Following up on the last post on crop subsidies, Mrs. Curley and I were talking about this last night. In the whole history of mankind, it seems that only in recent years (in developed countries) has the procurement of food become taken for granted. I mean, a good part of every day used to be spent growing or working (or hunting) for food. Is it easier to be closer to God when our daily bread is really so much in the balance?
Now, in general most of us don't worry about food-the government is taking care of this by keeping prices low. But because we aren't worrying about food, what do we worry about? Sure we do worry about shelter-mortgages and the like. But what style of shelter do we have? And are we spending more time worrying about (note worrying about is not true worry, but plotting how to obtain or spending time with) DVD's, iPods, cars, boats, jet skis, computer games and gadgets? Are the worries of the age of technology those which draw us closer to God? Do they draw us closer to each other? Or do they help us draw into ourselves? (And what does this do to the spirit of the growers of food?)
John Senior, writing in 1978 (The Death of Christian Culture), discusses how the new art doesn't imitate nature, but is there for itself. Modernism "is an assault on the verb 'to be", that its formal cause is 'artificiality'. Thus the Modernist escapes from real experience through hallucination and virtual reality experiences.
Maybe we are doing that in our lives. We escape into technolgy which provides virtual reality experiences or close to it and leave the real living to the ash heap.
Does any of this make sense or connect. Maybe its too early in the morning....
***********************
Pilgrimage today! Will report on it later.
Oremus pro invicem!
2 comments:
Thus the Modernist escapes from real experience through hallucination and virtual reality experiences.
I'm very skeptical, because people have been escaping reality since day one - i.e. through dance & music (drums in the Native American world), through peyote or alcohol.
The question is not whether escaping reality is good. It is good. We do it every night via our dreams. The question is how much is too much? It's a question of balance, and that balance may
differ by individual.
I think anything that people are wont to over-indulge in - i.e. alcohol or drugs or television or virtual reality - there will be someone who says "we must ban that!". That's easy. The harder thing is to discern how much is too much, for the individual and for society.
TS-I think you are correct-it is a matter of balance. Maybe I quoted or paraphrased without the entire context. In contrast with his "Restoration of Christian Culture" which is a popular read, "Death..." is more academic and he frequently uses literature to make and illustrate points.
Anyhow-I think I realized at the end of the post that maybe my points were hazy and thus the partial disclaimer-but I didn't have much time to think about it cause we had to get on the road.
I hate it when the 1/2 thoughts don't quite make it.
Post a Comment