Did you ever hear a story about a brave knight who rode tirelessly across a hostile land, slaying dragons to rescue a princess from death? Turns out, that knight was a selfish jerk. According to an article published by the BBC, self-control is a bad thing.
You think I’m joking. No sane member of civilization would earnestly suggest that self-control leads to diabolical evil. But I’m not joking and I don’t think insanity explains the BBC article. This article is part of a calculated effort to destroy Western civilization. The goal is to redefine how you understand “good” and “evil.”
For decades, self-control had been seen as an unalloyed advantage…people with high self-control were seen to perform better at school and work and to adopt healthier lifestyles; they are less likely to overeat or take drugs, and more likely to exercise. Their ability to overcome their baser urges meant that people with higher self-control were also less likely to act aggressively or violently, and were less likely to have a criminal record.
So far so good. Self-control leads to success. An ability to “overcome baser urges” keeps you healthy and out of prison. This was all part of the sales pitch for self-control that I got from adults as I was growing up. The responsible grown-ups in my life assured me that self-control (or self-discipline as they sometimes called it) would not only increase my quality of life, but it was MORALLY correct. The Bible lists self-control as one of the indicators that the Holy Spirit is influencing me.
But wait! Not so fast! Some “studies” suggest that the Bible and the wisdom of my ancestors is incorrect!
…Liad Uziel at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University began to investigate whether context might play an important role in determining the consequences of our self-control. He speculated that the trait was just a useful tool that allows people to achieve any goal – both good and bad. In many situations, our social norms reward people cooperating with others, and so people with high self-control happily toe the line. And if we change those social norms, then people with high self-control might turn out to be less than scrupulous in their treatment of others.
If you’ve been searching for an idea that you could allow to burrow into your brain and destroy your chances of becoming a decent, well-adjusted human being – congratulations! Your search has ended! The above paragraph is absolutely true. That’s the problem!
Suppose you decide to become an expert at shooting a crossbow. You read everything you can find about crossbows. You find yourself a crossbow tutor. You spend all your free time at the shooting range. Countless hours of self-discipline and practice results in you becoming a world-class marksman.
Then, you take your crossbow downtown and shoot people coming in and out of the courthouse. Due to your training, your accuracy is over 90%! Your commitment and self-discipline enables you hit 9 out of every 10 people you shoot at!
At this point, along comes a writer for the BBC. He surveys the bodies bleeding on the courthouse lawn and thinks, “If only that guy with the crossbow wasn’t so skilled! His self-control made this tragedy possible! I wonder if anyone has done a study on the benefits of self-control when perpetrating evil?”
Of course such a study exists! Liad Uziel dedicated himself to investigating the negative consequences of dedicating oneself to achieving something. Using tenacious self-discipline, Uziel discovered that tenacious self-discipline can be used to do evil.
This shocks the BBC writer causing him to tenaciously discipline himself to the task of writing an article titled, “How self-control can actually unleash your dark side.” The article suggests that the reason for your crossbow shooting spree was self-control and personal drive.
And that’s just patently stupid.
It would be great if evil was only found in lazy, disorganized people. Wickedness would cease because evil doers wouldn’t have the self-control to follow through with their plans. Unfortunately, bad people are some of the most disciplined folks among us. I didn’t need a “scientific” study to tell me that.
Suggesting that self-control itself is the cause of evil is…well, evil. The only thing standing between civilization and chaos is the self-control of individual citizens. When you stop exercising self-control, it’s not safe for the rest of us to be around you.
You can expect to see more articles like the BBC’s. Lawlessness is becoming vogue. “Good” people are those who don’t stand on principles. “Bad” people are those who suggest that actions matter more than intentions. And we’re now officially calling good things evil. Kiss Western culture good-bye.
One Response
Maybe something to consider would be the idea that the fruit of the spirit, being love, requires all the little sub fruits to really be love. Self-control is good, when tied to joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness.
Same for any one of these. The fruit does not consist of a stem only.