Essay no. 2
by Christopher Brown
As a child entering puberty, I recognized the tomfoolery of man and his adult world.
Man, unlike child is willing to give up his imagination for the sake of 'industry' or 'practicality'. There is a better word to describe this 19th century ideal, but it alludes me.
This adult sacrifices the spirit of imagination for the 'practical' world he thinks he will enter in doing so—abandoning 'dreams' and 'imagination' in single, broad strokes. He does not see the necessity of 'waking dreams', nor the conception (notion) that the adult is merely the continuation—or extension—of the child. What is to the one must inevitably be to the other. The clouds of creation to go with the hand that hath the means to build the dreams to stone and iron—bring the clay to life in the kilns of fire.
Man neglects this and more.
He sacrifices his very essence, throwing away his very center—the locus of his power to reason. Our ability to model external creation is built upon our capacity to dream. What better way exists to strengthen that skill than through the waking dreams of youth? Why must this sport only be for children? Are not the 'sports' of youth made fully developed in adulthood? Do we not become fuller players of the great American pastime of Baseball? How then can one expect the art of imagination to be any different—follow any different a path? Would not this be asking us to do no less than go against our very nature?
Man (or very much so woman) is blessed with dreams of waking slumber. We can experience in our minds the worlds of plenty or few—explore all that is, could be, or never will be. That we throw this blessing away at a very youthful age to “fit-in” is madness. Parents tell their kids to “stop living in the clouds”, [through] that age old insult to Socrates by Aristophanes in his play The Clouds.
We somehow believe adulthood must be the absence of childhood fun as opposed to its fruition. Imagination is the blooming of a flower and the ripening of its fruit that we may all enjoy together.
Have we not reached an age where man is “mature” enough in experience to see the folly of Aristophanes and his peers? We need imagination and must look to our childhood to find it.
3 comments:
strange not sure why it put me as unknown. 0_o
@Chris. Maybe, it thinks you are special and wanted the ideas to be 'mysterious', like that one gent I ran into at school. We had a long conversation about the contrast between 'conversation' and 'communication', where he emphasized his belief that 'conversation' is better than 'communication'. He never left his name, just so that the idea would remain central focus, and people would fade into nothingness--mysterious. :)
Or, it could just be some technology bug, or blogger/google/whatever is acting like a prat and wants to screw with you. :)
It's up to you what you believe. :)
I'm very glad to know my ideas sparked such a valuable response in you Chris. Thanks! :)
I must agree with your analysis that America finds this idea fearful. We consciously know that 'ye who fits in is ye who can't be original', but we value originality, yet not 'original people'. Isn't that funny?
We respect the new ideas when they become 'established', yet to have the ideas in the first place requires becoming an 'outcast' in the society. We truly must sacrifice ourselves for our innovation. Then, once we have done this and almost certainly died, some other 'established' twat, comes in, steals our glory and walks off with the paycheck and societal respect, because 'their ideas' seem so more 'reasonable' than the ideas of the person who originally spoke them. I think the phrase 'too far ahead for their time' probably says it all. Quite a sad thing really.
Then again, Postman informs us that too much change can lead to destruction of a society too. Right now we are in a period of great change, so much so that perhaps we are destroying ourselves right before our eyes and we don't even realize it.
It's an interesting idea.
I wonder if Japan is a far more ethical nation, because they at least are willing to admit how they despise nonconformity, whereas in America, we are lied to on a daily basis, because 'originality' is what greases the gears that makes society function, our economy grow, and allows the big fat banker to make a buck. Well, or the humble farmer too. It's complex...
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