Pascal (and Final Identity) has made a long and observant comment on the Mystic post. ... So of course I am going to take the one little thing I disagree with and rif on... :)
"More and more people want prêt-à-porter beliefs, served in individually-sized portions, ready to eat without any effort."
I think it is like with violence: for some reason people feel more fearful now than they used to, so we think that violence is rising, whereas it is actually falling. And similarly, awareness is rising, so we become aware of a problem like most people wanting ready-made beliefs. So because we are becoming aware of it, we think it's a rising problem.
But actually I do believe it is getting better and better, not worse. Just for one thing the number of books about a huge variety of beliefs and philosophies about how the universe and spirituality works is a much greater number than it was a couple of decades ago, and much greater than fifty years ago. Similarly there is a lot more debate going on about these things, thanks in large part to the Internet.
Fifty years ago we thought we lived in the most enlightened times ever. Now we know that we don't. But we are living in an age of a Great Thaw, and that is important.
7 comments:
I personally don't see a "great thaw" in terms of religion across the world. There ARE general improvements, and I'm personally quite optimistic about the changes -- more health care, clean drinking water, access to worldwide communications; less oppression of women, the general elimination (not yet done) of slavery and economic bondage, childhood education, adult literacy. All these things are getting mildly better than they were 100 or even 50 years ago.
But religious fundamentalism (not necessarily an evil in itself, but I think it is) and violent types of religious hysteria (inherently evil in and of itself) are both rising as well.
"Ready-made" can refer to secular group-think as easily as it can refer to religious dogmatism. Is that really on the rise? To read Chaucer or Homer, you get the impression that people were out there doing independently their own thing any time they had the briefest of chances to have a word put in their mouths. But then, those authors only ever put words into interesting charcters mouths. Ulysses has about fifty crewmen, for example, most of whom just tag along and never say anything.
I think it is like with violence: for some reason people feel more fearful now than they used to, so we think that violence is rising, whereas it is actually falling.
In the area I live Eolake voilence has rose 67 percent over the last year. And that's just the inner city, in the suburbs it has risen 27 percent. Sorry to conflict with your perception but the numbers of murder and mayhen continue to climb at an incredible rate.
Just last week a man in his thirties beat and raped and murdered an 84 yr old lady just because she irrated him.
There are no general improvements in our "deprayed" society. One priest admnitted to molesting 76 catholic children over a period of 20 months.
16 percent of our police force were convicted of bribery an illegal coverups related to right-wing politics.
(inherently evil in and of itself) are both rising as well.
correct FD. The numbers are staggering. We are a guiltless socity based upon wrath and materialism.
The color barrior was 2 to 1 with the african american culture leading the race. This isn't kansas anymore.
Sorry to burst your bubble.
Well, since you're in disagreement with me, I'm afraid I'll have to... AGREE with you here! You make a point.
As much as I hate missing a nice, heated argument. ;-)
I'll just say we could BOTH be right, with awareness rising.
"Fifty years ago we thought we lived in the most enlightened times ever. Now we know that we don't."
And you call that a progress? *<;o)
"Fifty years ago we thought we lived in the most enlightened times ever. Now we know that we don't."
And you call that a progress? *<;o)
Of course!
"Ulysses has about fifty crewmen, for example, most of whom just tag along and never say anything."
Well, of course. Homer practically INVENTED the cannon-fodder one-dimensional supporting cast, thousands of years before Hollywood stole the idea (along with many others). Apart from the glamorous hero, all the crew gets killed off. Occasionally after screwing up big time.
They're designed so the reader will WANT to see then fragged. Or devoured. Or otherwise creatively gored.
Reporter Cupp,
Nobody said things were getting better EVERYWHERE. This would really be too simple.
Priests (and parents, and relatives) have always abused children, probably spawning the allegoric figure of the ogre in folk tales. Increased awareness and media coverage just means that today this remains much less of a secret. The victims now dare to talk.
The homicidal man you mention was clearly a psychiatric case. (I mean, come on, he hates her, so he rapes her?) Not very long ago, these things wouldn't be as much focused on because they were considered as simply an unavoidable part of life. They'd be the fundamental stuff of gossip for years, but wouldn't be PRINTED like today.
We have to be constantly wary of the "present" effect bias. It always FEELS as if "it was better in the good old days". Well, this is an illusion. I once paged through a book in my bookstore, called "Newsbits of the good old times", dedicated to the first half of the 20th century, inbetween both world wars.
I'll make it brief and simple: it's not for the faint of heart. "Do NOT go in there. Whoa!"
Sexual mentions were rubbed out due to moral norms (while still easy to guess), but raw, blind, gratuitous, extreme, murderous violence? By the truckloads! All in daily civilian life, any ordinary day in the city.
I'll always remember ironically that "ordinary" radio newsflash in "Tintin in America", in the still semi-wild West:
"The XXX Bank was robbed today, and all the staff murdered. Seven negroes were immediately lynched, but the culprit got away."
(That was when I found out what "lynching" means...)
Mercifully, such sarcasm is obsolete today. At least, lynchings have become illegal. The law may not be enforced everywhere and all the time, but now it is there. Minds and society ARE slowly progressing. In the nay places/countries where you see them as still primitive, it's seldom a new thing, just a better known one.
I should point out, regarding the dubious tone of the quote above, that "Tintin in America" is not only set in the Thirties, it was written then. See it as a historical testimony of ancient daily common racism, an educational document.
The series' author evolved with his century, and bitterly denounces racism and Africans' exploitation in "The Red Sea Sharks", something not mentioned in the Wikipedia article.
Oh, BTW, Eolake, that "progress" bit was a joke. Notice the clown emoticon.
Clearly I don't get the fancier emoticons.
I am sure many would *not* see it as progress.
Eolake said...
"Clearly I don't get the fancier emoticons."
Would snail mail be more efficient? (>_<)
["This is a Cartman emoticon, @$#&%!"]
I'm sure South Park graphics aren't too fancy for you. :-)
"OMG, they've killed Pascal!
- Well, it was about damn time. Lazy b@$t@rd$."
Pascal, South Park style:
(cO_0)
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