Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Authenticity Today

Do we really live in an authentic society today? The media tells us to be what we should look like. All men should be 6'0 tall, tan, dark hair, and muscles everywhere. Women are told that we should be 5'8, a size 0-2, blond hair and big boobs. These are the standards of 'beauty' set by our society. How can we live in an authentic age if were told to look the same? Were told to be different, to be individualistic, and then were told that if we don't look like the 'ideal' human being we aren't beautiful or excepted.
How can we live in an age of authenticity when the media dictates what we think we should look like, how we carry ourselves, and what to believe?

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Does this post make since?

Absolute Music: instrumental music composed purely as music, and not intended to represent or illustrate something else (Google).

So the point of absolute music is to just... be? it expresses being moved but doesn't need to be identified? Absolute music is 'flattened', there is no higher mystery to it - but this is, what I suppose, makes it 'absolute'. If there is no purpose for the music, why do we still like it? Is it because of the way it can make us feel?

I went to YouTube and looked up instrumental absolute music and found this..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CfGUXfW8OM
there's no words, no purpose, but after I listened to it I felt calm. I actually wanted to do some yoga. So if it has no purpose, why do I feel, in a way, at peace?
I am giving the music meaning because of the way it makes me feel, so is it still absolute? Is this song even truly 'absolute music'?
Absolute music is taking away the enchantment out of music, but I still feel kind of spiritual.
Taylor says that this ^ could be 'entirely anthropological'. This brings us back to the 'buffered self" - that our unwillingness to leave things the way they are reflects the cosmic imaginary - 'the struggle to articulate the new moral meanings in nature.' we struggle to recover something deeper, fuller, that requires a higher, creative power.

Does this post make since? I tend to confuse myself with this kind of stuff.

Friday, March 13, 2015

I just realized when I created a link to the song Is That All There is, I posted it within my post for Quiz 1, so unless you read my post you would not have seen it.  It is the very definition of a sense of malaise and an expression of the sense of loss and hopelessness.

Here are the words and a link to both Peggy Lee's & Bette Midler's versions

Peggy Lee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRZZC-DH7M

Bette Midler's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpn_xu81ySo

"Is That All There Is?"
(originally by Dan Daniels)

I remember when I was a very little girl, our house caught on fire.
I'll never forget the look on my father's face as he gathered me up
In his arms and raced through the burning building out to the pavement.
I stood there shivering in my pajamas and watched the whole world go up in flames.
And when it was all over I said to myself,
"Is that all there is to a fire?"

Is that all there is?
Is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friends
Then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

And when I was 12 years old, my daddy took me to a circus.
"The Greatest Show On Earth."
There were clowns and elephants and dancing bears.
And a beautiful lady in pink tights flew high above our heads.
And as I sat there watching, I had the feeling that something was missing.
I don't know what, but when it was over,
I said to myself,
"Is that all there is to a circus?"

Is that all there is?
Is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friends
Then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

And then I fell in love, with the most wonderful boy in the world.
We would take long walks by the river
Or just sit for hours gazing into each other's eyes.
We were so very much in love.
Then one day, he went away and I thought I'd die.
But I didn't.
And when I didn't I said to myself,
"Is that all there is to love?"

Is that all there is?
Is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep-

I know what you must be saying to yourselves.
"If that's the way she feels about it why doesn't she just end it all?"
Oh, no, not me.
I'm in no hurry for that final disappointment.
'Cause I know just as well as I'm standing here talking to you,
That when that final moment comes and I'm breathing my last breath
I'll be saying to myself-

Is that all there is?
Is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friends
Then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is



Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Secularity 3 occurs in three phases. The first phase explains how an exclusive humanist view began. The second phases describes the nova effect, which is an explosion of a variety of moral and spiritual beliefs and disbelief. This has come from our discontent from the absence of God in the world. The third phase is similar to the second in that the fractured culture from the nova effect becomes generalized to the whole. Also, the idea of expressive individualism which is the idea that people can “do their own thing” when choosing what belief or unbelief they want to follow. I find it interesting how religion was a major part of someone’s life while now it is not for many. The replacement of the transcendent with the mechanistic world has created the buffered self. This freedom we have from choosing and the sense of power we feel is what draws us to this state. This also leads to a sense of invulnerability.  

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

This Post is Awesome

(Here is a track I believe perfectly captures the mixed feelings of awe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldx60GEL7Ck )

      Awe is a confusing emotion - all at the same time it inspires fear, joy, wonder, peace.  Furthermore, awe can be felt in a variety of situations:
  - a large gathering of people such as a rally or mass
  - a spiritual event in solitude
  - a parent looking upon their child as a new life
  - the presence of something very large (the Washington Monument, the Grand Canyon etc... during this song I imagine staring up at an immense sauropod dinosaur whose head reaches into the clouds),   - perhaps awe can even be felt reading about an act of sheer love and kindness - a town that learned sign language to accommodate their deaf neighbor - a God who became man to experience weakness and death with us.

     Wherever one experiences awe, I believe that awe seems to be an impetus for spiritual-esque consideration, perhaps that is even the best way to define it.  Anywho... I believe awe is also sort of a spur-of-the-moment type thing. It is like a nightmare or a particularly good dream, which is stunning, terrifying and amazing while it happens, but once one is fully awake the feeling wears off - the nightmare no longer so terrifying, the dream no longer so great.  From personal experience I can say that the Grand Canyon was much the same way - for the entire day that my family hiked, it was awe-inspiring, majestic, and photos absolutely don't do it justice.  But it was only ultra-fantastic in that context.  Two years later, away from the Grand Canyon, and knowing that it was formed by natural geological processes, it's just another tourist site (I still recommend it if you like to hike).
    With a way to explain it, with words like 'cognitive dissonance' and 'mineral erosion' we have a sort of power over these things.  They become less divine and more immanent outside their own context.  Does knowing how 600,000 people got together make a 600,000 strong march any less impressive?  Not when you're there.  Does knowing the processes of fertilization and gestation make a child - a new human life - any less incredible?  Not when you're the parent.
    To conclude, I think that living in secular3 age means being told about an infinite number explanations for the sources of your awe, and how you should react to your awe - do you praise the Lord, praise men who built it or discovered it, praise nature etc?

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

"How Did I Get Here?"

As we were discussing the general malaise of the modern era in class, I couldn't help but think about the song "Once In A Lifetime" from the Talking Heads' classic 1981 album Remain in Light. In the song, David Byrne ponders the feelings of emptiness he experiences while living in suburbia; he has all of the conventions that our society dictates are necessary if we wish to obtain "happiness," yet something is still missing. This is a byproduct of the buffered self; the individual is protected from the enchanted world, but is unable to find meaning as a consequence. Even when one applies significance to temporal things (e.g. relationships, careers, etc.), there is still a sense of loss... And we may ask ourself, "Well, How did I get here?"


"Once In A Lifetime"

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack 
And you may find yourself in another part of the world 

And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile 

And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife 

And you may ask yourself 
Well...How did I get here? 
Letting the days go by

Let the water hold me down 

Letting the days go by

Water flowing underground 
Into the blue again
After the money's gone 
Once in a lifetime
Water flowing underground 

And you may ask yourself 

How do I work this? 

And you may ask yourself 

Where is that large automobile? 
And you may tell yourself 
This is not my beautiful house 
And you may tell yourself 
This is not my beautiful wife 

Letting the days go by

Let the water hold me down 

Letting the days go by

Water flowing underground 
Into the blue again
After the money's gone 
Once in a lifetime
Water flowing underground 

Same as it ever was... 

Same as it ever was... 

Same as it ever was... 

Same as it ever was... 
Same as it ever was... 
Same as it ever was... 
Same as it ever was... 
Same as it ever was... 

Water dissolving...and water removing 

There is water at the bottom of the ocean 

Under the water, carry the water at the bottom of the ocean 

Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean 
Letting the days go by

Let the water hold me down 

Letting the days go by

Water flowing underground 
Into the blue again
Into the silent water 
Under the rocks and stones
There is water underground 

Letting the days go by

Let the water hold me down 

Letting the days go by

Water flowing underground 
Into the blue again
After the money's gone 
Once in a lifetime
Water flowing underground 

And you may ask yourself 

What is that beautiful house? 

And you may ask yourself 

Where does that highway go to? 
And you may ask yourself 
Am I right?...Am I wrong? 
And you may say to yourself yourself 
My God!...What have I done?! 

Letting the days go by

Let the water hold me down 

Letting the days go by

Water flowing underground 
Into the blue again
Into the silent water 
Under the rocks and stones
There is water underground 

Letting the days go by

Let the water hold me down 

Letting the days go by

Water flowing underground 
Into the blue again
After the money's gone 
Once in a lifetime
Water flowing underground 

Same as it ever was... 

Same as it ever was... 

Same as it ever was... 

Look where my hand was 
Time isn't holding up 
Time is an asterisk 
Same as it ever was... 
Same as it ever was... 
Same as it ever was... 
Same as it ever was... 
Same as it ever was... 
Same as it ever was... 
Same as it ever was... 
Yeah, the twister comes 
Here comes the twister 
Same as it ever was