This is probably your best essay yet, both thematically and mechanically. Throughout your work, there are strong themes of increasing your own autonomy and agency. You acknowledge, however, that "tomorrow, I'll be raising my thumb along the road, doing what I was born to do — foolishly trust-falling on the public,". This is a bit tongue-in-cheek and made me smile, but I also wonder if you ever have difficulty reconciling your desire for agency/autonomy with this semi-reliance on the public. Public lands, hitchhiking, libraries, etc. To the casual observer, it might seem contradictory but I anticipate you have a different and deeper understanding and may not see it as contrary at all. Can you speak to that?
Good morning Ryan, hope you're ready for the storm that's coming our way. Glad you enjoyed the piece. I suspect I could write a whole essay about the contradiction you highlight!
And it is a contradiction, no question about it. The perfectly autonomous man is maximally self-reliant; he derives his subsistence solely from the land and his own labor, alone. But this model is borne of the "machinic mind" I describe in this piece; it is the "excel spreadsheet" idea of autonomy, as it is ideal, pure, unreachable, rationally coherent. The reality is that agency is only a corollary to our reliance on God, and that the ties that bind us to one another are the basis of our own edification. If God is love, love requires a subject and object, or in its most divine form -- two subjects who love one another as brothers, friends, spouses, family, etc. And from this I must conclude that "pure self-reliance" is not actually desirable and is a sort of red herring insofar as autonomy is being discussed. If I argue for autonomy, I only argue for ways of life that allow us to become mutually reliant and to love one another out of a true sense of volition and free will rather than a sense of recurring obligation. Inasmuch as the ties that bind us are effectively compulsory, time-bound, and obligatory, the fullness of love and mutual reliance is cut down, as true love is freely given.
This is an ideal that will always have imperfect results that defy the rational scrutiny of the "machinic" mode of thought. Its imperfections can be condemned as hypocrisy easily. Its practioners can be viewed as being foolish, utopian, idealistic -- and yet if we require ideals in order to live, or mythologies in order to dream, someone must live them or they fossilize into artifacts and museum pieces rather than living ideals and dreams. Not everyone is called to try for these ideals, but some are. That is how I think of the balance between my attempts at balancing autonomy and divinity, while by no means condemning those with other vocations -- if I make my attempt at this manner of living, it is only to inspire those with other vocations.
I hope this doesn't seem too terribly convoluted; I will certainly write at greater length about this, and I'm really thankful for your question as it's a great chance to flesh these concerns out. They're very important to consider!
"If I argue for autonomy, I only argue for ways of life that allow us to become mutually reliant and to love one another out of a true sense of volition and free will rather than a sense of recurring obligation."
I've noticed this a little bit since trading in my smart phone for a light phone. Here's a short story about that:
My wife, child and I were visiting an Orthodox priest to ask questions and try to understand Orthodoxy a little better. We had a good conversation, said our goodbyes, and went to leave. My car wouldn't start. It wouldn't even turn over. If I still had my smart phone, I would have googled the number for a tow service, called them myself, etc. But I had no google. I had no phone number to call. So I was pushed out of a technological "autonomy" into a relational "autonomy:" I went back and asked the priest for help, and he wound up giving my wife and child a ride home while I waited for the tow (which we called on his phone.)
It occurred to me that the point of much technology is anti-personal or anti-relational; it enables a form of "autonomy," in the sense you don't have to ask people for help (at least, not so often). At the same time, you are dependent on the machine, or the tool. Stepping back from that kind of autonomy I think brings you into the kind of autonomy you're talking about: autonomy from the machine, enabled by mutual interdependence in community.
The way he describes how certain machinic activities take us away from eternal time while others seem to better allow for our perception of the non-linear, eternal truth that we are "hid in Christ" has stuck with me. You said it differently and with more humor. I can't wait to read this to my husband and son who are both mechanically talented and are rebuilding and old truck together. Turns out the man who is giving the truck to my son can't find the title AND the dirt road that leads to our new house is impassable due to mud. We are thinking about oxen as an improvement over engines of many kinds.
Superb essay. I loved your point on how regulation can form man in the image of a machine. I wrote an essay a while ago on how regulation tends to kill off the small and independent businesses among us. Though at times regulation is necessary, it tends to remove so much good in our lives and so much of what makes us human. https://overthefield.substack.com/p/regulation-and-the-death-of-the-small
And your whole essay reminds me of this quote from Wendell Berry: “the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and those who wish to live as machines.”
Superb essay with an excellent conclusion! Indeed, Christ is Risen! And if on your travels, you make it down Kentucky way, feel free to look me up.
And I especially appreciated the extended reflection on bureaucracy. I got into a relatively minor car accident at the end of October. It was totaled out, but it was still cheaper to repair than buy even a used car. Within two months, it was repaired and the Sheriff signed off on the inspection. It was only this week that I'm allowed to drive it again. Long story short, this delay was brought about by the implementation of a new software and me being punished when I did everything as I was told, but the state didn't follow the arbitrary rules they made up.
It is nearly 3 in the morning on a Wednesday after Easter in the West, and I have just been immensely blessed with reading this exquisitely beautiful essay! I feel like a real human being thanking the Creator for giving me the simple grace of considering the stunning lilies of the field. Wowwww! And Happiest of Easters to you🩷🌟🙏
Thanks for the engaging essay. As my lifetime of preaching the Gospel has come down to a slow step or two along the path, I recognize I have only preached one sermon all these years. It being simply, "Can God be Trusted." Our lives flow, like blood through our veins or gas through a carburetor, from our answer. Thanks. DA.
Wonderful! Funny, foreboding, beautifully written, that was one helluva bottle of wine! ....."I've embraced the Platonic ideal of the Frenchman villager"......well said indeed.....Happy Easter!
Very good as always, even though I disagree cordially with lots of it!
a) if you haven't read Matthew Crawford's "Shop Class as Soulcraft" I strongly recommend it for a crunchy-con-adjacent and broadly pro-machinism stance that periodically inspires me to try to spin a wrench. (The later "Why We Drive" is frustratingly uneven with some banal boomercon ramblings, but some parts are outstanding.).
b) Invoking bicycles in the first line as an alternative vision to machinism is, well, I get what you're going for, but boy have I spent a lot of time with grease on my knuckles trying to get old Ultegra brifters to shift smoothly or whatever. And, big picture, they're very much a product of industrial civilization--not just the tubing and bearings and rubber tires and so on but also the roads. Even unpaved roads take a lot of work to keep them efficiently rideable. (The League of American Wheelmen was one of the first big organizations to lobby for Federal funding to improve roads in the US, around the turn of the century.).
c) Riding on country roads is of course an eccentric act in most of the USA, but not just for big ideological reasons--there are a lot of rural roads without much or any shoulder, where people drive fast and lines of sight are short, and they're fairly unpleasant and dangerous places to be on a bicycle, especially after dark. I do it from time to time, but I can't really blame anyone for choosing to drive.
Encouraging…..simply encouraging! A two wheel bike…..freedom…….what?…. a helmet?…….. a car……freedom…..what? Insurance?………..what?…….seat belts?……….what?…….inspections?…….???next
Draft…….2 yrs OK learn to function in the box………brothers of a sort…..same age……south, north, east, west,…….urban, suburban, city, country, real back woods country……..cool city………slick…naive,…..smart……average…..dumb……school drop out…….college………talented….average…….tall…short…….fat, for a time…….slim……handsome…….average…pimples……whites …..negroes, Hispanics, Asians…..Italians….. Spanish… Jews……
Travel……big world…..learn/experience…..appreciate/ respect brothers……! No politics……no politically correct…..no identity confusion……
Got it over………..Freedom, choices, responsibility…….time to get going.
College, more college…….work……save…..etc
Teach……..challenges…..learn…..live……freedom???…… politics???……..union???……..Insurance, health, car, house, liability, dues, taxes, more taxes, health, forms, more forms, gadgets, devices, more insurance, just in case……..bank account, check account, credit card, more credit card, debit card…more health insurance… more car insurance…….loans….mortgages…..2nd mortgages………DEBT…
STOP…….STOP……STOP !!! Back to “time to get going”…….Back to “Freedom”…… “Retirement”…”Benefits”??? ……now for later????
How about now? Who am I? What am I? What do I believe?
Seek and you will find, I Am The Way, the Truth and the Life. Follow me and you will have life abundantly, now and forever. You will know the “Truth and the “Truth will set you Free”……….”Free indeed”
“FREEDOM”. In other words, nothing left to lose. Janos Joplin…….Be and Bobby McGee
This is probably your best essay yet, both thematically and mechanically. Throughout your work, there are strong themes of increasing your own autonomy and agency. You acknowledge, however, that "tomorrow, I'll be raising my thumb along the road, doing what I was born to do — foolishly trust-falling on the public,". This is a bit tongue-in-cheek and made me smile, but I also wonder if you ever have difficulty reconciling your desire for agency/autonomy with this semi-reliance on the public. Public lands, hitchhiking, libraries, etc. To the casual observer, it might seem contradictory but I anticipate you have a different and deeper understanding and may not see it as contrary at all. Can you speak to that?
Good morning Ryan, hope you're ready for the storm that's coming our way. Glad you enjoyed the piece. I suspect I could write a whole essay about the contradiction you highlight!
And it is a contradiction, no question about it. The perfectly autonomous man is maximally self-reliant; he derives his subsistence solely from the land and his own labor, alone. But this model is borne of the "machinic mind" I describe in this piece; it is the "excel spreadsheet" idea of autonomy, as it is ideal, pure, unreachable, rationally coherent. The reality is that agency is only a corollary to our reliance on God, and that the ties that bind us to one another are the basis of our own edification. If God is love, love requires a subject and object, or in its most divine form -- two subjects who love one another as brothers, friends, spouses, family, etc. And from this I must conclude that "pure self-reliance" is not actually desirable and is a sort of red herring insofar as autonomy is being discussed. If I argue for autonomy, I only argue for ways of life that allow us to become mutually reliant and to love one another out of a true sense of volition and free will rather than a sense of recurring obligation. Inasmuch as the ties that bind us are effectively compulsory, time-bound, and obligatory, the fullness of love and mutual reliance is cut down, as true love is freely given.
This is an ideal that will always have imperfect results that defy the rational scrutiny of the "machinic" mode of thought. Its imperfections can be condemned as hypocrisy easily. Its practioners can be viewed as being foolish, utopian, idealistic -- and yet if we require ideals in order to live, or mythologies in order to dream, someone must live them or they fossilize into artifacts and museum pieces rather than living ideals and dreams. Not everyone is called to try for these ideals, but some are. That is how I think of the balance between my attempts at balancing autonomy and divinity, while by no means condemning those with other vocations -- if I make my attempt at this manner of living, it is only to inspire those with other vocations.
I hope this doesn't seem too terribly convoluted; I will certainly write at greater length about this, and I'm really thankful for your question as it's a great chance to flesh these concerns out. They're very important to consider!
A satisfying response. Thank you.
"If I argue for autonomy, I only argue for ways of life that allow us to become mutually reliant and to love one another out of a true sense of volition and free will rather than a sense of recurring obligation."
I've noticed this a little bit since trading in my smart phone for a light phone. Here's a short story about that:
My wife, child and I were visiting an Orthodox priest to ask questions and try to understand Orthodoxy a little better. We had a good conversation, said our goodbyes, and went to leave. My car wouldn't start. It wouldn't even turn over. If I still had my smart phone, I would have googled the number for a tow service, called them myself, etc. But I had no google. I had no phone number to call. So I was pushed out of a technological "autonomy" into a relational "autonomy:" I went back and asked the priest for help, and he wound up giving my wife and child a ride home while I waited for the tow (which we called on his phone.)
It occurred to me that the point of much technology is anti-personal or anti-relational; it enables a form of "autonomy," in the sense you don't have to ask people for help (at least, not so often). At the same time, you are dependent on the machine, or the tool. Stepping back from that kind of autonomy I think brings you into the kind of autonomy you're talking about: autonomy from the machine, enabled by mutual interdependence in community.
Yes, I was thinking that all those who pick up the hitchhiker have done their inspections, oil changes, car insurance etc.
See the reply to Ryan I just posted; I agree that it's a very worthy topic to contemplate!
Beautiful. I've been thinking about this post from Mark Kutolowski about Time and Eternity ever since I read it: https://metanoiavt.substack.com/p/time-liturgy-and-eternity
The way he describes how certain machinic activities take us away from eternal time while others seem to better allow for our perception of the non-linear, eternal truth that we are "hid in Christ" has stuck with me. You said it differently and with more humor. I can't wait to read this to my husband and son who are both mechanically talented and are rebuilding and old truck together. Turns out the man who is giving the truck to my son can't find the title AND the dirt road that leads to our new house is impassable due to mud. We are thinking about oxen as an improvement over engines of many kinds.
Clara
Superb essay. I loved your point on how regulation can form man in the image of a machine. I wrote an essay a while ago on how regulation tends to kill off the small and independent businesses among us. Though at times regulation is necessary, it tends to remove so much good in our lives and so much of what makes us human. https://overthefield.substack.com/p/regulation-and-the-death-of-the-small
And your whole essay reminds me of this quote from Wendell Berry: “the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and those who wish to live as machines.”
I must read this book by Comrade Huning, sounds fascinating.
Viva la vie sans auto!
Honestly it seems like a good candidate for a little "book club".... perhaps I will propose this in one of the groupchats...
Superb essay with an excellent conclusion! Indeed, Christ is Risen! And if on your travels, you make it down Kentucky way, feel free to look me up.
And I especially appreciated the extended reflection on bureaucracy. I got into a relatively minor car accident at the end of October. It was totaled out, but it was still cheaper to repair than buy even a used car. Within two months, it was repaired and the Sheriff signed off on the inspection. It was only this week that I'm allowed to drive it again. Long story short, this delay was brought about by the implementation of a new software and me being punished when I did everything as I was told, but the state didn't follow the arbitrary rules they made up.
It is nearly 3 in the morning on a Wednesday after Easter in the West, and I have just been immensely blessed with reading this exquisitely beautiful essay! I feel like a real human being thanking the Creator for giving me the simple grace of considering the stunning lilies of the field. Wowwww! And Happiest of Easters to you🩷🌟🙏
Thanks for the engaging essay. As my lifetime of preaching the Gospel has come down to a slow step or two along the path, I recognize I have only preached one sermon all these years. It being simply, "Can God be Trusted." Our lives flow, like blood through our veins or gas through a carburetor, from our answer. Thanks. DA.
Wonderful! Funny, foreboding, beautifully written, that was one helluva bottle of wine! ....."I've embraced the Platonic ideal of the Frenchman villager"......well said indeed.....Happy Easter!
Perfectly, you have articulated something for me in this essay. Thank you.
Very good as always, even though I disagree cordially with lots of it!
a) if you haven't read Matthew Crawford's "Shop Class as Soulcraft" I strongly recommend it for a crunchy-con-adjacent and broadly pro-machinism stance that periodically inspires me to try to spin a wrench. (The later "Why We Drive" is frustratingly uneven with some banal boomercon ramblings, but some parts are outstanding.).
b) Invoking bicycles in the first line as an alternative vision to machinism is, well, I get what you're going for, but boy have I spent a lot of time with grease on my knuckles trying to get old Ultegra brifters to shift smoothly or whatever. And, big picture, they're very much a product of industrial civilization--not just the tubing and bearings and rubber tires and so on but also the roads. Even unpaved roads take a lot of work to keep them efficiently rideable. (The League of American Wheelmen was one of the first big organizations to lobby for Federal funding to improve roads in the US, around the turn of the century.).
c) Riding on country roads is of course an eccentric act in most of the USA, but not just for big ideological reasons--there are a lot of rural roads without much or any shoulder, where people drive fast and lines of sight are short, and they're fairly unpleasant and dangerous places to be on a bicycle, especially after dark. I do it from time to time, but I can't really blame anyone for choosing to drive.
Encouraging…..simply encouraging! A two wheel bike…..freedom…….what?…. a helmet?…….. a car……freedom…..what? Insurance?………..what?…….seat belts?……….what?…….inspections?…….???next
Draft…….2 yrs OK learn to function in the box………brothers of a sort…..same age……south, north, east, west,…….urban, suburban, city, country, real back woods country……..cool city………slick…naive,…..smart……average…..dumb……school drop out…….college………talented….average…….tall…short…….fat, for a time…….slim……handsome…….average…pimples……whites …..negroes, Hispanics, Asians…..Italians….. Spanish… Jews……
Travel……big world…..learn/experience…..appreciate/ respect brothers……! No politics……no politically correct…..no identity confusion……
Got it over………..Freedom, choices, responsibility…….time to get going.
College, more college…….work……save…..etc
Teach……..challenges…..learn…..live……freedom???…… politics???……..union???……..Insurance, health, car, house, liability, dues, taxes, more taxes, health, forms, more forms, gadgets, devices, more insurance, just in case……..bank account, check account, credit card, more credit card, debit card…more health insurance… more car insurance…….loans….mortgages…..2nd mortgages………DEBT…
STOP…….STOP……STOP !!! Back to “time to get going”…….Back to “Freedom”…… “Retirement”…”Benefits”??? ……now for later????
How about now? Who am I? What am I? What do I believe?
Seek and you will find, I Am The Way, the Truth and the Life. Follow me and you will have life abundantly, now and forever. You will know the “Truth and the “Truth will set you Free”……….”Free indeed”
“FREEDOM”. In other words, nothing left to lose. Janos Joplin…….Be and Bobby McGee
The Mission of a Technospace society, is subordination and control of the individual through economic and political duress.
I dont drive ... I ride a bike and I have no phone :)
Welcome brother.
“Worry is the essence of bureaucracy “ - priceless!