Wedding Dresses

As to middle America. It’s as if we’ve become amphibious and keep adjusting ourselves to the temperature. I wonder if it has to do with confusion over what is really real? Are we machines? super animals? blind results of inevitable forces? In light of these choices, what else can I aspire to, other than being consumer? In fact, if you listen to the message- one that in some way asserts that God is out to make you a “winner”- put forth by the churches with the most popularity, it pretty much substantiates our current brand of “consumerism”. In our culture, we no longer forge meaning as individual persons in a life that in our bones, feels worth while; we now buy our identities off the rack; identities feverishly invented by marketing departments in the form of brands and sold to us at prices so cheap that we can throw them away to buy new ones.

In the effort to correct our abuses of subjectivity by marginalizing it to a level that we could call violent, our ability to be persons of meaning is as flaccid as a popped balloon. (I could go “Jersey” with Adam Frank here and involve him in this analogy, but I’ll refrain….) Yet, doesn’t our unique capacity to be subjective form the basis to be rich unique individuals? People summed only as “results” and grouped by buying patterns don’t have the power that people summed as true subjects have. Perhaps to be a little more colorful in pushing this point, I might argue that American culture differs Communist culture only at a level of consumer goods. Other wise, we share in the same resulting stupor.

This doesn’t answer your question yet, but I think it adds illumination to the problem you’re spotting in your question. Which in the past, really wouldn’t be a problem- at least in a true democracy: to each his own. Today, I would argue that the consuming of goods as a reflexive replacement for a lost subjective experience is fueling the demise of our planet.

The ‘World is Flat’ author, (I’m blanking his name- damn) sees our solution to our pending demise in making green technology, “China Cheap”. I guess I’m wondering instead, how do we become people who value something we might call, “elegant living” as a matter of course? Your thoughts?

Then @ everyone else:

The question arises from Prof. Frank’s view and answers that debating with the ID/Creationists and (implied) the Dawkins Gang (because they are just as extreme, entrenched and uwilling to debate, like it or not) is something to simply be bypassed.

If we bypass the extremists then we can get down to the nitty gritty so to speak, but, what if no one (who matters) is listening because middle America (as one example) is concerned about every day life and the polarized elements are just having too good a time to disengag)? What then?