The Cure for Common Disenchantment

Part One

By David Drury

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This is PART ONE of the series.  There is also a PART TWO and PART THREE to read.

 

My generation is known for being disenchanted.  We’re disenchanted with government, family, church, work and some might say life in general.  As I was graduating from college I remember the major magazines predicting that we were the first generation in America not likely to make more money than our parents.  Because of this and other factors, many in my generation were said to be disenchanted with the American Dream itself.

 

This disenchantment has received less press as my generation matured.  A good number of us entered actual careers and purchased mini-vans to accommodate the next generation after us.  However, it seems that disenchantment always brews beneath our surface.  It is the dissonant soundtrack theme to the movie of our lives.  A direct example of this just happened to me.  As I typed that sentence my daughter came up and asked me to change the ballerina clothes on her Barbie—at the precise moment iTunes was playing Pearl Jam in my ear and I was writing about disenchantment.]

 

Disenchantment is that process where you begin to question the things you once believed in.  A person who is becoming disenchanted begins to look at things with skepticism.  What was once beautiful, true or worth something is eroded by the ugly side, the lies, and the lack of lasting value.  The illusion is erased.  You see the trick.  The curtain is pulled back on the Wizard of Oz.  One interesting facet of disenchantment is that it can rarely happen in a vacuum.  For instance, if you become disenchanted in college with your family of origin, then you often become disenchanted with other things at the same time.  When you stop trusting the church, you might also stop trusting God.  When you question the government, you also might start questioning our educational system.  Like sardines, disenchantments usually come in a pack and are sour to the taste, making your next bite of life full of apprehension.  One can get stuck in a whirlpool of disenchanting sardines and never get out.  Life spins without progress.

 

Some people view disenchantment as essential in life.  A rationalist view of the world would suggest that disenchantment is merely the process of knowing the truth behind the illusions of society.  These illusions, a rationalist like Max Weber would have said, are meant to become obsolete.  Science, progress and modern society should be constantly overcoming magic, intuition and superstition.  Others would take the opposite view, and suggest that the things we become disenchanted with really are magical.  You must fight through the thoughts and feelings of disenchantment, the supernaturalist would say, and find the true meaning behind these things.  They might write off such feelings and thoughts as merely a phase of doubt and not the higher life of belief.

 

Here’s the interesting thing for me as an observer of this: I don’t know if I’ve ever really become truly and fully disenchanted with anything in my life.  I don’t mean to brag here on the one hand.  I don’t think I personally have done much to make this so.  It was just the way I was brought up—the attitude of my parents and mentors rubbed off on me.  On the other hand, I also don’t want to make you think I’m an unthinking superstitious robot.  In many ways I don’t have much faith in the things listed above: government, family, church, work and life in general.  I don’t believe I’ve ever really put much stock in any of those things.  They are limited.  They all have an ugly side.  They shield some secret lies.  Like silver they naturally lose their luster over time and must be polished to regain it.

 

You see, I’m beginning to understand that in order to be dis-enchanted you have to be enchanted in the first place.  I’m not sure if I was ever enchanted.  I think this has great implications for the way we go about work, church and parenting in particular.

 

Think about that a bit and check out part two to see what I mean.  Like Seacrest on Idol, I’m going to go to commercial first and let you wonder.

 

You’ll want to read PART TWO next and PART THREE after that.

 

_________

 

© 2006 by David Drury

 

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