Ideas Have Consequences Chpt 8: The Power of the Word

Community can be possible only via the vehicle of language. Words connect me not only to my contemporaries, but to my forefathers. I have access to a great, universal memory bank when I engage in reading.

If our language degenerates, if we begin to love THINGS rather than words, the link that binds us in community is broken. Do you remember the old song, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" It asks a great question! If we cease to be word- lovers, if we cease to read--- our conversation with past generations is broken. We are bankrupt, without the wise guidance of collective ages and having no compass for the future.

When words devolve and become merely utilitarian, we lose the ability to engage in higher thinking. We are robbed of the rich opportunity to grasp truth because we're not able to use metaphor or understand symbolism. This handicap cuts us off from the past and prevents us from laying up for the future. In the words of Richard Weaver:

"(snip)...father and child live in different worlds, and speech fails to provide a means to bridge them."

Need proof? Note that languages have been dropped from the core curriculum of our educational system. My husband, born in 1953, said that all 4 of his older siblings learned Latin, but it had been dropped by the time he went through the system. In my own small-town school system, it was not even an option.

Notice also that poetic/literature courses no longer compose the core curriculum of many schools, but are considered electives. I shudder to recall that "Fiction of the 70's" gave me the necessary credits to graduate from high school, while I missed Shakespeare and Homer. My tastes were not developed. I did not know what was good for me or what I was missing.

Richard Weaver, the author of this book, writes a prescription for the rehabilitation of the word:

• poetry (via literature and rhetoric)
• logic (dialectic)

This is classical education; it is what saves us from utilitarianism, from brutality, from degenerating into sentimentality.

In the second part of his rx, the dialectic, Weaver notes that the science of naming is indispensable to logic. He equates "namers" with "lawgivers" and makes the point that "stable laws require a stable vocabulary." (What does that do to the idea that our constitution is fluid?)

This chapter encouraged me. It affirms my daily, plodding efforts to incorporate Browning and Coleridge and Dickinson to our our routine. These efforts bring us out of the temporal and save us from a merely utilitarian existence.

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

~~~2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (New King James Version)

Ideas Have Consequences Chapter 6: The Spoiled Child Psychology

We've all met the spoiled child at the grocery store. He's the cute toddler who spies the red sucker at the check-out counter and wants it. Now. Pointing to it with his chubby finger, he announces his desire to his mother. "No," she says, and tries to distract him. The child's demand becomes louder, more insistent. The tired-looking mother beseeches his help in unloading the cart, but to no avail. She becomes more and more embarrassed as the drama increases: the child reddens, throws himself weeping on the ground, and kicks his feet. With an exasperated sigh, his harried Mother capitulates. The child gets up and takes his reward. His stormy demeanor has been transformed to a sunny smile. The crisis has been averted--temporarily.

Why is the grocery store the typical setting for such a scene? Because it it the place where needs/wishes can be instantly gratified. The spoiled child receives a tangible reward without expending himself to work for it.

Richard Weaver observes that city life breeds and reinforces the spoiled-child mindset in a myriad of ways. The artificial atmosphere of city life breaks the link between effort and reward. There is no hunting, gardening, or chopping of wood needed because goods can be obtained through a complicated and little understood means of exchange. As the child becomes accustomed to comfort without discipline, he naturally assumes that he deserves to be gratified. He is a consumer rather than a contributor. When he grows up, his inflated sense of self worth causes him to feel that the world owes him a living. In Weaver's words:

"The city renders sterile."

The benefit of hard work can hardly be disputed. When a man has a sense of mission, he willingly bends his back to difficult tasks in order to carry them out. His work is a joy. It is therapeutic, too, providing him with a vision bigger than self and giving a reason for self-discipline. Reward becomes sweet because it doesn't come easy and it doesn't come cheap.

What happens when a whole society shifts from a rural to an urban culture? There is a decrease in self discipline, a decline in the work ethic and hardness of individuals. That society ceases to produce true heroes, because there is no longer an arena in which they must struggle for survival. Heroes cannot be made in a place of comfort and softness.

Perhaps the greatest challenge confronting Western culture, in Weaver's words, will be to

"overcome the spoiled-child psychology sufficiently to discipline for struggle."

He points his finger at science, the tool of "progress" that has made life easy and the "stereopticon" (media) that has actively brainwashed people into being mere consumers.

The fact is that a society cannot survive without a workforce. If the workforce becomes complacent, soft, and solely consumeristic-- the members of that workforce begin to resent those in managerial roles who are needing their productivity. Society is set on a course of decline.

The final words of this chapter are almost chilling in the light of the recent economic actions of our government to shore up private companies. Listen to Weaver's thoughts:

"So long as private enterprise survives, there remain certain pressures not related to mass aspiration, but when industrial democracy insistently batters at private control, this means of organization and direction diminishes. Society eventually pauses before a fateful question: Where can it find a source of discipline?"

I have to ask myself some questions, too, after reading this chapter.

• How can I, as a city dweller, maintain the link between work and reward?
• Am I only a consumer, or do I actively contribute toward the benefit of others?
• Do I shrink from struggles, or do I have the larger outlook that struggles are the very forces that discipline me and make me a fit, contributing member of society?
• How can I teach my children the discipline and reward of hard work?
• Who are my heroes?

I may explore some of these thoughts on future posts, before I go on to the next chapter in the book. Important stuff!

Ideas Have Consequences Chapter 5 "The Great Stereopticon"

If you have ever seen the play Our Town, you will probably be humming the old hymn "Bless'd Be the Tie that Binds" for several days. There was a time in history when the tie that bound people together in community was religion. When that tie is broken, we are fragmented and left grasping for artificially generated projects that will keep up our community spirit.

Richard Weaver, the quintessential conservative, says that the liberal's solution to fragmentation is to

"let religion go but to replace it with education".

Not just the education of youth in the classroom, either. He means the day in, day out indoctrination of the entire citizenry through every channel of life and entertainment available. Weaver has dubbed the machinery that makes this possible "the Great Stereopticon" and it includes the press, motion pictures, radio, and T.V. (he wrote in the 1940's before internet).

Do you view new technology as progress? When a new device becomes available and affordable for home use, do you evaluate what it will take as well as what it will give? I confess to being sensitized to this type of critical thinking only very recently. I need men like Richard Weaver and Neil Postman to help me evaluate the choices.

As an example, take the newspaper. The pre-selected news articles are carefully arranged and worded to grab our attention. The press is something Americans are typically very proud of. It gives us information, disseminates issues and ideas. But what does it take from us?

Weaver contends it has taken away the art of discourse. Because we are passive recipients of information , we usually do not actively engage in serious discourse with others on these issue. Plato said that truth often leaps up between people engaged in discourse "like a flame." That doesn't happen when we each read the issues silently and alone. Discussion is minimized, deep reflection is discouraged because of the sheer number of ideas and articles to which we are exposed.

"...the decay of conversation has about destroyed the practice of dialectic."

The press has also taken away our modest sensibilities, sanctioning the romantic ideals of emotion and sensation. The dark, the gruesome, and the depressing articles take precedence over all else because that's what sells newspapers.

John Adams wrote, at the age of 70:

"I have given up newspapers in exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid, and I find myself much the happier."

I haven't entirely given up the newspaper, but I have given up the evening news and TV and I'm spending that time reading more deeply. I agree with John Adams-- meaty books contribute to my happiness. My husband is farther along than I am on this path. He can read the greatest book, the Bible, for three hours at a crack. And do you know what? When we are both reading substantial books, I find we have fodder for the most interesting conversations! I have experienced Plato's thrilling "flame that leaps up" when a truth is uncovered in the course of discussion.

Weaver's criticism of movies is a little different from what you have come to expect from most conservatives. Rather than to criticize the raw language, the sex scenes, and the violence, he zeroes in on the marring of the hero-image. The role models on screen he describes as "egotistic, selfish, self-flaunting, flippant, vacuous-minded." Virtue requires examples of highest quality and those models are not, he says, being promoted in the cinema.

Radio/T.V. is the third part of the stereopticon. Radio is inescapable, a "cheerful liar". The tragedies of the day are delivered in polished monotones.

"This is the voice of the Hollow Man",

dead to sentiment. Radio provides one-sided conversation, a conversation monopolized by one partner and rendering the listener mute.

The stereopticon brings a constant barrage of the cynical, the brutal, and the negative. How does this affect our psyche? It chips away at our very souls and it cuts us off from the past.

"Technology emancipates not only from memory but also from faith."

but

"The man of culture finds the whole past relevant."

How can we find relief?

• From nature
• By returning to primary data: good books
• By remembering the enduring forms, the great universal ideas of the ages
• By turning away from the brutal and sentimental

It's an upstream battle. I think Weaver would have been encouraged by the homeshool movement, had he lived long enough to see it. Many homeschool families I know have turned off the TV or severely limited it. Nature studies are a standard part of homeschool curriculum. And of course classical education may be a small minority, but it is still very much alive.

This chapter has strengthened my resolve to be one of the minority.

More on Ideas Have Consequences: Egotism in Work and Art

I've had a great deal of difficulty summarizing this chapter on egotism and the arts. Though I've read it several times, mused over it, and taken notes, every time I put pen to paper something was missing.

When I wrote about mathematical patterns in my recent post, I suddenly realized a connection and the ideas that Weaver had expressed in this chapter began to congeal. It was one of those "Eureka!" moments for me, though it will probably not sound nearly so dramatic here!

Because he was created in the image of God, man has an inborn drive to create. History records a succession of artistic endeavors in which man sought to emulate the patterns of life, the orderly ways of the Creator. As time marched on, man's creative fruits became increasingly realistic as his understanding of truth unfolded. Up through the eighteenth century, art and music mirrored the strength of an ordered, hierarchical society: traditional, balanced, and rendering a faithful portrayal of nature.

As an example, think of DaVinci ~ a man who understood fully the correlation between mathematical patterns and art. His notebooks are full of his studies of proportion, symmetry, and pattern. He was even known to study cadavers in his pursuit to accurately portray the human body. His work ( and the works of other masters of his ilk) are universally apprehended because nature is the enduring reality. Great art will accurately embody great themes understood by people of all times.

Music and Literature also reflected themes with transcendent appeal. Think Mozart: highly structured, ordered, and complex. Or Milton, poetically painting universal themes such as sin and redemption.

As I mentioned in my article on mathematics, humans seem to be programmed to perceive beauty within concrete parameters. As long as the artist created works that adhered to the elegant structure and rhythms within those boundaries, he was working in harmony with the Creator and to the benefit of society.

I was interested to come across a quote by a current songwriter who seems to embrace this very truth:

"Music it true. An octave is a mathematical reality. So is a 5th. So is a major 7th chord. And I have the feeling that these have emotional meanings to us, not only because we're taught that a major 7th is warm and fuzzy and a diminished is rather threatening and dark, but also because they actually do have these meanings. It's almost like it's a language that is not a matter of our choosing. It's a truth. The laws of physics apply to music, and music follows that. So it really lifts us out of this subjective, opinionated human position and draws us into the cosmic picture just like that."
~recording artist James Taylor, in the May 2002 Performing Songwriter

So there are men of every generation who grasp the elegant structure of beauty, but in the general flow of history, man seems bent on being independent; not satisfied with God's truth he seeks to create his own truth outside the natural and established patterns. "Let us tear their fetters apart, and cast away their cords from us!" Having reached an apex artistically, he began to unravel all that he had achieved. According to Weaver, this started happening at about the time of the French Revolution, when romanticism began to flourish. Instead of looking upward for virtue and truth, man began to explore the "inner landscape." The old foundational themes such as original sin became passe, and art became much more subjective. Weaver boldly names this"egotism" as the culprit in the ravaging of aesthetic expression.

Weaver speaks of the "sanctioning of impulse" and the "uncovering of the senses". Foundational templates were replaced by splashes of pizazz or gimmicks. Exploration turned away from universal themes and turned inward, to the individual consciousness. Artists began to tap into an inner well of "appalling ....melancholy and unhappiness," leading to aesthetic bankruptcy.

Jazz is an example that Weaver spends considerable time evaluating. Here is his pronouncement:

"Jazz, by formally repudiating restraint by intellect, and by expressing contempt and hostility toward our traditional society and mores, has destroyed this equilibrium. That destruction is a triumph of grotesque, even hysterical, emotion over propriety and reasonableness. Jazz often sounds as if in a rage to divest itself of anything that suggests structure or confinement."

Note that Weaver is NOT saying that art "outside the box," cannot have interest or that those who produce it lack skill. He is not criticizing the workmanship so much as he is pointing out how modern art reflects the ideas of the times.

This makes me think of a recent news article about the arts. In it, the author suggested that by providing melancholy people with anti-depressants we may be hindering their ability to produce great art. Apparently, this news writer felt that great art could not be produced by "happy" people; that people with a dark pathos were the ones who capitalize on their sadness to produce great art.

If we are talking about this degraded sort of art of which Weaver speaks, the author of that article has a point. But if we are talking about structured, realistic, truthful art that depicts the great themes of humanity~~it's nonsense.

This chapter in Ideas Have Consequences closes with some very profound thoughts:

"When masses of men reach a point at which egotism reigns so blandly, can their political damnation be far distant: They have rejected their only guaranty against external control, which is self-discipline, taught and practiced. If they no longer respect community and direct their efforts according to a common understanding, they fall out......An ancient axiom of politics teaches that a spoiled people invite despotic control."

What to you think? Do you detect egotism in modern art? Are we a "spoiled people" ?

Ideas Have Consequences, Chapter IV- Egotism in Work and Art (Part I)

"The sin of egotism always takes the form of withdrawal. When
personal advantage becomes paramount, the individual passes out of the
community. We do not mean the state, with its apparatus of coercion, but
the spiritual community, where men are related on the plane of sentiment and
sympathy...." Richard Weaver

Weaver has demonstrated throughout his book, Ideas Have Consequences, just how important religious moorings really are. When a society embraces a Big Story (some would call it "myth"), they are unified by the truth therein. People work together toward the same transcendent goals, each individual knowing exactly where he fits in and what his role is in achieving the greater good. Consequently, each job is executed skillfully and with an eye to achieve excellence in the quality of that work. The intangibles of truth produce a tangible ideal: perfection in craftmanship.

Do your everyday purchases bear the marks of excellent craftmanship? I think of the dishwasher we purchased last year, a well-known name brand. At one time they were made in Iowa, but now have been out-sourced and are produced overseas. The dishwasher was an absolute lemon. It had to be replaced before the year was over.

How about clothing? My daughter wore a new pair of socks ONE TIME, and they had holes in them. Another daughter bought a lovely knit sweater that literally did not last through the first washing.

We've all had similar experiences, and we perhaps sadly shake our heads and complain that "things just aren't what they used to be". But we don't stop to think WHY? and search out the reason for the deterioration.

With the cutting away of religious moorings, work ceases to become an act of worship. Instead, it becomes a utilitarian necessity done only for self enrichment. This philosophy of egotism promotes materialism to such a degree that the individual laborer is totally deprived of understanding how his small part fits in to the big picture.

As an example, Weaver sites an incident that happened in a factory during WWII. Factory workers were assigned to make parts for the bombs. They had no idea what they were making or how they fit together. If they had known, would their consciences have pricked them? There was no way to find out, because the workers were never given full information as to what they were making, why, or how these things would be used as weapons of warfare.

Because such factory work is mindless and meaningless, it is ultimately done for only one reason: for the paycheck. Workers must receive more and more oversight and discipline from the management because there is no inner gratification to keep on the task or to do it well.

Egotism, which Nathanial Hawthorne dubbed the unpardonable sin, has the potential of opening the door to tyrrany:

"...the spirit of self, which has made the worker lose sight of the calling
of his task and to think only of aggrandizement, is the plainest invitation
yet offered by the Western world to the tyranny of force." --Weaver

Did you catch that little phrase "calling of his task"?

We still have some wonderful, called individuals in this society. I can think of teachers, preachers, librarians, cooks, nurses, and custodians who do their work because they are called of God. They do not receive financial remuneration in proportion to the worth of their work. Some do not receive any financial remuneration at all, and yet they labor on with excellence because they see something bigger and more important than a paycheck. They see from an eternal perspective, and they know the lives they touch are worth much more than a monthly paycheck. They know that because they touch living, breathing souls in their everyday rounds, they are affecting eternity.

Do you know any such individuals? I think of my dear hairdresser, D., who feels called to provide haircuts for pastors' families as a ministry and who has blessed me immeasurable. Or W., a kindly and very industrious man who cheerfully cleans our BIG church building week after week just as an act of service to the saints who gather there. Viola was the first Sunday School teacher that I remember and she went home to be with the Lord after serving children-at no cost-for 62 years!

As I provide education for our children, I want to offer an alternative to the world's standard which tells them that education is something they have to slog through in order to get a fat paycheck at the other end. That alternative education must sensitize them to TRUTH, which in turn will cause them to aim for ideals of virtue in whatever calling they embark upon. Classical models of virtue, the ones we read about in great literature, are all great and wonderful, but I think it also important that they rub shoulders with living, breathing examples of people who are actually living those high ideals- eschewing the fat paycheck and serving others because they are CALLED.

This chapter was so long and rich, I'm going to review it in 2 parts. The next half of the chapter will be about the effects of egotism in art, literature and music.

Ideas Have Consequences Chapter 3

I just finished reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, On the Banks of the Plum Creek to my youngest daughter. With a sigh, I closed the book, wishing I could somehow turn back the clock and live in those days when solid principles of truth formed the warp and woof of society.

Richard Weaver corrected an error in my thinking.

".....the things of highest value are not affected by the passage of time; otherwise the very concept of truth becomes impossible." Therefore, it is illogical to think that one must travel back in time to capture it.

The real longing in my heart, I think, is to see truth rooted front & center in the society in which I live. How does one live in that center, when the mad rush of society is to the periphery?

Weaver discusses the periphery and that flight from the center of truth in this 3rd chapter, which is entitled "Fragmentation and Obsession." When a culture un-tethers itself from the anchor of truth, disintegration is inevitable.

Through the ages, there have been learned men who have held tenaciously to those central truths. Weaver takes us back in history to trace the office of the philosophic doctor, the men who had attained to the highest level of learning. Surrounding him, in concentric circles, stood those with less mastery: the ones who had "acquired only facts and skills." When society was faced with a knotty problem, whether a problem of justice or finances or governing, the philosophic leaders could be counted upon to untangle the difficulties. The truth that they possessed enabled them to answer ultimate questions and make decisions for the benefit of all. They were synthesists, men who could unify many branches of truth and use that breadth of knowledge for the common good.

As history unfolds, we find that the philosophic doctor was replaced in more modern times by the gentleman. Weaver describes him as "a secularized expression of the same thing." Those of this era sought to maintain the best of the heritage left behind by the philosophers, but without the religious underpinnings. This triggers in my mind a scripture: "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" The gentleman had ideals, but without the deep roots of his predecessor.

Moving another step away from truth, we find the money-makers and politicians replacing the gentleman. Their obsession with materialism is incompatible with the sacred truths of ancient days, so they abandon not only religion but also ideals.

The "fragmentation" that Weaver refers to in the title is the opposite of synthesis, and it is the result of abandoning central truth. Where once knowledge was combined from parts to whole, modern man stands at the periphery of truth and takes pride in being a specialist. He has only a fragment of knowledge and thus there is nothing to synthesize:

"he is no longer capable of philosophy."

Here is another worthy quote on the subject of specialization:

"Specialization develops only part of a man; a man partially developed is deformed; and one deformed is the last person to be thought of as a ruler...."

My thoughts now:
If we want to raise up real leaders, leaders of the caliber of the Biblical Daniel, we must provide them with a liberal arts education! The materialistic emphasis in education is contributing to the decay of society because it is wholly self-centered. Weaver goes so far to say that specialization leads to obsession, which leads to emotional instability, which precludes a person from any ability at all to lead.

There is much, much more in this chapter but I think these 7 words sum up the gist nicely:

"Wisdom does not lie on the periphery."

"Thus says the LORD,
'Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths,
Where the good way is, and walk in it;
And you shall find rest for your soul.
But they said, 'We will not listen.'"
~Jeremiah 6:16

Ideas Have Consequences Chapter 2

It was an exciting day for little Tommy. The younger children in the family watched with a tinge of jealousy as he strapped on his new backpack and skipped off to Kindergarten for the very first time. His conscientious Mother had filled that backpack with all the supplies the teacher had requested: scissors, number 2 pencils, a ruler, pack of felt markers, a box of kleenex. On each item, she had placed a little name tag so that Tommy's "stuff" wouldn't get mixed up with anyone else's.

Upon his return home, Tommy's backpack contained something else; a note from the Kindergarten teacher which read:

Dear Mrs. G.,
Thank you for sending the appropriate school supplies with Tommy. I have returned them to you with a request to remove his name from all of the items. Once the items come into class, they become the collective property of all the students. We want each child to start Kindergarten on equal footing. Thank you. signed Mrs. R.

Tommy had just received his initial lesson in social studies, a first hand look at "socialist equalitarianism". His Mother made sure he didn't receive any follow-up teaching from this teacher~~she pulled him out of school and homeschooled him.

This true little vignette (which happened to a friend of mine) illustrates accurately, I think, the ideas encapsulated in the 2nd chapter of Richard Weaver's book, entitled "Distinction and Hierarchy". In it, we are challenged to apply logic to the increasingly common societal plea for "equality". We are hearing that word often in this presidential election year, aren't we? Equality in healthcare, equality in education, equality in employment, even equality in kindergarten! It all sounds so virtuous, so right.

But is it? Weaver contends that the call for equality is insidiously destructive to a healthy society because it instills a hatred for superiority. To level the playing field, to bring everyone onto equal footing would mean removing the rewards for those who engage in the self-sacrifice and risk taking that is required to climb the ladder of success. A healthy society needs these people; it is virtually impossible to operate on a uni-level system. Weaver is even so bold as to say that (gasp) all labor is not equally useful.

It is not within the realm of possibility to erase distinctions; to do so would require a tyrant with an iron fist. But supposing we COULD become a uni-level society, how would that change us?

It would change us profoundly. We would cease to be a society and would instead become a "mass". I find that concept frightening. The mass focuses only on "having what you have". It is a materialistic mindset, devoid of the higher virtues.

Without the structure of a hierarchy, a democratic society ceases to exist; an aristocracy is an absolutely essential element of a democracy. Amongst the aristocracy there must be leaders who strive for non-material virtues, who are able to measure policies and actions for the spiritual good of the people.

In place of equality, Weaver promotes the concept of fraternity. Those who are of the upper crust, who have climbed the ladder, have a duty to care for others who have not attained. Fraternity looks outward, to others. In contrast, equality seeks benefits for self only.

Education is one of the keys to developing fraternalistic virtues. Well, let me correct that and say education SHOULD be developing virtue. Today's prevailing mindset seems to be that education is merely to prepare students for lucrative employment.

That is why I have classical leanings in my educational philosophy. The classicist always had virtue in view. Education without virtue creates a mass of fools.

Interesting stuff here. I am a little surprised that equality was an issue when Weaver wrote this (in the 1940's). I thought it to be a more modern concept. It goes to show that ideas take a while to hatch before they come to full fruition.

Ideas Have Consequences

I like to challenge myself with at least one dense read at a time. Since I just finished The Intellectual Life, which took me a year to get through, I decided to move on to Ideas Have Consequences by Richard M. Weaver (1948). It's been on my want-to-read list for several years. Dana and her friend at Dominion Family have just finished excellent, in-depth chapter reviews of this book and my only regret is that I wasn't timely enough to join them. I'll be looking back at their chapter comments, though, as I go along.

The introduction of this book took me a l-o-n-g time to get through. This is not a book to read when you're tired at the end of the day. The thoughts expressed are philosophical and deep and the author wields a VERY rich vocabulary. **

Weaver's purpose in writing is to analyze the cultural disintegration of the West and to offer a remedy. His philosophy is that man intelligently chooses the ideas he embraces, and that the culture will reflect the consequences of those choices. The author traces a journey back past the consequences to the ideas that are behind them. It is thus a book of philosophy, but not without concrete application.

I'm already seeing that my summertime immersion in Neil Postman's books have been a good preparation for this read. Postman majors on the institutions of publicity and how they have profoundly changed our culture.

Weaver similarly notes that the media "makes a virtue of desecration." The uninhibited baring of the nation's soul leaves us unrefined and barbaric. No mystery remains in life. When stark realities, once forbidden to our gaze by propriety, are laid blatantly before our view~~we cease to behave in a refined, intelligent way.

This triggered my remembrance of an episode from the C.S. Lewis book Till We Have Faces. In it, the people of a mythological kingdom worship an abstract image--an image whose facial features could not be clearly seen. When the well-intentioned ruler replaced it with a statue that had beautiful, clear-cut features, the peasants rejected it. The abstract suited them best; they needed the sense of mystery that it projected.

A healthy culture maintains its identity and cohesiveness by embracing a universal STORY. That story unites them by giving a transcendent sense of purpose to each individual, an eternal purpose. Like the faceless statue, there is an aura of mystery which enshrouds this whole IDEA of eternal purpose. But although the idea may be abstract, the results produced by embracing it are concrete.

One measurable result of assimilating the idea of eternal purpose is self-control. A person becomes willing to delay self-gratification now because of the belief that there will be a commensurate eternal reward or blessing.

Being smack in the midst of child-rearing years, I am naturally applying these thoughts to my role as parent. It seems to me that Weaver has articulated the very basics that a parent needs to pass on to the next generation. Namely: you were put on this earth for a purpose. Find it! Self-government is the measure of maturity. Wait for the best rather than gratifying your desires impulsively. The ideas you choose to guide your life will produce a harvest in later life. Choose wisely!

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Couldn't resist making a list of the words I've already picked up from Weaver so early-on in the reading:

1-ontological- the branch of metaphysics studying the nature of existence

2-somnambulistic- I should have been able to figure this out! "somn"= sleep and "ambula"=walk. A sleep walker.

3-heuristic- encouraging a person to learn, investigate, and solve problems on his own.

4-noumenal- an object that is independent of the mind, as opposed to a phenomenon.

5- perspicacity- (fun to say!!) keenness of mental perception and understanding; discernment, penetration

6-prurient- restless desire or longing leaning towards lust