“She stared at me with eyes that were too bright and very dark, still taking it for granted that she was mistress of all she surveyed. I felt that awful pang of pity for the young, who are being taught either the world will lie down and roll over for them or that it may blow up tonight. So slight and frail and young and arrogant, defying the lightning…it seemed to me painful that so many of them had to go out into today’s deadlocks and dilemmas and disasters with nothing but a puny little worldly education, without strength of character or discipline or sword of the spirit in their hands.”
Tell No Man – Adela Rodgers St. Johns
Pepsi may have just produced the silliest commercial ever made, and online cultural critics can’t stop talking and laughing about it. Even SNL, the lagging late night comedy show was actually funny for once as they masterfully spoofed the ridiculous commercial. One writer summed up the gist of the commercial like this:
“In the advertisement, titled ‘Live for Now Moments Anthem,’ Kendall Jenner ditched a photo shoot to join a group of attractive protesters in the street. The ad culminates with Jenner handing a Pepsi can to a police officer, who pops the top, takes a swig, and is met with inexplicable roars of approval from the demonstrators.”
Instantly a backlash was issued against Pepsi for using the young, white, and vain Kardashian prima donna to represent the progressive left and “Black Lives Matter” movement. Apparently, in the collective mind of the true protesters, Kendall Jenner really does not understand what it is like to be in the struggle like they are. She hasn’t suffered like they have. They believe she was just using their “just and important” cause to promote herself and make money for the giant evil Pepsi Corporation.
Poor Kendall, she was not ready for the media firestorm. As one source close to her writes, “She has been very upset. She feels terrible. She loves being a model. To get a Pepsi gig was a big deal. She was very excited. She never expected it to receive such backlash. She hopes people understand that she wasn’t involved in the creative process.” She is currently in hiding at her mother’s house.
Fighting for the cause is apparently tougher than she thought. Especially when those you thought you were fighting with and for are the ones fighting against you.
So if Kendall isn’t a qualified spokesperson for SJW causes – – who is? (SJW: “Social justice warrior” is a pejorative term for an individual promoting socially progressive views, including feminism, civil rights, multiculturalism, and identity politics.”)
Madonna? Katy Perry? Ashley Judd? Scarlett Johansson? Beyoncé? Lena Dunham? Amy Schumer? Hillary Clinton? Students at Yale? Or maybe her father/mother Kaitlyn Jenner? Or why not Manny Gutierrez, the 25-year-old “beauty boy” who was chosen to be the first male Maybelline model?
If Kendall can’t be a spokesperson because she is pretentious and privileged than I am not sure any of the other voices for SJW issues can either? In fact, most of the loudest protestors often are the most ill-informed and privileged people in our society. Rarely do middle class “Regular Janes and Joes” have the time to walk streets with signs to demand other people to do what they want. I find that the more you get involved with helping people the more you realize we are all alike – – distinctions like race, gender and economic status are not as significant as you may think.
(Scripture says, “all have sinned and fallen short.” Romans 3:23)
We live in a time where so many of our children have been raised to believe they are the smartest and most capable generation who ever lived; when in fact, much of this confidence is nothing more than a fabricated social media “smoke-n-mirrors” ploy. Adela Rogers St. Johns so eloquently described the younger generation in the turbulent ’60s, and I think her description still applies: “So slight and frail and young and arrogant, defying the lightning…it seemed to me, painful that so many of them had to go out into today’s deadlocks and dilemmas and disasters with nothing but a puny little worldly education, without strength of character or discipline or sword of the spirit in their hand.”
Defying the lightning is an apt description of how the social justice warriors of our day naively march on to fight windmills with nothing but utopian ideologies that are as sturdy as a paper bag. These ideologies are built on 3 faulty assumptions:
- The innocent purity and goodness of anyone, domestic or foreign, other than white American males.
- The evil of profit.
- The necessity of believing in and following the “moral integrity of your own heart” rather than trusting in the teachings and orthodoxy of institutional religion.
SJW promoters believe that this new utopia will thrive if we can just convince enough people to give up their superstitious beliefs in those things we once thought made for a healthy society: The Fear of God, the Nuclear Family, the Proper Roles for Husbands and Wives, Chastity, Purity, and Self-Denial. Now true human flourishing to the SJW must include absence of fear in the Myth of God, the Anything-Goes Family Structure, Shared and Interchangeable Roles, Sexual Freedom, Experimentation, and of course, unhindered Self-Gratification.
We are now blindly leaping into “a brave new progressive world” hoping to land on solid ground. (A real fool’s hope).
I am reminded of a woman I once knew who prided herself on her feminist strength. In the tolerant American High School she grew up in, she, loudly and frequently, raised her voice in class against the “repressive patriarchal structures” holding the average woman back. Teachers loved her spunk, she was lauded for her courage to speak her mind, but male students in her class avoided her at every opportunity for fear that she would label them as part of the world’s problem. (This didn’t help her when it came to finding a date.)
Her determination to see justice done in this “male-dominated world” fueled her passion on into college and beyond. Ultimately she was convinced she needed to go help women in Europe and the Middle East be set free from the bonds of domestic imprisonment and centuries of religious repression.
But Europe/Asia is not America. Traditions matter, adults expect younger generations to honor age and wisdom, roles in the home are respected, family is sacred. In one country with a strong Islamic tradition, she learned the hard way that you couldn’t just call men out like she was used to in America. People don’t have patience for the arrogance of youth, you have to wait your turn for people to even listen to your voice. And European Islam is no friend of progressive women. In other words, American warriors for justice don’t realize just how good they have it here in tolerant America.
Needless to say, her utopian dreams collapsed under the weight of reality. She was personally crushed, ignored and disrespected in the world outside of America’s suburban bubble. She came home to America disillusioned. She slowly came to realize that the strong male leadership that she grew up with, the kind that doesn’t need to push its weight around like the feminists are now doing, was not such a bad thing after all!
In our silly celebrity dominated culture, progressive arrogance has blinded many to some very valuable virtues that once were prized and passed on by people of goodwill. There really are some tried and true patterns and traditions of the past that we need to reclaim.
I think Kendall Jenner’s humiliation is a perfect metaphor for the current SJW movement. These never-ending protests have become more about image, coolness and making a name for myself than really producing any serious change and improvement in society.
It definitely is not about honor and respect.
Jeremiah said something profound we no longer ask, “Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” But as Jeremiah writes, “But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
Defying the lightning may sound courageous and exhilarating; but if an actual bolt was ever to hit you, it would instantly become clear just how weak and helpless we all are.
My goal for this post is simple: Maybe re-examining traditional values is what we all need to do again? Giving God a voice in public square may do all of us some good? And I hope you will see that the cool new phrase, “History may leave you behind if you don’t change,” is nothing more than a stupid parlor trick used by progressives to get you to abandon values that for centuries have kept the fabric of society strong.
But if you don’t care, go have a Pepsi on me!
