Archive for the 'culture' Category

Heavy reading, idle hands

Published by Daniel on 8/19/2008 in culture, ink on paper and life. 2 Comments

Along with the gardening this summer I have been doing quite a bit of reading in areas that I don’t normally read. It started off in the spring with “An Underground History of American Education”, and has lead into various other alternative voices and perspectives of history, education, and economics. I never really enjoyed reading history or politics, so this was a new direction. The difficult part, and part of the reason that I do not write much about it, is that it is disturbing to dig into the history of our systems and difficult keep an upbeat perspective. Now we can look back on the ideas and thoughts that were prevalent a century ago and see how wrong or misguided they were, but our world today is still run using systems that were based on those ideas that we find so disturbing now.

One of the impressions that I am getting is the brokenness (sinfulness?) of systems. At the beginning of the development of a system (at least in modern history), whether it is political, financial, or educational, there is generally some good intent or altruistic motives. Over time, that good intent, which was attached to some individual or individuals, is supplanted by institutional goals that do not necessarily reflect the intent of the individuals who are now running the system. The system has a life of it’s own, but those that are the agents of the system do not steer according to the original passion, so the system drifts, and is easily diverted by those that would use the system for their own purposes. In some cases we now have monolithic systems of which we don’t even understand the original intent, but which are kept in place because those that control the system benefit through it regardless of how beneficial or effective the system is.

I am even tempted to say that systems are infernal tools for maximizing the effectiveness of vice. It only takes small suggestions in key places to turn a system towards malevolent intent. One proud and selfish leader can cause misery for millions, but is soon overthrown. A few dozen chairmen, or board members with minor bouts of selfish ambition, greed, or cowardice can cause generations of misery for hundreds of millions, if not more.

What better places for demons to play? We wonder why we do not see more overt demonic activity in the world today, but there is no need here. It is through the subtle manipulations of organizations that we are possessed. Everywhere we look we see huge systems for controlling the population, from education to economics to opinions and beliefs. Overt demonic activity is still powerful in some places where the predominant beliefs lead to a fear of spirits, but here we have TV, consumerism, nationalism, and the pursuit of leisure. We would call an old-school demon possession a trick, a fake, or a “condition”, not a thing to be feared.

See what I mean about staying upbeat? So my current question is: “what do I do with this?” I am still working on that, but one of the directions is to remain focused on the life around me. I have a sphere of influence, and within that I will be Christ. While it is helpful to understand the underpinnings of our society, it can also serve as a distraction from the real goal of pleasing God, and being love. But I still say RESIST!

I am still at the beginning or in the middle of some big ones that may not be finished until well into fall. It is good for me, even just the challenge to remain focused, and to question my inputs.

Grateful

Published by Daniel on 11/30/2007 in culture, ink on paper and life. 1 Comment

‘Tis the season to be thinking about thankfulness. I have been, along with a few other things that might not seem immediately related.

Leading into the Thanksgiving week I started reading The Paradox of Choice: Why more is less by Barry Schwartz, a slightly academic romp into why more options make us less satisfied. He goes into the psychology of making decisions, and what happens when we are presented with more options. Some of the ways that he gives to alleviate the stress of too many options are interesting in the context of our “give me options” culture: practice gratefulness, be content with “good enough”, embrace constraints on choice (more on that in a minute), make decisions permanent, and choose when to choose.

Those can be boiled down to this: gratitude, contentment, relationship, decisiveness, discernment, but I suppose the terms used above might be easier understood. These are all attributes of character. The most interesting of these is the “embrace constraints on choice” item. He elaborates on this, indicating that our pursuit of individual autonomy increases our options, whereas our acceptance of the constrains that relationship and community put on us reduces our options. Examples of this would be both marriage and church. When we accept marriage for what it is, we reduce our options for mates, housing, habits, food, sex, and sometimes clothing and style. The same is true of Church. The key word here is acceptance. If you don’t accept the terms of the marital contract, yet take the vows, you might not be very satisfied with the imposed reduction in options. The end result is that those who have accepted these relational and community constraints on choice are happier. The same with the list of character attributes listed above. The more grateful, content, relational, decisive, and discerning you are, the happier you are as well. I would add that happiness is not really the goal, but character is, and a stronger character leads to a better outlook on life.

Also in the book is a section about gratefulness, both positive and negative. Positive gratefulness would be thankfulness for what you do have: shelter, food, clothing, loving family. Negative gratefulness would be thankfulness for what you do not have: HIV, missing limbs, debt, the draft, a contentious wife. The positive is easy, but we still do not do it very often. The negative is not much more difficult, but in the end leads to a multitude of items on our positive list (relatively good health, the limbs I was born with, accounts in the black, the choice for peace, and a loving, industrious, beautiful wife).

Some of these ideas reassure me that we are heading in the right direction. We have constrained our options willingly, decided to be content with what God has provided, chosen to make commitments permanent, and realized that sometimes we can choose not to choose. As I think about what we are thankful for, I also started to realize that there are many things that I could complain about, but feel none of the anxiety that leads that direction. I am content. Not just with what we have, but also with the state in which we have it, used, patched, rough, ugly, lame, worn, old, second-hand, and unfinished. Part of my thankfulness is for things that do not demand status or prestige.

While I have mentioned a few aspects of the book, it goes into other aspects of the problem of increased options. I would recommend it, despite it’s academic nature.

Links:
TED video where Barry Schwartz talks about the paradox of choice
Google Books info on Paradox of Choice

Corp. Inc. Co. Ltd.

Published by Daniel on 7/22/2007 in church, life and provocations. 0 Comments

The Corporation is a book and a movie that takes a look at the idea of the corporation and how it has changed through history. We rented it from the library, but you can watch it on YouTube.

I am not recommending it, no more than I would “recommend” that a person who wants to raise animals should learn about animal biology. That is to say, it is more of a requirement. “Smart Consumer” is a term that is gaining in popularity, and this should be on the course list for the Freshman level. But it is not just required for those who don’t mind seeing themselves as consumers (smart or otherwise), but also those have a nagging feeling that there is something amiss, but can’t quite put their finger on what it is.

Be warned, it is not a cursory look, and the entire film is 23 chapters and well over 2 hours long, but it is worth the time.

Symbolism

Published by Daniel on 7/4/2007 in culture and provocations. 1 Comment

I ran across this the other day, and although I would not say that I adhere to everything he says, much of it has the ring of truth. I have included the summary points below, but I would recommend reading the entire article.

How we confuse symbols and things

  • We seek “marriage” as though that quasi-legal institution were the same thing as a worthwhile human relationship.
  • We seek “education” as though knowledge could be injected into us like a vaccine without any investment on our part. Failing at this, we then trust the statements of people who possess white, rectangular sporting event trophies called “diplomas.”
  • We seek “religion” as though any worthwhile answers to fundamental spiritual questions could be delivered in encapsulated form, outside the direct experience of nature.
  • We trust the findings of “science” as though science’s principal value could be meaningfully delivered to people who don’t understand science (it cannot).
  • We trust the wisdom of “government” as though, without direct participation by all of us, government could be anything but a dumping ground for aging juvenile delinquents.

What do you think?

Friendly blood

Published by Daniel on 4/19/2007 in church, culture and life. 3 Comments

Over the years we have noticed several distinct values in our lives. There are the usual ones that have to do with a life of faith: honor God, love your neighbor. But then there are those that pertain to the way that we live: simplicity, integrity, peace, and equality. Maybe some of you recognize those values, maybe you don’t. Lately I have been very aware of the value we put on frugality, and decided to look it up on Wikipedia:

Frugality (also known as thrift or thriftiness), often confused with cheapness or miserliness, is a traditional value, life style, or belief system, in which individuals practice both restraint in the acquiring of and resourceful use of economic goods and services in order to achieve lasting and more fulfilling goals. In a money-based economy, frugality emphasizes economical use of money in meeting long term personal, familial, and communal desires.

That pretty much sums up our perspective on money. But the entry goes on:

Sometimes associated with the concept of frugality is a philosophy in which one does not trust, or is deeply wary of, “expert” knowledge, often from commercial markets or corporate cultures, claiming to know what is in the best economic, material, or spiritual interests of the individual.

There are many different spiritual communities that consider frugality a virtue or a spiritual discipline. The Religious Society of Friends and the Puritans are examples of such groups. The basic philosophy behind this is the idea that people ought to save money so that they have more available for others.

Hmm… That first part is scary-accurate. Religious Society of Friends… maybe I should look that up. I did, and found some very insightful material.

Unlike other groups that emerged within Christianity, the Religious Society of Friends has tended toward little hierarchical structure, and away from creeds.

Intriguing. Tell me more.

Many Quakers feel their faith does not fit within traditional Christian categories of Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant, but is an expression of another way of experiencing God.

To make a long article short, most of the ways that I have come to understand my faith fit very well with the Quaker/Friends perspective, down to the “Testaments”:

  • * The Peace Testimony
  • * The Testimony of Equality
  • * The Testimony of Integrity
  • * The Testimony of Simplicity

Yes, I did spend most of my childhood in a Friends church, but it is an Evangelical Friends church, where none of these items were evident to me as a kid. Not that they were not values, but that the church was a normal Evangelical church, with normal services, and the occasional baptism and communion.

To find myself a grown man, holding values and views my fore bearers held before me, without overtly being passed down, is a strange and wonderful thing. There is a genetic trait that predisposes me to think or respond a certain way to God. Something that makes me eschew hierarchy. A sense that the truth must be told. A desire for simplicity in all things. A distaste for violence.

Ok, maybe it is not a genetic trait, but it is definitely *something* being passed down. Something that resists.

Words of the week:

Published by Daniel on 4/15/2007 in culture and life. 3 Comments

Boondoggle:

In more recent times the term “Boondoggle” has come to refer to a
government or corporate project involving large numbers of people and
usually, heavy expenditure, where at some point the key operators have
realized that the project is never going to work, but are reluctant to
bring this to the attention of their superiors. Generally there is an
aspect of “going through the motions”, (for example, continuing
research and development), for as long as funds are available to keep
paying the researchers’ and executives’ salaries and so on. The
situation can be allowed to continue for what seem like unreasonably
long periods, as senior management are often reluctant to admit that
they allowed a failed project to go on for so long. In many cases, the
actual device itself may eventually work, but not well enough to ever
recoup its development costs.

An important aspect of the Boondoggle, as opposed to a project that
simply fails, is the eventual realization by its operators that it is
never going to work, long before it is finally shut down. This is not
the same thing as simply fraud, where the proponents know in advance
that their idea has no merit.

Fiasco:

A fiasco means multifaceted, extravagant and sad failures in pursuit
of an end that at least some had previously regarded as a chimera.

In ordinary American usage, a “fiasco” is some effort that went wrong.
In hindsight, it would appear to have been foolishly undertaken or
executed.

Honesty in promotions

Published by Daniel on 4/14/2007 in culture and life. 3 Comments

fleece me please!

Lenten observance

Published by Daniel on 2/20/2007 in InOurHouse, church, culture and life. 6 Comments

I am “giving up” Internet browsing at home for lent. I would give it up at work too, but It is sort of what I get paid to do. I just added the rules to my router (recently upgraded to Linux), and I should have it set to allow only non-browsing traffic through to my system here, and the iBook.

Here are my reasons:

  1. I spend too much time doing nothing on the computer
  2. I spend too little time playing with the kids
  3. I spend too little time reading *real* stuff
  4. When I have the Internet to browse, I am too lazy to take pictures
  5. The Internet is not my spiritual guide
  6. God is just waiting for me to pay attention (I really should not waste his time)
  7. I am being a poor example to my family
  8. My muscle is slowly turning into fat
  9. The Internet is mostly a pointless waste of time
  10. It is too easy to stay up too late
  11. My wife is prettier than this stupid screen
  12. I really should get started on my cheese-making hobby
  13. teh internets r stoopid

Practically, this will mean that I will not be checking blogs or doing pointless research at home. I will still have access to email, and chatty type stuff, but no surfing. Fortunately, this blog is actually on my home computer, so I may still post…

Who’s with me?

Provocation #12

Published by Daniel on 2/5/2007 in church, life and provocations. 4 Comments

Christendom is a society of people who call themselves Christians because they occupy themselves with obtaining information about those who a long time ago submitted themselves to Christ’s examination - spiritlessly forgetting that they themselves are up for examination.

Provocations are taken from Provocations: The Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard

Unwelcome! Please don’t come in.

Published by Daniel on 10/25/2006 in culture and life. 7 Comments

Trick or treat? I say trick.

We have neighbors. Some are close by, and we hang with them. Others we can’t even see, and it takes over five minutes to walk to their house. Recently the sign to the left appeared across from our house. Many of the pictures that are on this site came from walks that I took on the other side of that sign. I am not exactly sure what I did (ok, maybe I do), but it has landed me in the “bad list” with our far-away neighbor. I will call him The Old Man. I think that if I had just been intimidated like he wanted, I would still be on the “ignore list”. Unfortunately, I asked him why he was being a bad neighbor, and I guess you don’t ask a bad neighbor that kind of thing. The land that is now off limits is an island that has been turned into a peninsula, and an upscale subdivision. There are deed restrictions, and it was sold as a future gated community. The Old Man is making sure that the gates are indeed put up. In order to build there your house must be huge, your garage must fit 3 cars, etc. etc. The houses that are out there sold for over 500K in an area where 250K is high. There are only 2 houses, but they are lake front properties. Unfortunately the lake front is full of stumps from the way the lake was made a hundred years ago. This little city is a blue collar hunting and manufacturing town, so there is not much in the way of upscale development. Real estate in general is doing badly, especially here in Michigan. So the end result is that we have neighbors who bought a nice house in a lousy place, and there is little they can do to change that, except control every little detail they can. Oh, and he can.

As frustrating as it is to be living near someone who treats the neighborhood as filth, I can’t help but pity him. He’s stuck, probably in debt, and since he can’t change where he lives, he will just do everything in his power to make sure we know he is better than us, and that he thinks he has something we wish we had. He would not believe the truth.

It probably does not help that this is what he sees when he pulls out of his private-no-trespassing-no-parking-tow-away-at-owners-expense drive every day:

What, isn't it a pretty boat?

I guess I am not that motivated to find another place to keep the boat.