{"id":5064,"date":"2020-12-04T10:41:46","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T17:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/?p=5064"},"modified":"2021-08-27T11:36:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T17:36:46","slug":"the-2020-vision-of-joseph-smith-and-george-orwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/dialogue\/the-2020-vision-of-joseph-smith-and-george-orwell\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2020 Vision of Joseph Smith and George Orwell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joseph Smith and George Orwell were not optometrists. (And their names have perhaps never been used in the same sentence.) But they understood the importance of the lenses through which we see the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith and Orwell, born a century apart on separate continents, were visionary men who gave us important books that describe the best and the worst of how people see the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Smith\u2019s Book of Mormon, a prophet describes one of the remarkably clarifying roles of the Holy Spirit. \u201cIt speaketh of things <\/span>as they really are<\/span><\/i>, and of things <\/span>as they really will be<\/span><\/i>\u201d (<\/span>Jacob 4:13<\/span><\/a>, emphasis added). The book later tells of a people who, thanks to this same Holy Spirit, are given \u201c<\/span>great views<\/span><\/i> of that which is to come\u201d (<\/span>Mosiah 5:3<\/span><\/a>, emphasis added). And two other prophets speak of a forward-looking approach to life. We must, they say, see things through \u201can eye of faith\u201d (see <\/span>Alma 5<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>32<\/span><\/a>; <\/span>Ether 12<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

A few years after translating and publishing the Book of Mormon, that same Holy Spirit enlightened Smith\u2019s eyes and gave him (in my humble opinion) one of the <\/span>grandest visions<\/span><\/a> ever given to an inhabitant of this planet. This was a panoramic glimpse of the heavens\u2014as they really are. He beheld them in three main divisions: the celestial, the terrestrial, and the telestial. The inhabitants of the celestial realm (the highest of the three) \u201csee as they are seen, and know as they are known\u201d (Doctrine and Covenants 76:94; also compare <\/span>Paul\u2019s first letter to the Corinthians<\/span><\/a>).

Do people want to see things as they really are and will be?<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

What makes such celestial vision possible? The same verse tells us that these are souls who have chosen to receive \u201cof [God\u2019s] fulness and of his grace.\u201d Such clarity of vision comes, therefore, through sharp spiritual lenses that can only be prescribed and dispensed by the Master Optometrist, the Father of all humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do people want to see things as they really are and will be? <\/span>Do they yearn to see through the endless fronts of fakery, exaggeration, and obfuscation to properly understand themselves and the world? Do they crave the courage to see with an eye of faith?<\/span><\/p>\n

It is probably true that, for many, the answer is no. These gifts are not free; they demand the steep tuition of meekness and humility and the bitter medicine of unflinching self-awareness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many insist on donning lenses easier to obtain and perhaps a little more in fashion. Political lenses are especially vogue in 2020. How ironic that such lenses only blur our vision, placing it as far away from 20\/20 as can be. They distort everything we see in our neighbor. Instead of beholding the soul under the skin, we are, to borrow another apt Book of Mormon phrase, \u201c<\/span>stirred up<\/span><\/a>\u201d to see people only as self-interested, calculating, megalomaniacal, partisan, power-hungry animals.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scriptures Smith gave the world certainly say plenty about the potential depths of man\u2019s depravity. But for me, none of his passages on evil contain quite the memorable color we find in the opening pages of Orwell\u2019s classic dystopian novel, <\/span>1984<\/span><\/i>. In this masterclass on the dangers of totalitarianism, we see the political lens adjusted to its angry worst.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The novel is set in Oceania, a place where war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength. The opening pages introduce us to \u201cHate Week.\u201d The days leading up to this buffet of agitation have an \u201ceconomy drive.\u201d This includes cutting off electricity to the elevators, forcing people to climb many flights of stairs to get to work\u2014and thus building their inner reserves of rage.<\/span><\/p>\n

During \u201cHate Week\u201d itself, citizens are whipped up into a frenzy of dark emotions to blind them to reality. Each day, a brief gathering called \u201cTwo Minutes Hate\u201d begins with \u201ca hideous, grinding screech, as of some monstrous machine running without oil\u201d\u2014a sound \u201cthat set one\u2019s teeth on edge and bristled the hair at the back of one\u2019s neck.\u201d Each session focuses on Emmanuel Goldstein, a well-known \u201cEnemy of the People.\u201d Videos are played of his speeches. Citizens are provoked into uncontrollable fury. They shout as loud as they can to prevent Goldstein\u2019s heresies from entering their ears.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSwine! Swine! Swine!\u201d one woman yells as she throws a book at the screen whereon Goldstein speaks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like wildfire, the unchecked anger of the multitude is multidirectional and mercilessly consumes everything in its path.<\/span> In an especially ugly moment, the novel\u2019s protagonist, Winston Smith, succeeds in \u201ctransferring his hatred from the face on the screen to the dark-haired girl behind him.\u201d He imagines doing cruel and unspeakable things to her.<\/span><\/p>\n

In that moment, in Winston\u2019s eyes, she becomes an object for his brutal lust. Her unique personhood disappears behind the smoke of his anger.<\/span><\/p>\n

Orwell was not advocating hate; he was warning us of its bitter fruits. His description of a totalitarian hellscape bears, for those with eyes to see, an unmistakable resemblance to much of today\u2019s political commentary in the United States. Depending on what you watch or read, every week can feel like hate week, with plenty of Two Minutes Hate sessions to keep you on edge. This is, of course, by design. Media organizations know that provoking people is a lucrative business model. People keep watching, advertisers keep paying\u2014the system works. Suddenly a Book of Mormon verse about a group of provocateurs in 82 B.C. evokes a strikingly familiar feel. \u201cIt was for the sole purpose to get gain \u2026 [that they] did stir up the people to riotings, and all manner of disturbances and wickedness, that they might have more employ\u201d (<\/span>Alma 11:20<\/span><\/a>).

God sees the whole person\u2014and so should we. We shortchange ourselves by forgetting that those we hate are created in God\u2019s image.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

It is hard to stand apart from the media culture\u2014mainstream or otherwise\u2014that shapes so much of how we see the world. Provocation, outrage, and ad hominem attacks are its salt, fat, and sugar. \u201cThe horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part,\u201d Orwell writes, \u201cbut that it was impossible to avoid joining in.\u201d Without self-discipline, we so easily reach back into the bag of our favorite political commentary for just one more hot take, one more slam, one more comment taken out of context from an enemy we love to hate.<\/span><\/p>\n

To see as God sees, we must recognize that, as <\/span>Smith said<\/span><\/a> in 1844, \u201cif men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves.\u201d True, people can be base, calculating jerks. But <\/span>God sees the whole person\u2014and so should we.<\/span> We shortchange ourselves by forgetting that those we hate <\/span>(or simply misunderstand) <\/span>are created in God\u2019s image.<\/span> And that they, like us, sin and are given the same wide berth of grace and second chances that God gives to you and me. And that they, like us, are someone\u2019s son, daughter, brother, sister, husband, wife, dad, mom, grandpa, grandma, or dear friend.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I have tried seeing things this way of late and I have to say\u2014I\u2019m happier. Replace some of the more acerbic political commentaries in your information diet with things that tell you more about someone\u2019s life story. Considering the whole person may make your heart lighter and your outlook brighter. And don\u2019t be surprised when unanticipated gratitude floods your soul for the love you feel for those you do not understand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus taught that \u201c<\/span>the light of the body is the eye<\/span><\/a>\u201d\u2014the one part of our faces not covered by a mask. Neither politics nor pandemic should be powerful enough to blind us to a holistic vision of humanity. The only thing in our way, it seems, is ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

May we choose our lenses wisely and come closer to a spiritual, soulful 20\/20 vision in 2020 and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

True, people can be self-interested, calculating, megalomaniacal, partisan, and power-hungry. But God sees the whole person\u2014and so should we.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[472,498],"tags":[129,112,320,107,145,312],"coauthors":[268],"class_list":["post-5064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dialogue","category-tolerance","tag-book-of-mormon","tag-hate","tag-humanism","tag-joseph-smith","tag-spiritual-growth","tag-spirituality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe 2020 Vision of Joseph Smith and George Orwell - Public Square Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"True, people can be self-interested, calculating, megalomaniacal, partisan, and power-hungry. 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