When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Sometimes you're made to feel
as if your love's a crime
But nothing worth having comes
without some kind of fight
Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight
...Bruce Cockburn, Lovers in a Dangerous Time, 1983
Ah, everything is noisy. Just as a strong drink is said to stir the blood, so everything in our day, even the most insignificant project, even the most empty communication, is designed merely to jolt the senses or to stir up the masses, the crowd, the public, noise! And we humans, we clever fellows, seem to have become sleepless in order to invent ever new means to increase noise, to spread noise and insignificance with the greatest possible ease and on the greatest possible scale. Yes, everything has been turned upside down. The means of communication have been perfected, but what is publicized with such hot haste is rubbish! Oh, create silence!
...Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), For Self Examination and Judge for Yourself, tr. Howard & Edna Hong, 1990
Ya either got faith or ya got unbelief
and there ain't no neutral ground.
The enemy is subtle,
how be it we are so deceived
When the truth's in our hearts
and we still don't believe?
...Bob Dylan, Precious Angel, 1979
This terrible individualism must inevitably have an end, and all will suddenly understand how unnaturally they are separated from one another. It will be the spirit of the time, and people will marvel that they have sat so long in darkness without seeing the light. And then the sign of the Son of Man will be seen in the heavens... But, until then, we must keep the banner flying. Sometimes even if he has to do it alone, and his conduct seems to be crazy, a man must set an example, and so draw men's souls out of their solitude, and spur them to some act of brotherly love, that the great idea may not die.
...Feodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881), The Brothers Karamazov, 1880 ch 40
Globalization isn’t just an aggressive stage in the history of capitalism. It is a religious movement of previously unheard of proportions. Progress is its underlying myth, unlimited economic growth its foundational faith, the shopping mall (physical or online) its place of worship, consumerism its overriding image, “I’ll have a Big Mac and fries†its ritual of initiation, and global domination its ultimate goal.
… Brian Walsh & Sylvia Keesmaat, Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire, 2004
In the world of spirit, busyness, keeping up with others, hustling hither and yon, makes it almost impossible for an individual to form a heart, to become a responsible, alive self. Every life that is preoccupied with being like others is a wasted life, a lost life.
…Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Journals and Papers, ed. & tr. Howard & Edna Hong, 1967
