Marginal Christianity

3: The Perceived Scam of the Mass Society Root summarizes our learnings to this point like this: “The mass society sought to keep duty central, yet this duty was cut loose from transcendence to be bound almost completely with the immanent reality of consumption. But because duty remained the central social imaginary, conformity was king.” (970) This situation prevailed until we looked behind the curtain and realized a game was being played on us. In the 1960’s “planned obsolescence” was revealed to be the auto industry’s way of keeping the economic engine humming. Designing cars to wear out every few years was the way to keep people buying new cars regularly. Duty was not sufficient for this as marketers were quick to figure out.  Making things to wear out quickly to be replaced by newer versions was the answer. The problem came when “planned obsolescence” became known. People realized the game was rigged. Was the ballyhooed conformity that commitment to duty promoted ...

Faith Formation in a Secular Age Vol.1                                                                                                                                  Andrew Root [1] Preface We live in a secular world. But the nature of that secularity is widely misunderstood. When Charles Taylor, author of the magnificent A Secular Age , says “secular,...