We’re all familiar with the expression ‘method in his madness’. It implies an ordered purpose underlying the apparent insanity of a given activity, or a logical effort underway despite appearances to the contrary. Madness here is not anger. It is craziness, the destructive condition of being unmoored from reason. The catastrophe besetting Ukraine these past months suggests the reverse of this expression. As Russia attempts to destroy her valiant neighbor there is not so much method in her madness as madness in her method. With the goal of obliterating a nation’s identity by means of irrational brutality she has weaponized insanity.
One wonders if our own nation isn’t witnessing a more subtle version of madness being used as a method of destruction. Senseless violence goes unchecked in our cities and communities. Property is mindlessly plundered with no consequence. Civil servants are “doxxed” for doing their job. Families – the basic unit of our society – casually unravel if they form at all. The polarity of the two sexes is replaced by a fluid array of genders. The logic of grammar is lampooned. Any word can have protean, even conflicting meanings. Entertainment cheapens and dehumanizes. Meaninglessness infects our resolve and threatens our intellectual integrity. Veracity is heresy; the outlandish is orthodox. These forces – crazy by customary standards – erode our nation’s foundations which, sufficiently weakened, would give way to our collapse.
Putin’s so called “denazification” and the forces that threaten our own civic security underscore the critical importance of education. Here education refers not to the ‘hard’ sciences which teach us the ‘what’ and ‘how’ – as valuable as these are – but rather to the liberal arts, those ‘soft’ sciences such as history, literature, philosophy, languages, music and art which teach us the ‘why’. These are the areas of study that delve the depths of reason. In this regard it is gratifying to note the number of schools in NCCF’s ‘Catalog of Ministries’ that place due emphasis on these latter disciplines and to see the number of distributions our donors make to schools in this county and abroad that require these subjects in their curricula. These are the subjects that nourish and fortify character and character is the indomitable counterforce to madness.
The good news is that as heirs to the Judeo-Christian heritage we know that while reason can be obscured it can never be eviscerated. So, we dare to hold out hope both for Ukraine and for ourselves.
This past Easter a young grandson and I enjoyed some time together exploring etymology, the roots of words, how they are connected, how their meanings change over time, etc. (Does the reader know the connection between ‘gorgeous’ and ‘disgorge’?) As we parted, he asked me what my favorite word is. Slow-witted, I had no reply. However, that evening I sent him a note stating that my favorite word is the word ‘word’ itself, or in its Greek rendering ‘logos’. It existed before all other words and, according to the Beloved Apostle, has no beginning or end. And ‘through it all things were made’. I advised this bright eleven year old that if he spends his life exploring this mystery he’ll discover purpose and joy.
Purpose and joy. These irradicable gifts, with their humanizing fulfillment, enervate the force of madness. Confronted with their power madness – with or without method – is nothing more than a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.
The Kingdom advances as we explore the depths of reason and the truth to which it leads.