Preparing the mind for action
“He [Christ] wants a child’s heart but a grown-up’s head” – C.S. Lewis
The mind is like a muscle. If it is not exercised regularly and strenuously, it loses some of its capacities and strength. If we are to be of any help to this present generation we must, amongst other things, change our reading habits and fast. If I am correct in my interpretation of certain views which have been expressed in the press, it seems that people no longer base their decisions on a careful use of abstract reasoning in assessing pertinent issues. Nor are they as capable of doing so compared to earlier generations.
In earlier generations thought was primarily communicated by writing and abstract ideas, not images. Nowadays, people are basically passive in terms of receiving ideas. We are continuously fed images, video et cetera via the television. People therefore tend to regard paragraphs, blurbs, thirty-second sound bites and pretty pictures as more important than numerous words on a page minus the pictures or abstract thoughts. With the ubiquitousness of gadgets like silent leashes (cellular phones), people now have very short attention spans and are not able to stay with an idea as it is being carefully developed.
In 1941, Harvard sociologist Pitirim A. Sorokin wrote a book called, “The Crisis of Our Age.” In it, he claimed that cultures come in two major types: sensate and ideational. In a sensate culture, people believe in only the reality of the physical universe which can be experienced with the senses. By contrast, the ideational culture embraces the sensory world but also accepts the notion that an immaterial world – consisting of God, the soul and so on – can be known. Sorokin claimed that a sensate culture will eventually disintegrate because it lacks the intellectual resources necessary to sustain both a public and private life conducive to human flourishing. This is exactly what is happening to modern society. Drop Everything And Read is an excellent step towards correcting this disintegration. No movement – political, religious, social or otherwise – can survive without an active reader base. It will become marginalized and easily led. For the love of God and for the love of country – Drop Everything And Read. “For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.” (Proverbs 8:11)
The mind is like a muscle. If it is not exercised regularly and strenuously, it loses some of its capacities and strength. If we are to be of any help to this present generation we must, amongst other things, change our reading habits and fast. If I am correct in my interpretation of certain views which have been expressed in the press, it seems that people no longer base their decisions on a careful use of abstract reasoning in assessing pertinent issues. Nor are they as capable of doing so compared to earlier generations.
In earlier generations thought was primarily communicated by writing and abstract ideas, not images. Nowadays, people are basically passive in terms of receiving ideas. We are continuously fed images, video et cetera via the television. People therefore tend to regard paragraphs, blurbs, thirty-second sound bites and pretty pictures as more important than numerous words on a page minus the pictures or abstract thoughts. With the ubiquitousness of gadgets like silent leashes (cellular phones), people now have very short attention spans and are not able to stay with an idea as it is being carefully developed.
In 1941, Harvard sociologist Pitirim A. Sorokin wrote a book called, “The Crisis of Our Age.” In it, he claimed that cultures come in two major types: sensate and ideational. In a sensate culture, people believe in only the reality of the physical universe which can be experienced with the senses. By contrast, the ideational culture embraces the sensory world but also accepts the notion that an immaterial world – consisting of God, the soul and so on – can be known. Sorokin claimed that a sensate culture will eventually disintegrate because it lacks the intellectual resources necessary to sustain both a public and private life conducive to human flourishing. This is exactly what is happening to modern society. Drop Everything And Read is an excellent step towards correcting this disintegration. No movement – political, religious, social or otherwise – can survive without an active reader base. It will become marginalized and easily led. For the love of God and for the love of country – Drop Everything And Read. “For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.” (Proverbs 8:11)
