Comments on: McMansions, SUVs, Mega-Churches and the Baghdad Embassy

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:56:23 +0000

Phil Rockstroh is an amazing writer! Thank you!

By: Useless

Useless — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:26:56 +0000

I rather enjoyed reading this.. Thank you so much for such a profound, articulate version of what hundreds-of-thousands of outcasts world-wide are warring with in their sleep..
I recently had to buckle down and start working a nine-to-five, selling myself for medical insurence (for my son) and in effect give up growing my food, writing my songs, painting my inspirations and acknowledging my world.. Give up taking my son on week-long excursions down the coast and teaching him to identify insects and plantlife.. I cried for forgivness for falling back into deaths embrace.. I just couldnt take knowing my son had no insurence.. I couldnt take isolating him from society even though I feel so strongly it is for the better..
Such feelings as you have discussed in this article are, i believe, as old as humanity itself.. Yet so few of seem to act upon it.. Where are the people living by these theories? Where are the communities standing up against this? For in all my years and for all my struggles I have only come to the realization that we are the isolated ones, despirately trying to recall an existence that takes but a village.. only to be abandoned time and time again and forced to rebuild..

By: harmon gottlieb

harmon gottlieb — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 02:43:35 +0000

“Freedom is a microcosm of the forces of evolution engendered by living in the midst of life — a mode of being that apprehends and is transformed by the beauty, sorrow, and wit of the world.”

The kindest thing to be said about Phil Rockstroh’s iconoclasm is that it is puerile, bombastic crap. “The forces of evolution,” apparently, have imparted to him a huge faith in his logorrhea. This self-confessed gasbag poet wouldn’t know real cynicism if it were to bite him in the buttock and then upchuck all over him. A true “cynic” knows that the cold mechanics driving bio-molecular reality could care less about “the beauty, sorrow, and wit of the world.” He must think that the Natural Selector honors humanist harangues, and gives out ego awards for the mean-mouthing of religion. Silly Phil—writing against mega-churches from the dead pit of his own belief in the magical creativity of insensate matter.

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” –1Corinthians 3:19

By: Moss David Posner

Moss David Posner — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 14:41:06 +0000

Leave it to petty wannabee mentalities to nip at the heels of talent by gnawing at irrelevent details, as elegantly displayed by the two previous commentators.

The article makes an excellent point, one which many of us have mused about over the years, but possibly not in such an outstanding literary/prosaic style as did the author of this article.

By: Brian Hayes

Brian Hayes — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 03:14:23 +0000

Oh Hell, it’s a good rant. Cadence is good. The ache touches the universal. There’s nothing or no one to stand up for in an imperfect world. Take it on the chin and enjoy it!

By: James

James — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 19:55:55 +0000

I disagree about the Zen Buddhist and isolation. Meditation is not isolation, it is solitude - they are not the same thing. And it is possible to feel far more alone and isolated within a crowd of people than you ever imagined possible.

I also think there are different breeds of yuppie, and they differ in important ways. What you describe is the “Sun Belt Yuppie”, which is a very different animal than the urban, liberal, coastal variety. Both are conspicuous consumers, no question about that.

By: Timber

Timber — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 18:49:10 +0000

While I agree with Mr. Rockstroh’s overall argument here, I take issue with his characterization of the yuppies he discusses as “isolated and alienated.”

These are the people who are MOST engaged in this society and culture–they belong to the Shriners, participate in local politics, they have kids in the schools, they go to malls and ball games, they hang out in sports bars and go out to restaurants, they have networks of professional relationships, etc. The megachurch is an example of their connections, not an example of their isolation. A Zen Buddhist meditating alone in his room is isolated; a guy wearing a Rolex standing and reciting some prayer or hymn along with 10,000 other people isn’t.

In fact, the reason these people are such caricatures of themselves is that they are so obsessively concerned with being part of the mainstream: frantically running out to replace the passe’ Tahoe with a Range Rover, replacing their cell phones with Bluetooths (Blueteeth?), adopting any fashion that is paraded before them in sitcoms or TV ads. These are not people disengaged from the machinery of this shallow, materialistic society–they are its engine.

I live in the “Triangle” area of North Carolina, and I see this phenomena all around me in the sprawl around Raleigh and Chapel Hill. I also see how desperate the poor people in this area–black, white and Hispanic–are to emulate and imitate the empty hypocrisy of the nouveau riche by running out to buy Tahoes, Yukons, Escalades or used Land Rovers.

Again, you can’t feel isolated when you’re spending all your time, energy and money to be a conspicuous part of the herd. Isolation implies that you are outside looking in.