Spellbound: In Theaters Everywhere
The Disneyfication of Our Social Imaginary
Daniel Sih does not seem like the kind of guy who would needlessly stir up a hornet’s nest. This is a man who heads his own company, serves as a consultant on time management and technology, and has been a church planter and pastor.
But he is also the author of a book entitled, Spacemakers: How to Unplug, Unwind, and Think Clearly in a Digital Age, in which he describes the need we have as humans to create “space” from our technological devices. Sih points out that our devices come with a narrative of promise; that in exchange for increasing time and attention invested in the technology we will know more, do more, and do so more quickly. This he counters with the observation that we cannot in fact multitask without tuning some things out. He maintains that the benefits of our devices plateau and decline over time. There are built-in limitations inherent in human use of technology, things which no technology can overcome.
But breaking away from our phones, iPads, and laptops is difficult, if not seemingly impossible for people to imagine. Why? Though Daniel Sih does not use this term, I would: we are spellbound by the nature of digital experience. We have accepted the promises of what technology offers, even though we have not thought through the premises of technology.
There is, according to Sih, an even greater narrative at work which affects our digital living, one which lives rent-free in our Western minds. Specifically, he cites two stories our culture tells which assume an almost “confessional” status. They are articles of faith in our present life, even though they are not always articulated clearly.
One such story is the “Freedom Story.” In Western culture, freedom means personal autonomy. It’s expressed in our right to pick a career, or eat vegan or change locations. The other story, which fits hand in glove with the Freedom Story, is the Choice Story. Choice assumes the importance it has because it’s the way we maximize our freedom. The story which follows from this is “the more choices we have, the more freedom we experience.”
It is here where Sih “sees” these stories playing out in theaters everywhere. Specifically, the stories of Freedom and Choice are staples of Disney movie narratives. How so? Consider the outline he suggests:
The protagonist is forced to break free from his/her restrictive home or cultural tradition.
This hero then embarks on a journey to discover their “true self”, usually through facing some daunting challenge.
The hero returns home to rescue or restore the community which he/she left behind, in harmony with the hero’s personal truth.
Within this general plot, a series of personal imperatives finds a home.
“Follow your heart.”
Trust your feelings”
“If you want to be happy, do what you want”
“To be happy you must be completely ‘authentic’, not compromising your dreams and wishes.”
“Whatever rules you face, you can break because you’re special. You’re different.
This is one example of what Charles Taylor called, “the social imaginary” - that set of beliefs and expectations which we assume in order to engage in life. Today’s social imaginary is “atheistic” in nature, but not in the sense that there is any attempt to squelch all things religious. Today’s a-theism lives by a creed which says, “Even if God exists, God has no bearing in how we do life; for the purposes of life, we are all we have.”
Author Craig Gay calls this phenomenon “Practical Atheism”, and asserts that in contemporary culture the reigning narrative is “the assumption that even if God exists, he is largely irrelevant to the real business of life.”
Contemporary society and culture so emphasize human potential and human agency and the immediate practical exigencies of the here and now, that we are for the most part tempted to go about our daily business in this world without giving God much thought. (The Way of The Modern World, William B Eerdmans Publishing, 1998; p.2)
If it is the case that “we are all we have”, we need all the affirmations to which we alluded above. If God is not “out there”, then we must re-create him inwardly. We must find the attributes of God in ourselves. It is this conviction that enables us to affirm that we must be authentically self-assertive concerning our lives, dreams, and wishes. It enables us to believe that inwardly we possess an immaculate core, a basic goodness untouched by sin and wrong. So we can trust our feelings. Our desires will be our guide to better living, because those desires are sacrosanct. Indeed, the “holy of holies” is found within us; and not in anyone or anything outside of us.
Stated this way, we may feel confident that this trend is found only in people outside the church - people who don’t believe the gospel, don’t believe they’re lost, and whom we can easily dismiss.
But that is not the conlusion which Craig Gay draws:
Practical atheism has become so disarmingly attractive in the contemporary situation that we have actually embraced it within our churches…in the ordinary practice of Christian ministry. The contemporary mental climate is such that faith and prayer are rather routinely eclipsed by the practical efficacy of expertise and technique. (The Way…p.3)
What Gay notes, he wrote in the early 1990’s. Well before our hand-held devices. Before “‘digital” became the all the rage. If he were re-writing his book today, he could no doubt add to the examples he gives of this “conceptual climate.” But he would not need to change his basic thesis: It’s become easy to live as if God doesn’t exist. Not the God of the Bible, at any rate. And this adds legitimacy to the quest to find “God” within ourselves. Armed with our marching orders (“Trust your feelings”; “Be and remain authentically independent”; etc.), we are ready to live out the great modern heresy: We can make reality adjust to us rather than adjust to fit reality.
This is a powerful spell which has taken captive many, both in and outside the church. When our attempts at sharing the gospel with this populace falter, it may seem as if this spell is unbreakable. But this is not the case. The next installment in this series will examine the arsenal which God has at his disposal to take captive the most convinced “practical” atheist.
Until then. Cheers!