My Enlightenment Salon

"Reading from Moliere," Jean Francois de Troy c.1728

France, 1793

"But what of social occupations in America?" said Talleyrand. "Do they have salons as in England or France?"
"Once you've left Philadelphia or New York - which are full of Dutch immigrants - you'll find little more than frontier towns. The people sit by the fire at night with a book, or have a game of chess as we're doing now. There isn't much of society outside of the eastern seaboard."
--Katherine Neville, The Eight (1993)

I seem to have forgotten how to write, apart from terse business communications (We'll have that deliverable for you by Monday. Have a great weekend!) and dry, technical sales prose (I'll spare you the torture). On the other hand, I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking. Since moving to the Confederacy and former capital city of the KKK, and a very, very red state, I've been thinking a lot about capitalism, communtarianism and what it means to live life in America. After reading that bit in The Eight, I've realized that we don't have salons anymore. They've been replaced by TV, games, and other cheap entertainment. There must be more than this.

American society has denigrated since the Enlightenment. How did this happen? We developed an irresponsible consumeristic society in tandem with the Industrial Revolution. A responsible consumerism is shaped by the common good, while an irresponsible one is not. We have lost touch with the lessons of the Enlightenment, and failed to allow humanistic morals to shape our practice of capitalism. See Nicholas Kristof's recent article on how Pakistan might be representative of America's ideal model of a government with low taxes, little regulation and traditional family values. Everything is privatized. Our goals no longer line up with those of the common good, but what is best for ourselves.

Mindless consumerism affects every aspect of our life because it is a huge drain on our time. Time spent consuming products means less time spent with our loved ones, less time building relationships, less time participating in our community and serving those in need, and less time for us to become well-rounded people, to better teach us to pass on the torch of our time with the lessons of this age to the next generation. These are the things that truly matter the most.

I propose that we as a society return to a more enlightened age, a more civilized and humane time where citizens respected and valued each other and the common goals of humankind. Share your gifts with the community. Talk to your children and really get to know them, understand their motivations, peer into their souls. We would all fare much better if we had those post-dinner discussions, if we were only able to turn off the television and our manifold electronic devices, quit our addictions to shopping and awaken our minds. Quit reading the internet and read a proper book. Come to my salon.

Some Other odds and ends:
- Southern people say "like I said," Northerners say "as I said."
- Southern people pronounce insurance with the accent on the first syllable ("IN'-surance"), which annoys the bollocks out of me.
- I've gotten heckled here in 6 months more than I was ever heckled in New York City for 15 years. Long stops at red lights, and
- I'm coming to terms with the realization that I am actually enneagram 6w5, not 5w6 as I've believed for over ten years. My obsession with hegemony, hierarchies, and the evolution of state societies probably stems from that motivation. Another post to come about that....