Reclaiming Awe

I base my general premise on the assumption that
for one reason or another, humans need awe.

Nicolas Humphrey, a prominent psychologist, suggests that the
capacity to experience awe is in fact a biological adaptation
that allows for self-narrative and which provides him with
sense that his actions are of more than everyday importance

Basically, that means that the capacity to experience awe
helps us to embrace purposeful progression in our lives.

Traditionally, mankind has sought awe from a few
fundamental sources, including religion, nature, and family. 

The problem is that these days, we are isolated from nature,
we have eliminated God and religion from our everyday
social lives, and we have sought to redefine the identity and
nature of the family (which is integrally tied to God/religion).

Man has, at sundry time, attempted to capture the awe of
nature and divinity through art, holy relics, etc. Art can,
in some sense, be seen as an endeavor to preserve awe. 

The problem comes into play, however, when something
that would otherwise instill awe becomes a part of mainstream
culture. If a church has the finger of Peter the apostle, people
are likely to experience awe at knowing this. If, however, twelve
different churches were to each claim the same, the authenticity
of not only the 11th and 12th claims but of each claim would
come into question.

Walter Benjamin, a literary theorist from the Frankfurt school,
proposed that essentially, the awe or "aura" of an object is,
in fact, associated with its uniqueness and its ritualistic
quality, and as soon as either of those is compromised, the
object or idea loses its intrigue and is deprived of its aura.
Benjamin specifically addresses the problem of art in the age
of mechanical reproduction (which I extend to the digital age).

Thus, even though we are surrounded by amazing things--both
manmade and natural--we find ourselves incapable of truly
experiencing awe because that aura has been compromised. We
find that we have to experience bigger and better highs in
order to stimulate the mind and bring us to a state of awe.
That means that we can't really get the same sense of awe
from those earlier sources of awe like religion and nature.

Thus viral mills. They are essentially awe factories that
perpetually overstimulate our brains in an attempt to recreate
the awe that we're not getting from nature, religion, and family.
The problem is that their very nature encourages dependency
and dulls our minds to other sources of awe.

In short, we are addicted to awe, but it's not the kind
of awe that leads to purposeful progression. Rather, it
is incapacitating and mind-numbing in a literal sense.

We are spending our strength on that which satisfieth not,
consuming that which cannot nourish. It turns out that opioids,
a type of chemical released when we eat fast food/junk food,
are the chemicals most closely associated with the sense of
euphoria, so we're basically binging on empty awe calories.

Well, why's that a problem? It essentially means that
we have lost hold on that sense of self-narrative. The awe
that we are experiencing is moving us ever farther from
God and happiness and ever closer to addiction, inaction,
doubt, and self-questioning.

Einstein is quoted as having said, "He to whom emotion is a
stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in
awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." Whereas traditionally
awe has enabled the creative faculty, fostered human interaction,
and instilled within mankind a desire to do awe-some things,
the modern breed of awe leads a man to passive consumption,
inaction, isolation, and a false sense of contentment.

Essentially, we are addicted to a false and empty ideal of awe
that is distancing us from and desensitizing us to the true and
lasting sources of awe in our life. Reclaiming that lost sense of
awe will necessitate renouncing that false ideal and seeking actively
after those fundamental truths that first brought man to awe. The
digital age affords us many opportunities, but with those opportunities
comes the danger of destroying mankind's most fundamental and
universal quality, his capacity to experience and create awe.