Are We Living in Ordinary Times?
by: Mike Ignatowski on November 17th, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I attended Catholic Mass while visiting family members this weekend, and I was intrigued by the following statement from the pulpit - “this is the 33rd Sunday in ordinary time”. The phrase ordinary time as used here refers to a particular segment of the church calendar year (i.e. It’s not advent, lent, etc.). But it raised the bigger question about whether we’re living in “ordinary times” in a larger historical sense. Would we classify the last 6 months as an extraordinary time in history, or as more of an unremarkable ordinary time? Have we lived through a temporary lull this summer between recent storms of change, and what will come next? Perhaps. How would you classify the last half of this decade?
The people I discussed this with typically thought we were living in extraordinary times in general, and have been doing so for their entire life. That led to the humorous observation that we often believe an extraordinary period of human history began roughly at the time of our own birth. Such is human nature.
Such views are a characteristic of exponential rates of change. The most recent period of history will always seem to be experiencing much more substantial rates of change than previous times, and will therefore seem to be an extraordinary time. Make no mistake about it; we are living in a time of exponential growth, exponential rates of scientific and technological development, and perhaps exponential rates of social change as well. We are living in extraordinary times.
There is an important aspect of exponential curves that we cannot forget though. If they continue, the rate of change in the coming decades will be even greater than it is today. There is every reason to believe that this in fact will happen. So while we are living in extraordinary times compared to previous history, it is likely that the historical impact of the coming decades will be even more significant than what we’re experiencing now. This means that our “call to action” to engage in helping to direct positive change will continue to grow in importance.
Mmm. I agree, but feel challenged to think of ways in which the times are ordinary. I feel a strange kind of stasis in a lot of people I know, myself included. We are all busy like crazy, overworked, exhausted, stressed, trying to get through the day and the week, AND to find time for friends, community, and whatever spiritual practices we rely on to center us and turn us into more human beings, AND then to do the political work the times demand. The lack of spontaneous, widespread energy for the latter seems to weigh us down. We are not all rising up to demand universal health care, an end to the wars, a carbon tax. These are ordinary times, the kind in which political movements have to be built painstakingly rather than arising in some extraordinary manifestation of collective energy, which is how I experienced the 60s and early 70s. Most times have not been like that. Most movements have been built during ordinary times like these, when some people are energized by great causes, but each cause does not get the steam it needs until other things change.
One of the more remarkable aspects of our time may indeed be how the entire system has matured well enough to squeak through a financial crisis (so far) with large numbers being unemployed and losing homes but little sense of solidarity among them. The individualism of consumer culture seems to have worked its way into our souls: now we suffer in an atomized cloud. This is the new ordinary: we each rise and fall alone. Obama’s campaign seemed like a big amazing exception at the time. but now we’re back to the new ordinary.
One of the more remarkable aspects of our time may indeed be how the entire system has matured well enough to squeak through a financial crisis (so far) with large numbers being unemployed and losing homes but little sense of solidarity among them. The individualism of consumer culture seems to have worked its way into our souls: now we suffer in an atomized cloud. This is the new ordinary: we each rise and fall alone. Obama’s campaign seemed like a big amazing exception at the time. but now we’re back to the new ordinary.
Nothing will ever change in our country. The more things change, the more they remain the same!!!
I went to my cardiologist on Tuesday, November 17, 2009. He said to me that the few at the top have a responsibility to the many at the bottom. He does not see the few helping the many. Civilizations have succumbed to greed. We are seeing the early signs of our country destroying herself.
I only have three positive letters for my country – R.I.P.
Gerald, I know my comment may have invited yours, but I’m too contrary to give up and accept your conclusion! I really think one could have found reasons to write the same RIP at any time in this country’s history, but I don’t think it would have been right to do so then or now.
I saw an amazing girl this morning, whizzing through the park on on-line skates. Maybe 13 years old, all lean muscle, grace, seriousness and an astonishing confidence in her own motion. She looked like an apprentice super-hero, or, more impressive because more real, a future young woman who would know her own mind and act accordingly. When I was a child in London I never saw women or girls like that being athletic out on the street, only very occasionally on TV at the Olympic Games or the Wimbledon tennis courts. She represents a revolution that has happened in my lifetime. She was African American so maybe she represents two revolutions. The married male couple who are the webmasters for this blog represent another one. As do many other people I know, including some who blog on this site. I could mention the woman–and friend–who gives my wife and me IT support at home: only a few years ago she was a man. It’s too soon to write “Nothing will ever change in our country.” The changes I have mentioned all involve legal as well as cultural changes, not all of them yet complete by any means, but there is every prospect that they will come about.
As regards consumer culture, there’s a lot of fight left in us yet. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but all the things that do make these extraordinary times will shake us up in the end.
Gerald,
I agree with everything you wrote, but I would say the signs of our country destroying itself by greed are much further beyond early signs.