Part 1...
It was a strange night....One of those "I can't sleep but I have no reason to not be asleep" nights. And all one can do is find random things to think about. It is in these moments I do some of my most enjoyable philosophizing. On my mind this particular evening was this spectacular essay I had read called the "Anti-Anti-Oedipus: Representing Post-Fordist Subjectivity" by Mathias Nilges which is definitely lengthy and wordy at times but was one of the more interesting theoretical essays i have read in some time. The analysis of Fight Club alone was worth the read.
While the author was dealing with a kind of economic Post-modernism (postfordism), his critique worked just as well in regards to the postmodern culture.
And at stake of this critique is the cost/rewards of ridding ourselves of an authority figure(s) who we as postmodernist no longer have to follow or model our lives after...
Basically.... 50 years ago and beyond, our whole culture ran very traditionally in terms of a fordist model of economic development whose conversation would go something like this....
Fordist (Traditional Model)-
Dad: Hey son, I know it seems difficult work, but the right thing to do is follow in your old man's footsteps by keeping a good work ethic and you'll become a man soon enough and be able to start your own family by working in the factory (or farm, etc....)....
Son: Awww shucks dad. Thanks a lot. I look forward to toiling the land and enjoying the fruits of my labor
(Father and Son exchange grinning smiles as if they understand an inside joke).....
However in the 1960's, things went wrong. So wrong..... Satan showed up. Rock and Roll showed up. And there was dancing. And the Beatles. And marijuana. Tons of marijuana. Long hair for the girls and long hair for the guys. And Woodstock. People smiled. Acid was there too. Definitely acid...... Young people, all of them naked. It was the time of love (or rebellion depending on which side of WWII you were born on).
And for your video illustration, a clip from Woodstock (music by: Canned Heat)-
What I am especially concerned about here is how the acid dancers at the 2:05 mark seem to dance the same way some people do at my old church.....and those people at my old church are definitely at the ripe age to have been apart of the hippy crowd back then (yikes).
But anyways, long story short... in the 1960's, the kids basically said, "I hate you dad. I don't have to follow your rules. You're a fake, etc.."
And there were a lot of mean things said and thought about anyone in an authority role (The Vietnam War didn't help things here either)....
Basically growing up to be like your dad only worked for so long... but by the time the Baby Boomers became of age, the model was falling apart....
So in the 1960's we get a kind of cultural postmodernism where love is preached and people are suspicious of Truth because Truth is preached by those in charge...So basically, what was touted by the kids was freedom, whose message was essentially...
"There is no Master to follow. There is no Truth. Everything is relative. Therefore you are your own destiny. You make the rules."
This is a vulgar form of postmodernism but it caught on. And everyone seemed to think it was a good thing...
But now, 43 years later...
The Truth of the Postmodern Man
We are lonely.
So lonely.
Alienated would be another word.
We don't have to do anything daddy tells us. This is good.
But at the same time we don't have a Daddy to help us. This is bad.
We also obsess over brand names (Starbucks, and Apple and Ikea) ....
We are the shining star of image obsession. We don't care about Starbucks coffee. We care about Starbucks. We don't care about the quality of the Ikea furniture but just the way it looks. We don't care about Apple's lack of capability. We care about it's simplicity and look.
When we purchase the things we want, we find no satisfaction....
If we were to speak we think no one would listen. No one is listening. If someone speaks, we aren't listening either unless you wrote a book.
And certainly, since postmoderns make their own rules, they can't ask for help because that would be a sign of weakness and no weakness is understood in a world where one is free to be themselves and live the way they want....
And nor do we like people bothering us. Sure there are some people we will always have over and listen to, but past that few trustworthy friends, there is no one we want to hear from....
And no one we want to talk to....
We are more anxious, more neurotic, isolated, and technological saavy than any other generation....
We are the wooden Pinocchio. Except we cut our strings from the Master Geppetto. So we are wooden without someone to guide us. We are free. But definitely still wooden. So all we are left with is us trying to convince ourselves we are a real live boy. We are wooden. Our grandparents were wooden, but at least they didn't cut the strings....
(And no this is not a post preaching the need to go back to the way things were)...
But the question is why?
Why are we so lonely?
Why do we struggle with being consistent with our walk with God so much?
The Gaze (or I'm watching you)
In film theory and psychoanalysis there is this concept called "The Gaze." Basically, the gaze can be understood in a few ways:
1) That feeling when you are home alone and you feel like someone is watching you through the window from outside.
2) That noise you hear from somewhere near, but also somewhere where there should be no noises. The noises that make you ask a friend "Did you hear that?" And if they did the fear heightens. If they didn't hear the noise, you are crazy. It's a lose-lose.
3) That feeling that "God is watching you" (as if he was a stalker hiding in the corner of the room).
4) That feeling when you catch an animal staring at you from the corner of your eye (usually a house pet), and when you turn to look at the animal, you can't help but think the animal is human and is observing you from the position of a judge. And seriously, when I find an animal staring at me like it knows what I'm thinking, I want to laugh it off but that stupid pet is there staring at me still and it won't look away and it knows that I want it to look away and that's why it's staring that much longer (seriously creeps me out).
Basically the Gaze is that feeling, where you come to feel that you are the object being stared at and watched but yet this sensation had no logical explanation, and usually it's source can't be pinpointed.....
See Exhibit A:
The Gaze is here embodied by Michael Myers at the beginning of the clip. Jamie Lee Curtis sees a vague image of a man. And when her friend goes to find this mysterious stalker, he of course is nowhere to be found.
The Gaze is there. And then it's not....
And when you are alone, and you feel the Gaze watching you.... you usually can't help but feel like you are the actor in a movie and some unseen eye is preying on you as it's source of entertainment....
This matters.
The Gaze and Postmodern Apostolics...
Because when you are doing "good" with God, and you feel you have his approval, you aren't going to feel the Gaze, Because God, your Father is For you and with you.
But the Gaze is very closely associated with loneliness, alienation, or guilt. Usually when you sense "The gaze," it corresponds to one of those feelings.
Because if you sin in private or with one or two other people, technically no one saw you from outside "the sin"...
But yet, you can't help but feel someone is watching you during or after the sin....
Or when you are alone....and you can't enjoy anything.... Why do you feel alone? Why can't you enjoy yourself? And then the worst moment is while you are all alone, you begin to think these stupid thoughts. You speculate that maybe this whole living thing isn't about your freedom, but rather about someone watching you just like you watch your favorite sitcom character on TV.
Or for Apostolics, as children the Gaze is personified when we find ourselves alone for too long... we assume the Rapture happened and we missed it. Dad and Mom got called to heaven and now they won't be there to watch you, nor protect you. Your loneliness as a child looks for an explanation (e.g. "the rapture happened") which just results in more loneliness.
Of course the Gaze isn't real. It's completely a psychological condition. I would experience the Gaze a whole lot more as a child than I do these days (but randomly my dog adds the "gaze" here and there)....But seriously, the Gaze never actually dies....
What's the point?
The point is simple....
In the Good old days.... when there was a hierarchy of power and a set model to adapt (like growing up to be a farmer like your dad), there was someone to answer to. A real authority figure in one's life (be it a pastor or a father figure) offers much comfort that postmoderns don't get today....Back then, There was someone to argue with. There was someone to hate if you found your days miserable. You could thank your dad, church, pastor, God for the blessings, and then get secretly frustrated if things went wrong. Of course freedom as we understand it, was out of the question. But there was an order to this thing.... We like order....
Basically if life is good in the Traditional Model, you can attribute it to God and dad raising your right.
If life was bad in the Traditional Model, you can attribute it to sin and dad being too bossy and controlling....
There was always someone to thank and always someone to blame....
But now, dear God....
Who to blame when we raised ourselves (or at least we are raised to think we are in charge of our own choices)? Who to struggle against when there is nothing left to struggle for?
Why do we feel guilty when we know God forgives sins and Truth is relative? Who do we thank when things are good?
And even when I know that I am free why do I still find myself having to answer to that stupid Gaze in the midst of my lonliness? if I am free, why don't I feel like it?
My speculation obviously revolves around the Gaze......But I think it's much more complicated than that... And thus an analysis of the Halloween movie will help us out.....which will happen in part 2 of this post...
I will say that when thinking about the role of authority and fathers in our lives.... it's not a coincidence that the liberal "postmodern" or "emergent" leaning youth pastors and pastors are the sons of strong, dominating male figures. At the same time, the big time conservative UPC evangelists are the sons of father figures who were absent, not as "dominating" or at least, not as much in "the spotlight."
And I think our understanding of the Gaze is a big help to explaining this pattern...
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