Is Facebook a Prefigurement of the Afterlife?

Growing up Christian, one becomes familiar with the concept of "prefigurement." The Old Testament, for example, is said to contains signs that "prefigure" the coming of Jesus Christ. After Christ, Thomas Aquinas would argue that the glories of accomplishment in this world are but prefigurements of the extreme glory to be found in the kingdom of heaven.

You get the idea. One thing is the sign of something greater to come.

Implicit in much of this is the Platonic idea of the world as an imperfect reflection of some higher, transcendent super-good.

Any good of the world is subject to this same kind of argument.

I can't help but think about prefigurement, then, when contemplating the good of "ambient awareness" generated by social networking.

For some of us, at least, social media's capability to provide frequent updates on the status of our friends and acquaintances makes us happy. We are the open books who long for a deeper connection with others; to have our inner life heard and validated, and do likewise for others.

Will the afterlife be the ultimate form of ambient awareness?

According to Thomas Aquinas, yes, but only insofar as that is an "overflowing" result or side benefit of knowledge of God. Call Him the Ultimate "Friend." Once God has gratuitously "friended" you, all your other friendships are perfected. (The notion of such an "overflow" is explained in St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica, First Part of the Second Part, "Treatise on the Last End," Question 3.)

Here's why:

For Christians, no natural longing is ever the same after Plato. "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee" is the most haunting line of Christianity - written by the neo-Platonist, Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine. Augustine posits that natural goods can never satisfy us. We seek the transcendent God. This is rooted in a long series of arguments from Plato, and finds stirring literary exposition in St. Augustine's "Confessions."

Thomas Aquinas would later explain this argument in great, although more boring, detail, borrowing also from Plato's student, Aristotle.

Following Aristotle, Aquinas argued that we seek knowledge through causes. However, knowledge of secondary causes (all the things of the world) is imperfect. There is always more to know.

Happiness consists primarily of knowledge of the First Cause, Aristotle's Unmoved Mover, a.k.a., Plato and Augustine's ultimate, transcendent good.

When we are granted Knowledge of the First Cause, God, by His sheer gift, it will provide beatific insight into all the other causes. This is sometimes called Thomas Aquinas's "intellectualist" vision of perfect happiness.

The reason it is called "intellectualist" is because it places happiness primarily in the exercise of reason, which is most essential to human beings. But, the overflow comes when all else that we experience as human beings is perfected by this primary form of knowledge.

Social media doesn't prove anything theological. It only underscores a human need, the solution to which is always moving into a better state thanks to science and technology. (Why we must exist in an imperfect state at all is a very unsatisfying mystery of religion.)

But once you read Plato, you are next inclined to ask whether social media and other solutions to the problem of life's imperfections can reach a state of "perfection." And if so, how? Christianity volunteers a compelling answer.

Image used under Creative Commons license courtesy of ewen and donabel.

Krugman Nobel Prize Covered with Balance and Imbalance

The New York Times' coverage of the Nobel Prize in economics to Paul Krugman is surprisingly balanced. As opposed to, say, the ridiculous piece on Bloomberg which is more about President Bush than Krugman. Or, the seemingly incoherent point of view on Marketwatch.

From G's to Gents: The White House Edition

A bunch of Chicago political G's are about to gain access to the ultimate crib: ACORN, Richard Daley, Bill Ayers, Jeremiah White, Michael Pfleger, Rod Blogojevich, et al.

All thanks to Gent Barack Obama, and tens of millions of Americans who are ignoring Obama's associations and character. Much the way they did with Bill Clinton during his first presidential campaign. And for the same reasons -- a Republican president and party that are incompetent and grasping.

However, as John Batchelor notes, Chicago G and fixer Tony Rezko is spilling his guts about the Chicago machine's machinations to prosecutors.

During a time of unprecedented political and economic crisis, I suspect we are due for another "failed presidency."

"Every battle is won [or lost] before it is ever fought."

Book TV This Weekend: Michael Novak on Atheism and Belief

In a previous post I took a shot a theologian and philosopher Michael Novak for a simplistic dismissal of the phenomenon of unbelief, in his short article for First Things magazine.

Well, Mr. Novak has been up to a more substantive treatment of the issue apparently, as today I received an alert from Book TV on C-SPAN 2 regarding Novak's latest book, "No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers." A special program about the book will air this Sunday at 5 a.m. (no thanks) and 7 p.m. EST. More show information here.

The reviews from Amazon so far suggest Novak shows generosity to Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, et al (a case of turning the other cheek perhaps?). However, as I noted in a previous post, few conservative thinkers, it seems to me, extend their "solidarity" to the generic unbeliever.

Why should they? If you think about it, all believers, when confronted by the reality of evil and suffering, go through moments of unbelief/doubt. Unless they are "fronting."

This common ground seems to be the subject of Novak's new book, which I will be sure to read. I will also be watching this program this weekend to hear more.

Confronting the Guitar Gods in My Basement

I've been playing the guitar for over 20 years. On and off. Sometimes highly motivated and sometimes not.

Lately, I responded to an ad on Craigslist and joined a band with a great bunch of guys.

We play a lot of classic and hard rock: Rolling Stones, Judas Priest, Stone Temple Pilots, Ramones, Tom Petty, etc. As we work up a set list of 30 songs, and prepare to play out live, I've never wanted to practice more. It makes a huge difference to have people around with similar passion, driving you forward as an "artist."

So, of late, I'm down in my basement, at all hours of the night, using a Korg Pandora PX4 to rock out into headphones without waking the family. It's an awesome device, with lots of effects, modeled speaker cabinets, drums and bass to accompany, in different keys and tempos if you want.

Now, I'm studying and playing the chord changes, and the solos of many great players. Mountain's "Mississippi Queen" has been assigned to me for the solo. I've got most of it down now. I don't care that some little kid on YouTube can play it already. Or, that there are fifty other kids there showcasing their Van Halen chops. I'm on my own journey.

I'm somewhere I've desperately wanted to be for many years. I played as a teenager and it was a great time. After that it was hard to meet normal human beings to practice with. So, I just listened intently for many years, and stared at all my transcription books, the jazz standards, the stack of lesson tapes with my old teacher who loved Larry Carlton and Sonny Rollins, and wondered.

I'd pick it up from time to time, but if you want to rock, you need a band. Finally, I made a move.

Now, I'm not only learning the songs, I'm also re-learning the brilliance of my beloved artists from a new point of view, that of technique. The subtlety of their musical phrases, the fingerings of the strings to get just the right sound - so easy to screw up! -- just adds to my appreciation of music I already love. And I want to keep learning until I'm 100.

Because of this, and because the band mates are a great group, all of my problems seem so much smaller. I leave every rehearsal feeling great. It's the kind of thing I read about in Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way." Doing "creative" stuff, and being in a "creative community" is just something you have to do. And I've not done enough of it these many years.

I'm not going to let time pass like that any more, and I don't care if it leads me to perform in nursing homes and jails. That's not the point.

Many people who know me, my wife included, laugh somewhat incredulously at my enthusiasm. To look at me is not to think "rock and roll."

But, when I am alone, staring at the transcriptions, and noticing for example, how Leslie West takes a simple blues lick and turns it into an exquisitely fat, emotional guitar wail, and then I duplicate it, that knowledge is now deeply a part of me. And I know who I really am, and I don't care what anyone else thinks.

Photo used under Creative Commons license courtesy of Tres.

The Wall Street Journal Destroys Its Hard Won Credibility

For years I have read and applauded the Wall Street Journal's editorial page for warning of the dangers inherent in Fannie and Freddie, and the looming crisis. Events have proven their analysis of a politicized market for mortgages correct.

How ironic, and sad then, that these same editors should now double down their hard won credibility on Henry Paulson's massive attempt to re-politicize the marketplace for mortgages. We're not talking a modified Paulson plan. We're talking first ballot Paulson.

By all other responsible reporting in the free-market media, we know that a) every official in Washington is saying privately this "emergency measure" is a piece of garbage legislation, and b) they have no idea if it will work.

But hey, the Journal reasons, we need to "calm" the markets.

The "markets" are made up of moral agents; people, who now want to be bailed out for their recklessness. Whether or not it was encouraged by the government, that is the bottom line. If they can't "calm" themselves, perhaps they should find other lines of work.

The Journal, in my mind at least, has destroyed all of the credibility it has created over the years when it warned against Fannie and Freddie -- so badly is it now in the tank for, one can only reason, one of their own, Henry Paulson.

PATHETIC.

From Class: The Greeks' Ultimate Reality and the Abyss

The closing thoughts of last night's Dowling College class bear repeating.

When the Greek philosopher Anaximander posited the existence of an Apeiron, (the ageless, boundless and indeterminate ultimate reality) he looked past the whirlwind and "injustice" of change and sought something more.

Heraclitus despaired of the passage of time, with poetic reflections on life and death. And yet, he insisted, behind it all, had to be some "Logos." A fire that changed everything, but itself remained unchanged.

Parmenides used relentless logic to reason his way to the "One" ultimate reality - even if he destroyed motion and change in the process. Transcendent only by destruction, perhaps?

Aristotle looked beyond his own "common sense" philosophy of material things to talk about pure Form, the source of movement in the universe and pure "thought thinking itself," which all other forms at different levels of the natural order sought to imitate as best as their own natures would allow.

Contrast these thoughts with Nietzsche. Who, confronted with the whirlwind of change and contingency, embraced it by itself, in all its disorder. He looked into the abyss and saw nothing. God was not hiding behind change hoping we would notice. He was never there. Hence, Nietzsche elevated himself to the ultimate arbiter of truth in the universe. He became the One that "explains" the Many.

While I still think the Greek approach is superior and inevitable, and that Nietzsche's view is built on contradiction, I understand Nietzsche's sense of subjective isolation, and bring it up more in class.

Even if we too claim to see the Apeiron, the Logos, the One or the pure Form, we have to ask ourselves "How?" And, what follows from touching it with our minds? Even in a world in which there are millions of competing answers (including the suffocating comforts of divine revelation - more on that in a future post), attempting to draw our own conclusions leaves us very lonely.

BTW- Here's a remarkable documentary capturing the loneliness of Nietzsche. MC