judging for ourselves what is good and evil.

The conviction that we can build the Utopia or Heaven on earth, the Brave New World, as Aldous Huxley called it, is simply pride.  Huxley saw that the "progress" brought not Utopia but Distopia.  Both Hitler and Stalin were trying to build a Utopia by encouraging or coercing people to progress.  Great damage is done by this manifestation of pride.

But I am no Hitler or Stalin, I think.  For this I am grateful.  I have much less opportunity to harm.  But I am still trying to build my own Utopia in some way.  If only we could educate more, or inoculate more or recycle more we can save _________ (fill in the blank). If only I can try harder, think better, or read more, I can overcome my addiction, or make my family happy or get out of debt.

"So, who is this guy anyway?" you might be asking, "Some kind of Luddite that hates progress and good things?" Perhaps, but I don't think so.  I love education, the advances we have made in medicine and science.  I am thankful for indoor plumbing and, most days, for my cell phone.  I think that frugal use and reuse of materials we have (a definition of recycling) is virtuous. This is not a call to complacency and sloth - a different problem and sin. Pursuing improvement, betterment, brings much good.  But I am not so naive as to think that any of this will make a perfect world, because the world will still have a critical problem.

What pride and the trust we have in progress, another name for trusting in ourselves, fail to take into account is sin.  The obvious, if I but look at myself, and unfortunate reality that my education, medication and hard work does not cease to make be desperately self-centered.  There is only one cure for that cancer and only one Surgeon who can perform it.

I had a friend in high school and university who, with me, was involved in Model Parliament (Model Congress to translate for my American friends).  He was in opposition trying to defeat a bill put forward by the Government that welfare payments be increased.  It is worth noting that ideologically he would have been in favor, but one's task in debating is to argue the side you have been assigned.  Mike's (for that is his name) line of reasoning was that this is dangerous because of, and I quote, "People like me." He continued to point out how unmotivated and lazy he was and how he would delight in taking advantage of the system.  Mike put his finger on the problem in trusting the progress to Utopia.  It is hubris because of people like me, because of sin.

The Scriptures warn us against this particular manifestation of pride in this way:

Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. (Psalm 146:3)

And that warning is for, and against, this son of man - me - and my Utopian dreams as well.

*Dorothy Sayers in "The Other Six Deadly Sins"