We drove past a guy in a Ferrari this afternoon. Jasen said, "I wonder what makes a guy drop $100k on a car?" "Bordem," I replied.
Seriously. The whole Suburban Narrative I spoke of is a narrative of bordem. There are no great things to do in life any more but catch up with the Joneses.
Which leads me to imagination...
I think of the old proverb that goes something like, "Without a vision, the people will perish." It would seem that without a vision for life beyond the dominant consumeristic-theraputic-militaristic-technological theme (that is the American Dream), people turn to infighting and inbred imaginations.
Imagination. The mark of a human being...perhaps what allows man image the Creator. The ability to see things that aren't currently seen. To imagine a better world, a better way...
Folks seem to grow weary of imagining. In fact, it would seem as though the Empire does its best to keep folks from imagining outside of what would serve the interest of the Empire.
Ah, reminds me of a Wendell Berry poem about imagination being hijacked by the Empire...
From the union of power and money,
from the union of power and secrecy,
from the union of government and science,
from the union of government and art,
from the union of science and money,
from the union of ambition and ignorance,
from the union of genius and war,
from the union of outer space and inner vacuity,
the Mad Farmer walks quietly away.
But I digress...
3 comments:
the only thing... the empire was created on imagination- or so my textbook says...
but as far as the masses go...for most i think imagination is scary.... vulnerable.
my head is in all sorts of contortions thinking about this 'narrative' (i love how you applied that applying that term!) and another thing i am thinking is that although good writers last through time, the waves of masses never read them... victor hugo- how many people have actually read les mis, and yet it's brilliant... but most people just don't dig it.
Perhaps your text is onto something... and doesn't that empower us to imagine a new society/world?
As for the masses, I have found that even though they will always exist, you can talk to them one by one and offer them the blue pill (or was it the red pill?)...
i think it was the red pill....at any rate, i agree with ya ry, if this empire was spawned from imagination then why are we not free to do the same thing now? why in this narrative, in this story my imagination is turned to dust and traded for the desire to want more of the empire?
i mean, isnt that what Jesus came to do - isnt that what the kingdom of God is???
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