The End of Civilization As We Know It

The Mayans were wrong in their prediction that the world’s coming to an end in 2012. It all ended the other night when “The Moment of Truth” aired. This woman literally ends her marriage for the sake of prize money.

Here’s the point of the game: You sit down and you’re hooked up to a lie detector and as long as you answer questions truthfully you win money. With her husband sitting right there this woman answered truthfully that she’d cheated on her husband and that she’d thought she married the wrong guy. So she answers those two questions truthfully.

Guess what question messed her up and sent her home with nothing but lint in her pocket -“Do you consider yourself a good person?” Her parents were there and although they’d just suffered this national embarrasment they’re cheering her on and saying “You are a good person.”

So she says that despite her actions she considers herself a good person. Guess what? It comes up as a lie.

Here’s what we know -this woman was willing to tell the truth for money but couldn’t bring herself to tell herself the truth about herself. Follow?

This is sad. Earlier that morning I’d heard an interview with Valerie Bertinelli on a local radio show. She talked about cheating on her husband and other assorted details. The host asked what her son thought of this and she said that he knows she’s a good person and that we’re not defined by our actions.

When did this become an accepted thing to completely separate ourselves from our actions? Our culture makes it acceptable to completely believe that you’re a good person who simply does really bad things. Now maybe this is human nature but I feel like we’re embracing this kind of thought pretty eagerly.

Maybe because we feel like we’re good people we’re incapable of wrong doing. And we have everyone doing “what’s right for them” and living out “their own truths.” Doesn’t that simply mean in the end there is no right and there are no truths?