Social Paranoia

              The other morning while wrestling with the tamper proof seals on a new bottle of vitamins, I sarcastically remarked to my wife how glad I was that the crazed person laced the Tylenol capsules with cyanide in Chicago back in 1982, that resulted in making opening a simple bottle of vitamins the equivalent to breaking into the Fort Knox Gold Reserve.

I know I am showing my age, but I remember a more humane society, that lacked the paranoia of today.  I remember when banks assumed you were there to do honest business with them, not rip them off.  I remember when boarding an airplane did not require me to be stripped and prodded and x-rayed.  I remember when doctors and nurses would touch you without latex gloves, and it did not take a photographic proof of identification to see them.  I remember… well, you get the idea.

We have lost our trust in one another.  Today, we assume guilt until innocence is proven, disease instead of health, dishonesty in place of truth.  All of this is the result of a society reacting to its darker side.  Because there is the potential of sociopathic abuse, we all are treated with suspicion.  Talk about profiling on a grand scale!

This rampant paranoia has robbed us of the human experience, by instilling within us a deep distrust.  Refusing to let down our guard,  we are suspicious of everyone’s motives, seldom allowing them to get close. Nor do we risk extending ourselves to others.  In the end, the norm is to live separate, suspicious, cynical, lives.

Despite our society’s attitude, I refuse to live this way.  I may have to comply with business and government policies that treat me with suspicion, but I don’t have to treat people the same way.  I’d rather take the risk.  To do so, results in the greater reward of closeness, not alienation.  It allows me to experience the heart and spirit of those around me.  I can feel the warmth of human skin instead of latex.  I can value the character of others by trusting their word.  I can enjoy humanity, regardless of the small majority of sociopaths who choose to prey upon others, and the companies and government agencies that sacrifice humane interaction to protect their bottom line.  In doing so, I have re-discovered human souls who hunger, like me, for a genuine connection with others

Will I get burnt doing this?  Won’t someone succeed in taking advantage of me?  Yes.  In fact it has happened a number of times. But what is the alternative – living a paranoid, isolated, existence?  By continuing to risk ourselves with humanity, we rise above these negative experiences.  Refusing to live as a victim of our fallen society, we become victors through the human encounter of love, trust and respect.  This is what Jesus did as He walked about our earth, and it is what He has challenged us in His command, “Love one another, even as I have loved you.”

Pastor Mark