How to be Popular!!
March 25, 2007 at 1:35 pm (Life, my existence, Social, Theology)
In good Kierkegaardian ‘genius’ style, I have had an insight that I shall bestow upon my readers: Psalm 119.74 is the key to social popularity! And as we all know, the Bible has value only insofar as (again, thank you Kierkegaard!) it has to do with ME and my FELT needs.
Oddly enough, even this ‘genius’ idea won’t be good enough for many, who see no value in attention gained from “those who fear You.” And who would have thought that we all are ‘popular’ anyway, from the One who can fill our need for attention. (That really does sound quite audacious!)
3 strains of Christianity..
March 18, 2007 at 4:39 pm (Life, my existence, Social, Theology)
Now, for those of you who read this blog-o-la of mine, you’ve probably noticed that it’s not the most readable. It’s really more like a series of ‘first drafts’ without ever getting to the ‘final’ draft. If I had the time, then I would be reviewing and rewriting, building and extending arguments, but I don’t, so this is what ya get from my head while in church this morning (although, not always explicitly within anything said):
1) “God’s in my spiritual clique.”
This morning Daniel mentioned how it’s within the nature of ‘cool’ to blow ppl off. There’s the “I’m cool, and I only associate with those who are ‘on my level’.” Usually socially, but we all have our lines of judging.
So what happens when we take this mentality with us to church? or to Jesus? Often we keep our own identity that we want, like and have paid dearly in time and effort to create. That identity is ‘cool’ and so when all our social relationships are based on that factor, when we get involved with Jesus, well.. I’m cool, and I’m now involved with Jesus, so.. Jesus must be cool… right?
Wow. Talk about turning the “love you enough to not leave you like you are” on it’s head. While our pastor didn’t so much hit on some of these previous ideas, he did counter it with the truth that Jesus doesn’t display this feature of being ‘cool’. It’s not about exclusivity. It’s about looking at a crowd and looking for the one or two who are missing. and then, not just noticing “Where’s Tom?” but then going after ’em. Basically, if Jesus WAS cool (blowing off those who aren’t like him) we’d be toast a long time ago.
2) Weak duty.
There’s been too many people around me over the years who have become convinced that “I need to pray and read my bible and go to church and do church-stuff despite there being any actual difference or change to myself, my life, my friends because of these activities, cuz that’s what faith is.”
I don’t know what it is within me that took that idea and revolted against it, and to a large degree, I never never explicitly said that I was rejecting it. Rather, I “just knew” that Jesus’ involvement in my life not just “should” or “could” or “ought” make me act different.. but that if Jesus is my life, then that has something to do with my mind and emotions as well as my actions and decisions. I don’t know when or how that idea became embedded in my theology, but it did, and it’s the central theme to my daily living. Jesus has made an incredible difference in my present-day life, often with me fighting against his bringing it out within me.
3) Strong fighting.
Which brings me to my third ‘strain’ or ‘version’ of Christianity. In undergrad there were those who tried to reform my Christianity to the weak duty(usually by means of “you’ll feel like it after you do it” bunk; maybe I’m still not spiritual enough!) when I explained to them that I “just didn’t feel/couldn’t bring myself” to sing the ‘worship’ songs that spoke of my having a present, positive emotional state towards God. Looking back, I can only see these people as those who have more self-control of their life and emotions than I did. If you can tell yourself to “be happy” about any given topic, then you’re a ‘better'(more independent, and less understanding of your need for Jesus?) person than I am in this area.
I’m more than happy to call Jesus my ‘crutch’. Why? Cuz I’m more than happy to tell you that I’m a mess on my own. And not just tell you, I’m fully unable to hide it. I’m the brutally honest ‘uncool’ one who’s glad Jesus isn’t too ‘cool’ to blow me aside.
I titled this version of Christianity as “strong fighting,” which thus far may sound ridiculous since all I’ve mentioned is my weakness! As I live my life according to Jesus’ strength, I then gain confidence (faith!) in He who has proved himself (according to “my eyes” which some are all to fast to use in this instance). But that’s exactly it: I live and am told to live according to how I see, feel, think; what tastes good, what smells good, what feels good. That which makes me ‘cool’. but if Jesus loves my ‘uncool’ self, then why do I need that which is ‘cool’ for my spiritual fulfillment/growth? I’m left fighting against all that wars against my soul for Him who is for me.
While searching for 2 Cor 12.9, I came across another: 2 Cor 11.3: “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
Absolutely. I have no other message to my brothers.
Problems within Capitalism.. continued..
March 15, 2007 at 3:33 pm (Philosophy: 20th/21st Century, Social)
This is part of an ongoing theme in my head started by the Frankfurt school:
Capitalism, for all it’s “worker responsibility”(don’t work= don’t get paid) doesn’t have a lot of boundaries when it comes to ethical practices, since the #1 ethic is to do whatever it takes to get the consumer’s $.
The opposing force that *should* be enacted to balance this out is consumer responsibility:”I ain’t buyin’ it cuz it’s crap!” Which *should* have some kind of influence on how the companies do their business practices/product..
But then, enter the ‘greed’ factor: Consumer responsibility dies because the consumers don’t hold out for ‘the best’ but go for the crap cuz it’s ‘good enough’. Likewise, corporate responsibility (of not ripping ppl off) dies at the promise of higher profit/pay.
Internal to each company, the managerial structure is unethical by implementing the equivalent of ‘forced labor’. Again, this should be countered by the consumer responsibility of ‘who wants to buy from a company who treats their workers like crap.’ But in comes the greed factor of “eh, who cares, I just want this even if it’s crap, even it’s from a crappy company.” Or the ‘need’ factor, “I’m not getting paid enough, so I need to buy the crap product (further supporting a crap company) simply out of pragmatic reasons (my crap company has me in a forced-labor situation, not paying me enough to buy from/support a good company).
I’m sure this isn’t a clear post, but it does bring up some of the main issues, which I’m starting to see can be applied to politics of a democratic republic, both of which have their major flaws exposed in the question/underlying situation behind: “What do I do when I don’t like any of what’s offered?”
..have I become a poli-sci-econo-socialogist?..
oh, and for all you who think you NEED vista for fancy graphics, check out the LINUX side of things.
Po-Schmo..
March 6, 2007 at 8:12 pm (Life, my existence, Philosophy: 20th/21st Century, Social)
So I’m getting the impression that there’s a lot of people my age who are doing a lot of the same things I am. We’re all white post-college’ers who value the same thing: real good art and real good relationships. We’re all white and somewhat urban-ish… that is to say, “yuppie” and most of us are running or involved in small businesses.
It’s funny that we’ve all got a similar identity and theme. No one told us to go start a small business. For most, it was like, “we love this; we can do this; let’s do this!”
It’s funny how social-theorists/commentators like to jump on the bandwagon that the philosophers have already jumped off of. I remember a few years back how savvy you were to use the word ‘postmodern'(or as my philosophy prof short-handed: po-mo). It’s a dirty word now. Overdone, overblown, emptied of meaning. I caught hold of this when I saw a million and one christian books about the joys or evils of po-mo theology & practice, and laughed at most of ’em for missing the point. They all were turned by their modernistic mind to try to define the anti-definable.
But here we are nonetheless. PoMo’ers living out the values.
The new metanarrative seems more and more to be capitalistic. And while pomo’ers should be antagonistic about ‘big business’ (and they are) they still embrace capitalism as a ‘necessary evil’, to the point of using it for their own purposes- creating small businesses ruled by their own values.
I get confused though, because this is all about people like me. What of the urban minorities? From what I’ve seen they are taken by the ‘culture machines‘ as much as the rural kids who ‘just want out’, who hear of a ‘far away place of bliss’ from the culture industry. And even the Bobo’s, while rejecting one form of capitalism and it’s product embrace their own ‘organic/yoga/low-emission’ version.. Looks like the Frankfurt School really did describe PoMo culture best.. it’s all a herd of people following their own version of the same “give-me-what-i-want” savior. Seems nothing has changed much.
A Must Read: Western Religious Overview
March 3, 2007 at 7:18 pm (Germany, Life, my existence, Philosophy: 20th/21st Century, Social, Theology)
So call me crazy, but I agree with the German Rationalist (see the end of page 3).
Speigel has a funny LONG article on the role of religion on the continent and in the states.. and it’s kind of a kludge. The writer has some good insights from some people who have something good to say, but they seem to be connected to some ill-logic (9/11 = rise of christian fundamentalism in states). Maybe I’m out of it, but I think religious fundamentalism has been going on in the states from before 9/11. Maybe I’m missing something though. I’d see it more in generational terms: my grandparents were the atheists. My parents are the old-school religion=good. In between those 2 generations, you have the ’80’s liberal christianity kids. I’m in the 90’s “nihilism didn’t do me any good and Jesus did” crowd. Somewhere between me & the 80’s generation (now in their late 40’s), those in their 30’s now are the pluralistic ‘little gods’ who view life as all about themselves, including the ‘use’ of Jesus. And younger than me are an interesting set of kids who are born of the 80’s liberal /cultural christianity- 100% christian schooled, and twisted views of what america is(usually indoctrinated with/holding to ‘pet theologies‘)
So where’s the fundamentalism? It’s a kludge itself, mostly in the old-timers (in their 50’s) who still have an affinity from religion mixed with the 80’s culturalized-into-conservitism-so-much-that-it’s-liberal and the kids who’ve been raised in it.
9/11 didn’t so much do anything for those who don’t believe so much as helped to polarize those who were “looking for the devil behind every bush.” Sadly, this will leave america completely missing the point- not seeing the devil’s work in our own souls.
But like Jurgen Habermas, I seem to think that rationalism and religion have often been nipping and biting at each other so much in their zero-sum tug of war that fundamentalism has arisen inevitably. Why not merge the two, “like in the good ol’ days” (Augustine/Boethius/Aquinas/Calvin). Where are the volumes of logical, well-thought out worldviews? I like Piper as much as the next guy, but the fundamentalist can use him as fuel. I’d LOVE to see Piper write “Contra American-stupid-religion.” I think what he has written can well be used for this purpose as well, as one of the underlying pillars, but it’s not explicit.
(comments are preferred about speigel over my own silliness, but i’ll take what i get)
Stupid, Gullible West.
February 27, 2007 at 10:51 am (Philosophy: 20th/21st Century, Social)
Apparently Jesus didn’t resurrect, just because there’s 3 names than line up. Fallacy: Appeal to unqualified authority (James Cameron, who, btw, ignores the QUALIFIED authority at the end of the article!) Likewise, the repeated devaluing of *worthy* and *important* evidence (like the biblical account and the common names for that time period) is another fallacy of suppressed evidence. AKA: Propoganda.
But not to be outdone in the states, the continent is ready to claim Communism “works” simply because China’s economy is growing.
Don’t get me started on the logical fallacies involved here! You don’t have a large enough “market share” to make the general claim that it ‘works’. You have to have at LEAST 50% of a significant number! One doesn’t count. Hurley calls this a ‘hasty generalization”, when “a conclusion is drawn from an atypical sample.”
Now, I’m a good skeptic on both fronts, willing to doubt either end of the stick, so how about this reasoning, suggesting I have a fallacy of presumption(like suppressed evidence): “How do we know what is ‘atypical’ or not? Perhaps all previous iterations of ‘communism’ weren’t true to true communist ideals, and FINALLY China is?” Ah, the joys of scepticism. This reasoning may be plausible, but I lack the historical knowledge of the details of the implementation of communism to bring any real conclusion to the matter, but I will say that from what I do know, it sounds like communism is impossible to fully implement, and thereby China isn’t ideally communistic, and hence, the original article’s title instills a fallacy of equivocation, or more likely, the hasty generalization I mentioned earlier, and perhaps, from the stories of the REST of China (quite poor) as compared to the wealthy leaders who AREN’T living on a half cup of rice(this is now an ad hominem argument on my part 😉 ), it sure sounds like this propoganda piece is suppressing evidence as well.
Jesus=Gospel.
February 25, 2007 at 1:43 am (Life, my existence, Social, Theology)
I’m rapidly coming to the end of my ability to communicate what I want to about living like Christ.
I could whine & complain about how death is a more common word in the New Testament than love, and how nearly everyone around me doesn’t seem to ‘get’ that dying daily isn’t an option. I can understand though. Just how is it that we are to die? Is there a 3 step method? Most ppl are so focused on the material and the doing aspects I think they don’t think about their own soul and the mess that’s usually found there.
Just look at yourself for a second. Ignore the question of “do you like how you live?”, cuz that only works when we’re honest, and have higher expectations out of life than what we get, and honestly, most of us have lowered expectations about what life here can offer us- to the level of minimising even what Jesus can do in this life with it. So look at this question instead: how often do you get angry? how often do you just want something to ‘go your way’? How often do you sigh in resignation about your job/boss/classes/significant other? Now, where do you think those things ‘come from’? Do you think that they are all connected, having a source somewhere? If not, if you think life is just random with nothing ‘there’, then go live your “eat, drink & be merry” life. You’ve condemned yourself already.
But for the fateful few who dare look into themselves, who dare believe beyond their own understanding that “there’s more” than what you see and know, what is it behind all your emotional torment/mishaps? Why are you angry? Why do you fight? Are you hearing yourself inside screaming “I just want ____ (my way)?” Peter demanded it. The rich man felt it inside. What was Jesus’ response? “Listen to me instead of you. Your answer to life isn’t found doing things your way.” What did Jesus challenge these men on? Their piety? Cuz they didn’t read their Bible enough? DOing is NOT the point.
How then do I do as Jesus requires? Listen to Him. Notice your own desires. Be honest. “Jesus, I want ____. What is it that you want? What is it that YOU say about ____? Is ___ apart of Your kingdom, or of mine?” Goodness, if you can’t trust Jesus with your getting upset each day, what CAN you trust Him with?? Isn’t this obedience?
I’m convinced the typical american christian is powerless and weak because he does not live in obedience to Christ because he is not connected to Christ, does not listen to Christ, nor does he want to. I wish this was not the case, but I can’t seem to find any other reason.
Some will then reply to me saying, “but I’ve not heard from Christ, though I’ve tried.” This has been my life too. Usually I’m too stubborn to listen to him shouting about what I don’t want to hear about. I have seen daily that if I do not listen to Him, if I do not submit my will to Him, then He will force His hand to get my attention: my anger will arise, He will show me that I cannot handle myself, that my will and knowledge is not sufficient.
The wisdom of the All-wise God
February 15, 2007 at 4:24 pm (Life, my existence, Social, Theology)
There’s always 2 elements when it comes to “what to do”. (1) What Jesus says and (2) what I think about what Jesus says, especially when what I think Jesus says isn’t what I want Jesus to tell me!
There’s a bad tendency in the church to dissociate Jesus’ (God’s) will from wisdom. As if what God tells you will ALWAYS be irrational.
Likewise, there’s the other boundary that Jesus’ will isn’t personal to you, and He won’t tell you, so you just have to go with the ‘generic’ commands in the Bible about being a “good steward”(I *DO* mean in that to be read in the most mocking voice possible.. anyways..). And Jesus’ will is clearly your own personal benefit, material growth and ultimately “whatever you want to do is cool with him so long as you (1) give $$ to the poor/missionaries/church(and not invest your own life) (2) send your kids to christian/home school(and not teach them discernment) and (3) go to church just on sunday mornings.
I’d like to propose a “staged” model whereby at first you learn and obey the generic commands of Christ and then he “let’s you in” on the “big picture”(irrational) but that sounds WAAAY too (1) contrived (2) like a cult (3) elitist (“secret knowledge” that I have but you ‘lowly’ don’t).
Jesus didn’t come to create a caste system, quite the opposite. In his coming, a goal of His is unity across the man-made borders.
Well, at the same time that it isn’t about a caste system, it IS about obedience (teach them to obey the commands). And it IS about that faithfulness/obedience with little being rewarded (parable of talents).
But most of us aren’t interested in obedience. I’m usually not! I like my own way thank you very much! I like the plush life of Americana. Listen to Jesus? Why would I do that when I can listen to me & everyone else?! I’ve got options, I don’t need to JUST listen to Jesus.. c’mon now.
I could keep going.. and I probably will..
What concerns me in this moment though is the harm that is done in going outside the boundaries set. Yes, it IS about “listen to Jesus”. Yes, that means even about your house and car. No, I don’t expect you to get it unless you’ve been faithful with the ‘generic’/’little’ commands. Yes, I am crazy.
Say I want to start a church. How am I going to do it? Well, should I go about the maps of the city I wanna start one & see where there’s the least number of churches? Or should I ask God and wait. and wait. and wait. What if I wait for 5 years and I don’t hear anything?
You realize just how many things could be ‘going right/wrong’ here? 1) Why do you even wanna start a church? Who’s idea was it? Your’s or God’s? Sure you may “see a need” and sure that need may well be legitimate in your own eyes. You may even be thinking that you’re “obeying God’s command” by starting a church, cuz after all “didn’t He tell us to spread the gospel?” (and (sarcasm again) OF COURSE gospel=church!)
(2) And what about your role in it? Did God say that He wanted *you* to do this? Or are you “jumping the gun” because “Well, no one else is!” What if God’s plan isn’t about “starting a church” but changing your will to be obedient to Him?
(3) Maybe after all that, He does want you to start a church. Maybe the location isn’t the important part. Did you ask God about what your priorities should be? And whether location is part of that deal? Why do you think He needs to answer your question on your timeline?
But for most of us, it probably isn’t about starting a church. What about choosing a church? Do you base your decision on which church is “most like Starbucks” or which church offers true fellowship around the Word of God and service to the poor, the sick, the weak, the widows? (but oh! I forgot, Starbucks gives to charity and even encourages it’s employees to do so.. maybe I SHOULD model my church-going to Starbucks afterall!!)
I’m not done yet. I started off writing this about the harm involved in over-rational approaches. Let me continue with my church-starting example. What happens if I don’t address any of the above questions and go ahead and pick the location with the least amount of churches in a neighborhood that is ethnically, financially and socially like me? And what happens if I preach to them messages that get me excited? What happens to the perception of Jesus in a whole community of people? Is sacrifice a part of that image? Is obedience part of what they understand christianity to be about? What are the ramifications of a whole nation not understanding the gospel because it’s been propogated by people who have not been lead by God, but by their own ‘wisdom’?
I dare say you get America, and you get Europe. There is no such thing as “no harm no foul” when it comes to living by your own wisdom and living by God’s explicit will for your life. And we won’t have a clue about any of this unless we obey what is already clear. Have you prayed today(since Jesus prayed daily)? Did it match “The Lord’s Prayer” (since that’s how Jesus taught us to pray)?
Fumble?? Recovered!!
February 12, 2007 at 3:10 am (Life, my existence, Social, Theology)
So here I am being a good thinker a few days ago and trying to use my brain for the task at hand: understanding how relationships grow.
Well, today I’m again, being a good boy and going to church, and hear a message I usually embrace and adore: “Jesus is enough” (enough for all my fears, questions, issues, thinking, relating, doing, etc. That is, I don’t need to have ‘5 steps to being a better christian’)
Now the centrality of the simple gospel is what I love about my church. But I was a bit concerned today. Was he calling me out on my thinking about relationships the other day? Did I somehow ‘dis’ God by not letting him be the glorious solution to whatever I defined as the problem?
So I got to thinking (duh?!).. mostly while conversing over this with a fellow thinker. If Jesus is all I need for all my issues and problems, then (1) what the heck does that mean and (2) how does that relate to me and my thinking processes? Here’s what we came up with:
- Jesus knows the details of all of our lives, and is ready/willing/able to communicate to us about what we should be doing in those circumstances. (By ‘communicate’ I refer to John 16.13, and all it entails.)
- I am human and don’t know all circumstances.
- My lack of complete knowledge results in generic statements about what I perceive to be ‘normal’ for all ppl reading/hearing me.
- Therefore, he knows you and your story and what ought be done more than what I can try to generalize, so listen to Jesus not me.
Now, that’s a valid & sound argument in my mind. But I’m not happy with it. Cuz I wanna say that I’ve come up with something here that is profitable (albeit not absolutely applicable). And I wanna say that my mind and thinking can be a God-glorifying enterprise. So I gave it another go:
- While I don’t know all circumstances, I do know something about my own.
- While I don’t know all truth, I do know what is communicated to me by Jesus (re: His Spirit/His words while on this planet).
- God wants our lives to be lived in accordance with truth; this is glorifying to Him.
- It then is glorifying to Him to understand my circumstances and understand His truth.
- Furthermore, it is glorifying to Him for me to bring my understanding of my life and His truth into unity in how I choose to live. That is, my life and his truth ‘eclipse’. (Think Venn diagrams..)
- Therefore, I need to use my rational processes to understand His truth and my circumstances.
Ok, now all that in English: I think. That’s a good thing as long as my thinking is constrained to understanding the elements and details of my life and how it “works” and what I’m doing and why I choose what I do. Likewise my thinking is a good thing in terms of having a coherent view of His truth, and it’s correspondence to my life. That is, I cannot live as Jesus without using my rational process. I can perhaps “look like it” or “pretend”, but I will be acting without understanding/knowledge. I will be little different than a commanded soldier. “Don’t ask questions, just do.”
Now, some will rebut, “Christians are to submit to God’s direction, and yes, should not ‘ask questions’ but should just go ahead and do as commanded clearly! That is what faithfulness is!”
Right.
So much of me wants to scream out towards that mindset, “But you’ll miss the glory of God in knowing Him!” But they would only yell back, “but you’ll miss out on His glory displayed because you have not acted!” So now that that has gotten us nowhere, let me proceed in another vein:
What was presented a minute ago could be setup like this:
- All God has communicated is commands for His followers.
- All God’s commands are to be followed by His followers.
- All God’s commands are clearly understood. “You read it, You do it”
- As a corollary, “None of God’s commands take intellectual effort to comprehend.”
- Therefore, none of God’s communication needs nothing more than be acted upon.
If that is all the gospel is, where is Jesus? The whole point of this blog was recovering rationality to christian living in light of “Jesus is all I need.” While I see no need for rationality in the above argument, I do not also see any Jesus, nor need for Him. I only see man acting in his own power.
The sad part about this the above argument is that it is a christianity without ability to communicate with anyone other than those who already know God’s commands. What is to be said to the one who is depressed? Who is addicted to _____? Who keeps up with the Joneses?
Thinking gets people into their messes, yes. That is not a problem with thinking. It’s a problem with prioritising their thinking as a legit problem-solving method in stead of Jesus.
Keeping up with the Joneses is a problem Jesus called out. But what do we do with it? Just “stop it”? That’s an irrational responce. Rationality comes alongside Jesus’ words to the Rich Young Ruler and says, “Your priority is not eternal. Your priority is not Jesus’ glory but your own.”
Depression can have multiple causes, that is truly debated. But for a number of people I know, it has been caused by hearing messages in the back of your head and assuming they’re (1) from within your own mind and (2) truth when they are not. Rationality comes and understands those 2 points and looks for the solution in Jesus, who has said there is an enemy who comes to kill, steal and destroy (John 10.10, as well as 1 Cor 12.5.)
Rationality is the glue between what I know and do and what someone else says about what I know and do. The solution is always Jesus. My need is always Him. But it takes rational effort to understand my need, and to understand how He is the solution. Do I have to always know how He is the solution? No, but I know Him more by knowing how, and somehow knowing Him is all that matters (Philippians 3).
Starbucks owns us..
February 10, 2007 at 4:43 pm (Life, my existence, Social)
This is not about coffee. This is about the creation of an environment.. a bubble around each of us that is so what we want, what we would prefer, what makes us feel comfortable.
What happens when a person gets his own way *only* an *ever*? The kings of past ages did as much. Rome? Late Ancient Israel? Babylon? Were any of these men “quality” in any sort? Were their relationships “whole”? Deep and meaningful? or forced and full of facade?
My presupposition is that selfishness is self-destruction. I get it from my own experience, how while I like to get my way and how I fight for it, but my way doesn’t “work” in reality. Frustration comes. But even were I to get my way fully, who would want to be around me? They would have to bow to me and my way. If they are also selfish, they will expect me to bow to them. This is an incongruity. Neither will. Likewise, with my way alone I would only choose what I know. I’ve seen this in the “lower class” of the city. They only choose what they know and react accordingly. And not like I don’t do the same as well.. but I’ve been exposed to more options.. I’ve been stretched beyond my desire and I have learned more than what I would have chosen, but now I am happier for having learned it. I didn’t get my way, but instead my way changed for what I couldn’t see that which would bring me more happiness than I could have chosen. Beauty through pain kinda stuff.
So what if the world was like Starbux and Lexus? Heated seats, air-conditioned cars, offices and houses.. Would we eat it up? Or would we shrivel and die?
And what if our kids are raised in this environment? We take them to star$ with us, and they see all around us what we fill our lives with. What value judgement will they make when they turn 17? Will it be acceptance of it or rejection?
The hippies rejected the fat cats. The fat cats ran out of $. One set of values (“relationship!!”) mixed with the other (“money!!”) turns into sleek, sexy, low-emissions driving, coffee drinking, detox’ing yoga-moms.
What will this next generation of kids lack that they will scream for? I’m tempted to say, “a challenge.” If we send our kids off to the best schools and send them ’round the world in 3 semesters, what will they miss out on? If they sexed-out when they’re 22 (or maybe it’s 14 by now, who knows?!), then what?
There’s the transitional generation that I’m apart of. Go to Lincoln Park in Chicago. We’re everywhere. We’ve gotten all the world has to offer and made it into cheap trinkets. Work cuz ya hafta, and get strung out & sexed every night. That’s the best to offer, eh? So what of the kids who are looking up to us? Will they laugh in our faces? Or buy stock in our IPO?
Commerce will just keep pushing for us to get more and more of what we want, but will it reach a ‘breaking point’? The hippies and the punks are the great reactionaries. They see all this and live in the low-income housing, dressed in ratty jeans and clothing. Somehow they know. but their morality isn’t any better. They are moved by the truth of identity: do who you are. But their anthropology is scattered as their brain, tattered as their clothes.. Without a full conception-framework of who humans are that precisely corresponds with reality, we will only live a scattered, random human life.
Does materialism, darwinism, commerce give us reason to deny ourselves? Reason to care about another? Some will say yes, in a networked fashion– social contract theory, and all that. That’s method, not reason. “But by that method we attain our reason: selfishness.” Again.. all you want is to live in your box of yourself?
Maybe I’m framing all this wrong, and there’s a false split I’ve setup. But there’s such a concoction of what I truly believe and know and see daily with what I wonder about in these above paragraphs..
eh? 