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

[Earthrise Press <earthrisepress AT comcast.net>]

Karey wrote:
>It lacks any connection to meaning, purpose,
>and man's place in the world as it relates to anything transcendent.  It
>(the postmodern age) lacks a spirituality.


Are you sure? What do you make of THIS:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/

Frederick Glaysher


----- Original Message -----
From: "Karey L. Perkins" <karey AT charter.net>
To: <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 12:10 PM
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Re: Some Random Thoughts, Largely Unrelated, Based on
Previous Discussions and Readings


> Oops -- same message, but Plain Text format this time.  I keep forgetting.
>
> KP
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Karey L. Perkins
> To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 12:05 PM
> Subject: Re: [percy-l] Re: Some Random Thoughts, Largely Unrelated, Based
on
> Previous Discussions and Readings
>
>
> Aristotle thought the teenagers of his day were all going to pot.  An
essay
> in Percy's Signposts says more (American) men were killed in the Civil War
> than WWI and WWII put together. On a physical level, the 20th century
wasn't
> any worse than other centuries... On a material level, our lives are
> terrific (Percy would agree) and far better than they have been ever (at
> least the Northern Hemisphere).   The 9/11 tragedy and the wars that are
> following it are tragedies of course -- but no worse than those that came
> before and actually far less I would say.
>
> However, on a spiritual level, we don't know why we're here, or who we
> are -- THIS is what's different about our century.
>
> On an ETHICAL level, however, I'd have to say this century is no better or
> worse than any others...  We can still learn to be "ethical" in this
> transient, anonymous, capitalist, postmodern society -- ethical implies a
> statement about our behavior in the physical world, and the laws of nature
> still apply.  I.E.:  If you're lazy and don't work, you won't produce and
> hence you will be fired, become hungry, and become motivated to work.  If
> you're a freeloader, people will know it, resent you, abandon you, and
> you'll soon lose people to freeload off of.  If you cheat and lie, you
will
> (eventually) be found out.  Enron and WorldCom.  Being unethical just
> doesn't work -- in the long run -- and the structure of the universe will
> ensure that we learn our lessons and act ethically to succeed, or not
learn
> our lessons and fail.  "What doesn't work will eventually fail."  There
are
> exceptions, of course, but generally our world -- THE world -- works that
> way.
>
> However, ethics is different from spirituality -- though the two are
related
> more often than not.  Spirituality implies a sense of meaning and purpose
> behind our actions.  Spirituality implies something that is transcendent
of
> the physical world.  Spirituality implies, esp. for Percy, something
> human -- different from the animals -- and entails such concepts and
> experiences of "joy" and "alienation" and a "soul" and a "dark night" and
> "pattern" and "purpose."
>
> In other words, I can act ethically for the physical rewards/benefits of
> that and have no spiritual purpose behind it at all (though spirituality
> usually entails ethical actions).  You referred to the "Thanatos
> Syndrome" -- in it you have the characters cavorting about engaging in all
> sorts of meaningless sexual acts -- it's not that that's unethical that is
> the problem with this -- but that it shows the absence of spirituality --
> there's no meaning or purpose behind what should be a spiritual act.  In
TS,
> the water is tampered with to make a happy society on a physical plane,
but
> there's no purpose to the happiness, no transcendent meaning related to
> that.  (In this way, to me, Thanatos Syndrome is very closely related to
> Huxley's Brave New World -- in events and in theme.)
>
> Huston Smith (best known for his "World Religions" work) has a great
little
> book, a pretty quick read, called "Beyond the Post-Modern Mind" (1989?
> though that might not be the first edition).  In it he says the middle
ages
> was an era in which man saw himself as a creature of God, as a creature
with
> a soul, and his place in the world was determined by the state of his soul
> and relationship with God.  So the middle ages was "Man with a soul,"
which
> became usurped in the Renaissance by mind, science, and intellect -- man
was
> "Man with a mind," and in the 20th century, we no longer view our place in
> the world as defined by soul or mind, but by body.  We are physical
> creatures, and that is the end of that.
>
> So, what's wrong with making society productive on a physical plane
> (certainly what the Nazis wanted -- Hitler was a Utopian) and people happy
> through physical inducement?  It lacks any connection to meaning, purpose,
> and man's place in the world as it relates to anything transcendent.  It
> (the postmodern age) lacks a spirituality.
>
> Karey
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Earthrise Press
> To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 7:07 AM
> Subject: Re: [percy-l] Re: Some Random Thoughts, Largely Unrelated, Based
on
> Previous Discussions and Readings
>
>
> "Wade Riddick"  wrote:
> > Well, the list appears to have gone dark, which isn't surprising what
with
> > the increasing corporate ownership of media and all.
>
> I've been occasionally lurking around for some months out of interest
> in Percy's work, surfing the website too. How about attempting a
> "revival" with one of my favorite quotations from Percy:
>
> Sign Posts in a Strange Land, 309:
>
> "The old modern age has ended. We live in a post-modern as well
> as a post-Christian age which as yet has no name....
>
> "It is post-modern because the Age of Enlightenment with its vision
> of man as a rational creature, naturally good and part of the cosmos,
> which itself is understandable by natural science--this age has also
> ended. It ended with the catastrophes of the twentieth century."
>
> What are we to make of the catastrophes of the 21st Century?
> Not off to an especially good start, are we?! Or too gloomy
> a quotation to prompt comment?
>
> Frederick Glaysher
>
> Earthrise Press
> P. O. Box 81842
> Rochester, MI 48308-1842
> Voice: 248-651-3380
> FAX: 248-608-6424
> EarthrisePress AT Comcast.Net
> www.fglaysher.com
>
> --
>
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