Thursday, April 23, 2015

Living in the AA

On page 84 of Smith he talks about the Age of Authenticity (AA). This is post '60's and is defined by the book as "an expression of 'what speaks to me.'" Most people today can relate to this as we are constantly looking for new things to introduce into our lives. We are always looking for new rituals and practices that will fill the void from the Age of Mobilization (AM). Our options have changed as Smith says and it isn't only that but also our everyday lives. We all express ourselves differently and that is what the AA allows us to do. You do not have to conform to the outside model and are able to realize your own humanity for yourself. You can be individualistic and explore the many options that the Nova Effect created. I think that this is a good time to live in. We are able to see so many different expressions of ones self so that we can better understand ourselves. We don't always have to go the same way as everyone else. We are able to try out new things and decide for ourselves if that's what we want to be. But in the end whatever you do decide, there is nothing wrong with it, you are just expressing yourself.

4 comments:

  1. I agree that it is good to have many different options to believe or not believe due to that fact that it allows us to explore and discover; however, having so many options can be overwhelming and problematic in that we may end up losing ourselves instead of finding ourselves. I do believe that at one point we will find ourselves, it just depends on whether its tomorrow or way in the future. We should be able to express ourselves however we choose and not have to worry about what others may think.

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  2. I think living in this generation of self expression is a great generation to live in, however I believe this has also distorted our view on how we see religion.I believe the problem with living in such a generation is we do not come together as a society enough to help each other. We live in a self serving society to help ourselves rather than helping others. We promote people who could care less about society and have no morals what so ever. Is this the generation I want to live in? Absolutely. But we need to change the way we think and act to become better people

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  3. The Age of Authenticity is definitely an interesting time to live in. It presents a completely different world view from what was traditionally held in the West. Religion, society, and the state were all held together in some way prior to the 60's. After that the Nova Effect brought about an entirely new way of searching for meaning. The search for meaning was moved from a communal level down to an individual level. I wouldn't go so far as to say that this age is necessarily any better or worse than either of the previous ones. They all have their positives and their negatives. The Age of Authenticity is no different. It definitely presents more choices to an individual than ever before, but this is not always a good thing. On one hand this allows for an individual's beliefs to be tested and strengthened as a result. On the other the sheer amount of choice could be overwhelming to an individual so that they retreat in on themselves. This is also not mentioning the obvious effects that this age will have on individual religions. I find Taylor's style of not swaying to either extreme to be a good model to follow. That allows one to see the potential problems of a view as well as noticing the good that could come out of it.

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  4. I think Tyler's point about the "sheer amount of choice" causing people to "retreatin on themselves" is a great description of Fragilization in the AofA. Everyone seems so relaxed nowadays, where when someone doesn't believe the same thing you do, it's cool, you can still be friends or at least amiable acquaintances. On the other hand, what some today would call 'fanaticism' was almost the norm everywhere 1,000 years ago, where heretics could be burned without batting an eye, and (as was the case in some middle eastern areas), peoples who were not Muslim would be heavily taxed at best, which is basically robbery, since those communities didn't have a choice and probably wouldn't have seen any of that money again in the form of public projects.
    Having mentioned this historical bit, it is easy to see why one would be so fragilized in today's world - everyone believes different things but the degree to which we act upon our beliefs individually and collectively has really diminished - thus, from an ectopic view of many popular religions (so excluding Westboro, Shi-ite Islam etc.) people act mostly the same. As a result, it doesnt seem to matter what we believe, as long as it doesn't hurt peoples' feels.

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