Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Holy Chrysler












W
orshipers at Greater Grace Temple, a Pentecostal church in Detroit, prayed on Sunday, December 7, for an automobile industry miracle. Three S.U.V.’s on the stage, a Chevrolet Tahoe, Ford Escape and Chrysler Aspen on loan from local dealerships, were all gas-electric hybrids, and Bishop Ellis urged worshipers to combat the region’s woes by mixing hope with faith in God.

Can this be real - or is this another Saturday Night Live spoof? According to Steven Skov Holt, events like this fit into “today’s pattern of post-credibility”. “The news regularly stuns us with one improbable story after another. Even when something bizarre but undeniably real happens to us, our first reaction is often one of disbelief.” (see Steven Skov Holt and Mara Holt Skov, Manufractured, Chronicle Books, 2008)

It is not surprising that today’s art, architecture, and design become more exuberant and almost unbelievable in scale, technique, and complexity. It is getting increasingly hard to simply compete with reality.
1 Comments:
Blogger RWordplay said...

Well said. "Post-credible," as in, it's not that I don't believe my eyes, it's that I don't want to believe my eyes. All spectacle, I'm afraid, not the event itself, which is only a carnival mirror image of the spectacle that is our culture. This is what Columbus crossed the sea to discover? What Lincoln died to preserve?—one confusion following another, one false God, establishing his/her kingdom after another. But on the other hand, perhaps it is God's will, and His ways are truly wondrous. Whomever he anoints our Moses, and however He chooses to lead us out of the wilderness of our narcissism, I am delighted he still takes an interest in our increasingly infantile and risible race.

December 27, 2008 at 6:40 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home