Defending our Sacred Spaces Against the Onslaught of Personal Attacks in Neomodernism | #8

This is the final episode of our three-part series on the defining traits of Neomodernism thus far. We're going to talk about the yearning to define and create sacred space for ourselves. Many of the arguments that we are seeing in culture today stem from a deeper yearning to create a sacred space for ourselves. This comes out of the eschewing of sacred spaces in the latter parts of Postmodernism--remember, just about anything was up for mockery in latter stages of Postmodernism. Therefore, it's not all that unbelievable that, in these early stages of Neomodernism, people want to carve out sacred space for themselves, places where joking is not welcome. Although having a sacred space can help us better connect with who we are as a person--and even help us connect with each other, there are, of course, drawbacks. When something is sacred to us, anything that pushes into that sacred space becomes an attack. And if something that we hold sacred is attacked, we will defend it at all costs. It's my belief that this is why we have such a contentious cultural atmosphere today: why we have "cultural wars"--although I absolutely hate that term and find it to something that too easily dismisses the fact that we need difficult conversations, not debates, and certainly not wars. In this episode, I talk about a mistake that I made as a husband. I highlight a fantastic Neomodern poem by the poet Ocean Vuong entitled, "Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong." We'll talk about the path to self destruction, and I'll give you my best Allan Rickman impression--no, really. I'll be quoting from the movie Die Hard. It will make much more sense if you listen to the episode. As always, consider subscribing or following the podcast--and if you do like the podcast, share it with a friend. We're still trying to build our Neutral Ground community. If you have the energy, consider leaving an audio comment for us to think about or giving me a rating. As always, any help is much appreciated.

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Sincerely,

-Joe