Consumption junction1/30/2024 But this understanding is problematized by Augustine.Īugustine, says Cavanaugh, teaches that “desire is a social production.” Desire does not spontaneously arise from within. That is, desire comes to define the core of one’s being and, therefore, undergirds freedom and the rationale of choice. Choice therefore reflects desire, and desire is assumed intellectually unproblematic. In liberal capitalist ideology, what makes a choice free is the absence of coercion, that is, circumstances where the chooser is not forced to select something that she really doesn’t want to choose. Democrats hold to the pro-choice position on abortion, while Republicans laud freedom of choice as the key to renewing education. Freedom of choice has become so iconic and so universally venerated that both major American political parties pay homage to it. Cavanaugh’s Augustinian examination of human desire, its true end, and its many economic perversions, however, explains why the pursuit of happiness under capitalism is, necessarily, as unending and insatiable as greyhounds in hot pursuit of a fake rabbit.Ĭavanaugh begins by debunking the idea of the “free” market and the “freedom” of choice that it enshrines. Nevertheless, one talk show host after another introduces the author of yet another self-help book, yet another claim that purchasing, reading, and following his or her twelve steps will satiate all longings for happiness. Nothing seems more self-evident to the modern person than desire and the apparent failure of one’s life to satiate desire. The subtitle of this little book-“Economics and Christian Desire”-describes a theme that resonates throughout the book. Fortunately, there is a contemporary Virgil to guide Christians through this postmodern inferno and purgatory, none other than William Cavanaugh, author of Being Consumed. Though the Christian is to ask such questions from the vantage point of belief and practice, especially the practice of worship, it is rarely deemed that such faith has anything to do with the market. People everywhere are being forced to pay attention to the transnational economy these days, and they are asking questions about the meaning of production and consumption in the brave new world of the twenty-first century. Click here to buy Being Consumed from and to help support The Other Journal. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), 103 pages, $10.11 paper. Cavanaugh, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. I shudder to think what 20 years has done in terms of the evolution of this stuff. Most of that footage is pretty old now, dating back to the mid 90's when that was all first happening. There is a fairly legitimate post on reddit in an 'AMA request' kind of post, where someone involved with it calls this an s&m "medical fetish". Sorry - but I had to post back in here concerning that because it was bothering me for some reason. Enjoy that fact as you drift off to sleep tonight. I have to assume that the internet is right and that it is fake, but I don't think it looks that way.Īs I wrote this, I Googled it and I saw an acceptable explanation: The "final" round which involves someone chopping off his twig and berries is fake, but the edited footage (and likely what most of us who saw it, saw) is real footage from people who have done those things. It passes a lot of my personal litmus tests of authenticity - shot with different cameras and at different framerates, obviously edited together. I have to say, I think some of that is unfortunately real. I am someone who can't even conceptualize a penile catheter without crossing my legs in response. There's plenty of blood in this montage, but it's also gruesome simply because it's their fucking genitals. Like cutting or slicing parts of their penis, driving a nail through a testicle, letting a hornet sting the head of their penis, various electro-shock treatments and some sort of flapping contraption hooked up to a woman which is violently stretching her outer labia over and over.
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