(photo from the satirical film Idiocracy)This article tells of a group of college students from Loyola University in New Orleans who:
won first-place in the Bateman Case Study Competition. The competition, which is organized by the Public Relations Student Society of America, required teams to create a full-scale campaign for the Consumer Bankers Association. The Loyola team's project, "The Bling Starts Here," focused on the correlation between attending college and maximizing your earning potential.How sad!
Nothing against these college students, but what an indictment of our culture, of higher education, and of the Jesuit Order that runs Loyola University.
It goes without saying that "Bling" is a slang word for jewelry - usually carrying the connotation of gaudy, trashy, and over the top. So, in order to attract young people to get a college education, it is now necessary to induce them with naked greed as personified by shallowness and a lack of class. Notice that there isn't even the pretense of learning to think critically, to be leaders in the community, to be socially refined and educated. No, it's all about having a chain the size of shackles and a big shiny hood ornament around one's neck.
And what about the Jesuits! Loyola is a Christian institution run by the fathers and brothers of the Society of Jesus - which has a long and impressive history of educating - truly educating people - largely for service to the church and to the community. But there is nothing here regarding the Christian concept of vocation nor of service. St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, adopted the motto: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam ("For the greater glory of God"). But we see none of that here, rather it's all about "bling": materialism, showiness, vapidity, and a lack of refinement.
We are quickly becoming the America of Idiocracy.
Hello. I live in SE Louisiana and have been reading your blog for a few months but only recently (tonight) signed up for a blogger name. I just wanted to say that this does not surprise me at all. When I was looking at colleges to attend, I was offered a scholarship to Loyola and almost went there but I could not see how it was in any way different from the secular schools I visited. It's sad.
ReplyDeleteIgnatius was no saint. He was a pneumatomachian who denied justification by grace through faith in Christ alone, apart from works.
ReplyDeleteWhat the Jesuits have is a long history of questionable fidelity even to the church they supposedly defend.
ReplyDeleteThis sort of thing from Jebbie institutions is hardly surprising. It's what they do.
Not surprising at all. While I was Catholic I often heard mutterings that the Jesuits should be suppressed (again).
ReplyDeleteHard to believe this order was once the "front troops" for the papacy.
Catholic institutions of higher learning are in trouble in general, and many Jesuit institutions have gone off the deep end.
Christine
Not surprising at all. While I was Catholic I often heard mutterings that the Jesuits should be suppressed (again).
ReplyDeleteHard to believe this order was once the "front troops" for the papacy.
Catholic institutions of higher learning are in trouble in general, and many Jesuit institutions have gone off the deep end.
Christine
The love of money is the root of all evil, is as true today as the day Timothy was inspired in the Holy Spirit to write it down.
ReplyDeleteAs a former money professional (long CV) I grew to despise money and all it stood for, from salarium as the origin of the word salary, meaning the wages paid in salt to mercenaries so Roman elite did not have to do their own dirty work, to the Temple of Juno Moneta from which we derive the word money. Juno, queen of the gods. In her temple upon the highest mount overlooking Rome was money coined.
My Savior Jesus, the Christ, only once flew into a rage and that was against the money lenders defiling His Father's House.
Or, as Mencken once cracked, Money isn't all it's cracked up to be. Look who God gave it to.
After surviving Wall Street and the climb up and fall from that lofty height, I am 100% convinced that of the several ultimate corruptions Lucifer set loose amongst us, the concept of money is at the top of the list alongside the concept of Time. (for if God is always Now, what is Time but an illusion in His view?)
When the children of Israel entered the Promised Land God explicitly instructed them to kill everything (eradicate all alien influences) and never ever intermarry with surrounding races (meaning, not only marriage but the mixing of ideas and concepts) The first tribe to succumb to marrying into alien tribes was the tribe of Dan, the northernmost tribe. Northern is an allusion to the intellect, and it was the intellect that chose to slip and slide on God's very explicit commandments.
The tribe they entered into sold them on the idea that while they were waiting for the fruits of harvest God was providing to them freely, the tribe of Dan could sell their labor for extra income and do twice as good as their neighbors.
And so began to intrusion and subversion of selling our time and labor to others, which sets in motion all sorts of Other Allegiances. And God said have no other gods before me.
Money is a god.
"We are quickly becoming the America of Idiocracy."
ReplyDeleteGiven the current administration, America is well on its way to becoming a kakistocracy.
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