Susan Boyle: Substance Over Style

The Bible says that believers are to "approve what is excellent" (Phil. 1:10).

This is one of the major arguments for believers engaging and enjoying secular culture. Even if culture is secular, man can see God in it, so long as that culture strives to mimic the greatness of God. Unfortunately, Western culture since the 1960s - and more pronouncedly since the 1990s - has (largely) forsaken any attempt to strive for greatness and has begun to engage in a cynical indulgence in childish incompetence. Singers can no longer sing, musicians are no longer maestros, and Hollywood ran out of ideas years ago and has busied itself for the last 10 years simply reproducing the successes of its past.

This has given rise to a culture dominated by talentless nonentities who are promoted to quasi-greatness because of their politics (as Oprah Winfrey) or because of their image (as Britney Spears). That such vacuous posers can be considered "stars" in any sense of the word bespeaks of the potential decline of an entire civilization.

I look back with great longing on the days when people became famous because they actually had done, or could do, something worthwhile. I remember when people could actually play the guitar, and that was the key to being a rock star (Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhodes). I remember when men built companies (Ross Perot) rather than inherited money (Donald Trump). I remember when women became famous because they were beautiful and talented actresses (Lynda Carter) rather than simply cheesy, young, rich, train wrecks (Paris Hilton). I remember when politicians built careers and showed leadership for decades (Ronald Reagan) rather than simply being a worthless empty suit, a political flavor-of-the-month (Barack Obama).

The one person that sort of functions in my own mind as the watershed for when fame was disjoined from substance, and style began to predominate, is a singer named Christopher Cross. An ugly guy, overweight, and not particularly socially adept - he wasn't the kind of musician that would likely be found on a typical teenage girl's bedroom wall. But boy could Christopher Cross sing. He had talent. Nothing to look at, mind you, but he oozed talent.

It is not without some coincidence that, with the advent of the "grunge" rebellion against musicality in the 1990s, there was also a rebellion against accomplishment in the wider culture. Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency, not because he was an accomplished politician, but precisely because he lacked a cogent record, and because he embodied the image thought "hip" and "cool" by aging adolescent Baby Boomers who never bothered to learn history, or philosophy, or religion, or politics. Nirvana bore the same relation to music and Clinton bore the same relation to politics as anti-matter bears to matter.

As art became more artistically deficient, the rest of culture became deficient as well. Christopher Cross, who made a name and career for himself in the 1970s based on talent alone (lacking anything that could be considered sex appeal or image), gave rise to a generation of famesters who were famous merely because the paparazzi followed them around hyping them.

Jump ahead 40 years from Christopher Cross to a time when A Messiah is anointed based on his ability to move men with his great swelling words. A Messiah is promised who has spiritual depth and a wisdom beyond his years. And of course these false hopes are only maintained during The Messiah's campaign by controlling his appearances more than a person stricken with OCD controls their bathroom's tap.

Naturally, the style falls away and reveals the stunning lack of substance when the election is over: a bungling idiot incapable of forming an English sentence without a teleprompter, a fool incapable of forming a cabinet, a liar incapable of telling the truth, and a socialist incapable of masking his naked thirst for power.

And in the midst of this Romper Room of incompetence, how refreshing to find, in a world corrupted by style, that substance still lives. There may be hope for society yet....

Susan Boyle for president.

How wonderful to learn that there is still something within man - some men - that is full, genuine, and real. I'll gladly place my HOPE for CHANGE in the 48-year old virgin....