Driving past all the big box retailers and shopping areas around 6:30 AM on my way to Mass yesterday and seeing all the cars and people packed waiting to throw their treasures at a cash register was disheartening for me and demonstrated for me how enslaved we are here in this country.
Part of the syndrome of being a child of one's age is a lack of the historical imagination to recognize oneself in a different setting, endowed with a different array of sentimentalisms. In fact, such people are certain they'd be on the side of the angels in any situation. The personal advantages they have purchased by their social conformity are so enormous and comprehensive that they fail to see it as conformity at all. (Words from Diogenes over at the "Off the Record" blog of the Catholic World News.)
7 comments:
I DEMAND a Democratic Jesus! Say, something along the lines of:
"Even if I was born, a Manger Scene is verbotin. Put up a Kwanzaa candle set instead."
or
"Church!? I didn't establish no stinkin' Church! I was just a wise teacher."
or
"The Jesus Seminar speaks for me."
You know, that sort of thing.
But seriously: as I walked with my ten year-old past a Victoria's Secret on our way to see "Santa Claus III," it made me wonder how our culture looks to a certain patriarchal belief system that wants its women to look "modest" if not invisible beneath a burka.
Is not the "softcore nihilism" (Bailie) of shop-till-you-drop on Black Friday similar to and a concomitant with the delapidation of all prohibitions in old, declining Western civ?
So, we have on the one hand, a civilization slipping rapidly into a sacrificial crisis. And, on the other hand, we have a patriarchal and decidedly still vvery Sacred religion eager to fill the shell of former Christendom.
What, therefore, should the "light shining in the darkness" look like on Black Friday (and every other day of the week)?
But seriously is right. We joke and poke fun at getting all caught up in this crazy mad rush to buy more toys which most have no lasting value. Somewhere in here is not only a personal economical bankrupcy but also an ontological bankrupcy issue as well. But because we are so wrapped up in it we do not see what is happening. That is why I added the quote: "The personal advantages they have purchased by their social conformity are so enormous and comprehensive that they fail to see it as conformity at all." (Words from Diogenes over at the "Off the Record" blog of the Catholic World News.)
These words were used in a context that brought attention to a dramatic historical event, however I feel that we are in such an event that has the potential of bringing on another such terrible event...
Waking up from our "self"-induced coma is paramount.
When I went back stateside this summer and got taken to a mall, I almost had a panic attack at all the mimetic vibes, including the parading self-display stuff. I was kind of like, "Nooooooo! Make it stooooppppp!"
Like some aging hippy having a bad acid trip or something. Combination of mimetic overload and reverse culture shock, I suppose. I am such a wuss.
My only quibble is the Republican thing. I haven't seen any data demonstrating that registered Repubs are less focussed on schlock acquisition than Registered Dems.
Meant "more focussed on." I suspect partisan affiliations don't matter much in this area.
Someday I will have to share my experience of walking into a newly opened big-box store the first time after my stroke, I nearly had a relapse, but that story for another day (like a Paul McCartney song would say).
I dream of having a franchise or dealership, Aramis.
Is such a thing even possible anymore in light of B-B stores?
Post a Comment