Our in Inability to Think Eternally
Our Condition
The ability to think eternally is a burden conferred by our Creator upon man and no other animal. It is the ability to think beyond our chronological life. To think about eternity but not to comprehend it. It is not a gift because it comes with certain expectations. It is part of a sacrificial covenant with God. The expectation that we will see life through His grace although with a limited understanding.
We are expected to conduct ourselves as though we are made in His image, but with severely limited comprehension. Not unlike the Jewish people of the Old Testament we are making life up as we go. We are called to treat others according to a scriptural manifest, the Bible, that we do not wholly understand. But just as in the case of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit, our hubris and need for control constantly get us into trouble. In an effort to satisfy our own sense of pride in accomplishment we suffer the ignominy of unintended consequences.
Unintended Consequences
In 1936 Robert K. Merton, and American sociologist, did an analysis of the concept of unintended consequences. His published article was titled “The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action.” He identified five sources of unanticipated consequences. There were ignorance and error and the third and the most interesting is what he called “imperious immediacy of interest.” He was referring to instances in which individual(s) want the intended consequence of an action so badly that he purposefully ignored any unintended effects.
Unintended consequence was initially a building block of economics. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand,” became a famous metaphor in the social sciences. He believed that an individual is led by an invisible hand to promote and end which was no part of his original intention. Smith believed that we are always compromised by our own self-interest. Yep, the devil made me do it.
Rob Norton a columnist for eCompany Now magazine wrote, “The law of unintended consequences (his emphasis), often cited by but rarely defined, is that actions of people, and especially of governments, always have effects that are unanticipated or “unintended”. But as is the case so much of the time the consequences are minimized. Particularly if they occur at the hands of government and its workers.
I use the next few examples because they are interesting and show how flawed our decision making is. We have the propensity to attempt to fix things without even a modicum of information. Kind of like shoot first and aim later.
In 1692 John Locke urged defeat in parliament of a bill designed to lower interest rates. His argument was that instead of benefiting borrowers, normally a more prosperous class, it would punish “widows, orphans and all those who have their estates in money”. So as in so many cases those at the poor end of the spectrum, those that have the least access to capital, end up bearing the burden.
Fast forward to 1954 and one of the most ill-fated social engineering experiments ever, Pruitt-Igoe (pronounced I-go) the urban renewal public housing project developed in St. Louis. It was a massive project made up of 33 11-story buildings with a nearby park and open space. By 1965 it was deemed an abject failure and demolished. Pruitt-Igoe was a dysfunctional urban abyss that has been repeated time and time again. To this day we have an abundance of inner-cities that are urban wastelands without having solved the urban housing problems.
On a more comedic note, in a recent study released July 31, 2020, two researchers, Jordan Nickerson and David Solomon, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College respectively, found another unintended consequence https://privpapers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3665046. By 1977 all 50 states had passed laws that required car seats for infants. Since that time we have seen these laws grow to the point they are now requiring children up to the age of 8 be restrained by some type of device. But this would save lives we were told. Yes, but the researchers have found that car seats and other restraints have been responsible for the lowering the birthrate in the U.S. by an estimated 145,000 since 1980, 90% of that decline since 2000. Nickerson and Solomon estimated that during 2017 car seat laws prevented only 57 car crash fatalities of children nationwide.
How has this happened one might ask? Well you only have to look in the backseat of a car to figure out it only accommodates two car seats. So over time these laws have essentially conditioned families to only have the maximum number of children that will fit in the back seat. Two children is not enough to sustain the population. Another unintended consequence.
But not all decisions and their consequences are just failed social engineering experiments. Some have eternal consequences.
In 1973 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Roe v. Wade and set in motion one of the most catastrophic movements of our time. It is still ravaging our country today. As a result of that ruling the United States has aborted over 22 million babies since the year 2000 and over 61 million since 1973! To put this in perspective that is like killing all of France and nearly annihilating Canada two times over. As a country can we imagine another 47 years and 60 million unborn children dead? But what has been done to address the consequence of killing off the equivalent of major European country? Nothing. Combined abortions with more women in the workplace and higher education levels amongst women and we are experiencing a suicidal birthrate in our country.
Accountability
But as we approach the birth of Christ let us not forget the most consequential unintended consequence of all. That was the cowardice of Pontus Pilate when he turned Christ over to the chief priests and elders in Jerusalem. Pilates cowardice and the willful ignorance of the Sadducees and Pharisees rendered them blind to most cataclysmic consequence of all time, the explosion of Christianity.
“Eternal thinking” is fundamental to a Christian Worldview but it seems to be missing in our culture. God may have given us free will but not always good judgement. How attentive are we to those closest to us? How considerate are we when dealing with those who are purportedly of “lower” standing? Are we forwarding thinking enough to try and make each day better for those we come in contact with? Ever day gives us an opportunity think eternally. Then someday we will stand in His presence and will get a chance to account for each of one those days. Hopefully we past the test and can say, we finished well.