CONTAINING A THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE ON GRATITUDE

Caption: Seamus McGoogle is overcome with gratitude.

Since Thanksgiving is coming up, the theme for this week's Goat Rope is gratitude.

Sneak preview: El Cabrero is all for it. Not just for all the little kindnesses people do to each other all the time, but also for all the times when things are actually good or at least not as terrible as they could be.

This is a truth worthy of consideration: everything is not all bad all the time. For which I am profoundly grateful.

While I probably wouldn't pass too many tests of theological orthodoxy, I totally down with St. Thomas Aquinas on this one: ingratitude is a sin. To be exact, the Angelic Doctor said that

a debt of gratitude is a moral debt required by virtue. Now a thing is a sin from the fact of its being contrary to virtue. Wherefore it is evident that every ingratitude is a sin.

The same point was also elaborated by the character Shug in Alice Walker's The Color Purple:

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

Next time: what the ungrateful get in Dante's Inferno.

REHAB, POSTMODERN STYLE. Holy sign of the times, Batman. In S. Korea, there's a boot camp for people addicted to cyberspace. El Cabrero is a collector of postmodern moments and this is one of the best.

THAT'S ENOUGH! Here's another gem by Perry Mann, my favorite WV op-ed writer, on knowing when enough is enough.

MINE DISASTERS, old and new.

SPEAKING OF DISASTERS, ignoring climate change could be the biggest ever.

MEGAN WILLIAMS UPDATE. Here's coverage of a local event at WV State University in support of stronger hate crime laws.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

A POSTMODERN MOMENT, WITH A BONUS WV RANT

Caption: Ferdinand likes to watch the people channel. This is how it starts.

(First, an apology: Goat Rope was recently switched to a new form of software which is getting on El Cabrero's last nerve. Please excuse weirdness in spacing and format.)

El Cabrero is having more and more postmodern moments lately. These are those times when the current cultural shift from things to images of things to images of images is particularly striking.


Here are some examples:

*Two perfectly healthy kids playing a video game version of basketball on a fine day when a real basketball court is a minute away;

*The political switch from substance to soundbite and policy to photo op;

*Cyber-dating and related virtual activities;

*Movies about making movies, and movies about the breakdown of the distinction between images and "reality" like Blade Runner or The Matrix, etc.


But the one that takes the cake is the booming market in virtual reality. According to the Dec. 18th Business Week,

"In 2006 the fast-rising virtual world, Second Life, became the hottest commercial (un)real estate online. It resembles a video game, but here people create avatars, or graphic representations of themselves, and proceed to build everything from buildings to businesses. Thousands of people make at least $20,000 a year from selling virtual clothing, houses, shopping malls, games, and more."


More and more business are spending real money buying virtual real estate with real money as a way of reaching more (presumably real) customers.

It is virtually the understatement of the year to say that things are starting to get really weird.



By the way, for as good a definition of postmodernism as you are likely to get, check out this talking animal blast from the Goat Rope past.

BONUS WEST VIRGINIA RANT

In the same issue of Business Week, Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who recently tried and failed to buy the state legislature, had the dubious distinction of being cited in an item on CEOs who offer the best and worst bang for the corporate buck. He wound up on the "Worst Value" list, "earning" $32.6 million himself while the company's return on investment was -27.1 percent.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED