In a great post on the Rally to Restore Sanity, Alexandra Petri described it as the Woodstock of the "I generation."
Millennials are Generation I, for whom life exists so we can put as many things as possible in quotes. And this "rally" is the closest millennials will ever get to a love-in. It's a "like-in."
I like this. I mean, officially. I "like" it on Facebook, where my "feelings" and "opinions" go to become real.
I was at the rally. And it was something hard to articulate. It was the right thing at the right time for a people who have never been offered the right thing at the right time. It was the first dose of Adderall to a generation with severe ADHD.
We gathered in costume carrying signs that read "legalize gay marijuana" and "God hates figs." We crammed into a crowd tight enough to give Mr. Rogers fits of misanthropic rage. And then we sang together and we laughed together and we got goosebumps together. It was an exercise in what philosopher Herbert Marcuse called the "irrational nature of our rationality."
And this, I think, is the point. We as a generation look around us and are horrified that no one else seems to notice how absurd everything is. Whether its Glen Beck's glasses or the Ragin' Cajin's head, or the inflammatory things that come out of them, we can't get on board with that, and our only recourse is apathetic snickering.
That is, until someone calls us together to inject a little conscious absurdity into the unconscious absurdity that usually dominates Washington. And then, our hunger for sincere discourse emerges in an almost literally ground-breaking swell of enthusiasm.
As a "master of divinity," my reflections on our generation's penchant for ironic apathy led me to thinking about our religious engagement -- our apathetic snickering in the back of the church. Is there hope for the same kind of movement in our religion as the Rally represented for our politics? Can the I Generation be incited to sing the Doxology with as much sincerity as we sang "America the Beautiful" with Tony Bennett on Saturday?
My first impulse is to say, obviously not. Religion is widely held to be the source of the ridiculous in our political discourse. It is with religion that conservative millennialists paint their apocalyptic caricatures of our future. It is with religion that even our more enlightened politicians pander to us to avoid making difficult ethical arguments. And it is in the name of religion that despotic autocrats justify their evil.
On the other side of the argument, religion is touted as an inescapable and wholesome reality from which our moral bedrock and communal identity have been formed. It is said to be that upon which our laws and constituting documents depend, and in whose purview those documents should remain. It is claimed as the primary source of order and decency in our society.
We are presented with the options "religion as the only good" or "religion as evil." But this dichotomy is false. It is a conflation of the good and bad aspects of human nature with the expression of that nature in a particular human activity. In fact, people do both great and terrible things in the name of religion, just as they do in the name of conservatism or liberalism, or in the name of love, or in the name of fear. Xenophobia and generosity do not belong to religion, they belong to humanity.
Stewart and Colbert exploded the absurd in our political discourse so that a satirical generation can take the future of our country seriously. It is unclear what exactly that will look like going forward, but in the moment, it felt like a quarter-million people smiling broadly in the October sun.
If we were to explode the absurd in religion, if we exposed the fallacy of our reductive handling of systems of understanding the deep questions of life, would the same kind of sincerity emerge from our irony?
If Generation I came to our houses of worship carrying satirical signs that read "God hates figs," and we laughed at clips of the simplistic and divisive rhetoric that makes us ashamed to call ourselves Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, atheists or whatever, and if we sang familiar songs together and listened past the demonization of the other, what would happen? If we exposed all the things that make our religious discourse absurd -- all the squawking about other peoples' sins, all the fighting about which language to use to describe the ineffable, all the simple-minded conflation of poetry and prose, and the universalizing of the particular -- I suspect that there would be enough sincere goodwill floating in the wake of our laughter to give us goosebumps again, and to help us take seriously the future of our religious traditions.
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or the folks out in the country where jobs are even scarcer, and if there is one the payday check cashing scams cost you 30% or more annual pecentage rates. and televison keeps showing all the crap that OTHER folks have and you never will, in your - pardon the supposed stereotype- but tha't my relatives - your single wide 35 year old trailer, and your 15 year old corolla with the front end that's finally REALLY going out. Until you figure out to include these parts of your generation and your country, its going to continue to fracture. and I think Jon Stewart s one of the best things that's happened to the US in a long time... but bless his heart, he's not enough, not even with robo chicken
wish I had an answer, I wouldn't even charge for it, not even sponsorship fees. not even travel fees.
You eluded my list in this post mainly because I didn't think of you! Sorry.
I spent this summer on a little organic farm with some lovely Pagan friends. My experience of their beliefs was that they were quite eclectic and esoteric. This is not at all an indictment, and may in fact be a sign of "transcending the conflictonator." But there was also an odd eschatological undercurrent which makes me hessitant to accept any such claim too quickly. My pagan friends tended to anticipate the end of the world more eagerly than my Christian friends.
I suspect this has to do with a combination of being on the margins of a troubled society and deeply connected to the natural world which this society tends to abuse. But such a mindset left many of my friends quite bitter about the "mainstream" - a betterness I feel in your post as well. (and which may well be justified.)
Anyway, interesting thing to think about...
I still plan on attending an end of the world party in 2012 however ;-)
but it is needed or the masses would not support it.
the capitalists use religion to their advantage maybe more so then the preachers and religious leaders.
capitalism for the few and religion go together like ducks and water.
each needs the other to take advantage of the ignorant.
now ignorance is not a sin but it is troublesome.
have you noticed the more religious a person is the more they love their capitalism and their military and even their wars???????? ie tea baggers explained in one sentence.
this nation loves its wars so much that all of their soldiers are hero's not just those that do something special in a fight but all are hero's. ie imperialism defined in one sentence.
how corrrupt can one religious nation become that claims to be followers of jesus the prince of peace and they love their mega military might and their wars for corp profits and their capitalism ideology of profits over people. ie american culture defined in one sentence.
my next book is how to win friends and influence people. :-)
How is this adhering to your mission statement of teaching "...members of the community may learn to proclaim with conviction, courage, wisdom, and love the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord."?
I suppose you were enlightened on "religion" to understand and fit in with such groups much like Paul did in his ministry. I commend to you to then keep centered as Paul did with likewise conduct and focus on Christ. Praise be that you, and (I), now of course, have the additional inspired and inerrant word of God. Careful you do not become worldly and promote a false sense of salvation.
Faith in religion is going through the motions of tradition. Faith in Christ, brother, comes from the heart, believing with repentance of the one true God and his Son as your Lord and Savior. Faith will ignite the fire of the Holy Spirit within you and remove all doubt. Faith will put you to Christian action, surrendering your life for the promise of Salvation.
Ask the Lord for strengthened faith and he will provide. God sent his Son to die for you, he will answer, but you must ask, it's that free will thing.
Those that are willing to laugh should watch their backs.
How does a Christian make fun of abortion when they liken this to sacrifice of a living being? The congregation would not take light of their pastor escaping reality by smoking marijuana. How does a Christian make fun of homosexual marriage when to them this is a counterfeit representation of marriage as intended by God? Is making "God hates figs" signs pleasing to God, or mocking God? Even if you did not make the sign, is it pleasing to our Lord Jesus to laugh and fellowship along with the one who did? Would this behavior be a contradiction of a Christian life?
So in short you are right. A generation of kids from a generation that doesn't care is sarcastic and a bit cynical about the direction this country is in after decades of willful mismanagement.
You are hanging out in the wrong places if you think two entire generations are worthless. Try volunteering at the local food pantry, recycling center, youth-at-risk center, nursing home, animal rescue, etc. You'll meet some people from several generations that you can look up to.
Just because I think Tea Partiers and the economy/culture created by the Boomers is absurd, doesn't mean I'm "smug."
But I do think Mencken was way beyond anything that Stewart, Colbert, or anyone in mainstream media is doing today. I've read a lot of Mencken, and I don't think any media outlet today would have the guts to hire him and stand by him during the inevitable onslaught of protests and advertiser walkouts his "insensitivity" would generate. His total contempt for all politics, and especially his low regard for the intelligence and character of the "American people," would leave him a man without a pulpit.
While it is true that our human nature IS love, our human tendencies are also greed, hatred and ignorance born out of self-centered conditioning. Religion when practiced with integrity, whether is it Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism or any wisdom tradition helps us to wake up to those tendencies and to learn to move towards our true nature. Nothing else makes us take a look at the self in order to let go of it. Most everything else is about fixing up the self (especially for our generation of self improvement lovers!) Now that's absurd. From such an examination of the self comes a real sense of humor, and the ability to laugh at all of the absurdity of the world, while at the same time taking action.
I beg to differ.
When someone abuses a cat, we're there.
When someone molests a kiddie, we're there.
When someone throws innocent puppies into a river, we're there.
When an evil corporate pyramid scheme is exposed, we throw together a global protest with over 9000 participants worldwide.
We're not self-centered. It's just that modern cultural tools allow us to react in new ways that some might view as inadequate.
If you knew Gen I like I do, after protesting Scientology with them for over 2 years, you would have more optimism. These are good people with a strong moral compass. Religiously, they're a mix, as you'd expect from the cross section of the whole internet would be. Even the ones who joined in "for the lulz" still express outrage at human trafficking and abuse.
Politicians used to the status quo, who fail to recognize the power of a band of people whose nation is the internet, are going to be in for a shock. Failing to adapt to changing conditions brings down entire species. I can't wait for the Republicans and Democrats to wind up on the endangered list!
Tyrants still fear what they've always feared: large masses of angry people outside the palace gate. As long as we're sitting in our rooms by ourselves clickety-clacking on our keyboards, preaching to the choir, instead of in the street heating up the tar and feathers, they've got us exactly where they want us. I don't see this as a generational thing--well-meaning people of all ages have been seduced into believing that typing is a valid substitute for marching. But it seems the more I type, the more the worst people among us seem to be getting exactly what they want.
Humans are animals first and foremost. The suggestion that our true nature is some abstract thought is borderline idiocy. The suggestion that the newest generation is self-centered or suffering from a lack of morals is an old trope repeated throughout history. I am suspicious about these wisdom traditions you spoke about but I cannot disagree about your call to service for humanity.
I get the impression from your mention of truest spirit when it comes to the practice of religion that your description of such a practice would fit quite nicely with humanism (sans god, of course). It is for this reason that I believe that the inclusion of god does nothing to inform the debate.
It isn't just the younger people who are tired of absurdity everywhere we look, whether it's on the national news, the talk shows or our churches. If we don't get the national discussion back on a rational level we cannot move forward.
Believers must voice outrage at cultural deterioration.
The legal commitment of radical ideological secularism to any and all of the fanatically-twisted fringes of American culture - evilutionists, socialists, environmentalists, satirists, and new atheists - will destroy the foundation of our society!
God believes it is important for the righteous to judge the wicked.
God is love.
And, after suspecting I am a part of your "wicked" from your first three sentences. I must say, your last two sentences present an odd paradox of a mangled theology. Perhaps, to cite Augustine, your hates and loves are demonstrably disordered.