Education Is Brainwashing Your Desires
St. Augustine defines virtue as ordo amoris, the ordinate condition of the affections in which every object is accorded that kind of degree of love which is appropriate to it. Aristotle says that the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought… Plato before him had said the same (The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis, 2001, p16, originally published in 1944).
The goal of virtue and education isn’t to fill your head full of facts. It’s to guide your affections. Education is the act of brainwashing yourself to stop desiring the wrong things and start desiring the right things.
This is impossible without the Gospel. If one rejects Jesus as Savior and King, they will reject the most important desires and affections.
But once you’ve embraced the Gospel, then it’s time to start changing your desires. Re-educate yourself to like and dislike what you ought.
We recently had an explosion of vomit in our house. Three people started throwing up at the same time and continued throwing up repeatedly. One made it to the toilet every time (win!). One exploded almost an entire room from the top bunk bed. And one seemed to wander from place to place hitting the couch here, the rug there, etc.
Looking back I’m thankful to God that I was joyfully humming a hymn and chuckling to myself, because it was so crazy. And the few kids who weren’t throwing up were joyfully helping out, too. It took over an hour of cleaning and lots of loads of laundry to get things back to normal.
It’s true that I would rather not spend my time in throw up. But somewhere along the line, after almost nineteen years of marriage and five kids, God changed my desires. He blessed me with a desire for my family that far exceeded my dislike for throw up.
So be a lifelong learner; that is, educate yourself to rightly order your desires. Love the things you ought to love. Hate the things you ought to hate.
What do you think?
Joseph