Today’s wisdom says that we should question everything.

Question:  “Does that include questioning the idea that we should question everything?”

Yes?  No?  Can’t really make sense of that one if you think about it too much can you?

Problem is, “question most things” doesn’t have the same ring.  Neither does, “Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”

We require our wisdom to be a little more alluring than that.  We expect our jingle to jangle…in 144 characters or less.  It you can’t meme it, it’s really not worth sharing.

Truth must be compact – and transpose nicely over a cat picture.

To be fair, methods of communication change and evolve with the needs of our society.  I’m sure that at one point, some fuddy-duddy railed against the worldly superficiality of stained glass windows being used to communicate Gospel truths.

But it does seem like we’ve reached fever pitch.  In fact, the speed with which everything happens in our tech-driven society doesn’t really allow us time to question anything, much less everything.

Question everything has morphed into question nothing.  Everything goes.  Like society is in the midst of a giant liquidation sale with really annoying commercials.

Weekend Clearance Event!  Don’t miss it.  Everything must go!  Baby, bathwater and brains.

I sat through a commercial the other day (I couldn’t fast forward through it because it was in the movie theater) that used a kind of anti-logic to convince teenagers to not start smoking.

It went something like this.  I don’t let anyone or anything control me.  Cigarettes will end up controlling me.  Therefore, I won’t smoke cigarettes. 

What, as an act of defiance?  Really?  Isn’t that a big reason kids start smoking in the first place?  A 25-year, 246 billion dollar settlement, and that’s the best we’ve got?

Rebel by NOT smoking.  What if I want to rebel against the commercial’s notion of rebelling?  It’s trying to control me also.  Can’t let that happen.

Doesn’t this just perpetuate the problem?  The need to rebel for the sake of rebellion is a large part of what has landed us in this at-risk-troubled-teen-youth-driven-rebel-without-a-cause-don’t-trust-anyone-over-30 mess.

To quote Bob Dylan, “You gotta serve somebody / It may be the devil or it may be the Lord / But you gotta serve somebody.”

There’s really no question about it.