say No to mass culture

It has been a pretty liberating experience to abstain from msn chatting and watching tv. Maybe that explains the slightly increased frequency of blogging inane posts; I guess there is that bit of need to keep in touch with the cyber world, though probably no one really quite visit The Pseudo Philosopher Blog, which isn't quite philo anymore these days. Ha ha.

Anyway, I think maybe I'll just stay away from msn all the way till God knows when. I guess there is not much reasons to go online anyway these days. I think mass culture strips away a lot of authencity in human relationships. It is rather dehumanizing that emoticons should replace our emotional lexicon. Perhaps getting away from the whole connected world makes me appreciate meet ups with people more, since I barely communicate with people these days. But for now, I think I prefer to stay away from people.

Still, the bible did say that at some point or points along the pilgrimage of 'solitude', we will enter into what St John of the Cross describes as the 'dark night of the soul', where we have a sense of dryness, aloneness, lostness; the will becomes arid, the intellect becomes dark, and there lies a burdensome cloud which afflicts the soul and keeps it withdrawn from God. (I'm quoting these from Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline). St John of the Cross says that in such times, it is not so much a case of one being 'out of sorts', but it is a process to go into deeper waters with God than we usually care to do so.

I'm not so sure if I am going through such a suspended phase, but I think the last few days have been really tough going. I don't know.. I think I'm taking comfort in being withdrawn from the usual people. The pragmatic part of me tells me that nothing much will change after I step out of this space-out zone, the curious/faithful part of me tells me that God might just change my perspectives on certain issues. I don't know, I'm quite a boring person, I prefer to keep things the way they are, even if it does not make sense to everyone out there.