Watching Boris describing his hobby - making model London buses out of boxes and painting them - reminded me of the popular TV comedy programme Would I Lie to You? where people make up outrageous stories while others have to guess ‘True’ or ‘Lie’.
Boris did not tell us whether or not it was true – especially the bit about painting the bus passengers on the boxes. This was so unbelievable that if it had been on the TV show it would almost certainly have been voted a Lie! And Boris would probably have won the award for the best liar of the week. But it wasn’t a game - the man being interviewed was a contender for being our next Prime Minister!
What is happening in Britain today? Are we seeing a watershed moment in cultural change? Does it really matter if Britain’s next Prime Minister is an adulterer, has blazing rows with his live-in girlfriend and faces many accusations of being careless with the truth? It seems that most people in Britain will say “Who cares? America’s got a President just like that and they are doing very nicely!” What is happening to Western social values?
Why did not Boris’s row with Carrie Symonds finish his PM prospects? Could it be that this has actually endeared him to a public that says, “Well, he’s just like us! – We all have rows with our partners. His domestic life is his own private matter and it’s nothing to do with his professional work”?
What a change from a generation ago when a mere sniff of indiscretion forced the resignation of prominent politicians, as those who can remember the Profumo affair can testify. Are we seeing today a profound moment of change in the history of Britain and other Western nations?
Are we seeing today a profound moment of change in the history of Britain and other Western nations?
Watershed Moments
Back in the early 1980s there was a similar watershed moment of culture change that was resisted by the British Parliament. The video recorder had just begun to be widely used in the homes of the general population. Videos were unregulated and films with increasing levels of horror and violence came into circulation.
James Bulger, murdered in 1993.Previously, movies depicting violence had shown the hero or heroine as the victim, and the perpetrator was the villain of the piece. The new factor at that time was that films began showing violence from the perspective of the perpetrator and thus adulated violence (these films were dubbed ‘Video Nasties’). This was highly dangerous, because of the effect that it had upon vulnerable young people and children who did not have stable home lives or mature social values. Hence, we had tragedies such as the Jamie Bulger murder where two 10-year-old boys carried out a horrific attack upon a helpless toddler after watching violent video films.
The whole subject of culture change in the media was widely debated by the public as well as in Parliament. Maintaining traditional attitudes of right and wrong was considered to be essential and this was affirmed by legislation in the Video Recordings Act (July 1984) which not a single MP voted against.
Dismantling Good and Evil
Today conventional social values are under attack from widely different sources. Telling lies is rapidly becoming part of modern culture. There are a number of current TV dramas that are built on lies – Killing Eve, Big Little Lies, Chernobyl – all have heroes and heroines who are not only economic with the truth, but who deliberately use lies to manipulate situations.
This is a major culture change! But it’s part of something bigger: all across the media and film industry, in the name of avoiding stereotypes and having characters that are more realistic and complex, the old good/evil battle is being blurred, or even outright dismantled. Suddenly nobody really knows who to side with anymore - but that's somehow meant to be OK - just go with what you feel!! There are no longer any clear standards of right and wrong: if it feels good for you – just go for it.
All across popular culture, in the name of avoiding stereotypes and having characters that are more realistic and complex, the old good/evil battle is being dismantled.
Until now, dramas (fact or fiction) have always been a conflict between goodies and baddies. Even if the goodies don’t always win, our sympathy is with the goody and against the baddie. It’s a matter of common justice – of right and wrong. If the hero is the baddie, a liar and a deceiver, it turns upside-down the whole system of justice and no-one will be able to trust anyone else.
Running Wild
This trend is leading us into a period of moral anarchy, where everyone makes up their own rules. There are plenty of examples in history where this has led to chaos and national disaster. There is a telling statement in the history of Israel: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit” (Jud 17:6).
And there’s the classic proverb, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Prov 29:18), or in the NIV: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint”, or in The Living Bible: “Where there is ignorance of God, the people run wild”.
But something like this is happening in the contest for the next Prime Minister. We don’t talk about ‘Mr Johnson’ – it’s ‘Boris’. No other politician is usually referred to by his first name. Is it a subtle way of endearing the naughty boy to the public? We can forgive him for his odd foibles and we enjoy his occasional gaffes – they’re all part of the attractive image that is different from the dull, pinstriped politician we have grown to despise.
The Long Term
The likelihood is that Britain will get the Prime Minister she deserves! When a nation abandons the Bible that has been at the heart of its culture for generations, there are no standards of right and wrong, truth or deception. As The Living Bible says, Where there is ignorance of God, the people run wild!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know Bible-believing Christians who are prepared to vote for Boris as the most likely one to get us out of the EU, for which they have prayed for many years. But what of the long-term prospects? Will God have mercy on Britain?
