rambling thoughts for my future reference: aka i don't have a computer so my thoughts are now saved online)

false assumption:
compassion as naturally present (Chakrabarty, 121) - part of modernity is the idea that humans, through reason, have attained a higher morality. progress - humanity moving toward a higher ideal. how does this impact historical theory? historicity - the idea that time moves in a linear fashion - but more than that - time is evolutionary. all of this springs from the idea of the inherent goodness of humanity - it is something that needs to but can be discovered in all of humanity. if, then, i believe that humanity is fundamentally UNcompassionate, all of that is flipped on its head. humanity is not progressing - reason is only masking sin in a different way. because, indeed, i do not see evidence of humanity being more compassionate - in every day interactions the same practices occur. we have shifted the groups that we are compassionate to - but the "other" exists all the same. concrete example? the Christian has become a group that faces discrimination. the Christian is mocked. although, in observing conversation, i have noticed that even the categories that are not supposed to be discriminated against (homosexuality especially) when guards are let down, and when the context is not academic, actual feelings come out - a fear of homosexuality exists at a very fundamental level among heterosexuals. the educated elite have a nice language to cover everything, but beneath it all, the same practice exists...

if we don't have an actual understanding of what true, godly love is, then that throws everything off balance.
false assumption:
history is about power relations. this is based on the idea that everything is done to get ahead - that in everything there has to be a dominant and a dominated. according to the secular model, this is the bottom line. power relations are the way of explaining the world. and i can agree that much of what characterizes humanity is power. but what if there is a REASON for this? sin. this is heavily influenced by what i have read of Bonhoeffer's "Life Together." fake love is about power. godly love is about Christ loving through us. Real love is not about power, it is about the lack of power. it flips the world on its head. if sin's main effect on the world is to pervert love and turn it into subjugation of the weaker in order to satisfy self-interest, this would explain so much. the non-christian's non-exposure to true love (which is only shown in its pure form through Christ's death on the cross) leaves him or her unable to see a world where something other than power is possible.