tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post3282778446741850528..comments2024-03-20T16:05:23.293+00:00Comments on The Cynical Tendency: The Opium Of The PeopleDemetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-87377365170893849362013-10-15T14:24:36.966+01:002013-10-15T14:24:36.966+01:00As you state, As well as our own drug issues, cons...As you state, <i>As well as our own drug issues, consumerism, celebrity and entertainment have become almost the religions on which we base our lives.</i><br /><br />An American by birth, and a churchgoer both as a child and from mid-life onward, I was a little startled when visiting the Tate Gallery when the guide said, while explaining a painting of a Biblical episode, "We don't know these stories because we're all atheists now." But I guess it's more true than not, over there. Here in the U.S., the prevalence of formal religion has not done much to retard the progress of the contemporary cults you mention.<br /><br />When I read Herbert Marcuse's <i>One Dimensional Man</i> in the 1960s, I was impressed with his analysis of what he called "repressive desublimation". <br /><br />One reason for the success of consumerism is how easy it is to enjoy - as Joseph Campbell said, in his interviews with Bill Moyers, most people are not so much looking for "the meaning of life" as "the experience of being alive." <br /><br />These days I'm reading books on Buddhism.<br /><br />mistah charley, ph.d.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06303695341246058680noreply@blogger.com