Postman: why we don't know what is beyond belief

...the world we live in is very nearly incomprehensible to most of us.  There is almost no fact, whether actual or imagined, that will surprise us for very long, since we have no comprehensive or consistent picture of the world that would make the fact appear as an unacceptable contradiction.  We believe because there is no reason not to believe...[education] in itself has been emptied of any coherent world-view, Technopoly deprives us of the social, political, historical, metaphysical, logical or spiritual bases for knowing what is beyond belief.

Technopoly, p58

Svenson: what is margin?

Margin is the space between our load and our limits. It is the amount allowed beyond that which is needed. It is something held in reserve for contingencies or unanticipated situations. Margin is the gap between rest and exhaustion, the space between breathing freely and suffocating.   If we were equipped with a flashing light to indicate “100 percent full,” we could better gauge our capacities. But we don’t have such an indicator light, and we don’t know when we have overextended until we feel the pain. As a result, many people commit to a 120 percent life and wonder why the burden feels so heavy. It is rare to see a life prescheduled to only 80 percent, leaving a margin for responding to the unexpected that God sends our way. (loc.975ff)


Positive margin status is what we call in science an “unstable state,” one which spontaneously decays. Margin flows toward overload, but overload does not revert to margin unless forced. (1122)

Margin

Svenson: overloading & how it gets us

The spontaneous tendency of our culture is to inexorably add detail to our lives: one more option, one more commitment, one more expectation, one more purchase, one more debt, one more change, one more job, one more decision. We must now deal with more “things per person” than at any other time in history. Yet one can comfortably handle only so many details in his or her life. Exceeding this threshold will result in disorganization or frustration. It is important to note here that the problem is not in the “details.” The problem is in the “exceeding.” This is called overloading. (loc 762)


Often we do not feel overload sneaking up on us. We instead feel energized by the rapidity of events and the challenge of our full days. Then one day we find it difficult to get out of bed.  Not all threshold limits are appreciated as we near them, and it is only in exceeding them that we suddenly feel the breakdown. (loc 813)


...overload—We have more “things per person” than any other nation in history. Closets are full, storage space is used up, and cars can’t fit into garages. Having first imprisoned us with debt, possessions then take over our houses and occupy our time. This begins to sound like an invasion.  Everything I own owns me. Why would I want more? (loc 927)

To date, people do not operate on the principle of overloading. Instead, they operate on the basis of “one more thing won’t hurt.” Yet this is only true if it is true. Once we are maximally loaded down, adding one more thing will hurt. The pain of overload is real pain. (loc.955)

Margin

Svenson: stress-perception worse than the thing we fear

Depression is the feeling that life is painful and hopeless. Anxiety is the looming belief that circumstances will imminently become painful and hopeless. Whether depressed, anxious, or both, these people feel pressure from stressors that are inflated or perhaps not even there at all.  These anxious and/or depressed people will be burdened much of their lives simply because they perceive stressors as more of a threat than they really are.  One important lesson emerges from such an illustration: Often our perception of the stressor damages us more than the stressor itself.

Margin (location 670ff)

Postman: how technology became supreme

...the success of 20th century technology in providing Americans with convenience, comfort, speed, hygiene, and abundance was so obvious and promising that there seemed no reason to look for other sources of fulfilment or creativity or purpose.  To every old-world belief, habit or tradition, there was and still is a technological alternative.  To prayer, the alternative is penicillin;  to family roots, the alternative is mobility;  to reading, the alternative is television;  to restraint, the alternative is immediate gratification;  to sin, the alternative is psychotherapy;  to political ideology, the alternative is popular appeal established through scientific polling.  There is even an alternative to the painful riddle of death, as Freud called it.  The riddle may be postponed through longer life, and then perhaps solved altogether through cryogenics.  At least no one can easily think of a reason why not...

[a century of scholarship undermining old sources of belief]...had the effect of losing confidence in our belief systems and therefore in ourselves.  Amid the conceptual debris, there remained one sure thing to believe in - technology.

 Technopoly p54-55

Art as back door to truth

Aesthetics is a movement from the right brain to the left. Consequently, art is often a back door to truth. Clearly, people are brought to faith through great aesthetics. The power of the art draws people to behold it. After a while they begin to wonder if the ideas that inspired it are true.

Tim Keller, CT

Postman: technique over humanity

...These include the beliefs that the primary, if not the only, goal of human labour and thought is efficiency; that technical calculation is, in all respects, superior to human judgement;  that in fact human judgement cannot be trusted, because it is plagued by laxity, ambiguity, and unnecessary complexity;  that subjectivity is an obstacle to clear thinking;  that what cannot be measured either does not exist or is of no value;  and that the affairs of citizens are best guided and conducted by experts...

...In the work of Frederick Taylor we have, I believe, the first clear statement of the idea that society is best served when human beings are placed at the disposal of their techniques and technology...

Technopoly, p52-53

John Newton: feelings and the Word

The great question is, How we are practically influenced by the Word of God, as the ground of our hope, and as the governing rule of our tempers and conversation?  The Apostle exhorts believers to rejoice in the Lord always.  He well knew they were exposed to trials and temptations, and to much trouble from an evil heart of unbelief;  and he prevents the objections we might be ready to make, by adding, "And again I say, Rejoice":  as if he had said, "I speak upon mature consideration.  I call upon you to rejoice, not at some times only, but at all times.  Not only when upon the mount, but when in the valley.  Not only when you conquer, but while you are fighting.  Not only when the Lord shines upon you, but when He seems to hide his face".  When he enables you to do all things, you are no better in yourselves than you were before.  And when you feel you can do nothing, you were no worse.  Your experiences will vary, but his love and promises are unchangeable.

Wise Counsel,  p83-84

John Newton: why preachers must be failures

The angel who appeared to Cornelius did not preach the gospel to him, but directed him to send for Peter. For though the glory and grace of the Saviour seems a fitter subject for an angel's powers than for the poor stammering tongues of sinful men, yet an angel could not preach experimentally, nor describe the warfare between grace and sin from his own feelings.  And if we could suppose a minister as full of comforts and as free from failings as an angel, though he would be a good and happy man, I cannot conceive that he would be a good or useful preacher, for he would not know how to sympathise with the weak and afflicted of the flock, or to comfort them under their difficulties with the consolations wherewith he himself, in similar circumstances, had been comforted of God.

Selections from Wise Counsel, ed. Grant Gordon, p79-80

Svenson: stress (& psychological causality)

Stress has been called a national epidemic. Is it a modern disease? Haven’t people always had stresses? The answer to both questions is yes. Humankind has always had problems, and many of them were caused by stress. Yet our current stress plague differs dramatically from the experience of our ancestors. Conditions of modern living overstimulate our stress response more than in previous times, and many of the issues are too complex for successful  resolution. (loc 627)

 

.....

In one study, a patient was first given a cardiac treadmill exam. Despite vigorous physical exercise, the patient’s cardiovascular status remained normal throughout. He then was asked to subtract seven from 777 serially for three-and-one-half minutes. His blood pressure went up forty points. Similar results have been achieved in other studies. Certain biochemical stress parameters are more affected by psychological stressors than by physical stressors. Chronic uncertainty, sustained levels of increased vigilance, or struggling with a mental task are more stressful than chopping wood. (loc 642)

.....

Individuals differ significantly regarding how much stress is desirable or what types of events are distressing. What strains some does not bother others. I, for example, do not mind waiting in lines but don’t enjoy going to formal parties. Another person might react the opposite—despising lines but loving parties. A stressor that for one might be pleasure, for another might be pain. For one, 

the spice of life; for another, the kiss of death.

Margin

Svenson: Margin and its loss

Margin, the space that once existed between ourselves and our limits, was an early casualty. When you reach the limits of your resources or abilities, you have no margin left. So as history and progress picked up speed, we hit limit after limit. Slowly, margin began to disappear. Then when exponentiality took over the controls, margin vaporized. Now that we have exceeded so many of our limits—personal, emotional, relational, physical, financial—we have no margin at all. Yet because we don’t even know what margin is, we don’t realize it is gone. We know that something is not right, but we can’t solve the puzzle beyond that. Our pain is palpable, but our assailant remains unnamed. Much of this pain is in our relational life: to self, to others, to God. We miss margin in many areas. But we require it in our relationships. When we have no margin and our limits have been exceeded; when we are besieged by stress and overload; when our relational life is ailing; when it seems the flood of events is beyond our control; then problems take on a different dimension. One at a time they are perhaps manageable. But they just won’t stand in line. Instead, they mound up suddenly and then bury us without warning.

 

Margin, location 572ff

Svenson: the real way to measure progress

Wilberforce: “Above all, measure your progress by your experience of the love of God and its exercise before men."

Margin: location 431/432

This line struck me with great force:  how have I been measuring my progress?  And how far out of whack have I been?  And how much happier might life be if I stopped using...(speed, efficiency, quantity, visibility, meeting expectations) to assess how I am doing?  What if each day I really asked a question based on this - and how my work, my plans, relationships etc?

Quick review: The Holmes Affair

Maybe I shouldn't have gone from TLOR to this book.  TLOR in many ways embodies an anachronistic language, evoking a previous age of magic and myth.  Then I pick up this well-reviewed book and...I wonder if TV has forever altered the way people write?  As a script for a movie or TV it's pretty well ready to roll; in terms of lyrical quality and depth, not so much.

But that's not my biggest problem with it.  It's OK.  But whilst the book in spots spoke of how Conan-Doyle constructed his tales and how you could see his method, his system...this book seemed to follow a system too, just as visible.  It came over a bit like the Da Vinci Code: 1. Introduce unusual  main character  2. Introduce female who will turn out to be more important than you realise.  3.  Introduce the mysterious crime with sinister overtones.  4. Lots of travelling about pursued by mysterious assailants, whilst seeing how the past plays into the current crime.

It was OK.

I know sophisticated grown-ups aren't supposed to comment and complain about this BUT: the profanity gets worse as you progress. (as well as being spoken by historical persons for whom, one presumes, we have no idea whether they used those words).

The best bit is the afterword explaining that a number of facets of the story have historical reality!  That was the truly breathtaking moment.  And I'm interested in finding out more about that.

Should have been brilliant, but was just OK - for me, anyway.

Swenson: love more than the solutions of progress

How might we know that the relational environments are where God would have us concentrate? Simply put, these are the same areas Christ spent His time developing and where His teaching is focused. Where do you think God would have us search for answers regarding drugs, crime, divorce, suicide, depression, teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and litigation? In the material and cognitive realms, or in the relational ones? Our society tries in vain to remedy these problems using the popular notions of progress—appropriating more money (that is, material/physical answers) and setting up more classes (that is, cognitive/educational answers). But insufficient funds and lack of education are not the problem. The problem is lack of love.

Margins, location 405

Swenson: did progress betray us?

Did progress betray us? Not really. We should have known from the start there was more to life than material and cognitive well-being. Until we understand what progress is and isn’t (that is, should be and can never be), we will remain trapped in a paradigm that is not taking us where we need to be going.

Richard A Swenson, Margin, (Kindle location 353)

Postman: making the alternatives invisible

Technopoly eliminates alternatives to itself in precisely the way Aldous Huxley outlines in Brave New World.  It does not make them illegal.  It does not make them immoral.  It does not even make them unpopular.  It makes them invisible and therefore irrelevant.  And it does so by redefining what we mean by religion, by art, by family, by politics, by history, by truth, by privacy, by intelligence, so that our definitions fits its new requirements.  

Technopoly, p.48

Quick Review: The Return of the King

Well, it's over.  After 25 years I read TLOR again.  And I'm glad I did.

The suspense was absent as I remembered most of what happened - although in this third part I had got some of it muddled. Having said that, I did find myself wanting to catch up on another strand of the story whilst following the present one (volume1 is a united narrative;  volume two divides into two;  but in volume three there are often three strands unfolding).

SPOILERS (little ones, but you might want to read with one eye closed)

So what stands out here?  Especially striking is the friendship and bravery of Sam, who tends to fade into the background in memory.  In fact friendship, trust, courage and sacrifice run throughout as possibly the most constant theme of the book.   Also, the intrinsic power of a noble King - to inspire overturn darkness, establish justice and to inspire loyalty. And in narrative terms, the co-ordination of the big spectacular battle (the Pellenor Fields) and the tiny movements of the Ringbearer, and how one cannot succeed without the other.

A big difference from my 17-year old reading, is that I'm no longer befuddled by the end.  In those days I think I felt "Hey, it's a magical world - why does this have to happen?".  But I'm older now, and the idea that darkness could wound one so badly that it cannot ever heal; and that there is an undying land of life and peace and rest...that all makes a lot more sense.

So last time, it was the epic scale, the internal consistency, the fantastical lands.  This time that was all still there, but also as a frame that hold a picture of the deep themes of life.

Yep: it's still a great, great book.  And I shan't wait 25 years again - currently I'm planning 5...

Postman: fully-armed 19thC technocracy

There on the wings of technocracy, the United States soared to unprecedented heights. That Jefferson, Adams, and Madison would have found such a place uncomfortable, perhaps even disagreeable, did not matter...
 ...Technocracy did not entirely destroy the traditions of the social and symbolic worlds...In nineteenth century America, there still existed holy men and the concept of sin.  There still existed regional pride, and it was possible to confirm traditional notions of family life.  It was possible to respect tradition itself and to find sustenance in ritual and myth.  It was possible to believe in social responsibility and the practicality of individual action.  It was even possible to believe in common sense and the wisdom of the elderly.  It was not easy, but it was possible.

The technocracy that emerged, fully armed, in nineteenth century America disdained such beliefs, because holy men and sin, grandmothers and families, regional loyalties and two-thousand year-old traditions are antagonistic to the technocratic way of life.

Technopoly p45-46

Postman: technology changes thinking

New technologies alter the structure of our interests: the things we think about.  They alter the character of our symbols: the things we think with.  And they alter the nature of community: the arena in which thoughts develop.

Technopoly p20

Quick Review: The Two Towers

Well it has been a different experience reading volume 2 this time.

Some epic moments turned out to be only a few pages long (eg. Helm's Deep).  And the parts last time that felt like they were holding up plot developments were great this time.  This is especially true of some key conversations.  The best example would be Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas running through the plains of Rohan and encountering the Riders.  The suspicion gradually giving way to a recognition of noble hearts of similar cast, fighting one enemy, was great - as cultural barriers and the paranoia of the times gradually fall before a warm-heartedness.

This nobility of heart was largely lost in the movie, which tended to play relationships like buddy-movies where the protagonists fall out until united by need.  In TLOR Tolkien recognises sometimes people simply are noble-hearted.  Treebeard does not need to be provoked into action by the ecological disaster effecting him in his quiet safety: in the book, he knows Saruman is evil and has merely been taking time deliberating what to do.  Faramir does not have to struggle long and hard to resist the ring:  as written by Tolkien and not Peter Jackson, he soon works out what the situation is and is one of several characters (eg Sam) who seem largely unaffected by the ring.  Ah, a time when a true-heart was seen as possible.

But alongside this, one other thought that bypassed me last time.  25years ago Middle-Earth seemed like a wondrous place to live, and it is.  However, what I realise this time is that for the characters in the book these are difficult times and much that was great has passed or is passing.  The men of Gondor are not as their ancestors, the woods of the Elves have shrunk, the number of Ents who sleep has risen.  The Third Age is ending...and much that is golden will not be seen again.