For better or worse, this is an invitation to imagine a different response to the pseudo-empowered sexual economy of transactional empowerment. This post must be brief and, (worse?) blunt due to inescapable time constraints. There is a video circulating of some young women engaging in a semi-choreographed dance involving the routine genital thrusting and tongue displays. It has elicited condemnation as well as “let them have fun” counter-signals. It’s prompted a flurry of thoughts about what our culture is and is not, what our youth do and do not have, and emotional reactions to the anti-aesthetics of pop culture.
Pascal had no time to make his letter shorter but you have no time to make yours longer…
I think properly speaking it should be called 'mass culture', not 'pop culture': a "mass" is pulled down by the gravity that Simone Weil described, whereas the popular resides in a people, persons pulled up by grace.
Brief and blunt works. “For those who see the barrenness of our hearts, who ache at the loneliness experienced by so many, who realize the beauty of forgiveness, we have a lot of work to do in communicating hope in the romance of reality.» May our unique and sincere hope-communicating endeavors be blessed.
t’s why the West is a culture of escalating addiction.
Let's not pretend this is anything new under the sun. Substance abuse and addiction have been a plague for an exceedingly long time-- and in the past they were far worse, at least among men ("Gin Lane" anyone?). The Temperance Movement was a response to levels of male drunkenness that make us look like teetotaling Mormons. And in the modern world many non-western countries suffer even more from this plague-- Russia is notorious for off-the-charts alcoholism rates.
Speaking of romance and its dis-contents do you know that romance fiction is a hugely enormous sector of the publishing world - Mills & Boon plus Harlequin are two well known publishers.
One wonders why this is so?
Is it because the mostly female readers of such are unconsciously acknowledging that something is missing in their love and/or intimate lives?
One writer that I know of who specializes in assisting couples regain the innate capacity for True Intimacy calls this kind of (romance) literature soft or low-level pornography.
One very interesting and unique book on the topic of Romance is:
Cupid's Poisoned Arrow From Habit To Harmony In Sexual Relationships by Marnia Robinson.
Pascal had no time to make his letter shorter but you have no time to make yours longer…
I think properly speaking it should be called 'mass culture', not 'pop culture': a "mass" is pulled down by the gravity that Simone Weil described, whereas the popular resides in a people, persons pulled up by grace.
Brief and blunt works. “For those who see the barrenness of our hearts, who ache at the loneliness experienced by so many, who realize the beauty of forgiveness, we have a lot of work to do in communicating hope in the romance of reality.» May our unique and sincere hope-communicating endeavors be blessed.
t’s why the West is a culture of escalating addiction.
Let's not pretend this is anything new under the sun. Substance abuse and addiction have been a plague for an exceedingly long time-- and in the past they were far worse, at least among men ("Gin Lane" anyone?). The Temperance Movement was a response to levels of male drunkenness that make us look like teetotaling Mormons. And in the modern world many non-western countries suffer even more from this plague-- Russia is notorious for off-the-charts alcoholism rates.
Speaking of romance and its dis-contents do you know that romance fiction is a hugely enormous sector of the publishing world - Mills & Boon plus Harlequin are two well known publishers.
One wonders why this is so?
Is it because the mostly female readers of such are unconsciously acknowledging that something is missing in their love and/or intimate lives?
One writer that I know of who specializes in assisting couples regain the innate capacity for True Intimacy calls this kind of (romance) literature soft or low-level pornography.
One very interesting and unique book on the topic of Romance is:
Cupid's Poisoned Arrow From Habit To Harmony In Sexual Relationships by Marnia Robinson.