Wisdom to Know the Difference

Remember the ‘Serenity Prayer’? Alcoholics Anonymous used it all the time, and sometimes credited it to an early twentieth century theologian. Many 12-step programs were still using it as recently as 2022, despite the general disfavor into which all things religious have lately fallen. It goes like this:

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”

I’ve never been to AA, so I haven’t heard it in a while. There is probably a good reason. Wisdom is in pretty short supply these days.

Removing God from the Picture

Unless your name is God, possessing genuinely biblical wisdom requires a dose of humility. Wisdom is realistic. It requires that we recognize what we do not know. It also requires that we act on what we do know. When a society can’t be sure of either what it knows or what it doesn’t, it will have at least two problems: it won’t accept the things it can’t change, and it won’t change the things it could.

Once we removed God from the picture, as the US public school system did with its science program post-1925, wisdom among the general public went right out the window. That was inevitable. The serenity to accept things we couldn’t change and the courage to change the things we could followed shortly behind it.

Taking Back the Night

I first noticed this phenomenon in the feminist-sponsored media campaign to “take back the night” some thirty years ago. It seemed to me something akin to wilful stupidity. The idea was to educate men so that women could move about more freely without fear of harassment or molestation. I laughed out loud the first time I heard the slogan. Take back the night? When in all of human history did women possess the night? Even if 99% of men were decent, hardworking, respectful people (and they are not), all it takes is that one rare exception to ruin your day. No amount of education will change a determined predator with (on average) 75% more muscle mass and 90% more strength than their intended victims. It’s not lack of information that is his problem. You are battling fallen human nature there, and that’s a contest that cannot be won no matter how much you spend on the “education” campaign. Smart women look over their shoulders when they step out at night, and they always will. Stupid women will insist on their “rights” to do what they please, and they will become prey for evil people. That’s just how it is.

The Bible will warn you about human nature, but our society has no “wisdom to know the difference” between what can be changed and what can’t. Thinking we have the power to change things we can’t is called hubris.

Another Day in the Wig

A more recent example. I stepped into the office elevator this morning and was greeted by an ad in the elevator news. A woman was sighing, “Another day in the wig”, obviously a cancer patient in remission on her way to work. She is part of a campaign to remove the stigma and insecurity of cancer treatment. This is just sad. It’s also unnecessary. I’ve yet to encounter anyone in an office environment in all my years of work who did not have tremendous sympathy for co-workers battling cancer. I have never heard an unfortunate comment made about a sick co-worker’s appearance, but I suspect that if some have occurred, they have been more the product of awkwardness than a mean spirit. Furthermore, insecurity is not necessarily related to how your peers treat you. It’s an issue of perception. I have known people no amount of reassurance and support could comfort, and who saw discrimination and critical glances in every corner whether they existed or not. I have known others with exactly the same challenges who never spent a moment worrying about what others thought of them.

We do not know the difference between things we can change and things we can’t. Waging a campaign against insecurity is absurd. It’s not as potentially dangerous as encouraging women to step out in the dark without taking due care for their safety, but it is equally unrealistic. Yet we seem to believe, despite all evidence, that “education” is the answer to every problem.

Preparing for the ‘Climate Apocalypse’

The worst offender in this category has to be the climate change bogeyman. Let’s leave aside the question of whether it’s actually happening, and whether CO2 in the atmosphere really does contribute to it; we’ll take those as givens for the sake of argument. But two entire generations of Western youngsters have been terrified into a crazed campaign to eliminate something that is absolutely, utterly beyond their control, and always will be. When carefully analyzed, all our current proposed solutions (wind, solar, electric) fail at one level or another, and some make the situation worse. Even mainstream outlets like The New Yorker are now conceding that all the Green New Deals in the world will never meet their proposed targets. Jonathan Franzen writes, “To prepare for it [the ‘climate apocalypse’], we need to admit we can’t prevent it.” He’s right: we can’t. Ten thousand more screechy Swedish teens will not make a scintilla of difference to the eventual outcome for the planet. But no one will concede they are tearing apart the fabric of human society in a lost cause.

We do not know the difference between things we can change and things we can’t. If taking back the night is hubristic, saving the planet by feeding cows seaweed is epically hubristic.

Call Me a Biologist!

We could go on forever with examples like these. When asked, recent Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson refused to define the word “woman”, saying she is “not a biologist”. Conservatives immediately mocked her apparent stupidity, but there was nothing stupid about her answer. Given her political leanings and the necessity of maintaining the support of the lunatic Left, she gave the only answer she possibly could. Some leftists are delusional; this one was merely calculating.

But whether the reason was pragmatism or a head as thick as two planks, the fact remains that a candidate for one of the highest offices in the land refused to acknowledge a basic biological reality that can’t be changed. Even if she really does know the difference, that’s the exact opposite of wisdom.

Above My Pay Grade

Then there is the companion problem we find in the Serenity Prayer. Back in 2008, the Democratic presidential nominee was asked, “At what point does a baby get human rights?” Barack Obama replied, “That’s above my pay grade.” The answer is not the least bit complicated, except in the political sense. Obama was applying for a job with a pay grade that justifies — rather, demands — the ability to formulate a clear answer to the question.

In this case, the problem was not serenity but courage. Abortion is the one issue on this list so far that the President of the United States could actually do something about. It was a change that could and should have been made. But until recently, nobody has had the courage. Even the recent landmark Supreme Court decision that partially reversed Roe v. Wade hid behind a legal technicality rather than openly talking about right and wrong.

Is this wise? You tell me. It speaks for itself.

Delusions of Grandeur

Take God out of the picture and we are reduced to raving simpletons with delusions of grandeur. We have no idea when to tackle a problem we can handle, and when to reverently acknowledge our limitations.

Some things only God can change. Others are in our hands. But distinguishing between the two has gotten a whole lot more complicated.