Strange New World Chapters 1-2

Guests: Tim Matthews and Jonathan Teague

Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution

By Carl R. Trueman

Strange New World is an abbreviated edition of Dr. Trueman’s longer book titled The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution

In this book, Dr. Trueman is going to examine how a person became a self, the self became sexualized, and sex became politicized.

The radical change that Dr. Trueman observes is that rather than conform thoughts, feelings, and actions to objective reality, man’s inner life itself becomes the source of truth.

 

Chapter 1 Welcome to This Strange New World

“Expressive individualism” was coined by the American scholar Robert Bellah, who defines it as follows:

• Expressive individualism holds that each person has a unique core of feeling and intuition that should unfold or be expressed if individuality is to be realized.

In short, the modern self is one where authenticity is achieved by acting outwardly in accordance with one’s inward feelings.

Great article and explanation from John Stonestreet at The Colson Center about the Philadelphia Flyers hockey player Ivan Provorov who refused to wear a jersey for the NHL’s “Pride Night.”

• Jonathan - who is the arbiter of what is “ok” - can’t be culture…left up to the individual themselves, which presents a huge problem when someone else’s opinion conflicts with yours.
• Tim - why aren’t the opinion and feelings of Ivan Provorov taken into consideration and protected as well?

In this book, I do not wish to deny that expressive individualism has aspects that are good and commendable. I am concerned, however, with how its triumph as the normative self has led to some of the strangest and, to many, most disturbing aspects of our modern world.

If the individual’s inner identity is defined by sexual desire, then he or she must be allowed to act out on that desire in order to be an authentic person.

Obviously, Western society still has sexual codes and places limits on sexual behavior - pedophilia, for example, continues to be outlawed in the United States - but those limits are increasingly defined not so much by the sex acts themselves as by the issue of whether the parties involved have consented to those acts.

Again, notice what the sexual revolution has done: it has brought us to the point where sexual acts in themseles are seen as having no intrinsic moral significance; it is the consent (or not) of those engaging in them that provides the moral framework.

 

Chapter 2 Romantic Roots

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) - “I think; therefore I am.”

Thinking is the ground of certainty.

Dan’s comment: God is no longer the source of truth; each individual person is!

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) - First, he locates identity in the inner psychological life of the individual. Feelings for Rousseau are central to who we are. And second, he sees society (or perhaps better, culture) as exerting a corrupting influence on the self. In short, society makes us inauthentic.

Jonathan’s comment - while this might be profound, the problem is that it puts the brightest light on man, and makes man the center of existence…replacing God on the throne of life.

Rousseau rejects the Christian doctrine of original sin - it is society that corrupts the individual…

Dan’s question - if society corrupts the individual, what corrupted society? Isn’t society just the collected thoughts/wills of the various individuals - and if the individuals are good and pure, why wouldn’t the collective (society) be good and pure as well?

Everyone else is first and foremost a potential threat to my authenticity.

Rousseau - The Social Contract - Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains.

Rousseau’s “noble savage” - uncorrupted by the demands of civilized society with its hyprocrises and sharp antithesis between outward behavior and that inner voice of nature…

Tim’s comment - many of the restraints that society places on individuals is actually for our flourishing, for the benefit of all.