The "god from a machine" was a cheap plot resolution device used in Greek theater. A mechanism above the stage lowered an actor representing a god, who tied up loose ends and finished off the play. It sounds unsatisfying in the extreme — but we're still doing it to ourselves! How else can one explain our touching faith that problems will be solved by:

• government — new legislation, tough law enforcement, court decisions ....
• technology — telecommunications, computers, biochemistry, or whatever the Next Big Thing turns out to be ....
• mass enlightenment — religion, meditation, consciousness-raising, new social philosophies ....

The focus is always external. Somebody else changes, makes a discovery, provides a service, takes action. How odd ... and how rarely it works. Each of us can directly affect one person. Yet we spend vast amounts of time and money and personal energy on attempts at lobbying, advertising, promoting, haranguing, and indoctrinating. We close our eyes and turn away from our selves.

Saturday, October 30, 1999 at 21:17:35 (EDT) = 1999-10-30

TopicSociety - TopicPhilosophy

(correlates: EatingOnesOwnCooking, BuildingToLast, AgesOfWork, ...)