Had our first Colossians Remixed book club tonight. Good stuff. Seemed to be a great deal of thought and energy flowin'. Ben also has some great thoughts going from last night.
We discussed the two narratives that the authors saw in postmodern culture: Postmodern Disquiet and Cybernetic Global Consumerism. The authors were being descriptive, not prescriptive about these narratives...and they will eventually offer a different narrative that is more appealing and generous and hopeful than either of these two.
Most folks tonight had a hard time with the Cybernetic Global Consumerism script. How could anyone really buy into the fact that consumerism is somehow at the base of what will bring us optimism? How does our economic practices infect our view of the future? Unresolved we were, but we all seemed to agree that optimism based on technology or consumerism as saviors was bound to fail as greatly as modernism did.
We spoke at length about the end of the chapters statements regarding 9/11, postmodernity, and empire. The authors cited several references about why the terrorists did what they did, but the consensus from the book was that the gross sense of 'keeping all our options open' and therefor 'not being able to really commit to any one thing' made the terrorists sick. My sister said that as she read this stuff it made her feel a bit ashamed because she knew that they were spot on. (If that didn't make any sense at all, please read the book!)
We are meeting again this next Monday night at Tom Giblin's if you're in town. 7pm.
Good stuff. Anyone else want to add some thoughts?
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