Comments on: Out on a Limb, long ago http://hologrambooks.com/hologrambooksblog/index.php/2010/02/01/out-on-a-limb-long-ago/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=out-on-a-limb-long-ago Everyday explorations into our extraordinary potential Wed, 23 May 2012 06:59:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Joe Felser http://hologrambooks.com/hologrambooksblog/index.php/2010/02/01/out-on-a-limb-long-ago/comment-page-1/#comment-934 Joe Felser Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:45:43 +0000 http://hologrambooks.com/hologrambooksblog/?p=1461#comment-934 What’s interesting, sociologically and historically (and psychologically, too), is the utter ridicule that was heaped upon MacLaine, as well as those who read her books and took “New Age” ideas seriously to the point of trying to live by them. In retrospect, perhaps the unabashed enthusiasm of those years and the folks who believed in the “Aquarian Conspiracy,” imminent “paradigm shift,” and the power of “Harmonic Convergence” seem unduly naïve and overly optimistic. But I far prefer that sunnier ‘80s zeitgeist to the fashionably pessimistic and crassly cynical attitudes of today. This pose is a form of pseudo-sophistication that masks an underlying anxiety and also manages to stifle the experience of wonder, which Plato said is the source of all true philosophy. What’s interesting, sociologically and historically (and psychologically, too), is the utter ridicule that was heaped upon MacLaine, as well as those who read her books and took “New Age” ideas seriously to the point of trying to live by them.

In retrospect, perhaps the unabashed enthusiasm of those years and the folks who believed in the “Aquarian Conspiracy,” imminent “paradigm shift,” and the power of “Harmonic Convergence” seem unduly naïve and overly optimistic.

But I far prefer that sunnier ‘80s zeitgeist to the fashionably pessimistic and crassly cynical attitudes of today. This pose is a form of pseudo-sophistication that masks an underlying anxiety and also manages to stifle the experience of wonder, which Plato said is the source of all true philosophy.

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