Whatever happened to Truth, Goodness and Beauty

By Sigrid Weidenweber

Colleges, universities and schools have, throughout the ages, taught young minds under the motto, Veritas, Bonitas, Pulchritudo. Which, translated from Latin, means Truth, Goodness and Beauty. Why have these motifs, meant to encourage searching and attaining a higher moral, beautiful and spiritual plateau in life, fallen from the curricula of all teaching institutions but a few? Here is why: They had to be purged together with the idea of a Supreme Being.

When man assumed the role of being the Alpha and Omega of every aspect of life, to the point of deciding who lives and who dies, these simple but powerful concepts, too, had to be purged. Why would you teach children, ennobling their minds with such wonderful concepts, when your curriculum is filled with condoms, sexual problems and deviancies, the hatred of America and its President, and the misconceptions about pot…not a gateway drug.

Who needs Veritas—not only truth in Latin—but also righteousness, when constant mendacious un-veracity, or shall we just say pathological lying, has become a useful aspect of politics? Who needs goodness in a society that has done away with personal beneficence and replaced it with a welfare state?

And what about beauty, the ennobling, wondrous, profound subject of which the poet Keats wrote, “a thing of beauty is a thing forever.” Now, it is a thing destroyed in ever new ways by people who have no concept of creating anything of beauty or creating even something of usefulness.

Our world has become disgusting in the way we tolerate the unseemly, the gross dehumanization in which we allow people to be stripped of their dignity and made objects of fun and derision. Objects, sacred to the religious have been desecrated. I must remind you of the “artist,” who placed a cross into a jar of urine. Murals of hate deface the walls of our buildings and streets. The trash, needles and feces of the homeless have turned former beautiful cities like Portland, Oregon and San Francisco into hell-holes no one wants to visit anymore. Only a few years ago no one would have allowed a mentally ill woman wander about in a see-through night gown to the amusement of the crowd and, especially, some highly entertained men. The police, called to interfere, said they could do nothing, for the woman committed no crime. And, of course there are the young and beautiful who display their perfect bodies in thong bathing suits right in front of our Safeway store. In my book, the Venus de Milo is art, your thong in a public place is porn.

Many people have told me that they have given up being part of ordinary daily life, for it has become too sordid. They have retreated into enclaves, where they enjoy calm, beauteous environs that invite to think and create. Why would they live in cities where the elected Democrat elites allow the mobs to rule? And why would anyone allow themselves to be assaulted by the raucous insane outpourings of protesting youths, roaming the streets, youths that our schools, paid for by our taxes, have produced?

People vote with their feet. They have had enough. My Nevada realtor has told me that he is doing a tremendous business with Oregonians and Californians fleeing their states and buying homes in Nevada. I have been told the same is the case for Texas, Florida and other states.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal

 Sigrid Weidenweber grew up in communist East Berlin, escaping it using a French passport. Ms. Weidenweber holds a degree in medical technology as well as psychology and has course work in Anthropology.  She is co-founder of Aid for Afghans.  Weidenweber has traveled the world and lived with Pakistani Muslims, learning about the culture and religion. She is a published author and lecturer. You can find her books on Amazon.com

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