No I didn't mean the question rhetorically. I was really curious to hear
what the user of the word, and other users of the word, mean by it. I am,
I'll admit, fairly hostile to most forms of spirituality, aside from the
aesthetic sense - the German Geist - used by writers in the romantic
tradition. I think many people use spirituality as a way of expressing a
vague connectedness, a religiosity with neither doctrine nor the oughts
of established religions.
Roxanne Lalonde connects the spiritual with the feelings of
looking at a splendid landscape, which is something that most of us
(maybe excluding real estate developers, who see only profit opportunity)
feel. That feeling is what Shelley wrote about in Mont Blanc - but the
romantic sublime usually began with a perception of human insignificance,
the fear of being overwhelmed, that is then transformed into an assertion
of the power of the human imagination. It makes for great poetry, but it
reduces life to an interaction between the individual mind/imagination
and nature, with society disappearing from the picture.
That disappearance of society is one thing that makes me nervous about
spirituality. Another is that it slides very easily into the irrational
and the anti-rational. Now certainly there are limitations to and dangers
of rationality. But I prefer the Frankfurt school critique of the
distortions of rationality - that it has become an instrument for the
accumulation of power and wealth rather than a critical, evaluative
agency. The Frankfurters were made nervous by irrationalism by their
recent experiences of Germany in the 1920s, where anti-rationalism,
spirituality, and a cult of the "natural" was a direct precursor of the
vitalist ideology of the Nazis. When you say those things, people often
dimiss you as paranoid and slanderous, but there it is; I said it.
Doug
Doug Henwood [[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Left Business Observer
212-874-4020 (voice)
212-874-3137 (fax)
On Thu, 22 Sep 1994, LALONDE ROXANNE wrote:
> Actually, I'll begin with Doug's 64 million dollar question, What
> is spirituality? Assuming that it wasn't rhetorical, Doug, I'd really
> be interested in hearing your comments on what _you_ think
> spirituality is. This is really the challenge in discussions of this
> type, isn't it. For those of us who have what we believe is a
> spiritual orientation toward life, there is no question of what we
> "believe" spirituality is. But is it in fact THE spirituality that
> everyone else talks about? Or is it an entirely subjectively inspired
> concept that has arisen in our consciousness based on our personal
> experiences? Or is it something transcendent in human consciousness
> that anyone and everyone could tap into if they were so inclined. I
> tend to favour the latter perspective. Especially in terms of the
> environment and the human relationship with the rest of nature. I
> know or at least feel in my heart that the often overwhelming
> emotions that I experience when I view a magnificent landscape or a
> beautiful painting, or hear an exquisite piece of music are a result
> of something that I can't explain using "normal" science. I have
> talked to people who see the world from within the positivistic
> paradigm who would say that what I'm experiencing is completely
> explainable in terms of chemical and hormonal changes, but as far as I
> know neuropsychology or physiology or whoever else explores this kind
> of stuff hasn't yet explained the exact point of transference from
> the sensory input and the emotional/spiritual reaction.
