I subscribe to Ted Talks and sometimes I will even watch some of them. Today, following a long walk, over an hour squatting with my sketchbook inside a coffee shop in a far off neighbourhood then walking partway home while taking a generous detour, after I got home I spent some of my leisure time watching a Ted Talk featuring Glen Greenwald, an American journalist, about why we need privacy. Then I listened to Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe while viewing Google images of Monet's paintings. What an experience. Here are the links if you would like to try it. I have long believed that the works of Debussy, Monet and Faure to be visual counterparts to the art of the French Impressionists, especially Monet. In case you don't believe me here are the links if you want to simultaneously listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHrstmOPKBQ and watch: https://www.google.ca/?gws_rd=ssl#q=claude+monet+paintings+images. Just skip the stupid ad that begins the video.
Back to Glen Greenwald: I found his talk to be very interesting and inspiring and like every other Ted Talker he received a standing ovation. On the other hand, if I was shelling out $7200 to listen to some guy talk for less than twenty minutes I would be giving a standing ovation as well even if I thought his presentation stank. He emphasised the right and fundamental psychological need for privacy for all of us, not simply to misbehave behind closed doors (honey, where did you hide the butt plug?) but the simple need to rest, have refuge and recharge our batteries safe from the judging gaze of others. Naturally he quoted generously George Orwell and Eric Snowden.
Here is where he lost me. He tried to equivocate the all watching and all knowing "God of the Abrahamic Religions" with government and internet and video public surveillance. Quite simply, when I heard him say this, I went "Huh?" I needed a moment to sift and chill before understanding that Mr. Greenwald is likely an atheist or agnostic and like many people has a rather distorted view of God. Unless one has experienced the love of Jesus Christ through a personal encounter one is going to be greatly challenged to perceive or understand that God is love. I'm not saying that only Christians have access to this privileged information. I know that I greatly admire the Sufis who say instead of the Islamic "There is only one God" that "There is only God."
God came to us in the form of a helpless baby conceived by a vulnerable young girl by the Holy Spirit and so God told us through the life of His Word Jesus Christ his great love story for all humanity. This is the same God who created us, the world, the galaxies, the universe. This is the same God who through the Great Bang brought into existence what was once a formless void and thus the universe was born. This is the same God who is the principal that holds all matter from its subatomic particles in a state of lively and incomprehensible stasis. In a sense God is everywhere and God is everything. This is why matter is highly and complexly organized energy. I don't care whether you believe or not dear and gently reader. This is my blog and I'll preach if I want to.
What makes it great that God can watch us all the time and Big Brother cannot has everything to do with primordial rights. He made us and she sustains us and everything else. He loves us and we can absolutely trust her. Being seen by God only becomes an issue when we make like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after they ate the forbidden fruit. By the way I am not going to go into the theological quagmire about the accuracy or authenticity of the Biblical creation story. Suffice it to say that it is a myth but a myth that is very powerful and redolent with meaning. Still don't expect me to back Darwin in every single detail either. Let's just say that I wasn't there when it happened, neither were you. We don't really know how it happened and we likely never will. Isn't it wonderful?
So, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit God came into the garden and said "Adam, where art thou?" And Adam and Eve both hid because they were suddenly ashamed and conscious of their nakedness. They did not want to be seen by God even though he still saw them anyway, boy and girl bits and all. They wanted their privacy because they really wanted, out of shame, to conceal themselves from God.
And that, my friends, is the difference between Big Brother and God.
No comments:
Post a Comment