A Painted Face On A Balloon

Max Lerner (1902-1992) The American journalist and educator known for his controversial syndicated column; some years ago made this statement: He said: “Our demonic civilization is like a painted face on a balloon. As the balloon swells, the face becomes more and more monstrous. If we take it at face value we will be terrified.... But actually it is hollow within. One pinprick will destroy it.” Keep in mind that Max Lerner wrote these words long before the bubble burst.

Are you struck, as Dick Donavan (who sent this to me) and I was by its appropriateness for the time in which we are living. Not long ago, we were living in a world where people were getting rich -- making millions or even billions of dollars. All of us were watching the value of our houses increase. We were spending money like crazy. But we failed to notice that the balloon was swelling -- and that the painted face on the balloon was becoming more and more monstrous. We didn't see it, in part, because we didn't want to see it. Nobody wanted to see it. Business people didn't want to see it, because it would have required them to manage their businesses more conservatively. Politicians didn't want to see it, because who wants to yell "Fire!" and see the party come to an end. We didn't want to see it, because we were making money and buying things and watching our retirement accounts soar. Nobody wanted to see it come to an end. But it took only a pinprick to bring the whole thing down!

Now everyone is trying to figure out what happened and who is to blame. Like Humpty-Dumpty business people and politicians who were blowing up the balloon a year ago are now trying to paste it back together. They are trying to get it to hold air again. They haven't really managed to paste it together, but they are already pumping massive amounts of air (meaning our tax dollars) into the broken balloon to try to stave off disaster.

And so we are mortgaging our children's futures by throwing money at failed corporations in the hope that we can breathe life into their dying bodies. It seems too much like putting a corpse on a respirator.

Admittedly you and I do not have all the answers. But of great concern is that we seem not to be learning anything from this massive failure. We got where we are by greed and excess, and we seem to be trying to repair the damage by applying more greed and excess. Do you agree that the whole thing offends our common sense?

... What attracted Dick’s eye to that quotation were the opening words -- "Our demonic civilization."

Our Gospel lesson study this week (Mark 1:21-28) talks about an encounter that Jesus had with the demonic or unclean spirit ("unclean spirit" and "demon" are used interchangeably in the Bible). We don't talk much about demons these days. We've outgrown that kind of talk, haven't we! But we have not outgrown the reality. If you think that the word demonic is too pre-scientific -- too extreme -- not in keeping with our modern sophistication -- just read your newspaper or watch the evening news. If you can't find something demonic there, you need to get your glasses checked. Every new day brings new evidence of the demonic among us.

... There’s an old Native American story about a chief instructing some braves about the struggle within. “It is like two dogs fighting inside of us,” the chief told them. “There is one good dog who wants to do the right and the other dog wants to do the wrong. Sometimes the good dog seems stronger and is winning the fight. But sometimes the bad dog is stronger and wrong is winning the fight.”

“Who is going to win in the end?” a young brave asks “The one you feed, the chief answered.”

***Shalom ***