Saturday, January 07, 2006
CASING THE CULTURE
At a stoplight the other day my attention lighted on the car in front of me...an older model, clean, white Grand Am.
Left bumper sticker: "My karma ran over your dogma."
Right bumper sticker: "People suck."
Center magnetic blue ribbon: "Support lap dancing."
Licence plate numbers were preceded by "DOA."
Is that what passes for being culturally creative these days?
Let's see..."karma over dogma" means Eastern religions with their permissive personal paths to salvation have superceded the dogma of Christianity. People can more easily be rejected from an Eastern perspective that posits a human body fallen into damaged materiality, and suffering the consequences of their previous reincarnations while trying to right those wrongs as they await liberation through death and hopefully avoidance of subsequent reincarnation. Whatever is wrong with our life is our own fault and so not something for which others should feel compassion or practice charity towards us.
Is it any wonder, then, if from this perspective that I look around at my fellow man who is not going to help me in any way; and who is just making my life more difficult by being in my way, preventing me from doing whatever it is I've decided I must do in order to better my situation? From this perspective, people do indeed "suck".
Meanwhile, in order to bring a little relief into this dismal existence I've created for myself, I'll try that panacea that the voices of the culture tell me is a cure-all, namely sex, prettied up to "lap dancing" for this bumper magnet so that no one will throw eggs at my car, or scream at me in the parking lot, or take it.
And "DOA"? Well, you know where lap dancing leads, and those unwanted consequences can be difficult to deal with, so the best solution is dead on arrival.
That's quite a theology lesson for a Grand Am. Who knew cars were so smart!
