Self Mastery as Mastering Technology

Heidegger described the totalizing effects of modern technology as seeking "to order everything so as to achieve more and more flexibility and efficiency." Dreyfus, "Nihilism, art, technology, and politics," Cambridge Companion to Heidegger, p. 305. Man himself is drawn into this process. Dreyfus states:

"In this technological perspective, ultimate goals like serving God, society, our fellows, or even ourselves no longer make sense to us. Human beings, on this view, become a resource to be used - but more important, to be enhanced - like any other: 'Man, who no longer conceals his character of being the most important raw material, is also drawn into this process.'" Id. at p. 306.

One of Heidegger's recommendations for an antidote to this process is to participate in "local practices" -- marginal practices -- that resist technology's drive to efficiency. As Dreyfus says, "[W]e must learn to appreciate marginal practices -- what Heidegger calls the saving power of insignificant things -- practices such as friendship, backpacking in the wilderness, and drinking the local wine with friends."

This past weekend I went camping with my wife in Wisconsin at Blue Mound state park. We went hiking, attended mass at St. Ignatius in Mount Horeb, visited a local brewery, took the Cave of the Mounds tour, and visited Little Norway. There we learned that in every craft undertaken by these early pioneers to Wisconsin, they purposefully built in a fault, a slight imperfection to the pattern, in order to remind themselves that man is imperfect, and that humility is the proper attitude toward the world and all we do. I think this is also a good antidote to the technological attitude in which all, including us, become resources for a system of ever greater efficiency. This process, as Dreyfus, notes, results in nihilism, or the loss of human meaning. The idol of technology must be fought with humility. Then we will get ourselves back, we who are bodily and local. If we are "masters of all" we only succeed in enslaving ourselves.

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We must speak to them with our hands before we try to speak to them with our lips. - St. Peter Claver

Terror and Holy Terror

I saw this from the Sunday Tribune's travel section: "Venezuela is facing a crime crisis of such proportions that its murder rate in 2009 was dramatically higher than Iraq's, a country with a similar size population (31 million to Venezuela's 27 million) and active war zones. More than 19,000 murders occurred in Venezuela, making it one of the world's most dangerous countries. Small gangs are responsible for much of the crime. Violent crime occurs throughout the country, with gangs often setting up roadblocks to look like police checkpoints and sometimes impersonating police officers. This type of crime often occurs on the main road to Caracas from the international airport."

At the same time I was reading this "commentary" from Philip Rieff: "Perhaps the best place to begin is with the suggestion that holiness is entirely interdictory. A moral absolute thus becomes the object of all. Holy terror is charismatic. . . Jacob swears by the fear of his father, Isaac (Genesis 31:53). What is this charismatic fear? What is holy terror? Is it a fear of a mere father; in a phantasmagoric enlargement, Freud's idea is silly. Holy terror is rather fear of oneself, fear of the evil in oneself and in the world. It is also fear of punishment. With this necessary fear, charisma is not possible. To live without this high fear is to be a terror oneself, a monster. And yet to be monstrous has become our ambition, for it is our ambition to live without fear. All holy terror is gone. The interdicts have no power. This is the real death of God and of our own humanity." Charisma, pp. 5-6.

Inner reality's outward manifestation.

Take Delight in the Lord

Today's Psalm 37:4 says: "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Don't we normally think that we get our desires only by keeping our nose to the grindstone? Getting the desires of our heart comes after hard work, not before. To take delight in the Lord in order to get our desires seems to be eating desert before the main course.

Carroll Stuhmueller's comments elaborate the meaning of the psalm: "The lines of this psalm do not need explanation so much as our prolonged, contemplative reflection. We need to memorize a poem like this one (one of the reasons for the alphabetical style) and then to allow its words and sentences to seep into many segments of our thought and conversation.

"Fortunately this type of contemplation does not wisk us off to the clouds. Typical of the sapiential movement, the whole realm of reward and punishment remains within the parameters of life on earth. Even such lines as Take delight in the Lord . . . seeks a joy that is delicate and dignified yet always of this earth: i.e., Isa 55:2, 'Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Hearken to me . . . and delight in rich fares.'"

Taking delight in the Lord and realizing the desires of our hearts can be seen as two sides of the same coin, two moments of the same experience. The desire of our heart is to live in joy. To live in joy -- joy in this beautiful day, joy in the people we meet, joy in the various "goods" we experience -- is to let life be, to experience it as gratuitous, as gift. The joy we experience points to God, the giver, the source of all being. So, enjoy life, and take delight in the Lord!