Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

percy-l - Re: [percy-l] "...problem is not moral relativism, shopping malls..."

percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion on Walker Percy

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Karey L. Perkins" <karey AT charter.net>
  • To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] "...problem is not moral relativism, shopping malls..."
  • Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 18:35:52 -0500

>>>>"Dr. Johnson observed that men were seldom more innocently employed than
when simply making money and shoppers are part of that equation. Similarly,
had Shelley had to get and spend, he might not have wreaked such havoc and
misery on all around him." <<<

Angelism (shelley) vs. bestialism (shoppers) -- (from "Love in the Ruins").
Neither are the answer. But you're right -- Shelley could have used a
little shopping (bestialism) to balance his extremism.

>>>>>>"The problem we face now is one of how to defend ourselves from
dictators who cultivate smallpox as a weapon and individuals who would
deliver it, and that is a question. However, pondering one's vague
politically correct "sins" is not the answer." <<<<<

Certainly, defending one's life, and any time when one's life is in danger,
pulls us quite quickly out of our distractions, of that "angelism," and
grounds us in our real concerns (life and death) -- which is why Dr. Thomas
More in LR had his angelism-besotted patient walk home through the swamp.

Nothing wrong with shopping. It's when shopping becomes the answer and the
replacement for God, for faith, that it becomes a problem. Like Marcel's
discussion of technology, et al -- it is not the object or activity itself
in which lies the sin; it is man's [mis]use of that. I think America in
general relies too much on shopping and too little on God. Just a
generalization and there are many exceptions of course.

KP




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page