Captivity Without Limits

A series of letters describing the necessity of Limits

My Distinguished Colleague,

I “write” you now on this infernal machine; I betray my previous piety for Wendall Berry and my commitment to his eloquent, yet unadorned, principles in “Why I Will Not Own a Computer” for a simple reason: convenience. Tis Shameful.

Alas, shamefully, I type you a letter that has been brewing in my mind for months. It has grown in scope and proportion, to the point now that it is overflowing and I can’t keep myself from writing it as its spilling out and if I don’t put “pen to paper” it will fall through the recesses of my mind and be lost to the eternal march of time.

This is how I want you to think I’m writing you

I’m upset. I’m upset with the world we’re living in. I know I’m a broken record at this point, but I repeat: it’s too fast, too loud, too vulgar. There is infinite content, infinite products, infinite entertainment. We are given infinite variety and choice in each category of mortal desire/debauchery and we’re told that this is the “Freedom” and “Pursuit of Happiness” that our founding fathers envisioned for us. This is the American Dream. The only thing you need in order to have infinite access to it is Money. The All-Powerful, All-Mighty Dollar. And you can get these dollars if you work hard and long enough! The culture that surrounds us, through decades of industrialist propaganda, crony capitalism, and legacy media organizations, says that all you need to do is to kill yourself in a meaningless job, shoveling your soul into the furnaces of your respective corporation, and you’ll have MONEY; you’ll eke out a marginal living, and be that much closer to the American Dream. You then inject your hard-earned livelihood back into the insatiable and unquenchable Leviathan, i.e., “free market”, and in return you’ll be given cheap, fake, and toxic versions of the things that you’re relentlessly marketed. Nothing is real. Everything is a cut-rate imitation or simulation. But, if you work harder, sacrifice more, and resign yourself to being a tiny cog in the massive machine, eventually, you’ll attain Materialistic Nirvana: a never-ending stream of amazon packages arriving at the doorstep of your McMansion, while sumptuously dining on a continuous supply of UberEATS, while mindlessly binging Netflix. Such Life with Such Meaning.

Aforementioned “sumptuous dining”

It’s a trite comparison to Brave New World, but we are controlled by government and corporations, not with a boot in our face, but the more insipid limitless access to decadence. In Faustian Economics, by our Wendell Berry, he states,

“In keeping with our unrestrained consumptiveness, the commonly accepted basis of our economy is the supposed possibility of limitless growth, limitless wants, limitless wealth, limitless natural resources, limitless energy, and limitless debt. The idea of a limitless economy implies and requires a doctrine of general human limitlessness: all are entitled to pursue without limit whatever they conceive as desirable — a license that classifies the most exalted Christian capitalist with the lowliest pornographer.”

This is the current state of society and it’s not going away anytime soon (barring nuclear holocaust, fingers crossed). I know we’ve been talking about David Foster Wallace a lot lately; I think the part of him that I appreciate most is his craving for authenticity; real life and real meaning. He voices this Clarion Call from the 90’s saying, “hey, all this stuff, all the material possessions you’re buying, they don’t give you an identity or true happiness; they’ll actually make you more hollow, and more lonely, and utterly unfulfilled”. And this is even before the explosion of the internet, social media, smart phones, etc. If he were alive today, he would promptly kill himself, with greater enthusiasm, again.

And so, after this rant/longwinded introduction, I present for your consideration the thesis of this letter:

Limitlessness is bad; Limits are good

To live a life without limits is to live a life that is, by definition, not human. We are bound by natural limits, i.e. birth and death, and, historically, have imposed on ourselves cultural limits, i.e. thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, etc. Both natural and cultural limits have served to remind us of our mortality, to guide us towards living an honest/meaningful life, and to mitigate the damage we inflict on ourselves and to our world. But lately, we are bent on bending/breaking all limits we encounter (the cultural ones at least, though, there are those who are dead set on overcoming the natural limits of mortality) in a vain attempt to demonstrate that WE are more intelligent/enlightened than all those who came before us; that the old laws, rites and rituals, and traditions are out of step and morally reprehensible; that, in fact, limits exist for the express purpose to move beyond them. It is the opinion of this writer that all such attempts are a pitiful demonstration of man’s hubris, and that seeking to ignore or destroy these limits is what drives us out of sync with Nature, i.e. God, i.e. the Timeless Way. I believe that the culture, laws, and limits, we have found naturally imposed upon us, and that we, over millennia of trial and error have found fit to impose on ourselves, are the essence of what it means to be human, and is the means forward by which we can improve ourselves, and by extension, humanity.

I’m reminded of this wise quote from Chesterton:

"In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, 'I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away.' To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: 'If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”

The modern reformer approaching Chesterton’s wall

I know one of your criticisms of my argument thus far will be something like, “Oh, wait…you liked the old tradition of slavery??”, or “Oh, well I actually thought that animal sacrifice was a BAD thing, but you’re saying it’s good??” (Disgust and Nausea).

To which I say no. Not all cultural inheritance is good, not all social mores are appropriate, and not all laws are just. In fact, some of these cultural limitations are outside the bounds of the natural limits (mass consumerism is good, limitless power is good, limitless wealth is good, etc.). Sometimes cultural limits must be changed. Jesus Himself “fulfilled” the Law of Moses that was followed by the Jews for hundreds of years; he nullified it and installed a new law. A higher law. And then the Jews crucified him for it (an interesting discussion to be had here about the perceived breach of their natural/religious law).

My claim is that there are very real limits that we should approach with extreme trepidation, even with religious and spiritual undertones, and that we breach them at our own and humanities peril. By the same token, as we approach them, come to understand them, and revere them, we approximate ourselves to Truth, Beauty, and Wisdom. I believe that encounters with Limits are encounters with the Sacred.

“I believe that encounters with Limits are encounters with the Sacred.”

What are those limits? I shall explain three of them to you in my next letter. They are as follows:

The Limit of Nature; The Limit of Technology; and The Limit of Appetite

All my best,

-Jack