Thursday, March 29, 2007
Work and Jesus Camp
Relatively recently, i started working at a job i quite enjoy, designing products that i'm pretty interested in. I was working on a new bicycle race light, and was enjoying a lot of autonomy. I felt like i was really doing a good job - i was ahead of schedule, working well within the team, and generally on top of things. Everyone else seemed to think so, too.
In comes the new CEO. Things are different now. There is a guy in another company who is seen as an authority of LED lighting design (please don't ignore the fact that my last job was designing LED products), and now my bike light that was all but complete is in complete disarray. I feel like i am a marionette acting on the whims of another who's design priorities i disagree with. And god forbid i speak my mind about a project i am invested in because that will likely get me fired.
That is pretty F-ed. I'm pretty pissed at work right now. Obviously it is just the situation, but it feels personal. Mostly i'm bummed that something i was enjoying a great deal turned sour so suddenly. I sincerely hope i'm blowing things out of proportion.
Jesus Camp... wow... and at the same time part of me understands. Jesus Camp is a documentary about an evangelical summer camp for kids. They are encouraged to speak in tongues. I am not a religious man, and i think mob mentality of pretty much any sort often causes more harm than good. It also seems an obvious thing to be wary of a woman who declares that she wants to train kids to be willing to die for our lord jesus. Wary is polite. Where i get most concerned is how the envangelical movement is specifically targeting politics.
The grey area for me is the division between morality and politics. Is there a clear distinction between the two? What drives politics besides a set of publicly discussed, argued and compromised mess of individual morals? If this country becomes 51% evangelical, well... democracy doesn't discriminate and majority rules.
I remember reading some greek philosophy a long time ago - specifically Plato's Republic, where he outlines the natural progression of governement. He goes fom the best being rule by philosphers (go figure...) to a dictatorship being the last in the line until the death of the nation. I think there were 6 phases of government or so, and democracy? Right above the death sentence of a dictatorship. If you take Plato as being a smart guy and correct (a dubious statement), the interesting thing for me is that evangalism, with it's penchant for a specific faith and a rigorously defined party message, could easily be that tipping point into a dictatorship. Hell, if our current president was, well, sentient, we'd be bordering on that right now.
Having said all that, i do understand a desire for spirituality, and what evangilism has to offer people.
In comes the new CEO. Things are different now. There is a guy in another company who is seen as an authority of LED lighting design (please don't ignore the fact that my last job was designing LED products), and now my bike light that was all but complete is in complete disarray. I feel like i am a marionette acting on the whims of another who's design priorities i disagree with. And god forbid i speak my mind about a project i am invested in because that will likely get me fired.
That is pretty F-ed. I'm pretty pissed at work right now. Obviously it is just the situation, but it feels personal. Mostly i'm bummed that something i was enjoying a great deal turned sour so suddenly. I sincerely hope i'm blowing things out of proportion.
Jesus Camp... wow... and at the same time part of me understands. Jesus Camp is a documentary about an evangelical summer camp for kids. They are encouraged to speak in tongues. I am not a religious man, and i think mob mentality of pretty much any sort often causes more harm than good. It also seems an obvious thing to be wary of a woman who declares that she wants to train kids to be willing to die for our lord jesus. Wary is polite. Where i get most concerned is how the envangelical movement is specifically targeting politics.
The grey area for me is the division between morality and politics. Is there a clear distinction between the two? What drives politics besides a set of publicly discussed, argued and compromised mess of individual morals? If this country becomes 51% evangelical, well... democracy doesn't discriminate and majority rules.
I remember reading some greek philosophy a long time ago - specifically Plato's Republic, where he outlines the natural progression of governement. He goes fom the best being rule by philosphers (go figure...) to a dictatorship being the last in the line until the death of the nation. I think there were 6 phases of government or so, and democracy? Right above the death sentence of a dictatorship. If you take Plato as being a smart guy and correct (a dubious statement), the interesting thing for me is that evangalism, with it's penchant for a specific faith and a rigorously defined party message, could easily be that tipping point into a dictatorship. Hell, if our current president was, well, sentient, we'd be bordering on that right now.
Having said all that, i do understand a desire for spirituality, and what evangilism has to offer people.
# posted by Damon @ 10:05 PM 
