comformist

No post – sorry. I have not spoken with anyone since the beginning of the year. So, maybe that helps?

I am reading. Lots of different books. I am trying for a book a week – non-theological and non-philosophical. I would like to read more literature. The first one is Never Let Me Go. A little slow at the start but gets a lot better. It has been banned in some states in the US.

Yesterday was a Desert Christian day. The following intrigues me:

We live in a society that is at once deeply individualist and deeply conformist; the desert fathers and mothers manage to be neither, and they suggest to us that the church’s calling likewise is to avoid both these pitfalls.

Williams, Rowan. Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom of the Desert

The analysis is good. Yes, conformity is the only virtue. Perhaps it goes a little deeper:

Conformity is the tendency to change our perceptions, opinions, or behaviors in ways that are consistent with group norms. Norms are implicit, specific rules shared by a group of individuals on how they should behave. People may be susceptible to conform to group norms because they want to gain acceptance from their group.

Conformity

The modern tendency is to think, “If we can measure it, we can build it”. Perhaps Kierkegaard’s leveling?

Anyway, back to solitude and silence.