The Post Post

Today I was reading yet another blog post talking about post-evangelical Christianity, and I realized just how sick I am of things being “post.”    All the time I’m hearing post-Christian, post-evangelical, post-conservative, postmodern, post-American, postnasal – I mean, what’s up with that?  It’s ridiculous.  Seriously, why does everything have to be post-something-else?  Why can’t it simply be what it is?  It’s a pain in the posterior; it’s enough to make a person go postal.

“Post,” apparently, is the  préfixe du jour, which is kind of ironic when you think that it’s a prefix that means “comes after.”  But, that’s the wonder of the English language.  Words – especially stupid words – do seem to come in and out of vogue; someone will use an odd word, and all of a sudden everyone is using it.  Years ago, I remember such a word was “diametrically,”  as in “diametrically opposed.”  Like “post,” it’s a word that really didn’t have to be used. I mean, how opposed to something do you really have to be? But, for a few years it seemed that no one was merely opposed to something, everyone was “diametrically opposed.”  And, like “post,” it didn’t really say anything about what anyone was, just what they weren’t.

If something is “post,” then it’s over; it no longer exists, it’s dead. Or, worse than that, it’s postmortem, after dead.  Dead is what it is.  If you’re worried about after dead, then you’ve got problems; post-traumatic stress, perhaps.

Being post is a lot like being a-something, like asymmetric, or perhaps asymptomatic.  Or an atheist, which is also all the rage now.  One of the reasons, I think, that atheists have such a hard time organizing is that they aren’t necessarily for anything, and they don’t necessarily have any shared beliefs; what they have is a shared unbelief.  Which, I guess, is a lot like being post something. The posts also have a hard time organizing, because, let’s face it, they’re simply too late.  They’re not only not for something, they’ve missed it – the ship has already sailed.

Why aren’t there any pre-anythings?  Wouldn’t it better to be a little early, rather than being late, or simply being not?   I guess that’s what prophets are – those who are pre-something.  Prophets are good people to have around – even the name is positive: pro-phet.  We don’t seem to have any of those guys around anymore. But, that’s a subject for another post.

I’m tired of all the posts; in fact, I’m against them.  I guess you could say I’m apostalic, railing against the posts. So, don’t talk to me about postmodernism or postevangelicalism.  If you are too late to be something, I don’t want to hear about it.