Pearls Before Swine

The sinful nature of digital existence

I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of existence in digital space lately, since it all seems to be coming to a head, with the decline of social media and so on. The line from the Bible about casting pearls before swine has kept bubbling up in my mind:

"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces." (Matthew 7:6, King James Bible).

It seems to me that this is what communication in digital space is all about. Posting things on social media (even on blogs…even on this very platform!), is doing this. Giving valuable things—your best thoughts, your truths, your insights, your art—to a void that is filled with dogs and swine.

It isn’t necessarily that people consuming what you produce are dogs and pigs (although many of them are)—it’s that consuming something in digital space encourages doglike and piglike behaviors. And combined with the natural baseness of most people—most people are barely human—you get a situation where giving anything good or true or beautiful to an online audience is very much offering pearls to swine. Digital space brings out the worst in an already awful species (us). Transcending the animality that digital space sinks us into requires a special kind of energy and effort that most people will not bother to muster. So they behave like animals.

To me, the most interesting bit is the last few words: “…and turn and tear you in pieces.” It’s not just enough for the swine to destroy the good things you give them—they will then turn on you and destroy you. Why?

Well, they had such fun trampling the good things you gave them under their feet, that they will want more—the pearls you gave them just whet their appetite, and if you produced the pearls they enjoyed destroying, then you yourself must be even more enjoyable to destroy.

The moral of the story: your best thoughts—anything holy or good that comes out of you—must be carefully protected, and given out with great discrimination.

It seems that this was the main struggle of Jesus’ life—not giving out his good things to the wrong people in the world; and since most people in the world are evil, his mission was inevitably doomed. He was going to get torn to pieces, trampled under the feet of doglike and piglike humans, because if you say enough true, good, or holy things, word will get out, and they will find you, and kill you. Why? Because it feels good to destroy something beautiful.