13 Observations on Ritual
Dr. Cardona elaborates:
“We have built a civilization that distrusts spontaneous well-being. In its place, we offer
conditional worth: achievement through effort, pleasure through purchase,
enlightenment through productivity. The ecstatic is unearned, and thus feared.”
The result is a neurocultural paradox: a society addicted to stimulation, but allerg... See more
“We have built a civilization that distrusts spontaneous well-being. In its place, we offer
conditional worth: achievement through effort, pleasure through purchase,
enlightenment through productivity. The ecstatic is unearned, and thus feared.”
The result is a neurocultural paradox: a society addicted to stimulation, but allerg... See more
Homegrown Humans
In a society governed by ritual, there is no depression. In such a society, the soul is fully absorbed by ritual forms; it is even emptied out. Rituals contain aspects of the world, and they produce in us a strong relationship to the world. Depression, by contrast, is based on an excessive relation to self. Wholly incapable of leaving the self behi
... See moreByung-Chul Han • The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present
This historical backdrop must include the erosion of community stemming from the disappearance of our rituals, as described by philosopher Byung-Chul Han. In a ritualistic society, Han notes, much is implicitly understood by its members in what is effectively a “community without communication,” while the reverse is true of American society today,... See more