Fahrenheit 140

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Matthew 11:15 NAS

"Am I going to do a good deed? Then, of all times--Father, into thy hands, lest the enemy should have me now." George MacDonald

A few days ago I reread Ray Bradbury's classic book Fahrenheit 451, in which firemen don't extinguish fires but create them. Their primary task is burning books, which for years went unread, and then were banned after the government realized the advantages of leading an unthinking, docile populace. Paper, by the way, catches fire at 451 degrees Fahrenheit, hence the name of the book. But given time, slow cookers can cook meat (and brains) at as low as 140 degrees....

America does not need to ban books because, as in Fahrenheit 451, book reading is a dying art. In August 2007, the Washington Post reported that in 2006, 27% of Americans did not read even one book (and 43% did not read a book in 2002). Many Americans do not read because they cannot read. Fully 1 in 5--21%--of Americans are "functionally illiterate", and the figure is 36% for Washington D.C. (perhaps because so many residents are members of congress?).

People are not only reading less but thinking less. They simply soak in whatever they are fed by TV and the internet. Even with the economic difficulties, we are still relatively comfortable and complacent, like a frog in a pot of slowly boiling water (meat, and brains too, I suppose, can cook at only 160 degrees). We're trusting that Obama or the G20 or the Z40 or someone will get us back on track--but was that the right track in the first place?

Actually, we're not on a track but a river, and it is raging towards a precipice, but we can't see it when we're floating on our backs, eyes shut, basking in the sun, brains cooking slowly. We need to raise our heads, open our eyes, and look about us!

Jesus said, "He who has eyes to see, let him see." With global news 24/7, and the internet at our fingertips, it's easier than ever to see what is going on around us, but we don't have to read news from the ends of the earth. Just a look at our own homes, neighborhoods and towns will tell us that, even in so-called good times, the current is carrying us in a direction that we really do not want to go.

Though individually we probably can't change the course of the river, we don't have to just flow with it.We need to think for ourselves, and pray for inner guidance, wisdom and discernment. Of course, the moment we try to slow down, or swim to the side, we feel the pressure of those about us to get back in line, to conform--to put our brains back in neutral and trust that Big Brother will take care of things. But Big Brother is as powerless as we are.

"To lead an uninstructed people to war is to throw them away." [子曰：“以不教民战，是谓弃之。”] Confucius

If a great oak tree is rotten to the core, we can prop up its branches but it will still topple. In the same way, if our nation's people are empty and mindless, without purpose or direction (other than being consumers to keep everything going), we can prop up the country economically and politically but it will still topple, and the enemy is not North Korea, Afghanistan or Iran but ourselves.

Today, I'll read a book--not for entertainment but to help get my heart and mind back in gear. And I'll pray. And I'll listen for that still, small voice within until its whisper drowns out the raging current about us, and guides me against the flow. Of course, the moment we start thinking for ourselves, the current will rage all the fiercer, but better to fight the current today than plunge over the precipice tomorrow.

Links
36% of D.C. Residents are Functionally Illiterate:

57% of Americans read a book in 2002:

Mortality Rate Reaches 100%

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