Subject: Rites and Rituals (+ D.F. Wallace)
From: Jon Tveite (jontv@ksu.edu)
Date: Tue Jun 17 1997 - 16:11:33 GMT
Steve Gallagher <sgallagher@lasersedge.net> wrote:
> There are remnants of ritual and the celebration of passing into a
> "next" stage of your life everywhere. The first that comes to mind is
> convocation. . . . Thinking of it now reminds me of Holden's
> description of Pency and "parent day" or whatever, where the Dean is
> running around shaking the golden hands and passing over the
> "not-likely-to-donate." I guess those thoughts just reinforce my belief
> in the need for ritual and, more importantly, the need to believe in it.
I would go along with the idea that meaningful rituals could make a
difference in people's lives. The problem is that I've never experienced
one that meant much to me -- not since I was very young, anyway (unless
you see live music performance as a ritual, which it is, though probably
not in a Joseph Campbell sense). The problem with ritual is that it is
expected to have a similar, profound effect on everyone that goes through
it. But that's just not the case for any of our social rituals. As you
said, Steve, we are fragmented and alienated from one another -- perhaps
too much so for this kind of thing to work the way it used to.
Even if we could develop meaningful rites or rituals, however, I would
still argue that it wouldn't be enough; we would still need to bring about
fundamental changes in our relationships to society and to others. Maybe
that's what you mean by "rite of passage" -- but I think my distrust of
that term comes from a suspicion that some people will take the idea and
use it to suggest that our society would be okie-dokie if everyone just
went to church more often, or had a proper bar mitzvah, or joined the Boy
Scouts, or whatever. Obviously (to me, anyway) it won't do us a lot of
good to simply invest more of ourselves in the shallow, sterile rituals we
have now. We need to develop something radically different. And it has
to be good, or it won't make a bit of difference.
Maybe I overstated my case when I suggested that adulthood = materialism,
in this culture. Certainly, however, almost all the adults I know
(including myself, too often) are very selfish; for the majority of
people, I think that selfishness gets expressed in materialistic behavior.
Or if not materialism, certainly a narrowness of thinking and concern, of
the type that thrives in -- though it's not limited to -- suburban
America. Too many people just want the best for themselves and their
families, and to hell with everyone else. And if it's not on TV or for
sale at the nearest mega-mall, then it doesn't matter. This is the kind
of attitude any new "rite of passage" would be up against. But if it can
help, well... hey -- sign me up.
Jon (Tveite) <jontv@ksu.edu>
_________________________________________________________
"You've been accepted as an extra in the movie adaptation
of the sequel to your life."
-- Pavement, "Shady Lane"
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