AltizerDystopiaBirth

I suppose it was because I recognized the name Altizer as a prominent name (rather than Anthony Smith or Adam Kotsko) that I actually read this longer of posts--something I must admit I do not normally do (sorry guys). But it got me to thinking.

I've been reading a number of dystopias lately. I thought of one in particular--This Perfect Day by Ira Levin. This is one of those dystopias where society is trying to create humans that are all similar and unquestioning. They do this mainly by a regimen of mandatory injections that occur on a monthly basis. These injections not only control the outbreak of disease and viruses, but they also control the hormones (resulting in birth control and a lack of sexual desire) and dull the senses of one's individuality. The injections are accompanied by visits to a "therapist" who monitors how each individual is doing. If there is odd behavior or an individual begins to question things a little too much, then there injections will be adjusted, or they will get an extra "treatment." Everyone in this society also wears a bracelet that they touch to various screens in order to enter a room or purchase goods, thus tracking the movements of each person. After an arduous struggle, the main character, Chip, and his girlfriend find a way to avoid the injections and make their way to an island of "incurables" or others who are not on the "grid." Upon arrival, Chip is disheartened by the fact that he has to work in a mine and share an apartment with another couple in order to make ends meet. He is disgusted by the fact that most of the people who escaped to the islands have accepted this lot in life and have taken to drinking lots of whiskey and wine and watching bad television--thus dulling their senses once again.

There is more to the book than that, but I was reminded of it this morning--particularly the part of the "revolutionaries" succumbing to whiskey drinking as a way of life. I realize that after having "escaped" the bondage of my conservative religious upbringing--by actually thinking and engaging God through thought and through theology, and by, oh my God, drinking alcohol with a bunch of other lunatic artists/writers/theologians--I have settled for mediocrity. Whereas drinking used to be just an excuse to get together and be creative, now it's just an excuse. And it's not just that, it's the avoidance of the encounter with the Almighty. Oh there are moments of clarity each year--like when I reread The Sickness Unto Death last winter--but these are few and far between. I think that the dulling of one's senses can take various forms, but at it's heart is a refusal to encounter God, or a denial that this encounter is necessary.

When Altizer talks about repression,

for now “God” can clearly be understood as the source of our repression, as the very speakers of God can no longer speak of God without actually evoking our repression, and evoking the ultimate power and ubiquity of that repression.

I think about a repression that I understand as having been self imposed, or at least that has been accepted without question. But it seems that what Altizer is saying is that exactly at the point of this repression is where the opening for a revolutionary theology lies:

Now it is not accidental that God has now disappeared from our theological language, or from our critical theological language, as nothing is now more damning or more self-destructive than actually hearing God, or hearing that God who is now spoken in a hearable theological language. This, too, is historically unique, but it opens up a whole new theological path, and just as once we could know God as the God of absolute judgment, now we can know an absolute or an absolutely ubiquitous repression whose only source that we can name is God, and whereas once the way to God was through an absolutely guilty conscience, now the only manifest way to God is through an absolute impotence or repression, or that repression which only now is all in all.

I think that there is something to this, however without seeking the struggle and seeking the encounter with God, then one's repression is just simply that.

On a not entirely unrelated note, my wife had her first strong (i.e. painful) contraction this morning--an indication that she may be close to going into labor. She is due on Sunday, so it's about the right time. I can't believe how exciting (and scary!) this is.