Struggling to put the two visions of the future together - that of fundamental decline and that of progress - the 4th of July weekend has offered many anecdotal evidence of both. On the night of the 4th, I had planned on going to bed early to be in good shape for a planned outing on Geneva Lake in Wisconsin, but my son's friends changed all that with a phone call: Dad, is it all right if we blow off fireworks in the field tonight? While visions of blown-off fingers and lawsuits danced in my head, I said "yes" - they were 18 after all - and so I stayed up to watch the Laurel and Hardy antics as misdirected rockets made red glare at the feet of the spectators or over the roof of the house, but all ended safely. It was encouraging to see the young show the initiative and have fun with home-fireworks, and it put me in a happy place: ah, they are just like we were, maybe better! When my son asked if some could light up doobies (to a resounding "no!") I thought, ah, maybe not better but the same. But afterwards when several of the boys shared plans for the future, I felt less sure. None had grand plans, and several were hoping simply to get a job at the local factory, unskilled labor that they hoped would get them 13 bucks an hour, hardly a living wage and certainly not one good enough, or with prospects good enough, to raise a family. With this, they seemed so lost - unable to grow, scared for the future, hopeful of only something, anything that might get them enough money for a good used car.
I have noticed this with boys now. While girls have made great strides in the professions, boys seem lost, without a sense of what it is to be a man. Dithering, smoking weed, playing X box and moaning about life, they seem lifeless. Is this a transition, or a permanent decline? Will our culture find a place for average boys, or relegate them to a mass of disposable workers? In the past was farming, and then manufacturing, but now boys, who are less able to sit still and mind the office than girls, what do they have? And with the loss of their place in family and society, where does that leave society and family?
The next day we went to Geneva Lake and had a boat tour of the many mansions that rise in astonishing splendor from the green, perfectly cut lawns along the water's edge. We heard of the excesses of these fabulously rich, of personal race tracks and parties that cost millions of dollars just to impress the well-healed and well-connected guests. Many were built at the turn of the last century, when average wages were about 2 bucks a week and there was no social safety net of any kind. Many of the fortunes were built on connections and fast deals, but some were made the good way, with hard work and inventive minds. Were and are these people money-hogs, or do they - at least the honest ones - deserve their cash and any silly way they have in spending it? Are they to be congratulated or damned?
Geneva Lake has always been the playground of the Chicago rich, but the streets and beaches were crammed with ordinary - looking people - most of whom were either of non-European extraction and many, if not most, of whom spoke in foreign languages. Is this part of the progress of America, to have the whole world in our borders, more so than at any other time in history? Are we at a glorious convergence of peoples and cultures, or are we overcrowding our land with cheap labor to the advantage of the filthy rich? Will we end as a post-national society of peace and prosperity, or a post- American society, where we sink to the level of the rest of the world but worse, without a cohesion of culture or race or religion or history?
We ponder the future - are we de-volving or evolving? In the past few weeks we have heard from theologians who believe that we are evolving spiritually just as we are evolving physically - the two going hand -in- hand in the ever-present creative flow of the All. But entropy is at work in our world as well - non-biological form naturally decays towards its beginnings, towards the "angle of repose" or maximum rest. In human society - which is neither living or dead but rather an abstraction - we could see it working both ways, as it has for periods of time in the past (although towards greater complexity over greater time.) But if we talk of society as a living thing, does that mean that "truths" also must change? Is the Bible a snapshot of an antiquated world speaking to an archaic mind, or is it forever, etched like the Ten Commandments in stone? As we celebrate our independence, is our Constitution flexible as well, many parts now antiquated, or is it the bedrock of our social truth that must always retain its original meaning?
In the short period of time that is history - only about 5, 000 years - we have seen the loss of great civilizations and the rise of new ones, with an overall trend towards bigger and more complex. This limited picture does seem to point to an evolving social animal in humans. But it is limited - some view the world in blocks of hundreds of thousands of years, where humans have lived in great cycles of 26, 000 years at a stretch. These see an overall de-volution, and crashing of the spiritual as it sinks into a belief in only the transitory material. In the snapshots I have had of our America on our most patriotic of holidays, it does appear that we are on a cusp. We are moving quickly, but towards what, for most of us, is only a guess. Great things seem possible, but bad things seem probable. It is, as one author said, indeed a "time of dying," where the old is being strangled while a new - there must be a new - remains hidden, either with the promise of a new millennium, or the horrors of chaos and collapse. We shall think and research and continue and hope - but also look with clear eyes around us. Maybe in it all we can find the key to progress without the need for a dark period - maybe an age - of chaos and ruin. FK
I have noticed this with boys now. While girls have made great strides in the professions, boys seem lost, without a sense of what it is to be a man. Dithering, smoking weed, playing X box and moaning about life, they seem lifeless. Is this a transition, or a permanent decline? Will our culture find a place for average boys, or relegate them to a mass of disposable workers? In the past was farming, and then manufacturing, but now boys, who are less able to sit still and mind the office than girls, what do they have? And with the loss of their place in family and society, where does that leave society and family?
The next day we went to Geneva Lake and had a boat tour of the many mansions that rise in astonishing splendor from the green, perfectly cut lawns along the water's edge. We heard of the excesses of these fabulously rich, of personal race tracks and parties that cost millions of dollars just to impress the well-healed and well-connected guests. Many were built at the turn of the last century, when average wages were about 2 bucks a week and there was no social safety net of any kind. Many of the fortunes were built on connections and fast deals, but some were made the good way, with hard work and inventive minds. Were and are these people money-hogs, or do they - at least the honest ones - deserve their cash and any silly way they have in spending it? Are they to be congratulated or damned?
Geneva Lake has always been the playground of the Chicago rich, but the streets and beaches were crammed with ordinary - looking people - most of whom were either of non-European extraction and many, if not most, of whom spoke in foreign languages. Is this part of the progress of America, to have the whole world in our borders, more so than at any other time in history? Are we at a glorious convergence of peoples and cultures, or are we overcrowding our land with cheap labor to the advantage of the filthy rich? Will we end as a post-national society of peace and prosperity, or a post- American society, where we sink to the level of the rest of the world but worse, without a cohesion of culture or race or religion or history?
We ponder the future - are we de-volving or evolving? In the past few weeks we have heard from theologians who believe that we are evolving spiritually just as we are evolving physically - the two going hand -in- hand in the ever-present creative flow of the All. But entropy is at work in our world as well - non-biological form naturally decays towards its beginnings, towards the "angle of repose" or maximum rest. In human society - which is neither living or dead but rather an abstraction - we could see it working both ways, as it has for periods of time in the past (although towards greater complexity over greater time.) But if we talk of society as a living thing, does that mean that "truths" also must change? Is the Bible a snapshot of an antiquated world speaking to an archaic mind, or is it forever, etched like the Ten Commandments in stone? As we celebrate our independence, is our Constitution flexible as well, many parts now antiquated, or is it the bedrock of our social truth that must always retain its original meaning?
In the short period of time that is history - only about 5, 000 years - we have seen the loss of great civilizations and the rise of new ones, with an overall trend towards bigger and more complex. This limited picture does seem to point to an evolving social animal in humans. But it is limited - some view the world in blocks of hundreds of thousands of years, where humans have lived in great cycles of 26, 000 years at a stretch. These see an overall de-volution, and crashing of the spiritual as it sinks into a belief in only the transitory material. In the snapshots I have had of our America on our most patriotic of holidays, it does appear that we are on a cusp. We are moving quickly, but towards what, for most of us, is only a guess. Great things seem possible, but bad things seem probable. It is, as one author said, indeed a "time of dying," where the old is being strangled while a new - there must be a new - remains hidden, either with the promise of a new millennium, or the horrors of chaos and collapse. We shall think and research and continue and hope - but also look with clear eyes around us. Maybe in it all we can find the key to progress without the need for a dark period - maybe an age - of chaos and ruin. FK
RSS Feed