January 7, 2009
Sunday School Lesson: Life After Shopping
Photo by Fred Askew Photography
You see, children, when the billboard disappears, then we find that nature was waiting directly behind it, and a terrible storm is brewing. A tsunami is more than a slap in the face. The earth is not necessarily social. We Americans might discover that soon, as we awaken from our consumption stupor. The earth was not shopping with us. The earth loves our music but hates our traffic. Oh god help us, enticing difficulties await us in the Life After Shopping.
The relief is that we now have a reunion with our long lost relative, the Fabulous Unknown. The night sky rushes in after the billboard fades. Can we fathom what this is? We are the prodigal children, returning to our loving home after years lost zonked in a super mall. We are waking from years of product-drunkenness and we want to return to that wonder, like when we were kids and looked up and had that jolting moment of - THIS UNIVERSE IS BIGGER AND DEEPER THAN... than anything... wow...
The stars might be laughing at us, children. It's alright. Your pastor advises: Don't worry about it, just pray with it. And we don't stand on ceremony here because we noticed the earth doesn't. A prayer might be the split second hopeful thought that you have while spitting. That's OK. We need to be glad that we're back and get to work. The universe will make fun of us or seem to ignore us, but remain more impossibly beautiful than your latest shopping binge... Mostly, the earth expects us to get to work saving ourselves.
Life After Shopping is what we all want, if it's not too late. Death While Shopping seemed so inevitable for so long. ...Blessings and Wildness! -Rev
Comments
Nice
Yes, it looks like we may be headed for a die-off phase, largely of our own making. Maybe more people know this than one might suppose, and that is why so many desire distractions such as shopping. There is a thin bubble between us and roaring chaos, and the earth is basically a giant meat grinder; it chews things up and spits them out again, in different forms. After the next big catastrophe, who knows what new things may arise?
Hope you are enjoying your vacation,
SeaQ
Poetic eloquence
In Consumed, Benjamin R. Barber refers to African traps which attract monkeys with nuts. The monkey reaches in, grasps the nut, and becomes stuck. The monkey could escape if it would relase the nut. But releasing the nut is the psychological trap!
"The new forms of tyranny we face today derive less from traditional modes of hard autocracy that enslave the body in the name of owning things than from new soft modes of merchandising and entertaining aimed at manipulating the spirit in the name of selling things. Compulsive shopping speaks to new forms of market coercion that are difficult to discern, let alone to contend with, because they allow us to 'feel free' even as we yield gently to their subtle bottom-up compulsion."
"Is this coercion? Is the monkey free or not? The infantilist ethos does not manacle our hand, it encourages us to tightly grip the chains by which we are held fast. All we need is to let go."
--p.127, Consumed.
Dear SeaQ and belleslettres -
Thank you for your Nice Poetic Eloquence you two. The meat-grinder won't stop of course, the earth will spit us out in new forms as it always has. We monkeys can let go of that nut and walk out of the trap, if only for our own lives and maybe a generation or three. That's where the faith comes in, believing that the "earth wants us to save ourselves."
And hats off to Dr. Benjamin Barber. We re-read the chapter in Consumerd! on privatization of public space every time we troop off to Union Square for our fair share of abuse...
-- Rev
I used to work as a casino
"The earth wants us to save itself". This is where you and I disagree. I don't think the macrosystem we call the universe 'wants' anything...it possesses a form of sentience beyond our understanding, and I just can't think of a way it has ever displayed 'want'. Need, maybe, but not want. If you mean the biosystem, it is like uroboros, forever eating itself. It certainly does not 'want' us to stay in our present form.
As for the abuse you mentioned, I can't really imagine what it must be like to go through that on a weekly or daily basis. All I can say is it is fucking ridiculous things have gotten so out of hand that we have these 'elites' pissing all over Union Square (and everything else).
The monkey and the nut. Well, we should consider the rage the monkey must feel when it realises it is trapped. It must scream and pound and bite as it tries to yank its arm out of the snare. It most likely goes into a frenzy at some point, hurting itself and attacking everything around it. What will we, as a society, do when we realise that we have been caught in a trap?
Enjoy the cheap accommodations!
SeaQ
To SeaQ - Want and Desire and Abuse and the Final Rage
So amidst the realistic counseling, like a "tsunami is more than a slap in the face" and don't be afraid if the earth ignores you or even seems to laugh at you -- I'll put in a quick "The earth wants us to save ourselves." The spiritual leader's hope is to act as a guide on the bridge between the known and unknown. So I say this because believeing that the earth doesn't want our death might help somebody. You see? It's "abundance rhetoric" - like the fishes and the loaves Jesus story. It is clearly unprovable, so it's new faith, creative to make the statement and creative also to accept it.
Lots of us feel doomed right now, both by the earth and those killing the earth. Some of us have to feel wanted, by the wind and air and rivers and sea... If we don't feel that kind of love, it's harder to have a motive for stopping our consumerism. And god knows Shopping in its many forms will kill us all. -- Rev
"So I say this because
This discussion also made me consider something else...is it possible that this experience/system we are in really does want things? After all, we are a part of it, and we experience want. Maybe we are an expression of want? I'm not really inclined to believe this in a literal sense, but I can accept the possibility.
Want can to lead to an inclination towards self-abasement. I believe that Many people in our society feel enslaved by 'circumstance'. They feel constricted by the demands of our post-industrial world, unable to fufill their potential or realise their dreams. As a result of this frustration, other people become enslaved as our consumer culture attempts to replace primal need with i-pods and brand logos.
As far as " Some of us have to feel wanted, by the wind and air and rivers and sea..", I know what you mean. I am not some uber-rational automoton...I spend quite a bit of time in wild places, and I can 'feel' that energy, too. I need to feel it.
Keep on trucking,
SeaQ
CQ
I know that we human beings are a part of the earth that can sit back and reflect on what it is to be a part of the earth. Then we can express it, write it, shout it. Then we can change our minds. The earth invented intelligence that would look back and wonder about things, as scientists, as poets, as prayer-leaders. That the quarrels that different cultures have about the design of life - that the quarrels would lead to the debaters that shoot guns at each other - when you think about it - isn't that amazing? You hope for some grand intermediary, some Bishop Tutu, to bring all the combatants together and give a remedial lesson, a reminder that we all make gods in an effort to give structure to our guessing about the unknowable. (I'm writing in the morning here. The newspapers are so saddening... got to go for a walk in the trees. Get some nourishment. The old trees in Prospect Park have more emotional intelligence than this particular fake preacher.)
"The Kitsch that Kills"
One of the great things about the Church is that the Oz curtain is semi-transparent. Not only do we get the Reverend Billy, we also get Bill Talen...two for the price of one. Don't be afraid to pull back the curtain occasionally.
Back in the cave days (daze?), people had more reasons to fight; there is one antelope leg left, and by god I'm starving, so it's time to fight my brother. Today, people still fight over resources, but usually these resources support manufactured needs. I also find it amazing that people are willing to create nightmares in an attempt to realise their vision of the world. Better to follow the Ghandi method when possible...lay down your tools, and smile at those who wish to oppress you.
There is a concept I would like you to elaborate upon, when you have the time: "The kitsch that kills".
Also, I have seen you discuss shopping as a replacement for social needs, but have you done a sermon in regards to shopping as a way to stave off the fear of death? If so, where can I see it?
Enjoy whatever happens today,
SeaQ
Bishop Tutu wisely sought...
Your forum is an instrument in the process, as is your performance mission, Reverend. And there is nothing noticeably fake about your preaching.
Ok the hair looks a bit fake
A side note to the above
Perhaps the desire to bring the world in line with ones illusions is a need just as powerful as hunger, sex, etc. Maybe that is why people fight over such things.
P.S.- Have you thought about posting The Hour of Power on YouTube? It seems you have been having some problems. Due to my wild life (tutoring kids until 11pm MST) I haven't been able to see a live episode, and if it's not on the website, I miss it. I cant' be the only one with this problem....
The Kitsch That Kills
Some people try to retro-fit something sincere onto a kitschy object, but mostly it's a way of not facing reality at all. And in this day and age, with the level of emergency we face, yes, kitsch kills... It slows us down. It's a distraction. Pastor sez: Find a better illusion to bring the world in line with. Bring an illusion that will save the world and you and me, too. -- Rev
No More Blue Tommorrows
I've always been facinated by Warhols art, because it is a rejection of substance; therefore, it makes you desire meaning. Who can look at those soup cans for more than 5 min. without wanting to create some meaning for them? In contrast, the difficulties counter-culture movements impose upon their members (and society as a whole) can make us want to escape into the absurd, the meaningless. We wish these problems didn't exist, so we replace them with preconception, fantasy, etc.
Kitsch gets a bad rap. It is the nature of creation to build upon what has come before. However, what most artists desire is to be/create that wild, successful mutation in the evolution of human thought and perception, the "lasting impression". Nevertheless, even those that realise this dream have borrowed bits and pieces of the past. The kitsch that kills, however, is the late night melodrama, with commercials every 20 min. It's the fantasy that you are some kind of Tony Soprano as you force your way through rush hour traffic in your SUV. It's a desire for a life other than your own.
Happy Jan. 10th,
SeaQ
Another Addendum
"You hope for some grand intermediary, some Bishop Tutu, to bring all the combatants together and give a remedial lesson..." Frank Herberts 'Dune' series discusses this idea in some detail, as does R.A. Wilsons/ R. Sheas 'Illuminatus Trilogy'. The desire for a clear path, someone to lead them down it, is strong in many people. Unfortunately, many people become disillussioned when they realise that their idol is just as flawed as they themselves. This is why humility and honesty are vital traits in an effective leader; when the crash comes, and the idol trips on his own shoe laces, everyone can sympathize/laugh, instead of becoming concerned that they have followed a false god.
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