14 August 1992
Let us begin by dividing up reality. The first part of reality is the natural world, that which is created and governed by the hand of God; this is the terrain, the flora and fauna and the atmospheric events in which we exist. The second is the artifactual world, that which is created and governed by the hand of mankind; this is the realm of clothing and computers, automobiles and armed forces, factories and farms. The third world is the symbolic world, that which is created and enjoyed in the heart and mind of each human being as he or she contemplates the verbal and artistic productions of mankind. It is this third world which we in the humanities emphasize.
How are these three worlds interrelated? The natural world is the home base, that which makes the other two possible. The artifactual world is the arena of our comforts and conveniences. But it is in the symbolic world that we human beings come to full flower and fill the measure of our creation.
The measure of our creation is that we have been sent by our Father in Heaven into this natural world of His to create a heaven out of a fallen world, which is essentially a hell, for Satan largely rules here.
We are in hell because of the fall of Adam. This hell is carefully designed to try the soul of every individual, to prove for each of us whether we most desire our own personal pleasure or rather desire the welfare of all. In this hell where selfishness abounds, righteousness is a singular achievement, attained only by walking humbly with God, to attain a genuine accomplishing concern for the welfare of all.
Now the interesting thing about this situation is that everyone claims to be working in behalf of heaven and earth. The Serbian snipers in Bosnia fancy that they do the world a favor when they gun down Croatian children. The marauding bands of Somalia are grasping at heaven by stealing everything they can lay hands on. Every candidate for political office touts himself or herself as the savior who will really do things right. Advertisers would have you believe that what keeps you from heaven is your body odor or your beverage selection. Madness all.
All of these human attempts to create heaven run afoul of two things. First, heaven is never an individual attainment. If I seek only for my personal heaven, I will fail. I may indeed gain some momentary pleasure. Indeed, some manage a mortal lifetime of selfish advantage. But personal privilege always fails in the long run. Heaven is a corporate venture, and cannot be attained for some at the expense of others. If heaven is to be real and lasting, everyone must have the opportunity to participate, and all who enjoy it must labor in concert to perpetuate it.
The second problem which human beings face in establishing heaven is that we humans do not know how to be wise. Even if we were to solve the first problem and all work together, we would and do miscarry because we do not know enough about our problems and the future to bend our energies in precisely the right way. What the quest of heaven needs is a God, one who is wise and omniscient, who will direct a people intelligently to meet every contingency in time and eternity.
So mankind has two great problems. Some think they can create heaven for themselves without worrying about everyone else who is suffering, and some think that they are smart enough to figure out how to create heaven on their own. The former problem is selfishness, and the latter is pride.
But how to quell selfishness and pride? This is where we return to our three worlds. Selfishness and pride cannot be successfully confronted in either the natural world or the artifactual world. They can be understood and dealt with only in the third world of the symbolic development of the human imagination. What is needed is art forms and arguments which clearly show forth the reality of the human situation, that show selfishness and pride for the great stumbling blocks which they are.
The problem is that much of the symbolic transaction of the human community is the celebration of selfishness and pride. That which could be used to cure is deftly and artfully wielded in behalf of the enemy. Many who could show the correct way mock what will help and glorify this hell in which we find ourselves.
So, what is the solution? I offer the following suggestions:
- We who are Latter-day Saints and skilled in the disciplines of the humanities can make a difference. If we make it the business of our lives to seek out everything that is virtuous, lovely, of good report and praiseworthy, and to create the same. If we promulgate and celebrate that good, we can accomplish that difference. There are many on the earth who are tired of the world and worldliness, who would welcome a stand for principle and virtue, but know not where to find it.
- We Latter-day Saints who would assist in the creation of heaven on earth must have no illusions about the order in which things must be done. The Savior has made it plain that no one can assist in this work until they themselves are clean from their own sins and those of the generation in which they live and work. We can become free from sin only through the Atonement of our Savior in partaking of the New and Everlasting Covenant and in living the law of the Gospel. If you and I will not first eschew selfishness and pride, there is little we can do to help others.
- We must not be snared by the pernicious doctrine of “art for art’s sake.” This doctrine of the world is the very embodiment of both selfishness and pride. It is selfish because it puts the desires of the artist ahead of the result his work creates in the rest of mankind. It is proud because it rejects the mortality of God and good. No one ever created heaven by courting Satan. Yet much of what the world hails as great art, technically superb and thoroughly titillating, is the worship of being carnal, sensual and devilish.
- As Latter-day Saints we can have the power to do good in all of the world of symbols if only we will go humbly before the throne of the author of all good, which is Jesus Christ, and faithfully do His will. The trouble is that to promote good one has to be much more skilled than one needs to be to promote evil.
- Evil is always short-sighted and short-lived. To be intelligent is to look to the long-run happiness of all. In other words, to be evil is to be unintelligent, though perhaps clever, and to be good is the only real intelligence.
- The only real source of intelligence in this life for us is Jesus Christ. He will not save us unless we first save ourselves in the symbolic world. He comes to us as the Word, the messenger of salvation, to excite our minds to hunger and thirst after that which is good and holy. We then begin to treasure that which is good and holy, then and only then can we as persons begin to be good and holy and intelligent. Only as we persist in making every sacrifice to cleanse our minds and hearts of that which is base and evil can we help to create and dwell in a heaven with other persons of good will.
Your graduation today shows that you have been able to meet the requirements of this university for your degree. The question remains, did you meet those requirements with cleverness or with intelligence? Whichever it was, we shall all be found out. For in the not too distant future there will be another commencement day, the day when our mortal probation is past and we commence our individual eternities.
At that time some of us will be told, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into my rest.” These souls will then have the delight of laboring successfully to build heavens for others for all of the future. But some will be told, “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” These are they who celebrated selfishness and pride in their mortal probation, who sought comfort and aggrandizement only for themselves at the expense of others. They will be sent out into the darkness to say anything they please, no matter how foul or perverse, and to depict evil in all of its gore, to their hearts content. But let us hope that none of this company will then be found weeping and wailing and gnashing teeth. Thank you.