Hey James, it's a pleasure to wake up to new reads from you. You are my go to re-enchantment bro - putting words to many things I am grasping for.
Have you read any Sean Monahan? He is considered the fashion/trend prophet who popularized the term vibe shift. I am no expert on his work, but it seems like a lot of the shifts we see are older generations - (20 and 30 somethings) reviving the sacred fashion of their youth from 15-20 years ago. We now seem to live in a detached feedback loop where this is no new culture, just rapid cycles of people trying to resurrect the vibes of yesteryears. I see this especially with low production aesthetic being in vogue - 90s camcorders, crappy green screen graphics, etc. Every one shops at thrift stores for vintage finds, and even the main clothing brands look more and more like the old clothing. I am also projecting my personal fondness for this stuff here, but it all kind of feels like cope. Like these material items will imbue my existence with some renewed sense of life.
Nostalgia is like a warm blanket of comfort that can abate present malaise, as the mind forgets the tulmut of the past. This is the inverse of optimism of tech bro futurisim.
Our society lacks ceremonies and ritual, which anchor you to present moments. Finding those vehicles to accept the present without resistance are critical to avoid falling prey to the dragons your mind chases to take you out of the presenr.
Very interesting observations. It strikes me that the fundamental difference between the older religious sense and the modern materialist sense is that the modern distrusts these socializing impulses, seeing them as vestiges of an unenlightened past, needs to be purged, whereas the religious sense (whether the holder of such sense be explicitly religious or not) perceives in these impulses as being somehow the point of the whole damn thing, or rather, that these impulses point us to some spiritual truth which lies beyond our purely temporal existence but which envelopes and interests with our day to day existence. This sense needs to be cherished and fed, or else we risk losing it entirely. That is why we crave explicit religious experience. Also, your observation about modern man worshipping the god who reveals himself in the future terrifies me, as I have an intuition that this god of the future does not wish us well. Highly recommend the book “Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future” by the late Fr. Seraphim Rose, if you have not read it. It is an odd book, but its musings have come of age. I think, as we live in exceedingly odd times.
My golden year would have to be 1984. My parents had yet to divorce, I was young (3rd, 4th grade), and all the 80's nostalgia iconography that was real was around by that time. Such innocence! Within 4 years, my world would be a dark mirror of what it was that year, and I'd be a much more cynical and corrupted teen. But yes - when I drive by the old house when I'm down in the area, I ~do~ feel a sense of reverence. As I approach the island I grew up on by ferry (my car goes on it too), I usually ride up at the front of the ship and quietly contemplate what it means to be returning to its shores as we dock - again, as you noted - it is from these places that the adventure began.
There is a curb next to a driveway on the Island from which I left in the back seat of my Army recruiter's car, and from that day, I never lived on the island again. I usually drive by once every time I go down there.
Hey James, it's a pleasure to wake up to new reads from you. You are my go to re-enchantment bro - putting words to many things I am grasping for.
Have you read any Sean Monahan? He is considered the fashion/trend prophet who popularized the term vibe shift. I am no expert on his work, but it seems like a lot of the shifts we see are older generations - (20 and 30 somethings) reviving the sacred fashion of their youth from 15-20 years ago. We now seem to live in a detached feedback loop where this is no new culture, just rapid cycles of people trying to resurrect the vibes of yesteryears. I see this especially with low production aesthetic being in vogue - 90s camcorders, crappy green screen graphics, etc. Every one shops at thrift stores for vintage finds, and even the main clothing brands look more and more like the old clothing. I am also projecting my personal fondness for this stuff here, but it all kind of feels like cope. Like these material items will imbue my existence with some renewed sense of life.
Exactly. They are like sacred items from a sacred time.
It’s a jump-to-conclusions mat. It’s got conclusions that you can JUMP to!
Hey Peter man! Check out channel 9, it’s the breast exams!! Woohoo!!
Maranatha
Nostalgia is like a warm blanket of comfort that can abate present malaise, as the mind forgets the tulmut of the past. This is the inverse of optimism of tech bro futurisim.
Our society lacks ceremonies and ritual, which anchor you to present moments. Finding those vehicles to accept the present without resistance are critical to avoid falling prey to the dragons your mind chases to take you out of the presenr.
Very interesting observations. It strikes me that the fundamental difference between the older religious sense and the modern materialist sense is that the modern distrusts these socializing impulses, seeing them as vestiges of an unenlightened past, needs to be purged, whereas the religious sense (whether the holder of such sense be explicitly religious or not) perceives in these impulses as being somehow the point of the whole damn thing, or rather, that these impulses point us to some spiritual truth which lies beyond our purely temporal existence but which envelopes and interests with our day to day existence. This sense needs to be cherished and fed, or else we risk losing it entirely. That is why we crave explicit religious experience. Also, your observation about modern man worshipping the god who reveals himself in the future terrifies me, as I have an intuition that this god of the future does not wish us well. Highly recommend the book “Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future” by the late Fr. Seraphim Rose, if you have not read it. It is an odd book, but its musings have come of age. I think, as we live in exceedingly odd times.
My golden year would have to be 1984. My parents had yet to divorce, I was young (3rd, 4th grade), and all the 80's nostalgia iconography that was real was around by that time. Such innocence! Within 4 years, my world would be a dark mirror of what it was that year, and I'd be a much more cynical and corrupted teen. But yes - when I drive by the old house when I'm down in the area, I ~do~ feel a sense of reverence. As I approach the island I grew up on by ferry (my car goes on it too), I usually ride up at the front of the ship and quietly contemplate what it means to be returning to its shores as we dock - again, as you noted - it is from these places that the adventure began.
There is a curb next to a driveway on the Island from which I left in the back seat of my Army recruiter's car, and from that day, I never lived on the island again. I usually drive by once every time I go down there.