Ever have that happen? You read something for the first time and it just hits you, opens your eyes and jolts you back to reality? It’s something Facebook does decently — on occasion. At least until it takes down the truth once again under its community standards — Facebook, you spelled communism wrong again — manifesto.

Here’s one a friend of mine posted, which I had to repost. And to my amazement, it’s still up even though it’s a total indictment of the me first, social media crazed, fallen world in which we live.

“So the final conclusion would surely be that whereas other civilizations have been brought down by attacks of barbarians from without, ours had the unique distinction of training its own destroyers at its own educational institutions, and then providing them with facilities for propagating their destructive ideology far and wide, all at the public expense. Thus did Western man decide to abolish himself, creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, himself blowing the trumpet that brought the walls of his own city tumbling down, and having convinced himself that he was too numerous, labored with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer. Until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keeled over — a weary, battered old brontosaurus — and became extinct.” ― Malcolm Muggeridge, Vintage Muggeridge: Religion and Society

My first reaction? Boy that’s a “Muggeridge” if I’ve ever heard one. I’m kidding. And for the simplest of reasons: I’d never heard a “Muggeridge” before. As I tell my kids on any topic we’re discussing with a consistent message of “stay curious,” I decided to look into what ol’ Malcolm was all about.

I found a kindred spirit. Without going into detail because it wouldn’t fit into my 900-word allotment, Muggeridge came into meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ later in life — although I win by 15 years or so. He loved satire (no explanation needed here) and railed against the lost, Western world in which we live. If you can’t see that match made in heaven, you’ve never read a “Craigyism” either here or on Facebook.

Which brings bring me to my favorite Muggeridge trait I possess: The continual search for the truth. Not my truth or your truth or their truth. THE Truth. Full disclosure, I’m into a Bible study with some friends called the “Truth Project.” While I’m only at the onset of the sessions, I’m already moving ahead into the series with energy and anticipation about becoming one with the truth — and the way and the life. I encourage you to find a series on truth and do the same.
It will open your eyes and make you feel better —just the opposite of what we tend to see in today’s world.

Most important, it’s the core of the message when I tell my daughters to “stay curious.” I tell them life is a series of events  — good, bad, tragic, beautiful, loving and indifferent and everything in between and beyond — and it takes both inspection and introspection to really understand. It also takes faith, hope and love. I just hope it doesn’t take almost 60 years (as it has me) or nearly 80 years (like Muggeridge) to arrive at this truth.

That’s why Muggeridge’s quote hit so hard. The reality, or truth, of the words. It’s not that the words opened my eyes. I see many of these same things acted out daily. But, boy, it sure did put into focus their reality. It would be difficult for me to understand how anyone could look at the world today through this lens and not see it as Muggeridge describes. And it’s not because it’s Malcolm’s truth. It’s because it’s  the truth. He wrote those words in 1985.
I know, 1984 would have been a more apt year. But I bet he was penning them then. Many of those same words could have been written in any year of Western civilization, especially recently.

Yet, the world doesn’t want you to see reality. Almost everything is designed to avoid it, deny it or medicate it. Just investigate the myriad proposals, mandates and dictates from our so-called “leaders.” Then understand the following from James M. Houston of the C.S. Lewis Institute: “Yet, Muggeridge had long recognized that the greatest divide in society was not between those politically right or left, but of those who believed in God and those who did not. He saw, too, that the idolization of political leaders, whether of Churchill or of Kennedy, filled a secular vacuum for those who did not believe in God. As an outstanding lampoonist of society, Muggeridge observed in 1964 that ‘the only fun of journalism was that it puts you in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them or take them seriously.’”

It’s certainly the fun I’ve had and will continue to have in my “journalism” career. I just didn’t realize it was also a testimony.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com.